Part 2

Me and my cheesecake on my birthday

Since the drive was such a large part of our trip (nearly 1/3 of the time we were gone) and such a long post, it was part 1.

Now onto part 2.

Part 2 was the few days we spent in Utah just our family.  We like to get in a few days before the rest of the family to allow our kids time to adjust to the time change, recover from the odd sleeping habits of driving for four days, and to do a few things that the rest of the family may or may not want to do.

Monday, we did the dinosaur museum in Vernal.

My grandparents dog-sat my aunt's dog for a few days while we were there.  Henry was in LOVE.  All he wanted to do was play fetch.  Too bad Henry can't really throw a ball yet.

Tuesday, we went to Salt Lake.  My kids love Salt Lake, especially the temple.  It's their favorite.  This year we decided to ride the FrontRunner train from American Fork to Salt Lake.  Alice put this on our bucket list.  And check this out: FrontRunner has a 4 people/$10 all day deal and babies (Henry) are free.  I saw lots of groups of four adolescents on the train.  Good job FrontRunner.

Alice on the train.

Those mountains--triple heart eyes.

A rare moment of not fighting on the train

Family photo at the JSMB

Their favorite temple.  Just after this, we got kicked off the stairs by a wedding.  So many weddings.

Once we arrived, we ate at the Nauvoo house (delicious) and did a tour of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (Hotel Utah).  Did you know that they hold church meetings there?  Mostly just senior missionary couples, but still, two wards meet in that building.  It's so beautiful.  Then we did a lap around the temple.  Then Henry went crazy for a nap so Greg took him for a walk while the older two and I sat in the last few minutes of an organ concert in the Tabernacle.  With Henry asleep, Greg stayed with him and wrote a few emails (the hazards of running your own business) while the big kids and I checked out the visitor center.  Then we rode the train back to American Fork.

Rex discovered Grandma's Super Nintendo and Alice and Henry didn't leave the closet under the stairs.  And I didn't care.  It's vacation for all of us.

Wednesday Greg said he wanted to try something different--something that we hadn't done before.  I spent Tuesday night looking for something new and discovered a hot pot (hot spring) on the north end of Utah Lake in Saratoga Springs.  The "Utah Lake" part should have been a give away.  It was a trash hole.  A hot trash hole.  I got in because, dang it, we drove all the way out there then walked the quarter mile to the hot pot we were going to have fun.  I put Henry in but he just screamed and then Alice held her feet next to her ears.  It was pretty hot.  After about 10 minutes, we decided to just go to the Provo Rec Center.  Rex went down slide after slide and then surprised Greg and me by jumping off the high dive without any prodding from us.  We just looked up and there he was about to jump.  Of course, Greg and I had to do it.  Rex had to prode me quite a bit before I finally jumped--I really hate falling.

We again finished the night with Super Nintendo and toys in the closet.  Greg took my grandpa and sister's finance (now husband) shooting that night and Hannah came down to hang out for a while.

Thursday, we headed to Provo again.  We went to the BYU Palentology Museum, which Greg had never been to before.  Rex and I used to go every few weeks when we lived in Provo.  Rex and Greg did the nerdy thing and read every card to every dinosaur.  Alice, Henry and I took pictures and compared our sizes to dinosaurs'.  For such a small museum, we had a really good time.  Then we went to the BYU Museum of Art, most of which was closed for renovations.  We got to see two exhibits, which was plenty for us.  I wanted to show the kids what a real art museum looks like after we made our own this summer.  We finished the day with ice from the Creamery on Ninth and a brief walk around campus.

Finally, more Super Nintendo and toys in the closet when we got back to American Fork.  My parents arrived with Jess and Korey (my sister-in-law and neice) past bedtime.

So ended part 2 of our month-long vacation.

Alice really loved drinking the milk out of her cereal with Grandma's straw bowls.

BYU Palentology Museum--this is why dinosaurs are bigger than people--Alice

Alice got the Pink Sparkle ice cream--as suggested by the server--all little girls like the Pink Sparkle she said.

Rex got a double scoop.  He still owes me $2 for not finishing it.

All my favorite things in one picture.

I went on a long, dry beautiful run all over American Fork.  It was glorious.

Oh look, it's the boys playing Super Nintendo.