One thing I didn’t know about Utah until I had lived here during the summer was that nearly every city seems to have a week-long celebration where there are things like rodeos, parades, face painting, food vendors, fireworks and races. The celebrations are staggered throughout the summer, and each city has a different name for them. Pleasant Grove, where we live, has Strawberry Days this week. Spanish Fork, where Ryan and Aubrey live, has Fiesta days at the end of July. Provo has the Freedom Festival over the 4th of July and the list goes on. I wouldn’t say it’s the celebrations themselves that make Utah a great place to live, although they have some fun things for families, but it’s really the sense of community that I enjoy. Utahns on a whole are actively involved in their neighborhoods and communities. They tend to be a civic-minded people that don’t concentrate all their attention on themselves and their own homes. In fact, Utah is the top in the nation for volunteer rates, number of hours per volunteer and volunteer retention – and has been for the past three years. It leads the nation in volunteering for every single age group. It’s definitely an impressive thing to live in a community where you actively have to search for volunteer opportunities. I think a strong sense of community makes Utah a great place to live.