So we have been living in our house in Utah for about 9 months now. Moving here wasn't really my first choice (or second or third) but in spite of my long held misgiving about living in Utah its hard to argue with all the good parts about it. Here are some good things about our life in Utah so far, in no particular order.
Kid friendly culture
(at the school fall carnival)
1). Davis County
Prior to moving here this past summer most of my Utah experience was in Utah County (Provo/Lehi area). I feel like I can say this with certainty now. Utah County is the most "Utah" part of Utah. And has a reputation for being so throughout other parts of Utah. I did a ton of research about where to live when I found out we would be moving here and looked mostly in Utah, Salt Lake and Davis counties. After literally months of research we decided on Davis County, north of Salt Lake (Bountiful to Layton). It has turned out to be such a good decision for our family. I won't go into detail about the many reasons that I dislike Utah County but it has a definite and unique culture that I have never liked (materialism, trend oriented, "keeping up with the Joneses", image conscious, big into multi-level marketing and crowded). Davis County is nothing like that. It has its own different culture that seems a lot more like Colorado or Idaho. I mean you can still tell you are in Utah - our ward is two streets, huge and crawling with kids - but its a lot more normal. We live near to Hill Air Force Base which provides a regular infusion of outsiders (normals) which seems to have a strong a mitigating effect on the Utah backwardness. We also love being among other military families - those are our people!! We love the schools and libraries here. We love the neighborhoods. Davis County is a really good fit for us!
Just as a side note, we found out after living here that Ogden (just north of Layton and near us) has a reputation for being the most "worldly" part of Utah. We laughed at that when we found out. It just makes us like our area more.
Another side note about Utah County's reputation within Utah: When I started at BYU my cousin, a life long Utah resident who lived in Salt Lake at the time joked that Utah County was known as the "Happy Valley" where everyone is happy all the time and everyone is perfect and you have to wear your seat belt so you don't get immediately translated. After four years at BYU I get that joke a lot more.
Another side note about Utah County's reputation within Utah: When I started at BYU my cousin, a life long Utah resident who lived in Salt Lake at the time joked that Utah County was known as the "Happy Valley" where everyone is happy all the time and everyone is perfect and you have to wear your seat belt so you don't get immediately translated. After four years at BYU I get that joke a lot more.
In pretty short order our kids made friends with the neighborhood kids
I tried to take this sneaky picture one day when neighbor kids from both sides were over
The large ward also means if you don't mesh with one friend in your church class, that's ok, because there are a bunch of others. Plenty of friends to go around.
2). Kids everywhere
My kids love how many kids there are. Our street has a ton of kids out playing and riding bikes. Where other parts of the country have moved into a more fear driven paradigm of child raising, being in Utah really does seem like going back in time a generation or two. Almost all the kids ride scooters or bikes or walk to school and home again. Kids run freely between back yards to play. It is very different than other parts of the country that we've lived in and I can see why people who come here have trouble leaving because it is a very kid friendly environment. Especially if you think back longingly to what childhood used to be like. In Utah County they are struggling to keep up with the growth in the area so things like swim lessons, soccer or even library story time were hard to get your kid into (at least that was experience) but we haven't had that trouble in Kaysville. Its growing here as well but we are penned in between the mountains and the lake and its growing at a much slower rate.
At the Oakland temple
You get a very different reaction in NorCal than in Utah when people find out you are LDS
3). Less hate about being LDS
Sadly, being a member of our church is not something that is looked kindly upon by all. In some places you will get a lot of hate if people find out you are a church member. So much so that Scott and I are usualy hesitant to tell people we're church members. I just don't want to be judged and shunned immediately. That is, of course, not an issue here. I love California, but post Prop 8, people there aren't super warm and fuzzy to LDS people. So its nice not having to deal with that.
One reason I have been sort of against living in Utah is because I think its good for us to be out in the world with non-members. There are more missionary opportunities away from Utah for sure.
One reason I have been sort of against living in Utah is because I think its good for us to be out in the world with non-members. There are more missionary opportunities away from Utah for sure.
We love our house
4). Low Cost of Living
Maybe this should have been our #1 but most of the places I wish I could live are completely unaffordable now. I grew up in Orange County lived in Ventura after college and always dreamed of living in San Diego, Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo. Pretty much all of coastal California is just so crazy expensive now. And with the cost of living in Seattle also going sky high and Portland inching higher all the time - living on the west coast is just so expensive. Moving from the San Jose area to Utah was a big change as far as cost of living goes. We bought a house that was literally twice as big as our California house and our mortgage is a lot less. We also are able to afford a larger lot (our California lot was TINY) and still have a little money left over for some household improvement projects like finishing our basement which is finally done (HOORAY!!)
Shorter commute = more Dad time
5). Better Commute
Scott's commute time is a lot shorter even though we live almost as far away from his job as in California. And its even a lot better than it was driving south to Lehi, which Scott did over the summer while we stayed with my parents and house hunted. Shorter commute, more time with family.
Big yard
6). Big lots
The house I grew up on in California was about 4/10 of an acre and as a child it seemed enormous. I have always wanted to have a large yard for our kids to play in and have room to play soccer or throw a baseball. We can afford that in Utah. Big yards can be hard to find but there seem to be a lot of them here. I'm so happy with our yard although it does seem like a lot of work sometimes. :)
I guess a big yard can be a blessing and a curse
Still trying to tame that garden
SNOW!!
