The Mother of all Road Trips, Day 20

 

After our long and draining (hot) day at the zoo I decided we needed to have a day that was a little more laid back for Day 20. Besides, as our trip was winding down I wasn't really ready to knock myself out in the 'go, go, go' department. Melissa still had some work she needed to do this day, so I got the kids up and out of the house and ventured out to find the Denver temple. I figured we had visited lots of temples so far on our trip, we might as well stop at this one since it's definitely a temple we've never seen before. We got to the temple and I figured I'd let the kids at least stroll around the grounds. Not so. There was construction / re-vamping of much of the landscaping going on plus carpet cleaning vans out front--and the walking paths around the temple were taped off. It made it kind of difficult to get much in the way of pictures of the beautiful building. We tried. It was pretty hot outside (seriously--I never expected CO to be hotter than ID and UT, but it totally was!), so we didn't stay for very long. After making a stop at Wendy's for some lunch (which my kids deemed "a REALLY nice Wendy's!"--they're funny) and a quick stop at Target for sodas & candy we went to the little movie theater in Melissa's small town to see Up. Despite Sydney's soda exploding all over her just as I was saying, "DON'T open your drinks yet!!!" we LOVED the movie. Brooklyn officially flunked the test of whether she's ready to actually sit through a movie in the theater. Totally failed. She's nearly 3, so I was hoping for big improvements in her attention span but alas, I was dismayed. Much of the movie for Brookie was spent talking in a very audible voice, and later (totally embarassing) blowing fart noises on her arm and laughing loudly. I'm sure the few people in the theater were loving us. I finally got her to settle down and curl up in my lap. I LOVED the movie & the underlying message.

Afterwards we made another stop at the Target by Melissa's house (I must have been in withdrawl after nearly 3 weeks of being without some T-therapy...I needed 2 stops in 1 day). Oh. My. Heavens. That was THE BIGGEST Target store I have EVER in my life been in. The angels sang. Time stopped for a moment. It was glorious. And a good thing I had my 4 kids with me or I would have spent hours there. That pretty much sealed the deal for me and confirmed that I could live there. Melissa is working hard on me, and I'm on board with the idea--my life would be pretty awesome if she & I could be neighbors...if only. Anyway, I digress. We got a few treats for Drewbie to leave for him before we left town, and headed home. Dinner, showers, bed. And our final games of Scrabble. (Sniffle)

The Mother of all Road Trips, Day 19

 

Since we had descended on 2 hard-working Americans who still had to attend to their responsibilities during our visit, Monday morning we got up and out of the house so that Melissa could work her magic as the fabulous freelance graphic designer that she is. After weighing our options (as much as we could, being strangers to the area) we ventured out to spend the day at the Denver Zoo. It's been about 4 years since we've been to a zoo, so the munchkins were excited at the prospect of seeing monkeys throw poop at each other. 'Cause we're high class like that.

 

I have to say, I was impressed with the Denver Zoo! It was pretty HOT that day, but we were armed with lots of water and scoped out lots of shady spots for breaks (in fact it seemed like it took us FOREVER to get around the first fourth of the zoo!). We made our way through the different exhibits, and I was so glad I hadn't wasted my money on going to see a bunch of animals that were sleeping the days away. We saw lions up and about, monkeys swinging and climbing and jumping from nets to ropes to bars to trees, tigers moving around, bears playing together, elephants on the move, and--best of all-- the most entertaining gorilla exhibit we've ever seen. It was great. We watched the group of 6 or 7 gorillas for quite a while, and my kids were half hysterical, half totally grossed out by what they witnessed there. There was a massive big daddy alpha-male gorilla who pretty much owned the place. We watched him plop himself on a ledge with his back to us, go #2 (seriously, I mean, we SAW HIM GO--so disgusting), and then drop the goods to the ground WITH HIS HAND!!! No sooner had he dropped it to the ground, the smallest gorilla in the place bounded over to the doo, picked it up, inspected it, licked it, and proceeded to eat it. Yup. So gross. And a huge group of spectators (including us) continued to watch 'cause we can't avoid watching a train wreck. It. Was. Foul. Aren't we glad that we humans have evolved to hold much higher class habits than that? After that little display by the apes I think all the other exhibits were sub-par for my kids. We meandered our way through the rest of the zoo, only missing 1 small part when it was time for us to leave.

