It had been roughly 3 years since we had been to Utah to see family, so, for this year's vacation, to Utah we went. We are happy to report that the trip went well. We left on June 22nd and returned home July 1st.
While flying out there makes for a long day, the flight out went quite smoothly. We flew out of Dulles and stopped in Denver for our connecting flight to Salt Lake. Mom C. dropped us off at Dulles and Jim's brother picked us up in Salt Lake. We had no difficulties getting through security and our fights took off and landed on time. The baby was very wiggly, but, overall the children behaved themselves. The only glitch was when I forgot the baby's antibiotic on the plane and had to race back for it before they had a chance to take off again. Jim's brother, Jake, had their big family camping trailer set up for us to stay in while we were there and Mom K. pretty much insisted we use her car, so, we drove her car while we were there. We had dinner with the family our 1st night there and then called it a day.
Day 2 - We had planned on just recovering and relaxing, but, we get bored too easy and Molly and her kids made a trip to the Hogle Zoo and then had lunch at Crown burger with us.
Day 3 - Grandma was nice enough to watch our kids while Jim and I did a session at the Ogden temple. We don't get to the temple as much as we used to, so, we didn't want to pass up the opportunity to go and have a break from the children as well. It also gave Grandma, Grandpa, and the kids some bonding time. Then, in the evening, the bigger kids/cousins watched the younger kids while the grown ups (and baby) went out to dinner for Mom K.'s birthday.
Day 4 - We spent the day with the Totten family. They are friends from our Singles Ward days. We got married just a few months apart and their 2 kids are the same ages as our older 2 kids. They took us to the Red Iguana for lunch. It was very good Mexican food. It has even been featured on the show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Then, we spent a couple of hours at This Is The Place park. That got to be quite hot, so, we headed over to the Gateway mall in Salt Lake and let the kids play in the water feature thing they have there. We got some ice cream at the DQ in the food court and then headed to the Totten's house to visit some more and order from Kneader's for dinner. It was good to visit with them again.
Day 5 - Was Saturday. Uncle Jake wanted to have a guys day on the sand dunes with the 4 wheelers. So, Jake, Jim, Case, and Jamie loaded up the 4 wheelers and spent their day out at the dunes. Jamie freaked out a little at the sight of the hills, but, by the end, he even drove Case's small 4 wheeler himself. He then proceeded to crash it 3 times tearing his shirt in the process, but, he did it none the less. Would have been nice for everyone to go, but, they didn't have enough 4 wheelers for all of us. So, while the boys played the girls got some chores done, dropped off the 2 little ones for Grandma to watch and then headed out to the movie theater to watch Toy Story 3 and have popcorn. The Megaplex is a pretty nice theater.
Day 6 - We attended church with Molly and her kids and then made the rounds visiting former neighbors Gerald and Georgia, Uncle Gil and Aunt Lyle Ann, and a final stop to see Jim's step-grandmother Pat. I had finally reached the point where I was kind of worn out, so, we kept the evening low-key and just hung out in the trailer watching TV.
Day 7 - Grandma wanted to take the grandkids to the Dinosaur Park. So, we spent the morning there, had some Jim's burgers for lunch (no my Jim didn't make them, the place is called Jim's Burgers) Then, we met up with Bethany and Jonathan Peterson for dinner at the Pie Pizzeria near Weber State. They are old friends of ours, I have known them since we were kids, and Jim met them when we were in the singles ward.
Day 8 - Jim went to work on machines with Jake out in the desert. Grandma, Molly, the kids and I all went to the water park. It started out ok, was a fun enough place, but, Corinne threw up her sandwich, Jamie got out of sorts over sharing and being sprayed with the hydrants they had, and the baby needed a nap, so, the 4 of us called it quits early and headed back to the trailer for some down time. We scrapped plans to go out to dinner with Jake and Molly had dinner at the house instead.
Day 9 - We just hung out. We packed as much as we could and mailed off a few things that made our luggage too heavy for the plane ride. I was one of the guinea pigs for Molly's sister to meet her Mary Kay facial quota, while Jim and our kids visited with his Dad for a bit. Then, Jim and I made Navajo tacos for the family dinner on our last night there.
Day 10 - we started the day at 6am Utah time (8 am VA time) Left for the airport at 6:45. Flight was supposed to leave at 9:23, but, even though the plane only came from a hangar, it was late, and then, when we finally boarded it, not only was it warm in there from sitting in a hangar for a day and a half, but, we also had to wait around on it while their paperwork cleared to be allowed to fly it. All that put us at about 45min. - 1 hr. late taking off. We had just enough time to find our gate in Denver, grab a quick lunch from the McDonald's there, and board our last plane of the trip. That one luckily took off on time and actually landed a little early even (5:38 pm VA time). Good thing too, because the baby had decided he was getting tired of all this flying business and was fussier than before. Dad C. picked us up in our van. Mom C. had dinner for us at their place. We stopped at Walmart on the way home because we were out of formula for the baby and we finally arrived home Thursday, July 1st at about 9pm Virginia time. And, thus ended our trip, and started the holiday weekend, and now it is Monday and life is still trying to get back to normal around here.