7). Four seasons
My kids were so excited to have snow when we moved here. It snows quite a bit and the kids have loved every second of it, not to mention true fall and spring. I grew up without four seasons. SoCal has pretty much summer and the rest of the year is like late spring or early fall. And I don't like being cold, but I have lived lots of places with four seasons since then so I guess I'm learning how to deal with it better. Anyway, my kids love the weather.
Fall is a real thing that happens, not just something you read about in books
And, like Colorado, the sun does come out in the winter, so its not totally depressing
8). The church is different
My friend from growing up in CA said, after her first year at BYU, "the church is the same everywhere, but its different in Utah." BYU is just a weird place. The church here (Davis County) is not weird like Provo, but there are some differences. Our ward is pretty much two streets and enormous. 150 YM/YW, 24 deacons and a different activity days group for each year in primary. That is different to me. The last few wards we've been in had trouble scraping together a group large enough for scouts or activity girls even combining several wards. That is not a problem here. And in spite of the ward size, people are still very warm and welcoming. Again, its like going back in time when everyone on the street comes over with cookies or bread to welcome you to the street. Its just different. Also there is no shortage of temples, Deseret Book stores and temple square is very close. There are also a few women in my ward who work for the church - one does curriculum and one does closed captioning for music and the spoken word. Another lady on our street is in the MoTab (I know we don't call it that anymore). Church opportunities abound.
Cousin time!
Besides just living near family, lots of family make an annual pilgrimage to Utah
9). Living close to family
We have always been far away from everyone, or at least thats what it has felt like but now we live close enough to Scott's sister to go hang out on a weekend. My brother is close by too. My parents and extended family on both sides also live very close to us, although my parents have been on a mission almost the whole time we've been here, but I anticipate fun times with them in the future.
We love it when cousins come visit
All roads lead to/through Utah
Dressing up for Halloween (at school) is still a thing here
It isn't allowed in a lot of places now
Also truly EPIC trick or treating
10). Raising kids
Its hard to argue with all the benefits of living in Utah. I used to laugh that such a high percentage of my friends from Fullerton now live in Utah, but I think I get it now. The biggest draw I think is having that great environment to raise your kids, which is slowly disappearing elsewhere. I get that. Its safe and a large percentage of the town has shared values with us. Parents seem to have no hesitation letting their kids go to a friends house (even one they don't know well) or playing outside largely unsupervised. I'm still getting used to that and other parents think its weird that I want to come meet them before having my kids go to their house, but there is a large level of trust in the community. People are very kind and courteous in our town. Utah was even the first state to pass a free range parenting law, allowing kids to roam and explore independently without parents being prosecuted for neglect. Again its like a generation or two ago. The dream of the 80s is alive in Utah.
As an aside this kind of community is great if you are an extrovert - our church and American culture in general favors extroversion anyway. I'm an introvert so I still struggle a bit with the kind of open door kid policy. Some days I just want to shut my door and hide from the world in the name of peace and quiet but I don't want everyone to think I'm a weirdo or anti-social when I need a little break. I'm trying to learn to have a balance and be able to tell people in a socially acceptable way that I just need some peace and quiet. Other places we've lived there wasn't as much of a constant threat of other kids wanting to come over as there is here. The kids in our neighborhood are sweet and well behaved and its definitely just my own weird hang up that I have a problem with this.
As an aside this kind of community is great if you are an extrovert - our church and American culture in general favors extroversion anyway. I'm an introvert so I still struggle a bit with the kind of open door kid policy. Some days I just want to shut my door and hide from the world in the name of peace and quiet but I don't want everyone to think I'm a weirdo or anti-social when I need a little break. I'm trying to learn to have a balance and be able to tell people in a socially acceptable way that I just need some peace and quiet. Other places we've lived there wasn't as much of a constant threat of other kids wanting to come over as there is here. The kids in our neighborhood are sweet and well behaved and its definitely just my own weird hang up that I have a problem with this.
Plenty of kid activities
Of course, anywhere you live is what you make of it, but that does not mean all places are created equal, because they are not. And not all places are going to be a good fit for everyone. I don't know how long our Utah adventure is going to be. Will we stay here forever? I don't know, but the idea sickens me a lot less than it did 9 months ago. Almost weekly Scott and I talk about how much we love our house or how great our community is. So there's that. More Utah adventures to come.
And a few more bonuses about Utah
Downtown Salt Lake - only 25 minutes away.
Culture in Utah is not an oxymoron
Affordable family fun abounds
Easily accessible winter fun
Military friendly community
Scout support in the community
Fry sauce
Winter sports!
Low cost of living extends beyond just housing. We never got professional family pics in California because it was really expensive there. Totally affordable in Utah.
Low cost of living means a little extra for home improvements
Here is our newly finished basement (this was before sink faucets were installed but its all done now!!)
Newly finished basement bathroom
Basements!!!! In Colorado people had basements but we haven't had one anywhere else we've lived. Basements are just the best for kid play time (and mom and dad quiet time).
So glad ours is done now!!!! Our kids love it.
