August Part 2: Ben in Town

Hi. It's me. I'm the Brian it's me.

My brother Ben came into town to go to an important doctor's appointment with my parents. He is a biostatistician and actually designs studies used to test pharmaceuticals and other similar things, so he knows how to read the medical journals and studies without actually falling asleep. He stayed with my parents so I drove down to hang out with them at their house.

We played a card game that I don't remember the name of. Let's call it "card game #231". We really all had a blast and just stayed up late talking and playing.

The next morning was the Highland city parade, so Ben and my parents came out for it. Here's Gabe trying to hit high-five the policeman.

As always, the old-timey hearse made an appearance. I believe Rachel likely made a comment about Haunted Mansion at right about this point since there are definite similarities.

Michael was in the parade with the Lone Peak football team. He even ran over to give us candy and say hi.

As he was walking away two girls were walking the opposite direction and joined in on us shouting Michael's name. Turns out they are his friends, but at first I just thought they liked him. His Nana keeps saying that she's worried about how handsome he is.

Not making an appearance in this photo: the rest of my body.

Michael with the rest of the football team. He wore maroon. They did not. He made his choice.

One of Rachel's best friends, Maelyn, was also in the parade and ran down Rachel after she was done (we were near the end of the parade so it was easy).

Afterwards we headed to the Highland Fling that they do in the park at the end of the parade. Since we had my parents and Ben, we decided to bring out chairs and sit for awhile watching the Highland games. We witnessed many, many men and women in kilts throwing really heavy stuff and doing things that would break normal people in half. I'd give it 5 stars.

After that the adults all decided that we wanted some adult time and so we left the kids at home (much to Gabe's dismay) and drove up to Brighton to ride the ski lift.

The weather was just beautiful, and it was great to have some time with some real adults (not the fake adults I usually see? Not sure what I was trying to say there...).

I love the view from the ski lift coming down, it's just the best.

We got some shots at the top of the Crest lift and I got to show everyone where we usually ski/snowboard down.

Then of course had to get shots of everyone individually (for posterity).

Me and my love. I don't usually call her that, but she does call me that sometimes. In jest. So there.

Ben and mom.

(Part of) the original Saville gang (and the only ones who still have Saville as their last name (my sisters know what they did)).

Riding down, we just wanted to play the Soarin' ride music from Disneyland, but we resisted.

All of us on the Crest lift. This lift is one of my favorites in Utah because it takes so many and is super fast.

The original troublemakers.

After the lift, we decided to go to Silver Lake, which is just near the bottom of the resort. It's a scenic walk around a lake. After only being on the trail for a few minutes, everyone was stopped and we heard reports of a moose walking across the trail. Then we spotted it (it might be hard to see in this picture).

See! It really was a moose! Let's call him "Mr Moose".

The last picture was zoomed in, but this one was not. We were actually pretty dang closer.

Zoomed in again. Just didn't want you to think we didn't really see Mr Moose.

Us with Mr Moose. He was ecstatic to be in our picture and very gracious.

Ben with Mr Moose. He felt extremely threatened by Ben's elite physique and seemed aloof.

I just realized this moose could be a girl. I'm so embarrassed. Let's call it "the moose" instead. It eventually went into the lake, but made an appearance later again.

Look at these cute kids. I love these two.

Also love this one. The one on the right. The guy on the left is just weird.

Couples shot!

The view of the lake was beautiful, so we got a shot of mom in front of it. Very picturesque.

For somewhere named Silver Lake, the water sure looked more blue than silver.

I told you the moose would make another appearance. He walked across to the boardwalk on the other side of the lake and we got one last shot of him (or her) walking away. It felt intentional, like it was mooning us.

Ben left the next morning, so it was quick trip. But it was so fun to just have him out and enjoy being together. I really love all of my siblings. Ben especially has just been really fun to spend time with in our adult years. It's amazing how much we have in common though we live far apart and what we gravitated to in our lives. Thanks for coming out Ben!

 (After I wrote this post, Devri informed me only male meesi have antlers. I'm sorry, all moose lovers everywhere. I know now.)