Utah Week 1

We just got back from an awesome two week vacation in Utah.  My parents moved to South Weber a little over six months ago, and although we've missed them living close to us like crazy, it was so fun to have a place to go and be able to be with them for 11 days straight!

The girls and I drove up all by ourselves! Kirk worked and flew up a week later. It was my first long trip all by myself, and although I had had nightmares about crashing or popping a tire or worse for several days before we left, we made it and it only took us 13 1/2 hours. 

Part of my stress was the new bike rack that we got. We thought it would be so fun to take our bikes, so we got a nice rack that would carry them all, but it came right before we left, so we had only tested it around the block.  So as we traveled over the mountains and the bikes bounced up and down, I was totally panicked that they were going to fall off.  But they didn't and we survived!! 

 Once we got there, my mom had all sorts of fun things planned!  The first day we went to the Tree House Museum in Ogden. 

 They have just a bunch of different around the world theme rooms that have clothes of that region to dress up in and then usually something you can do to learn about that place.  

Here's Brynn and Liz as cowgirls.

 Marissa and Noelle even got into it.  They found that it was fun to dress up and sit somewhere very still and see how long it would take us or those around us to see them. 

Sophia, my brother's little girl that lives in SLC, got to come and play with us too!

 Oval Office

 Brynn with her pet chicken

 Liz milking the cow. 

One fun thing was that Grandma had some really fun neighbors.  The Horton Family was living with their grandparents next door to my parents this summer while their house is being built.  They made fast friends with the girls, and were basically inseparable after that. 

We went to Layton's Surf and Swim, which was a fun wave pool that reminded me of the pool on Sandlot. 

 I even got in the water, even though it wasn't 1000 degrees like it is at home. 

We also went to the play Fiddler on the Roof at a crazy little theater that looked a little like Skateland.  But it was a great performance and perfect for taking a bunch of little kiddos.  We loved the music and sang "Tradition" several more times throughout the week.

 On Saturday my dad took us on a cool hike up above Logan at Tony Grove Lake.  There were tons of wild flowers just covering the ground.  It was beautiful!

Brynn and Liz "holding up" the mountains.

 Noelle was totally freaked out by the plethora of dragon flies and butterflies that were out.  Here she's taking cover on Grandpa.

 It was a beautiful day!

 We hiked all around the lake.

 Brynn found a snakeskin and wasn't too freaked out to hold it! 

 It was so fun to be able to be out in nature in the middle of the summer, something we can't do here in AZ! 

We also got to hang out with the Huber and Winfields one night.  My cousins Joseph and Jacob are close to Marissa and Noelle's age, and are now texting buddies.   

 We also went on many many bike rides.  This one was with the Horton kiddos.  Noelle, Brynn, Marissa, Tyler, Jake, Tate and Liz.  Some of Grandma's neighbors had horses, so we loved to ride and go pet the horses who tried to push over the fence to see us. 

 We also went down to Salt Lake one day.  We went to the Daughter's of the Mormon Pioneer's museum, which is better known to my family as the Hair Museum, since they have wreathes and decorations made out of hair.  The girls weren't freaked out by the hair nearly as much as I was, but thought that a lot of the pictures of the pioneers were a little scary.  And they thought the two headed sheep was cute, not totally freaky, like me.

 We also loved Temple Square, and all the beautiful flowers there!

 We also went to the Church History Museum.  We loved learning about all the different prophets, seeing an angel Moroni up close, but the children's part was the favorite.  Once again, dress up and puppets don't disappoint!

 We were there over the 24th of July, so we went to the Pioneer Day Parade in Salt Lake.  We got up early and got a great spot right at the beginning of the route.  The highlight was seeing President Eyring who waved and smiled right at us! 

 The floats were amazing! 

We went on a hike that was fairly close to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We brought Tate and Tyler from next door and also Uncle Chris and Sophia.

 Here's Sophia giving Brynn a talkin' to. 

 There was a cute little stream that some of the kids managed to get completely drenched from.

 Chris, Noelle, Mom and Marissa

We made it!

We loved being in Utah and having Grandma and Grandpa all to ourselves.  By the end of this week though, we were missing our Dad pretty bad, and were counting down the minutes until we could pick him up at the airport.