 

My kids were so hot and drained, I thought they would for sure be toast by the time we got home to Drewlissa's. Nope. They did not let us forget our promise of swimming after work that day. So we swam. I was so tired after the zoo, I was so glad to have Melissa with me to play with the kids in the pool. We let them run off their energy in the pool, make a million trips down the water slide, and went home. And that was it for Day 19. Dinner, baths, bed. (and Scrabble) Lots of great conversation.

 

The Mother of all Road Trips, Days 17 & 18

{Day 17}
Our first full day of Drewlissa-goodness started Saturday morning. Melissa went to volleyball for a little bit & Drew took us on a little walk to a neighborhood park to get out & about. Of course we walked (that's what you do in CO--you walk or ride bikes or rollerblade or pretty much anything active that doesn't involved using fuel). The nice little park experience I think was sort of a let-down for Drew since my city-snobs were not accustomed to a park with tons of sand in the play area. Seth & Brooklyn did not cope well with sand getting inside their Crocs. I tried to explain that that's the beauty of the park & Crocs--kick 'em off & play. But it was pretty warm, and after a few games of Red Light Green Light and Simon Says we were on our way back home. Along the walking trail Drew took us on, all the kids were trying to collect roly polies. Well, Seth did NOT deal well with his bugs continuing to drop to the ground. And it was hot. And his 'feet were not working'. And he was hot. And his nose was runny. And he 'couldn't get any air'. Blah, blah, blah. It was a glorious walk.

Melissa was home when we got back, so we ate lunch outside and headed out for a little tour of Boulder (5 minutes down the road) and a walk down Pearl Street in Boulder. Wow. It was awesome!!! I LOVED IT!!! Entertainment, street performers, and tons of shops I would have LOVED to go in (but will have to wait for another day when I come to visit Melissa solo). It was very entertaining, and I think the kids enjoyed it, although it could have been the dangling ice cream bribe waiting at the end of our outing. Sydney & Austin were ecstatic to see a Haagen Dazs store on Pearl Street, so that was the destined ice cream stop. For malts. Of course.
Talk about the highlight of their day. Kevin, we were missing you. A HD malt just isn't as good without you here to share it with. (okay, I'm totally lying--it was incredibly yummy... but we really did wish you were here to share with us!)

After we used up our parking time on Pearl Street we left for home and played in the backyard, had dinner, and put the kids to bed before busting out the....SCRABBLE! That is mine & Melissa's favorite late-night past time (the old ladies that we are), and Drew is nice enough to join us. I love it. He makes the games so much more fun!

 

I brought Melissa the green shirt she's wearing--a fitting tribute to our Drewbie & the naturalist that he is. I thought it was adorable.


{DAY 18}

 

We had big plans for this Sabbath Day. Remember a couple weeks ago when I said I could rationalize being in the magnificent beauty of God's nature was a spiritual experience? Well, it certainly was today, and that somehow ousted church from our schedule again. Oops. (See? I told you it's a good thing I don't live somewhere this pretty!) Austin was the first one awake, along with Melissa. I heard the two of them go outside, and snuck upstairs to see what was going on. I found Melissa & Austin sitting out in the backyard, each reading their own book in the glorious morning weather. WHAAAAT?! Okay, that NEVER would have flown as a good idea if it had come from moi. But this is Melissa, and pretty much anything she says is a great idea or is excited about, my kids say 'WORD' and follow along. It's pretty amazing. And I thought it was very sweet. After a big breakfast and Brooklyn getting her morning Bella-fix we took off for Rocky Mountain National Park to spend the day. Holy. Moly. Oly. Crapoly. That's all I can say. This was probably one of the singular most beautiful days of my life--It. Was. Amazing. And I'm not kidding about a spiritual experience--talk about being struck with a sincere appreciation for the beauty of what God has created. We first drove up a little ways to this huge piece of open space with this incredibly charming creek flowing through it--right through the middle of this gorgeous field. I swear, if I lived close to that I'd take my chair & a book, and just go sit there for hours next to the creek. Read a little, nap a little, read some more, nap some more. That would be better than laying on the beach for me. We hiked around a little bit before going over to park the van & catch the shuttle bus to go further up the mountain.

 

Brooklyn LOVES Bella would be a severe understatement.

We found a perfect picnic spot to eat lunch and let the kids run around for a bit. Brooklyn thought it was GREAT to pee in the outdoors behind a big rock. This was after I convinced her that girls pee behind rocks--boys pee on bushes or trees. She felt a little jipped on that one at first. Drew decided to take a breather after downing his delicious pb&j, but of course my kids just couldn't leave the poor boy alone!

