Catching Up: Utah trip

We spent a week in Utah for the 4th of July.  We had such a fun time.  I didn't get many pictures because I just don't take very many and my battery on my camera died and my back up was dead too.  So smart to have a back up.  Anyway we love Utah during the summer.  It is so nice to be up there and enjoy the cooler weather and to spend time with family and friends. 
We took two days to make the drive.  It is so long but the kids sure did well.  We spent our first night in St. George at the Hoopes house.  It was so fun to see them again.  I miss Lisha.  She was like one of the only people in Tempe that I really connected with after we moved back from Oregon and our kids had a great time playing together. 
We arrived Saturday night at Doug and Debbie's and she had dinner prepared for us.  It was great.  Then we went to the fireworks show.  I have never seen so many people.  It was busy and late, but the boys enjoyed watching the show.
On Sunday, we headed over to temple square.  It was very hot!!  Nathan wanted his picture taken at the Tabernacle.  They had these opera music students do a very short performance to show us the acoustics of the building.  It was pretty amazing.


We spent Monday shopping and then headed over to Wheeler Farm for a family picnic dinner.  The kids had a blast playing with the Danielson cousins.  They jumped over the creek and played football.  My boys just followed Jace around like he was the coolest kid ever. 
One funny thing happened that I wish we could have gotten on video.  We would have won $10000 for sure.  There were these two geese fighting and everyone was just watching it happen.  The kids were a little closer than the adults because they were feeding ducks.  All of the sudden, the geese started taking off after the kids.  I have never seen such surprised crazy faces as the kids ran away.  It was very funny.  We all kicked ourselves for not recording it.

 

 

 

 

 

This is all of Doug and Debbie's grandchildren plus Jacob, Luke, Nathan, Lyvi and June.  We were so happy that we got to spend some time with Justin and Sarah.  It was fun to see them outside our normal circumstances.

 

 

The Doug Danielson grandchildren love to pose.  Luke had to get in on that action. 

 

Tuesday found us at Lagoon.  It was fun and hot.  The boys enjoyed a couple of rides and then spent a few hours in the afternoon at the water park section.  We rode the big rides in the afternoon.  Jacob and Luke both rode the rides that Todd was super scared of when he was little.  Nathan loved the little train that went to see the animals and there was a little dragon coaster he enjoyed.  We stopped off at Texas Roadhouse on the way home and were so tired.
Utah knows how to do the 4th of July.  We had so much fun at the parade.  The boys came home with tons of candy.  They played on the waterslide and hung out with the cousins and then we ate dinner and waited for night to come so we could do fireworks.
The boys just wanted to relax on Thursday and it finally cooled off with rain, so we did a little shopping and then the boys just watched tv until kids came over to play with them. 
We had such a great time in Utah.  I wish we could make it a yearly tradition.  It was good to spend a whole week there so we could take our time getting home.  We stopped in Vegas on Friday night and met up with our old friends the Masons.  I wish we could have timed our arrival better so that we could have done some fun stuff while we were there, but I don't think the strip is a place that I want my boys to see quite yet, if ever.
I say this every vacation:  It is so nice to get away but oh so nice to come home!!