Vacation

This summer our family vacation was early! We left the Sunday after school got out. Here is a little rundown of what we did.

Sunday:
We traveled to Park City. Parts of the trip went fast, but the last part seemed to drag on. ...probably because we were all ready to be there! The girls did so great though. Probably the best they have done on a road trip. It was so nice.

Monday:
We started the day by swimming at the hotel. The water was fairly warm, but the girls couldn't get enough of it. After we got cleaned up from swimming we had lunch at Cafe Rio. Yum! Yum! Then we headed to Draper--we drove by the temple and then drooled over the houses that surround it.


Then we went to Down East. From there we went to the care center where Brian's grandma is. It was "grandma day" so four of his aunts where there and two of his cousins. It was fun to visit with them for a while.


After that we headed back up to Park City and got dinner at Kneaders. Another yum! Ruby went to bed and Hattie and I relaxed in the room while Brian took the oldest three girls swimming again.

Tuesday:
We relaxed in the room for a while. Brian borrowed a puzzle from the hotel, so he, Libby and Ellie worked on that. We had lunch in the room, then we went to the outlets for a while. We found a few things. LOL. ...found some really great deals at Old Navy. After we went to all the stores we wanted to go to, we came back to the room and had dinner, then went swimming before settling down to watch American Idol.

Wednesday:
We got up and headed to Hogle Zoo. We love this zoo and love that we can go and not sweat to death. It was a gorgeous day. Beautiful weather--a little overcast. We had a blast at the zoo and once again, loved the bird show.

That day my parents got into town to join us for a few days. We met up for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and had a good time visiting. Two of the girls at a time spent the night in my parent's hotel and then the other two went the following night. That was one of the highlights of their trip!

Thursday:
We went to Salt Lake and did the whole temple square experience. The whole point of our trip really was to go to the Church History Museum and see the exhibit where Eliza's artwork is on display. So after driving into Salt Lake, that was our first stop. She was the first to find her picture, proudly displayed on the wall. It was so fun to see that.








We looked around at some other exhibits. The kids really enjoyed the kids exhibit upstairs. There were so many fun, interactive things for them to do, like dress up and dance, play in a pretend kitchen and eat with the missionaries, go "on" the ship to the Promised Land, etc. They could have stayed their for a LONG time and just played.

I found a picture I would love to have in my house. I love the parable of the 10 virgins and I want to have a picture of it in my house. I just haven't found one I love yet. There was one on display that I thought was pretty cool. It's by Emily McPhie. You can see it on her blog. As a side note, I was at a bookstore this week and saw a new one of Simon Dewey that I like, too.


From there we walked past the temple to have a bite to eat at the Nauvoo Cafe in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. My girls had fun seeing the brides around the temple and in the JS Bldg. They all talked about what colors they wanted for their wedding. It was cute. Eliza wants to get married in the SL temple and have her lunch in the JSB. I told her Daddy better start saving! Then we went to the Church Administration Building and took a brief tour. We wanted to go to the top and you have to take a tour to go to the top. It was very interesting though and I am glad we did. We went to the South Visitor's Center, the Assembly Hall, Tabernacle and then the North Visitor's Center. We finished at the Conference Center and toured that as well. After doing all the Temple Square stuff, we made a stop at Lime Ricki, then finished up the day at Gardner's Mill where we went to a couple of shops and had dinner at the Mill. I found a new artist I like. Her name is Kelli Rae Roberts. She just has some really cute artwork.

Friday
We headed into Provo to do some shopping. We drove through Bridal Veil Falls, which was absolutely gorgeous.


We went to Cherry Lane Boutique first. Saw a purse I loved, but I withstood. :) We also went to University Mall and shopped there before enjoying ice cream at the BYU Creamery.

Saturday
We relaxed in our room for a bit, then headed to the Alpine Slide and Coaster. Such a blast! Everyone got to do both things (minus Ruby) and everyone a fabulous time! The slide was fun--I rode down with Ellie and Brian was with Hattie and Libby and Eliza rode alone.




