My Summer Vacation. Part 1: P-Town

June 1: We finally moved.  That took up the first week of June.  The second week of June, we played.  The last two weeks, I spent doing all the reading for my LAST Master's class.  Not fun and super boring.

July--the month I dreaded for months.  As in, it consumed my every thought with how terrible it would be.  The pounding headaches from no sleep.  The pile of moldy, crusty dishes.  The zombie laundry walking itself around the house.  I took my last Master class.  It was four hours a day, every day for two weeks.  And it wasn't that bad.  Because I did all the readings a head of time, I had all the papers done by the end of the two weeks, cleaned the bathrooms each at least once, and folded most of the laundry.  I even went to bed at midnight every night--totally normal for me.  And now I'm done.  No more school for me.

I then had five days to completely clean the house, make a few meals for Greg and pack to go to Utah.

It was amazing.  

I was starting to wonder after almost two years of not being in Utah if I had played it up in my mind more than I should have.  Nope.  It was just as amazing, if not more so than I remember.  The huge open sky, the mountains, the easily navigable streets, the festivals, parades...  Nothing is better than summer in Utah.  (I will say though, that the smog really killed it some days--the constant haze got in the way of my sky and mountains.  A little gross to think I was breathing that...)

We got in around 11 pm Tuesday night and with a little help from my friend Melatonin, my kids slept in until 11 Wednesday morning.  We got dressed and headed off to Provo.

Stop one: Our house.  Enough said.

 Stop two: BYU, which was under some major construction, which was a little annoying (ok, 2 things I could do without in Utah...smog and constant road construction).  Rex has a Creamery shirt and was super excited to go to the Creamery so we did.  He loved it a bit.

 Then we headed north to the waterfall where Greg proposed.  Alice spent some time contemplating her very existence.

 A short walk to the west, and we get to the tree (or one near by) where Greg and I had our first kiss.  Rex is refusing to smile--he's not old enough to be grossed out, yet.

 We also stopped by the WILK and the BYU bookstore where Rex picked out a T-shirt way out of my normal $5 price range, but he wanted one with a big Y on it just like the mountain (Y mount and the Creamery were Rex's favorite of the trip).  Then we met Uncle Noah at J-Dawgs.

 After buying Rex 2 J-Dawgs because the polish dog was too spicy, he didn't eat either.  Noah ate one; the other, sadly, got thrown away.

 And that was just the first day.

Thursday, we hit up one of my all time favorite places--Provo City Library.  We snuck in for the crafts, played on the computer for a while and then hit up the Canopy Capers and story time outside.  Amazing.

 Rex even got called up to say what sound he thought a dinosaur would make.

 After lunch, we headed back to my grandparents in American Fork for naps then down to Springville to visit my friend Shaundria and her cute kids.  The kids were having so much fun playing, and me so much fun chatting up that I forgot to take pictures.

But the day, like every day, ended like this: in Grandma Dorothy's giant bathtub.  I'm going to go ahead and say that a dirty kid is a happy kid and my kids were filthy. Every day.

 Friday, we went to the amazing new Provo Rec Center about 6 blocks from our house.  It has a climbing wall that you can jump off of into the water.  What?!? We played until Rex got lost and Alice was so tired she was delirious, then walked back to our house so Alice could nap.  Rex and I worked on the yard and cleaned out the garage.  To reward myself, I got Costa Vida for dinner.  Also just as amazing as I remember.

 Saturday we went to another of my Provo favorites--the farmer's market.  We got honey sticks from the same guy we used to get honey sticks from, some soda, and a bag of cherries.  Then the kids ran around on the new splash pad (3 blocks from our house) while I talked to my good friend Georgia.  Then back to the Provo house, where Alice napped, Rex rode our tenet's bike and I did more yard work. On the way back to American Fork that afternoon, Rex complained about not getting to play at all, because riding a bike is not playing, it's work.  Whatever.

Sunday we went to church in Highland with my aunt Sandi and the kids enjoyed a day of playing in Grandma's toy closet.

 Monday we went to the Highland splash pad in the morning and then helped my grandparents tend one of my cousin's kids.  Rex got stung by a bee at the splash pad in the morning, so slept through most of the playing but he loved him some second cousins when he woke up.

 Around 4, we headed off to Salt Lake to check out Temple Square and City Creek Mall.  Oh, and pick Greg up at the airport.

The kids thought the Conference Center was pretty cool.

 Rex was terrified of being on the roof and said he wouldn't go out there, but he did and he had a good time.

 We also visited the children's section at the Church History Museum (it was not as amazing as I thought it would be...it was a little small, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  They just stayed in one section anyway).

As for City Creek Mall--not my favorite.  I don't like big malls to begin with and then add the lack of stroller accessibility and I was annoyed by the time we left.  Though I did pick up some Kneaders on our way out.  Also delicious.

 Tuesday morning, Amber took the kids to the Rec Center again so Greg and I could...do more yard work!

 Tuesday night we headed to Bountiful for their 24th of July celebration (on the 23rd).  The kids loved the parade (read: they ate candy for dinner).

 Then we headed to the festival in the park and the kids got to pick one ride.  Alice loved it.  Rex cried.  For a while that is--we convinced him he was having fun.

We even stayed all the way until 10 for the fireworks, which also terrified Rex.  And then he got over it.  Alice, on the other hand, was just super tired and crazy.  But we got to spend some time with my aunt Deb so it was worth it.

 Wednesday morning, Rex really wanted to go mini golfing at the Angry Birds mini golf course that he'd seen every day driving to Provo (Trafalga in Orem--it has a giant Orem Owlz hat on the batting cage that Rex thought was an Angry Bird).  So we went with Grandpa Brian and Great-Grandpa Sune.

The night, Grandpa Brian watched the kids while Greg and I had an AMAZING dinner at the best restaurant ever--Communal.  The squash was like magic in my mouth.  It did go a little downhill when we ordered dessert and I forgot to ask/assumed the most amazing restaurant in the world would make their own cakes (You warned me, Lexy).  They did not.  And the cake was not tasty.  Seriously disappointed.  We should have sent it back and gone to the Chocolate.  You live and learn.  Oh, we also went to the Provo Gun Club for a few hours while Greg sited in his new gun--that was on his Provo to-do list.  Hick.

Thursday morning, after three failed attempts, Greg and I made finally it to the temple.  (Seriously though, you'd think we a temple every 10 minutes in Utah it'd be easy to go but noooooo.  First the Provo temple was closed for cleaning; then the Mt. Timpanogos Temple was closed on our date night because it was the 24th of July; then the Brigham City Temple takes reservations only and was booked a week in advance...it was a little silly).  After the temple, we changed, packed and headed to the Melvin and DeLouise Robins Reunion.  Stay tuned for part 2 of the best vacation ever.