Unexpected Playtime!

I go to Utah every year to visit my parents and play for a week or so, but this year I had not planned a trip yet.  The kids kept asking me when we were going and I just didn't know if we were going to go at all this summer.  But when my father-in-law passed away and we needed to go to Utah for his burial, then......

The only thing is that my hubby needed to get back to work and T had a Fire Academy the whole next week.  I didn't want to stay one day in Utah, so we made other plans.  My brother had a rewards certificate for a one way plane ticket that he wasn't going to use.  I had just made reservations for M to go to AZ to play with cousins with that reward, so I changed that out and used it for one of the guys to get home with and then just bought another ticket. THANKS Mark for that!  So that meant that I could stay for awhile with my girls and play.   HURRAY!  All we had to do was drop a car at the airport as we were heading to Utah and we were set.

(Don't you love T's pillow...this was his standard driving form to Utah...sleep and listen to tunes)

So what did we do?  Hmmmmm...where to start?  We always have our standard things we want to do when we go....some we did and some we did not.  But we did get to see lots of friends and relatives this time, so that made up for it.

I saw some college friends....brought back tons of good memories.
I got to see 3 of my nieces.......Jessie (& hubby Jeremy and baby Percy).  We went to dinner and came back to the house and played games.

 (Sorry Jess...don't know why this was so blurry and this is the only one I got of you)

(He is so cute...and what a personality)

And Natalie and Stephanie (with her son Cole).  We went out to dinner and also came back to the house to visit.  I haven't seen Nat forever.  She reminds me so much of her mom.....I miss Pam.

It just happened that an ole childhood friend was coming to Utah to drop her oldest off at BYU (Thank you Facebook) and so we got together for breakfast one morning and talked about old times.  Our families were very close back in the day and so there was lots to reminisce about.  It was great to see you Shannon.

And I also got together with my cousin, Tonya and her kids to play.  We met down at Gateway and went to the Children's Museum.  We all had a blast building, playing, talking, drawing, flying, and performing all afternoon.  It was not long enough, but at least we had a chance to visit.  Next time, we are taking a photo class together for sure.

 (The play grocery store was so fun...much better than our Mr. Biggs....the little girls couldn't get enough)

(life size dominos)

 (life size billiard balls)

 (Foosball players--with a voice changing system in each one)

 (dress up)

 (A helicopter on the roof)

(K is dead...need to give her chest compressions before we lift off)

 (on TV doing the weather)

 (Look who is anchoring the news----and look who can't stop laughing)

We spent a morning at Cowabunga Bay and we had a blast.  The weather was warm, but the wind was blowing so it made it cold as we waited to go down the slides.  We loved the Lazy River....it was like bath water so it was nice to lay on the tubes and just float.  I think we have found a new place to add to our list of regular activities to do.  I wish I had pictures to show you, but I really wanted to not worry about the camera, so guess what......I didn't. Shocker I know!

After dropping the guys off at the airport on Sunday morning and since we missed church because of that, we just headed downtown to Temple Square.  We had just arrived as "Music and the Spoken Word" let out, so there were tons of people dressed in their Sunday best and here we come with our capris and shorts.  M felt very out of place, but we had a great time wandering around taking pictures.  We stopped in the North Visitor's Center to see the Christus and to watch "The New Testament" movie.  We had seen it before, but it is so good.  The flowers were in full bloom and gorgeous as usual.  We missed going up to the top of the Church Office Building.....K couldn't figure out why it was closed until I explained to her that it was a place of business and they were closed on Sunday.  It was a nice morning with my girls.

 (watching the movie)

 (they were making fun of me cuz I was snapping tons of pictures as we were going down the ramp)

We did a bunch of shopping.....found some fun clothes that actually fit us good and so that made us happy.  Had to stop at Tai Pan.....my favorite store ever.  Ok, so IKEA is also another favorite and yes, I did go there too.  We loved the fact that you could buy BYU stuff at Walmart!  And of course, the favorite eating establishments....In N Out, Fuddrucker's, Crown Burger......can you see a trend?  (All hamburger joints)  And of course, Cafe Rio!  YUM!  Can't forget the legendary Iceberg shakes....they are huge.

Also on the agenda was the cemetery to see Pam's grave.  My mother had gorgeous lilacs and peonies blooming in her back yard so we picked some to take with us.

One night as it was getting dark, we drove past the ducks and decided to stop.  It is a small creek alongside the road that always has tons of ducks.  They even have a pullout for it and bags of food to feed them.  So of course, we pulled over.  There was this one duck that came from across the street to see us, but stayed fairly close to the edge of the road.  M was quite concerned that he would get hit.

There were some gorgeous sunsets while we were there.......

We had a great time.....but we sure missed our guys.  We wish we could have stayed longer, but we wanted to be home in time for T's Fire demonstrations at the end of the academy (another post coming on that) and for Father's Day.  Until next time Utah!