We had never done the Coaster before and wow--it was a ride. You are pulled up the mountain, then at the top, you are set free. You have a brake, but you really don't have to put it on until the end of the track. Ellie wanted me to put ours on because she thought we were going to fast (it was way fast) and Hattie didn't mind going super fast with Brian. He said he put the brakes on a couple of times because he thought he was going to be launched off the ride. Haha. So fun though!




We went back to the room for lunch, then headed back out. We went to Kari and Jason Headrick's house in Cedar Hills for BBQ and visiting. It was so fun to see them and catch up a bit. We were jealous of their gorgeous neighborhood and views of the mountain! The kids had a blast playing with each other and played a little baseball game out front. We think the dads had more fun than the kids though.





On Sunday morning, we packed up and headed out. It snowed on us all the way out of Park City. It was a LONG drive home for some reason, but we made it. We did go home through Manti to see the temple.

Love This

It cuts a little off the side, so you might want to double click on it to see it all.

Las Vegas

Note to self: Get a new point and shoot camera!!

This past week, Brian had a national conference for work to attend in Vegas. He left Sunday along with the other guys in his office and the wives flew in Tuesday.

When I got there Thursday, it was funny to me that not 15 feet from where I got off the plane were slots. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it was just weird to me. So from the airport, I decided that Vegas is a pretty sleezy place. I took a shuttle to our hotel and then Brian came out of his class and took me to the room, then he went back to finish up. The conference was at The Palazzo hotel, so we stayed there and it was super nice.




I was really hungry, so I walked across the street to the Fashion Show Mall and had lunch and looked around. Then I walked a little ways and got a pedicure. It was not very good at all. Boo hoo. The "massage" lasted about one minute and she pushed so hard with the pumice stone thing it made my heel raw. I got back to the hotel and Brian was done about that time, so we got ready for our evening. One of the wholesalers took his group to dinner. We went to a steakhouse--it was pretty good, but the meal took forever it seemed and you could smell the smoke wafting in from the casino. Yuck! I had a salad, filet mignon and mashed potatoes. Dessert sounded good, but I was way too stuffed. After dinner we went and saw the Cirque du Soleil show "Mystere". Brian and I enjoyed it--some of the rest of the group thought it was slow or weird and didn't like it. The show was kind of weird, but the tricks and acrobatics are just unbelievable. So it was entertaining to us. The show was at 9:30, so we didn't get back to our room until late. The next morning Brian got up and headed to his meetings and I was LAZY! I slept in, then turned the TV on and watched for a bit. I went downstairs and got something to eat--a muffin and the best hot chocolate you could imagine--and brought it back up to the room to eat. Then I got my exercise clothes on and then got back in bed and fell asleep for a little bit. Then I got my shoes on and watched some more TV. Haha. I just couldn't bring myself to go down and run. In the afternoon, Brian had a break, so he came running with me, then went back to classes for a while. I got ready and then went down to window shop. Our hotel is side by side with the Venetian, so the canal shops are right there and the gondola rides, too. It was fun to watch those.




Our dinner was late that night, so after Brian was done with his classes, we walked around the shops again and shared a yogurt--strawberry with mini white chocolate chips. Yum. That night another wholesaler took us to dinner at Lavo, which is a restaurant in the hotel. It was another long, drawn out dinner, where they brought appetizers, then salad, then the meal and the sides and then dessert. It was fun to visit though.

Our last full day was Thursday and we decided to rent a car and get off the strip. We drove to Henderson to check out The District--an outdoor shopping center that had some cute stores. We had breakfast at Rachel's Kitchen--I had the best oatmeal with brown sugar and strawberries. It was so filling; I couldn't eat it all.

We shopped around for a bit and then went back to the hotel to pick up Gary and Veronica and then we went to the temple to do a session. It was a very pretty temple and one of the rooms just blew us away--it was incredibly beautiful. Our session was so tiny...only 10 people! Such a difference from what we are used to here.


