Only one month until our lives change dramatically. It's funny to think that all this time we've lived here in Minnesota (over 6 years) I've been trying to get accustomed to the culture. But now that we're moving back to Utah, I'm nervous about how we're going to adjust to the vastly different culture there.
Here are just a few of the MANY things I'm going to miss about Minnesota, aside from all of the wonderful, God sent people we've come to know and love here:

* The GREEN everywhere during the spring and summer!! I have tried not to take for granted the abundance of trees, the bright green prairie grasses that come right up against the side of the road, the wild grape vines that grow everywhere, the marshes, the ivy that carpets almost every vertical surface, and the fact that you don't really have to water your lawn more than twice a week in the summer!

* The 10,000 plus lakes!  I remember being so shocked at seeing some sort of body of water almost every mile. I am really, really going to miss all of this beautiful water and all that comes with it. The turtles, frogs, Canadian geese, and of course the walleye.

* The beautiful, well kept city parks and wildlife preserves. I remember one Monday night for our Family Night we took our kids to Wood Lake wildlife preserve in Richfield. There is a path that lines the perimeter of the lake, but halfway around is a floating walkway that stretches across the lake through the cattails and meets the trail on the other side. On our previous walks we would always see at least 5 or 6 different types of wild animals. We would see turtles, frogs, racoons, foxes, deer, squirrels, rabbits, and all sorts of colorful birds. I learned how to call cardinals to the tops of the trees next to us.

On that particular early summer evening we decided we would walk halfway around the lake, cut across the floating walkway and head back around the other side. Well, as we were nearing the midway point on the path the clouds started to gather and the sky suddenly darkened. We kept seeing frogs here and there and started counting how many we were spotting because we were seeing them more and more frequently. When we got halfway across the lake on the floating walkway the rain started. It seems to rarely start with a sprinkling in Minnesota. When it rains in the summer it's as if someone just opens up a trap door under the clouds and the water just pours out. That's what happened that evening. We were soaked within seconds. When we got to the end of the walkway we had to watch our step because there were frogs of all sizes everywhere! I know we must have stepped on a few of them, even though we were really trying not to. It was really hard to avoid them! We found out that day which members of the family absolutely hated getting wet, and which ones loved it. I wanted to go around the lake again, but the majority of us just wanted to go home.

* The outdoor skating rinks at almost every single city park during the winter.