Utah Trip!

So here we are in Utah. Yes, we're visiting family. Again. Some of you have the luxury of being near parents, siblings, etc. We are too, just we have to drive 10 hours. We got here on Saturday night and are leaving early Sunday morning to do the next part of our trip. We'll be heading to Eastern Oregon to visit Cory's family. As for now, I'll do a play by play of what we've done so far. Here goes:

Day 1 Saturday: Left our house at 5:15am. Drove and drove and drove and drove . . . We got to my parent's house at 5:30 pm and we all went up to a ward BBQ in Provo Canyon. Yummy dinner and they shot candy out of a cannon. A dream come true for the kids.

Day 2 Sunday: EARLY church (compared to ours which starts at 1:30pm) then roast at home. Mom's and Dad's roast is the best in the world. For our family reunion this past May we all had a lesson on roast making so we could try to duplicate it. But nobody makes roast as good as mom and dad. Then after dinner we went on our traditional Sunday walk near the canal. There are some horses back there and the kids love to visit them. Here's a picture of the girls near one.



Day 3 Monday: We went on a nice walk to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. The water is icy cold but the girls still went through it in their suits. Call 'em crazy. It looked so fresh I wanted to just take a straw and slurp it up. But I didn't because that's weird. Here's a picture of my mom with the girls.

And here are Ashley and Ainslee posing at the base of the waterfall.




Then after we left the canyon we went swimming at the Pleasant Grove Pool. The water was so warm. And it's such a wonderful feeling swimming on a hot summer day with the huge mountains just right there. It's almost a little surreal. There are water slides there and Ashley went down them on her own. My sister Katie helped Ainslee down since she's not tall enough and I went down with Andi. It brought me back to the days when we had Raging Water Season Passes. I love that place!!!! And so now I'm going to do something that most people wouldn't do. I'm going to post a picture of me and my kids in a bathing suit. Me in a bathing suit, yes you read that right. I have no shame. Sure, I could work my butt off (literally) to look good, but I really would rather spend the time with my kids. I just love 'em to pieces (my kids not my rolls of fat).




Day 4 Tuesday: We drove up to Park City for me to shop at the outlets. Ashley is starting Kindergarten in a few weeks and I needed to get her some new clothes. I remember LOVING school shopping. I just got this little giddyness in me like ooohh, fresh new clothes for a fresh new school year. Yes, I liked school. Again, I have no shame. Sorry, no pictures for this day but I did find a lot of good stuff at Old Navy.




Day 5 Wednesday: We hung around the house for the morning and played toys and with the dog, Lucy. Then after lunch we went to Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove. Way fun place. It's a big warehouse with 8 or so big inflatable slides and jump houses. The kids loved it and I got such a work out. It is hard climbing little ladders up 20 feet. It's a pretty good deal, too, if any of you are looking for a fun special activity to do with the kids. When we pulled up, my mom and I laughed at how many Suburban's and vans were in the parking lot. So many I had to take a picture. You don't see this kind of thing many other places.










So tomorrow we haven't decided what we'll do during the day- maybe a movie and shopping. But all I know is that I have our family portrait set for tomorrow evening at a park in American Fork. Yeah, I'm so excited to get them done. We've never really had professional pictures taken before (well, does kiddie kandids count as family portraits?) So this wonderful photogrpher is meeting us and take amazing pictures (I'm sure because I've seen her other work). Oh wait. It's supposed to thunderstorm tomorrow. What the heck!!!??? Can I not get a picture taken of my family! Everyone pray it will be sunny and beautiful tomorrow evening. If not, you'll all get a drawing of my family drawn by me in your Christmas card. And considering Ashley can draw better than me, you don't want that.