On our way home we just wanted some "regular" food, so we stopped at Baja Fresh. Yum!

That night was the fancy dinner--we weren't too hungry, so we just had a few bites, then we left to get different dessert than the tiramisu that they were serving. Jay Leno performed at the dinner, so we came back just in time to hear him. He was very entertaining and funny. ...a good way to end the night.


The next morning, we just had time to get ready, grab a bite to eat and head to the airport. It was fun to get away, but Vegas in not a place I would choose to go. We found all well at home--thanks to Terri who took great care of our kiddos.

Mother's Day

Today I had a great Mother's Day. First off, I got to sleep in. Yes! I hardly ever get to do that, so it was wonderful. Brian didn't have any meetings before (good thing! ha!), so it was just great to have him home--so weird, too, though--I had forgotten what it was like to have him home before church. By the time I woke up, everyone had colored or made me a Mother's day card. Brian lucked out this year and I had picked out an outfit as my gift that I could wear on our trip. So he didn't have to pick anything out for me. I had a relaxing day until church. I got to enjoy the first little bit of sacrament meeting before having to take Ruby out. Boo hoo. But luckily she is in nursery, so I was able to enjoy Sunday school and relief society.

After church we went to my brother's house for a wonderful dinner. We had Russian chicken, potatoes and salad. For dessert we had ice cream and toppings. The kids had fun playing and we had fun watching them and visiting.

On the way home we picked up my niece and nephew--we are watching them for a couple of days while Jared and Chrystalyn are out of town for a follow up appointment for Jared's hip surgery.

This morning I was able to watch some new videos on the Mormon channel. Here are a couple new favorites:

Behind (again)

Seriously...why can't I keep up on this anymore?!?! In a nutshell: school, preschool, track, YW presidency meetings, laundry, laundry, housework, laundry, making bread, stake temple day, planning new shelves in the pantry, photo shoots, making graduation announcements for friends, new laptop, getting ready for and going to Vegas with Brian this past week, coming home, getting back into the groove, etc., etc. It never ends! I hope to post about our trip before June. Haha.

Easter

This year's Easter started really early. The girls came in at 6:30 AM! I told them they had to wait until at least 7. So at seven, they went into the front room and found a note from the Easter Bunny with their first clue that started a scavenger hunt to find their baskets. It took them around the house and finally into the playroom where their baskets were waiting for them. This year he brought hula hoops, Pillow Pets, shorts, a movie and a swimsuit (for Ruby). The girls had pop tarts for breakfast, then they did their usual Sunday stations before church.

I think my little camera is on its last leg--the pictures have this weird haziness about them. They are actually quite horrible! Sorry!

Party Time!

Yesterday we had a fun family party at my parent's house to celebrate Easter, my dad's birthday and my dad's retirement of 39 years with the police department. He is retiring at the end of May and he wanted a party with all the kids and grandkids. We met at their house in the early afternoon. We brought the kids in their swim suits and told them they might get to go in the sprinkler or do water balloons or something. The truth though was that my parents had rented an inflatable waterslide and a bouce house. When the kids went outside, they were surprised! Libby had accidentally seen it from the street when we pulled in, but I told her not to tell anyone. So the kids played on those for most of the entire party! They had a little inflatable pool that Luke, Hattie and Ruby had a blast in, too.















For dinner, we had pizza and wings. Yum! After dinner we went inside for the traditional fish pond. The kids got a bag of candy, a chocolate bunny and a new beach towel.



Then we went back outside for the Easter egg hunt. Once Ruby figured out what to do, she loved that part.





The kids went back to playing while I made cotton candy. What a fun mess that was as strands of cotton candy were flying around and getting all over us! The best part was when we first plugged in the machine and it tripped the breaker to the inflatables. Quick! It's going to crush the kids! Happy to report, no children were lost.







The rest of the night was filled with more playing and snacking on dessert! What a fun time everyone had.