Utah trip #1 June 25- July 1

Sunday, the day before we left for our trip, Chris lost his 4th tooth.  He has some cute holes in his mouth now.

Monday June 26th I got ready for our trip by doing some laundry and finished packing up everything.  It always amazed me how much stuff we take on trips.  I was grateful that we didn't need to pack camping gear though.  We left around 4:00 PM.  Doug was able to take a quick nap before we left.  The car trip was ok.  We ate dinner in the car when we got hungry and we stopped at a Walmart to change into pjs when it was around 10:00.  I drove for awhile then we switched again.  We stopped at 2:00 AM to get gas and all of the kids woke up.  They had a harder time going back to sleep, especially Jenna.  I drove for another short stretch in the morning.  Jenna threw up in the morning and we stopped outside of Denver to change clothes and get ready for the morning.  We hit some bad traffic in Denver which made our last 45 min. twice as long.  We pulled into Firestone around 9:00 AM MT and said hello to our friends the Reynolds.  They were so nice to let us stay with them.  I showered and got ready to go to the park.  Doug helped me make lunches and then he went to sleep.  

I had asked my friends from the area to meet us at the park at 10:00.  Almost all of them came, and it was so fun to see them all.  A few were out of town or had moved away.  The kids had fun playing and we just couldn't get over how nice the air felt.  It was warm, but dry and the cool breeze was heavenly.  

 We just visited with the Reynolds the rest of the day.  They had this really nice massaging chair that Doug and I tried out.  I didn't take pictures, but the kids swam in their above ground pool - quite a bit chillier than what we were used to, but the kids didn't mind.  We had lots of screen time which the boys loved.

We went out to dinner at the Bent Fork with the Lori and Brian Reynolds and Ben and Claudia Ahlstrom.  We had a great night visiting and enjoyed the good food.  We came back and helped the kids get situated for bed.  We thought we had it all figured out but then some wanted to sleep with other siblings, etc.  Chris ended up sleeping in a love sac downstairs, the girls shared the top bunk, Damon was in the bottom bunk, and Tyler was on the floor next to Damon.  

 Our kids were really close to the Reynolds before we left so it was so great to see them again.  The girls had so much fun with Nathan.  He is going into 9th grade I think, but he was so good to wrestle and play with them.  They are a great family, so glad we could stop and visit with them.

 Wednesday June 28th, we  left to finish our trip to Utah.  We left around 9:00 AM and the 8 hour drive went really fast for me.  We listened to A Wrinkle in Time on CD, watched movies, played with car games, and had screen time.  The kids were pretty good overall.  We stopped for a later lunch at Rock Springs and then we only had 3 more hours.  Jenna still gets car sick, but she didn't throw up this time.

We rolled into Providence around 5:00, it was great having dinner already for us.  So grateful that we were able to stay with Mike and Arlene.  They have a great set up in their basement which makes staying there very easy.  The kids were excited to be at grandma and grandpa's and loved being to play outside on the grass with bare-feet - something that you can't do in Texas.

Thursday June 29th  We went to temple with Damon in the morning the do baptisms for the dead.  This was Damon's first time and it was pretty neat to go in the Logan temple since this is where Doug and I both went to do baptisms and be sealed.  It was a great experience and I think Damon had a good time.  There were a lot of youth there.  We brought our own names and did a sheet from the temple.  So Damon and I each did 9 names.

 We roasted hot-dogs and marshmallows in the evening and of course the kids loved the s'mores.

 Playing ball:

 Kaylee discovered how much fun it was to ride the wagon down the little hill in the back yard.  It is right next to the ravine, but they were good to steer straight and not fall over the edge.

 Friday June 30th  Some of our Logan traditions are to go to Gossner's Cheese Factory and buy 'squeaky cheese' (cheese curds).  Not all of them like it, but the girls had been looking forward to it.  Our next stop was Deseret Book to get Chris some scriptures for when he turns 8, and we picked up some other books too.  Next we went up to USU.  We had a picnic at the bottom of Old Main Hill then walked up to the Book Store.  I bought a few shirts then we all had fun running down.  We don't have hills in Texas.

Then we all took baths and got ready for the main reason we made this Utah trip: Mike and Arlene's 50th wedding anniversary.  We took some family pictures and had a great evening.  See the next post for more details.

Saturday July 1,

We got together with the Petersens in the morning at Willard Bay.  The kids had a great time playing at the beach and we also had a fun ride in the Larsen's motor boat.  Chris wanted to stay and play at the beach but everyone else went for a ride.  Damon went for a ride on the tube with Doug first.  Then I went with Kaylee, and then Jenna.  Tyler finally decided to take a turn and went by himself.  They all thought it was so much fun.  Thanks Uncle Shane for giving us a great ride!  

 We couldn't stay for too long - we had more fun things to do.  Richard and Tannie were visiting to go to Richard's 20th High School reunion, so we met them at Willow Park to play.  It was pretty warm and we decided not to go into the Zoo part.  I guess I'm a little bit cheap - it would have been $24 for our family to go in, and I'm just used to the $7 admission that it used to be.  They all had fun climbing the big trees with Uncle Richard though.

 We went over to Grandma Datwyler's and let the kids play there with their cousins.  Grandpa had irrigated earlier so the grass was still a little bit wet.  The cousins had played in the water earlier and had a fun time.  Doug and I hadn't seen Anora yet, so it was great to finally meet our youngest niece.  She's a cutie and fits right into the Datwyler family.

We only visited for a bit then went back to the Petersen's for the evening.