Utah Trip- PART 4

One of the highlights of our trip was staying with my Aunt Susie and Uncle Craig.  They are always so generous to open their home to us, and I love spending time with them.  My kids love their endless supply of toys too!

On Sunday, after Erin and my parent’s left, we decided to spend the morning at the Salt Lake Temple.  Olivia had never seen it in person, and she was so excited to go.  It really is stunningly beautiful!

We talked to lots of  missionaries too.  The spirit there is unmistakable.  A sweet pair of sister missionaries walked up and said hello to us and I just burst into tears!!  We all just started laughing!

The Church History Museum across the street has a really cute, free kids’ exhibit that Olivia loved.  She got to sail on Nephi’s ship, and de-code the brass plates, etc.

 

After the temple, we got to have dinner with two of my most dear friends in the world….Annie and Diana!  We all lived in the dorms together our freshman year of college and instantaneously became friends.  I have missed them so much, and it was SO great to be able to catch up and meet their cute kids.  It had been close to 4 years since I had seen either of them!!!

It’s amazing to see how much our families have grown!

I love this one of our kids: Max, Olivia, Madeline, Elijah, Oliver

It’s a miracle we got the picture above, because Maddie was usually trying to grab at the babies like this:

Olivia thought she had died and gone to heaven—Annie and Diana were so nice to let her hold their tiny babies.  She was, after all, the “old” child of this group. :)

Isn’t little Ollie’s expression so adorable?!  He has the BIGGEST eyes!

 

We missed seeing Dan who was in NYC, but Grant had a great time catching up with Talon.

Can you believe Oliver and Max are only a few weeks apart!?  I could just squeeze Max’s cute rolls!!

Talon and Annie—Thank you so much for hosting us and for a wonderful dinner!  We love you!

---

We left Susie’s house bright and early Monday morning so we could squeeze in a few more activities before flying out.  First, we stopped at the Quilted Bear so I could stock up on some new headbands for the girls (aside from etsy, Q.B. is the bow Mecca!)  Then, we ate an early lunch at JDawgz in Provo.  Oh, how we missed this place!  It brought back so many memories of Grant and I dating and meeting there for lunch in between classes.  I couldn’t believe that they have an actual restaurant now, and not just an outdoor shack!

It was as fabulous as I remembered!

And since we heard we couldn’t leave Provo without a Cocoa Bean cupcake, we stopped off and shared one of their A-MAZ-ING ultimate brownie cupcakes and a iced mint frappe.  By far, one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever eaten in my life (and I am picky!).

We quickly raced up the canyon so we could try the Alpine Slides in Park City one last time before catching our plane.  Unfortunately, just as we arrived, it started raining AGAIN!  Only this time, it was a downpour.  Maddie had fallen asleep in the car, but we were determined to take Olivia on a ride before we left, so the two of us braved the rain while Grant stayed with a sleeping Maddie.  Thankfully, the Alpine Coaster was still running (no slide or zip line though) , despite the rain, so we hopped aboard and had a great time.  Then, we ran to the car and Grant took Olivia on a second ride.  Was it worth the 3 extra hours of driving?!?!  TOTALLY!

Speaking of driving, our kids were troopers while we carted them ALL OVER THE STATE OF UTAH.  We seriously drove hundreds of miles during our 9 day trip.  Thank goodness for CD and DVD players.  I think every one of us had memorized the “Little Rascals” movie and our new “Popcorn Bopping” CD  by the time we got home.

And holy cow, can I just say that we were all SO sick of eating by the end of our trip?  As soon as we returned, we started an ALL fruit and veggie diet, which was so wonderful.  Haha!  You only live once, right?!?  It was well worth it!