 

After the picnic we boarded the bus to go further up the mountain to where they have incredible hiking trails and the scenery is to D-I-E for. We started on our little hike around Alpine Lake, and came upon....SNOW!!! Of course we couldn't resist trying to play in it which was perfect since my kids had just been complaining about it being hot. The snow was packed pretty hard so we realized it was much more effective to get each other with a 'spray' of snow from kicking it rather than trying to pick it up.

 

We continued on our hike around the lake, and through one of THE MOST beautiful scenic walks I've ever taken. For real. The pictures speak for themselves. Awesome doesn't even come close to describing the beauty. Astounding would be more like it.

 

Drew handled stroller duty for most of the day, and decided to take Brooklyn off-roading on the big rocks on the side of the trail.

On our way home I passed out pipe cleaners to the kids for entertainment during our hour-long drive. With Melissa in the backseat I KNEW they would be creative. Sho 'nuff, we ended up with several pairs of pipe cleaner glasses throughout the van. I didn't get a picture of Sydney's or Austin's, but they were pretty sweet too. By the time we got home, I was stoked to get the kids in bed by a decent time...so it didn't cut into Scrabble. SUCH a great day. LOVE it.

 

The Mother of all Road Trips, Days 13, 14, 15, 16

Just what you've all been waiting for...the return of the minute-by-minute, play-by-play documentary of our trip. Totally kidding. Serious. But in case you have been, here's the rundown of the last few days I haven't had time (or energy) to blog:

{Day 13}
We had to wait for the floor/carpet guys to come fix the flooring and take their stinkin' loud fan that had been drying out the floor for several days, so we had a pretty laid back morning. I did laundry and started packing up to leave our beloved Provo the next morning, and perused the www off and on. With the promise of swimming on the horizon, the kids were NOT very patient with us telling them AFTER the floor got fixed we would go. We were never so happy to see the men in the blue shirts come to fix the floor. Later in the afternoon we loaded everyone/everything up to go swimming at the Lehi Rec Center's indoor activity pool--holy cow! The kids were in HEAVEN. What an awesome pool!!! I LOVE that it's indoor and kids could swim in there year round if they wanted! And there's a lazy river too--my kiddos loved that. By the end of our few hours there most of the kids would race over when the bell rang signaling the giant bucket was about to dump, just to be doused with a humongous drenching of water from the giant bucket. Vegas' rec centers could take a note or two from Utah--none of our activity pools are that cool. We finished swimming and Sarah and I decided that after a 2-week break from Cafe Rio we could handle the withdrawl no more. We hit Cafe Rio right near the rec center, and dined on super yummy goodness. It was delish. My friend Angela had come up to Utah that day to stay with her parents for a few days, which happened to be not far from where we were eating, so we stopped to see Ang (and for Seth to see his BFF Zach--he was thrilled to see him after 3 weeks away from each other) and her family. Loved that. Her family is awesome! (Listen to me use the word awesome--I should live in Utah. They do say that a lot there) It was getting late, and Sarah and I knew we had a lot ahead of us back at the townhouse so we headed home. Sarah did laundry & organized all her 'stuff', and I packed, loaded my van (even changed my own wiper blades at 2:30am) & loaded Harry Potter onto the iPod for Austin to listen to in the car. Finally at 4:30am I couldn't do much more cleaning with sleeping kids so I crashed. Plus, I knew a loooooong day's driving was ahead of me. So I went to bed. I have no idea when Sarah finally gave up the ghost. I went to bed dreaming of wide open nothing-ness which is pretty much all we drove through the next day. So exciting.

 

