Utah: Day 6

Sunday was Pioneer Day which, in Utah, means that Monday is a state holiday. We took advantage of the opportunity to go see the official Pioneer Day Parade. We left pretty early to stake out a spot near the end of the parade route.

Waiting patiently for the floats to make their way to us...



These were some of our favorites - click on them to see them better:

The globe at the end of the float was covered with little temples
This was Leah's favorite - last year her class was the Busy Bee's

The dragon on this one breathed steam - the kids thought that was the coolest.


That afternoon we took the kids on another hike since we had so much fun on the first one. We went up to Alta in the hopes of hiking up to Cecret Lake, but the road still had snow on it, making the hike 3 times as long as it would have been so we settled for hiking up the lift route.

We got to play in some very dirty snow - but hey, when you're from Texas... snow is snow!

Peter got a ride back down the mountain when Eli decided that he had had enough.

And Lincoln was worn out by the time we finished...the sign of a good day :)

Utah: Day 4

Saturday morning we got up nice and early for a hike up to Doughnut Falls. It's a perfect hike for kids since it's only about a mile and a half round trip. Eli even walked most of it.

It really was a beautiful morning - the wildflowers were in full bloom and the river was running high... so high in fact that you couldn't actually see the doughnut that the falls are named for.

We still had a great time and got the day off to a great start.
We headed home to let the babies take a quick nap before gathering at Sugarhouse Park for my niece's birthday.


Grandma provided a great lunch of hot dogs, chips, and fruit

and, of course, cupcakes!

We even had party hats - cowboy style!
We hung out playing flag football and invading the playground until it was time to pack up.
Thanks E for giving us an excuse to have a party!

Utah: Day 3

Friday morning we hung out waiting for more cousins to roll into town - and kept ourselves amused with Grandma's LEGO collection...

The kids helped me put together the pirate village and sailing ship.

Lincoln had just seen Kung Fu Panda 2 so his creation was the peacock with Po and Tai Lung.


Joe and Mary got in just after lunch - exhausted from driving all night. So we let them take a nap and we took over the kids for the afternoon. These two became fast friends:

They spent the rest of our time in Utah playing together - making pinecone animals, playing dress up, writing secret messages, and taking care of their dolls.

That night we took the whole crew to see Rio at the dollar theater - in 3D!
The kids all thought it was the best movie ever, but I think it was more because they got to see it with all their cousins than because it was a great movie ;)

Utah: Days 1-2

Thanks to our fateful trip home from Utah at Christmas time, we scored some airline vouchers that enabled us to make another pilgrimage to see Andrew's family at the end of July. We were lucky enough to have our visit coincide with both Joe's and Ben's families... so there were lots of cousins to play with! Hooray!

We arrived on Tuesday evening and let the kids "sleep in" a little the next morning before heading off to visit the Sweet Candy Factory. The kids were excited because they sell this company's taffy at one of our grocery stores and they wanted to know how it was made. It was pretty cool to walk down on the factory floor and see everything in action - of course, no pictures lest we try to steal trade secrets :) After the tour, we met up with Erin and company at Hires for a Salt Lake experience - I'm not super crazy about their burgers, but they do have one of the best veggie-burgers I've ever tasted!


Friday morning was spent swimming at the Fairmont Aquatic Center - a fun indoor pool with lots of spray structures, a slide, and a river loop. Lincoln was even brave enough to take a couple of rides down the big swirly slide!

That evening we headed out to the Salt Lake Bees game (minor league baseball) with Josh and Judd and Cami. We even managed to catch two foul balls, but Judd was the hero of the night because he gave his foul ball to the little girl who got hit in the shoulder when it came down. Luckily, management heard about his good deed and brought him another game ball to keep - way to go Judd!

Introducing Bishop Thorley

Yes... you read that right... Today our stake created a new ward and my dear sweet husband was called to be the bishop. Needless to say, things have been a bit crazy around our house for the last week as he and his counselors have tried to fill the leadership callings for a brand new ward - starting from scratch has both pros and cons!

Those members of our wonderful family who happened to be in Texas were able to come to Austin to help with the sustaining and setting apart. While it is a bit daunting to think of the responsibilities that come with this calling, I know he will do a great job because he is so good at caring for our family. He now just has a lot more people to show that care towards. And we have the comfort of knowing that this is the Lord's church and "who the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies".