Kelly, Thanks for the comments
I just wanted to re-iterate how valuable this thread is to me and I'm sure many others. I felt like I had a good understanding on how to get a good exposure when this thread started, but now I feel I have a 10x better understanding!
As you said, adding the elemts of sky, Sun and Flash is a lot of variables so trial and error/ practice is also a big part. If you scroll back to the beginning of this thread and look at your pictures, then look at the most recent picture you posted, the improvements are monumentally!
As far as my shot goes, I was using the Sigma 10-20mm @ 15mm so the camera was a bout 8-10 feet away. So I think the flash did a lot IMO. I'm not sure what it would look like without the flash, but my guess would be much more underexposed. The people anyway.
Here is the edited version. This took about 15 minutes or so.
Best,
Jay