Utah Valley - a great place to live

For the first 4 years Chris and I were married we lived in the Utah Valley. First we lived in Springville, a quaint smaller town that was just down the road from Provo where we were going to school.  We didn't want to live like everyone else did, in Provo.  We wanted to be different so we decided our first abode should be in Springville.  It was with much surprise to find out that 6 of the eight of us living in that 8-plex were going to BYU anyway.  So much for different!  It was a great place to live though.  I loved the ice cream shop on Main Street, the fact that 7-11 was a few blocks from our house and that we had a drive-in movie theatre.  Who could want more I tell ya'.  And I love that when my oldest is asked where she was born she gets to say "Payson, Utah" not "Provo." 

Each time we go to Utah she wants to make the drive to Payson to see where she was born.  Each time we make the drive I notice all the changes that have occurred.  There is now a huge shopping area right next to the freeway in Springville.  The small town it once was is no longer.  Provo has folded over it's boundaries and crept in like a meringue oozing over it's pie shell.  But meringue is sweet and so it's not a bad thing in my opinion.  Many people are moving to the Utah Valley to go to school and are deciding to stay because of the wonderful things it offers.

This is a list of the things I miss from the years we lived there:

*  4th of July in Provo
*  The mountains bursting with red stinging color each September
*  The dry summer heat
*  7-Peaks
*  BYU creamery
*  Scones from "The Family Tree" in Santaquin
*  The Y on the mountain
*  Going to the Manti Pageant

*  Camping up Hobble Creek

Have you ever done or seen any of these things?  Tell me which one!