Firm as the mountains around us

You know how little kids like to shout out familiar landmarks as you drive around? For example, when Ammon was little, he would shout, "TEMPLE!" every time he saw a church from any denomination. For a long time, Beth would shout, " 'merican flag!" every time she saw an American flag. It was at that point I realized how many flags we fly around here. I was chatting online with a friend from Australia who wanted to come on holiday in the States. I told him, "You must be warned: there are a lot of flags." He said, "Flags?" Yes, lots of them! How do I know? Because Beth tells me so.

The last few months, Beth has shifted her attention to temples. She loves to see the temple and shout out her sighting. I find it adorable that she is very specific, "The Jordan River Temple!" or "The Oquirrh Mountain Temple!" (Those are the ones we see most often.) My favorite is "The Timpanogos Temple!" because she can't say Timpanogos very easily and that makes it cute. It's fun.

And then there's the mountains. When we get in the car, Beth looks for her favorite landmark and then shouts repeatedly, "Mom! I can see the mountains! Look, Sarah! The mountains! Nathan, do you see the mountains?" and on and on and on. Utah may fly a lot of American flags, we may have a fair few LDS temples, but these landmarks are nothing compared to how often we see the mountains.

In case you are unfamiliar with my hometown (or it's been a while since you were here), let me show you the world around me.

When we leave home and drive east, this is what we see:

When we drive north, this is what we see:

When we drive west, this is what we see (those are copper mines):

When we drive south, this is what we see:

Guess how often I hear the excited announcement: "MOUNTAINS! I see mountains! Mom, do you see the mountains?" It's pretty cute and not that annoying, just constant.