50 Nifty United States: Utah!

Today's guest post is brought to you by Sandy of Twelve Makes a Dozen. Sandy and her family (husband and 12 children) are fellow, erm, Utahns, and I was so excited to read her post and get a little more knowledge about my own current state! They sure do see and do a lot. Enjoy!

I was born and raised in small-town Utah and I have lived here all my life. I was raised in the Mormon church or as it is officially known, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When we took a trip back east this summer I was surprised how many people had misconceptions about our church. I don’t want this to be a religious text because Utah is about so much more than religion, but just a couple of things.

First of all, we do NOT believe in polygamy! There are some off-shoots of our church that may practice it, but for the roughly 14 million members of our church, no one practices polygamy!

OK, now that we have cleared that up…

We also don’t try to force people to join our church and Utah is not all LDS either. There are many good people here from all kinds of religions. We try to take care of and love our neighbors regardless of race, background, or religion. My own son-in-law is Catholic and my brother is a converted Muslim.

Now for our awesome and amazing state…

One of the best things about Utah is its wide, open spaces and cleanliness. We have Zion’s National Park, the Arches, Capitol Reef, and many other beautiful places to visit. When I was a kid, we rarely left the state for vacations, but there was so much to see here, we hardly noticed.

When my daughter was at SUU in Cedar City, we spent a considerable time on the road between here and there. Some of the fun places to visit are Cove Fort, Fremont Indian Museum, and the Shakespearean Festival.

Another trip took us to Vernal and the Dinosaur Quarry there. It has been newly remodeled and is so much fun! We also enjoy going to the Golden Spike Museum where they drove that last gold spike connecting the nation. My kids also love Kennecott Copper Mine and the huge dump trucks! Or if you are in the mood for a day at the ballpark, we have the Bees, a feeder program for the Angels and the Jazz our NBA team.

There is rather large amusement park here called Lagoon and Hogle Zoo is one of the bigger zoos in the nation. Another amazingly fun place is This Is The Place state park. All of these require significant money to visit, but there are some free activities like Wheeler Farm and the Hill Aerospace Museum.

Things I don’t like about living in Utah are the weather (I hate being cold, although I can see that it would be an advantage if I were a skier), and Utah drivers. I’m not sure why they don’t give courtesy on the road when people here in general are so polite, but we are not nice drivers. Like the other day, I was driving down a main thoroughfare and needed to turn into a business. I slowed down and signaled but was still given an angry honk when I actually made the turn.

Things I love about Utah are that we have 4 seasons here. People are generally more conservative in their dress and behavior. The moral fiber of Utah is more family-oriented and with 12 kids, we are all about family. Although even here we are an anomaly. Families with 4 or 5 kids are very common, but more than 6 is rare.

I think everyone should plan a trip to Utah at some point in their lives. And now that Sara is living here, I’m sure you will all want to drop in for a visit!

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 I am still looking for posters for several states.Would you kindly please click here to see if your state/a state you've lived in or visited in the past is still available?  

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