Utah Trip/Fourth of July

Once again we had a great trip to Utah! We always love going back and visiting so many people we love, eating the good food and reminiscing about the good ol' days when we lived there!

Since the drive is so long with the kids we like to stop and spend a night in Vegas. Here is Jamisen and Jeff in front of the Mirage. One of our favorite things to do is watch the fountains at the Bellagio.  Jamisen is always playing with water at home so we joke that when he grows up he will be the water engineer for Bellagio.

 We stayed at the Parisian and had a lot of fun swimming in the pool next to the "Eiffel Tower"

 

 Another place we always have to stop is St. George.  Jeff and I are convinced they have some of the greatest deals at their small strip of outlets so we always stock up.  We've also added getting a swig cookie and dirty Dr. Pepper to the list of "must do's".  This year we decided to explore Snow Canyon as well. The red rock is so beautiful!

 

After we finally made it to Provo one of the first things we did was check out the newly renovated Bean museum.  It has been closed the past couple of years we've visited and we knew our boys would love it so much.  We met up with my old roommates Cassi and Melanie and their families for dinner at Los Hermanos in downtown Provo and then went to the museum.  Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! We were so impressed with how nice it was and how life-like the animal displays were.  To top it all off it's FREE! Nothing gets us more excited than to hear that! I wish we could go more than once a year!

The food chain at it's finest...maybe a little too life-like?!

That display behind us is amazing! The big butterfly is a mosaic made out of tons of little butterflies.

Of course Jamisen needed a picture in front of this big BUG!

 

We had so much fun staying at my cousin's condo at Zermatt with Luke and Cassi.  Cassi has been on bed rest and not able to go anywhere for her pregnancy so we thought it would be fun for them to stay with us in Midway for a "mini vacation".  We stayed up way too late laughing and talking and playing games.  Here is a picture Jamisen took of us after we played one of Jeff's favorites...the drawing game (not sure if it has a fancy title, but that's what we call it). We never cease to have a ton of fun when we are with these awesome friends! I only wish we lived closer so we could hang out more often. 

Jamisen and Lenna hit it off and were total buddies. This is a picture of them singing "Love is an Open Door" from Frozen.  I need to find the video and upload it because it was pretty darn cute!

Jackson and Lenna laying on the grass at a park in Midway.  This picture is oozing with cuteness!

 

 It's a tradition every year to get together with my old Freshman year roommates from Heritage Halls. This year we met at Liberty park in Salt Lake City. It was so great that everyone except Krystal could make it.  The picture above is all of the mommies with our kids.  Kind of crazy that between all of us there are 15 kids! How did this happen?! I remember our freshman year of college like it was yesterday!

These girls are some of my greatest friends. Time really flies but I'm so grateful that our friendship has lasted through the years and distance between us.

 After the park we stopped at Temple Square.  We are already planning an arranged marriage between Cassi's girls and my boys so this picture will be perfect one day in their wedding video! ;)

 Families can be together forever.  I love this little family of mine!

This picture Jeff took of the temple is so stunning.  I love how the sun is behind the temple and it is "glowing". 

Another Utah tradition (are you seeing a theme here?) is to visit Sundance where Jeff worked during college and then I worked there when we were first married.  The mountains are so green and gorgeous during the summer, you feel like you are in the Alps.  Here I am trying to channel some inner zen and be one with nature while my crazy boys attack!

Some of our Sundance favorites are the raspberry lemonade and ginormous cookies in the deli.

Our budding photographer Jamisen took this picture. He loves to take the camera around like daddy and get lots of pictures.

In spite of all of our Utah traditions, we found a little time to try something new and spent the day at Lagoon theme park in northern Utah.  I had never been and Jeff hadn't been in years and wanted to try the new roller coasters.  My brother Ryan and his family were in Utah at the same time along with some friends from Fresno, the Behunins, so we all met up at Lagoon.  I had a lot of fun taking the kids around the kid section while Jeff and the men got to ride the bigger roller coasters. 

 Jamisen and Kaitlyn

 This little guy kept wanting to go on all of the rides Jamisen went on.  When we finally found some he was big enough to go on he decided he didn't like them.  He was TERRIFIED to go on the kiddie boats with Jamisen.  He may have his mother's fear of rides....more on that later ;)

 This ride was so much fun but we got soaked on it (which actually felt great but wasn't so good for my hair!)  Jeff, being the kind husband that he is, told me I should go on it because he has been a lot and he would sit it out with Jackson.  He "forgot" to mention that there comes a turn where you go right under a waterfall and there is no avoiding getting drenched.  Thanks honey!

 Pulling out some old baseball moves to win us 2 inflatable bats!

 On the train

We must have gone on the carousel at least 10 times. A classic but a goodie!

