Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Bryce Canyon and head farther north for the second half of our vacation on our own. As we drove, it felt like the entire state of Utah was on fire...
On this leg of the trip, we happened upon a GREAT little place to stop for dinner! The entrance was decorated with this huge display of train tracks, with model trains running all over the place.
Hi Cooper!
They continue running all over the restaurant, over your heads as you are eating.
Of course the trains were cool, but the food here was really fantastic (and inexpensive!) It was such a perfect little rest stop for us, and we are still dreaming of going back there again to order a whole table full of Utah scones!
The next morning, we were off to Nana's house!
This was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
We all had lunch together, the kids put on silly shows for her,
and we did some coloring and played with her toys!
A little later, we were able to meet at the park with Nana, my uncle, and my cousin and her family! I really enjoyed lying on these blankets, enjoying the grass and the shade, and laughing with this bunch! Remembered the group photo this time!
We had to hurry off because on Sunday night we had plans to meet up with TWO of my friends from BYU, one of which I hadn't seen in (I'm guessing) about 16 years! It's a good thing we all keep in touch with our monthly newsletter and remain the closest of friends. <3 Jaime's family happened to be vacationing in Utah at the same time as us - what luck! - and Annalise's family lives not too far from our hotel. She was nice enough to invite us ALL over for a wonderful BBQ and evening of visiting.
Ha ha! Wrong camera!
And here are all THIRTEEN of our kids!
Jaime contributed the only 3 girls to the group (center) plus her little boy.
Annalise's 6 boys are on the left, and my 3 on the right.
Wow! They had a grand time running around that house together
and hopefully not destroying it too much.
The next day we decided to see downtown Salt Lake City. We went to Temple Square and also took a tour of the Conference Center.
The nosebleed seats!
SUCH a huge auditorium! We got to walk all the way down to the front.
On the roof.
Across the street from Temple Square we saw the beautiful new City Creek Mall and enjoyed lunch at the food court and a chance to cool off. (Still, the heat!!! I thought we were going out of town to get away from all this triple digit stuff! I can't believe we did ALL that walking around in such temperatures; it was really draining.) The kids enjoyed looking through a toy store at the mall, and then we were on the road again.
That evening we headed to my brother's house to spend the evening with them. My SIL Leslie was nice enough to squeeze us in on a Monday night (so that I could see my college girlfriends the night before) despite the fact that she was scrambling to get her family ready to leave on their own trip the next morning. (Sorry you magically stayed out of all my pictures, but thank you!)
We had a quiet evening with pizza and a trip for ice cream afterwards!
In our family, having all boys is kinda the cool thing to do.
You'd better believe I was going to take advantage of that jacuzzi as long as I could!
Next up we headed down to Provo to drag the kids around our old stomping grounds. We drove past our newlywed apartments and other places I lived as a student. We parked at the BYU campus and ate lunch at the cafeteria there. We shopped a little at the bookstore.
Can't tell you how darling these kids were. I could take them home and keep them forever - plus, everyone had a buddy! J&D have one more kiddo who was already in bed for this picture, but he's cute enough that he deserves his very own.
I'm taking him home, too.
For our next (and last) day, we stuck close to the hotel because it was located near a big center of activity which gave us some things to do. We took our time lazing around that morning, but soon headed out to catch a family movie.
Why are there quadruplets in this movie poster,
when the actual movie really has triplets... we may never know!
After the movie we went next door to a really great Dinosaur Museum.
Thanks to a really cool promotion through our hotel, we had 2 free tickets to get in here.
Rawr!
I appreciate a really straight spine when I see one :)
This is Jason standing with an ancient turtle skeleton.
That's right, I said TURTLE.
It was up to 15 feet long - crazy!
Mitchell, look out!
The above and beyond favorite part of this museum was this huge
water-and-sand pit (at chest height for the kids)
where they could build and build to their heart's content.
It snaked all around the room, so everyone had a spot to stand.
It was even stocked with little plastic dino's and fake trees
to decorate your creations.
I'm not kidding when I say the fathers liked this as much as the kids!
We spent nearly an hour here and I could hardly tear them all away!
After the museum, we went to dinner in the same area. Also from that same hotel deal, we had a $50 credit to this restaurant. SO COOL. It was pretty fancy (anytime our kids are along and there's a tablecloth involved, that equals "fancy") and the food was amazing. We ordered way too much, enjoyed everything, and left STUFFED.
The last event of our trip was the fireworks show to celebrate the 4th of July. We had spotted a great place to set up our chairs and got there with plenty of time before dark.
As you can see, it's at the back of an office building's parking lot...
...but the grass was green, and it was in perfect view of where they were launching the fireworks closeby.
Little did we know, about 20 seconds after this picture was taken, all the DOZENS of people in front of us suddenly were moving. As in, BAM, grabbing everything and screaming and running! The sprinklers had come on in one huge section of that lawn.
Luckily, a few of the men around us spotted the control box and decided to turn them right back off! HA HA! With a tool from Jason's supplies in the back of our van (Jason is in the white shirt, above) they got it done and we enjoyed the rest of our night just fine.
The next morning we were off bright and early for the LOOOOONG drive back home. Once again, we got through it with nothing major to report, thanks to a couple of DVD's and plenty of breaks to ward off the crazies.
What a trip -- I sure do love my family!!!
2 comments:
I love visiting Utah. I went three times last year and haven't been once this year, so I'm having withdrawals.
Oh, and I was just looking at a picture of my girls with my brother's girls... we do the girl thing around here. :)
I can't believe that picture of all those kids together on that couch--must've been crazy and fun! I love how you were able to pack all that fun stuff into the vacation.
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