 

Now I have to take a moment to toot my horn and say how proud I am that I went on these two awful, terrifying roller coasters.  Leading up to our trip Jeff kept begging me to please go on one ride with him and I told him I would think about it.  He decided it should be the Rocket (pictured on the left) and I figured although it went really high I think it's better than doing lots of upside down loops.  It proved to be absolutely terrifying as we slowly rose 200 feet into the air and were then blasted downward at 4.5 g's (faster than falling). When the ride reached the bottom it was then blasted upward about halfway and then brought you to the bottom. The moment when you lose your stomach and it's in your throat is awful! After I went on this ride I was super proud of myself and thought we could put the whole discussion of me going on roller coasters away for the day.  Little did I know...remember the old saying, if you give a mouse a cookie? Yeah well that's what happened to me.  For the rest of the day Jeff and the other guys with us kept peer pressuring me into doing another one...Wicked in particular. I guess I'm weak because at the end of the day I finally gave in and said ok.  Jeff told me there were no loops because I hate going upside down. Ryan volunteered to stay with Jackson because he said, "I've already done it so you should have a turn." As we stood in line I was of course so nervous and kept thinking I'm going to be sick.  Meanwhile, the ride completely shut down for about 15 minutes.  Just enough time for me to chicken out and decide I didn't want to do it.  Just as I was leaving I told Jeff, "see this is a sign I shouldn't do it" and right then the ride started back up and everyone in line around us said, "It's a sign! You need to do it!" They started chanting my name and once again I was pressured into staying!  At this point I told myself it may be the scariest minute of my life and I may want to die but then it will be all over and I can say I did it.  So I got on and buckled up.  We started in a dark tunnel with a siren and a loud boom and next thing I knew we were shooting straight up the 110 ft vertical launch hill at 40 MPH, cresting, and then descending vertically down the other side of the tower at 55 MPH.  I have never been so scared! I really can't remember most of the details of the ride because I think I "blacked out" from fear. I know we twisted a bunch and went upside down.  I also remember yelling at Jeff a lot! Thankfully, I survived and now I can say I did it and I never want to do it again! Jeff said I earned some street cred for going on it because it is a legitimately scary one.  Even my brother Ryan afterwards said, "yeah that ride really freaks me out, that's why I stayed and watched Jackson!" Good to know everyone's true feelings AFTER I went! ;)

We stayed at Parker and Kayleigh's condo for 2 nights.  It was fun being with them and Kayleigh made us the best breakfast each morning.  We were able to meet Parker during his lunch break one day to go to Bruges Waffles and Frites in downtown Salt Lake.  They have delicious Belgium food.

Check out the "Machine Gun":

Did I mention Parker and Kayleigh live within walking distance of Swig? Seriously dangerous!

 

No Utah trip would be complete with a visit to Payson Lakes to do some fishing.  It's so sweet to see Jeff fishing with his boys and Jamisen really loves it.

 Uncle Steve and Aunt Jo's family came along as well

 Proudly showing off his catch of the day

 The boys were totally in their element with lots of rocks, sticks and mud to play with!

Jamisen and his cousin Courtney building a log raft

Random story...while we were up there a reporter from the Daily Herald came by to talk to us and said he was doing a story about people escaping the heat.  We talked for a while and he took some photos.  One of the photos being Jamisen showing off his fish and others were of the group (as seen above).  We all decided that of course they would use the picture of Jamisen with his fish because what else says "summertime" like a little boy fishing at the lake? Boy were we wrong! The next day we laughed so hard when we picked up the Daily Herald and to our amazement saw this picture on the front cover of the local section.  You can't help but notice our nephew McKay's abs front and center in the photo! We said, well we know what sells in this college town! We had a good laugh telling McKay his abs beat out our cute son fishing. We later saw that Jamisen made it in the online version of the paper :)

Happy Fourth of July!  Enjoying the Provo Freedom Parade. It's always a million degrees hot, and crammed with a lot of people but I love it so much. 

 After the parade we got breakfast with Jo's family at Magleby's.  All you can eat French Toast with their homemade syrup? Yes please!

 Later that night we had a BBQ at Steve and Jen's house and then went to the Stadium of Fire where Carrie Underwood was the main performer.  It was a perfect night filled with great music, an amazing firework show and deep patriotism.  You can't help but leaving the stadium feeling truly blessed to be American and live in this great country. 

Walking home after the show we decided to stop at Rita's for a gelati (a new discovery that mixes custard with shaved ice and is so good). This is around midnight and I can't believe our kids were still up or that we even allowed that to happen! I guess we didn't want the fun to end!

 

Before saying goodbye to Utah we had to do one more run through some of my favorite treats...Dirty Dr. Pepper, swig sugar cookie and a huge Hawaiian shaved ice. You could say we were sufficiently sugared up for the long drive home!

 We went the Northern route home and stopped at the Salt Flats for a quick car break.  Jamisen was asleep by that point but Jackson got to explore it.

 How do you entertain a toddler in the car for 12 hours? Give them a sheet a stickers and let them go hog wild!

We were able to stay the night at our friend's the Pierson's house outside of Elko.  They used to live in Fresno and Jamisen and their daughter are the same age. It was fun to see them and so nice of them to let us crash for the night!

 

We had such a great trip.  Of course we packed way too much in and ran a mile a minute trying to see everything, do everything and eat everything we love! I seriously think we need a month up there to get our fix! Until Next Year!