{Day 14}
There is not much to report about Day 14--I would probably have to say it was probably one of my LEAST favorite days of the trip thus far. I woke bright & early at 7am to clean clean clean, pack pack pack, load load load, and drive drive drive. And drive drive drive some more. In reality, if I had wanted to even come close to our target time of leaving Provo at 8am I never should have gone to bed. As it was, I had crashed at 4:30am, but after sweating like a pig while vacuuming, scrubbing, cleaning, and hauling all of our CRAP out to the car to get it loaded for the billionth time we ended up getting on the road at...wait for it...are you ready?... 11 freakin' thirty!!!! That sucked. My kids all looked like rag-a-muffins, although I told myself that didn't matter since we were going to be driving forEVER that day. Except I realized later that I should have plopped my butt down and actually done hair that day like my sister did so they wouldn't look so orphaned in our state line pictures. Oh well. Sarah's kids left town with cute hair. Mine didn't.
We finally left Provo and headed for the most charming, scenic, BEAUTIFUL state ever: Colorado--and our first stop: the ADAMS FAMILY!!! Woot woot!!! I couldn't wait to see my amazing friend Chanel and her cute family in Castle Rock, CO. I gotta say, for being in the car for over 10 hours that day, my kids handled things considerably well. I thought I was gonna die when we got to Green River, Wyoming and stopped at McDonald's for lunch (I was afraid to go any further for fear we wouldn't pass another town for hours!). The nice employees in McD's showed me a map of just how much further we had to go before the CO turnoff and gave me very sympathetic eyes as they said, "Uhhhh, yeah. You got a long way to go." What the freak? I felt like I had been driving in WY for a long time and was still only in the bottom left corner! But we persevered, snagged a Redbox dvd at McD's before we left, and were on our way. Poor Chanel, when I had told her I was hoping to leave at 8am, she planned to have dinner ready for us. Yeah, we ended up reheating her yummy dinner at 9:30pm when we finally made our arrival. And it was SUPER yummy. It was SO GOOD to see Chanel and stay up late chatting--I loved it. Chanel & I are friends from high school, and as I drove to her house Wednesday night I couldn't help but think how NEVER in a million years would I have thought--13 years ago--that I would be driving to Colorado with my 4 kids to come visit Chanel (who married Ryan who we also went to hs with!) and her 3 kids. NEVER. It was kind of an odd full-circle moment for me. We were not super close friends in high school, and didn't keep in touch afterward either. But I definitely consider Chanel one of my biggest blessings that have come from blogging. We reconnected through blogs a couple of years ago, (which, sadly, was after she moved from Vegas) and I am so incredibly happy that we did. She is so inspiring and I LOVE HER. LOVE how sweet she is, LOVE her wit & sense of humor, LOVE how strong she is in the Gospel, LOVE how REAL she is. She was such a nice host to let us invade her house when she is in the middle of MOVING! My kids were so happy we were visiting someone who had kids too. Love you, Chanel. Getting to see you was a very sweet reward after such a long day of driving! :-)

 

{Day 15}
Okay. By Day 15 of a road trip I was in bad need of some time to chill and relax, I think. I know Chanel was feeling like she should entertain us, but seriously--I was so glad to just hang out & CHAT. We slept in, then the kids played played played, and LOVED on her little baby. Her daughter Julia & Sydney played great together, and Sydney found out what it would be like if she had a younger sister closer in age to her. And Brooklyn & Lauren looked like they could be two blonde little twins. While Chanel & I talked and talked, the kids played played played in her basement. We went to check on them and found that they had been making 'CLUBS'. The girls had created a pink club in 1 room, and the boys had created their own brown club (after being banished from the pink club, no doubt) in a different room. I thought they were so cute!!! The night before, I had bribed all 4 of my kids that if they would go straight to sleep and not get out of bed once I would let them each spend a dollar at the store the next day. (this is what you have to do when you have 4 kids sleeping together night after night--bribery works. and I'm usin' it.) By mid-afternoon I was questioning WHY on earth we live where we do when we could live somewhere as gorgeous as Castle Rock??? HELLO!? Talk about so beautimous, people. I am in love. And ready to move. Our big excursion of the day was a trip to Wal Mart (after getting the Michael Jackson news--how crazazy was that?!--and then we had to explain to our kids who he is, which really made us feel old) for well-earned treats & a few other odds & ends. Chanel made a super yummy dinner, and we bedded kids (with another bribe for who got to pick the movie in the car the next day for whoever fell asleep first), and then cozied on the couch to watch the MJ/FF Dateline special.

So there you have Day 15. Chanel, you may not think this was a glorious day, but I thought it rocked. It was awesome. Just the day I needed, and it was SOOOOOO GREAT to have time to visit with you. You. Are. Supermom. And I'm so sorry about Seth's millions of meltdowns--he was pretty out of control. Sorry you had to endure that.

 

{Day 16}
We decided to be a little bit more productive with our day, and took the kiddos swimming this morning. Chanel has such a great pool just down the street, and after lots of promises and begging we took the kids out and WALKED to the pool. 'Cause that's what people in CO do--they walk places! Odd, I know. But incredibly refreshing. I think it's awesome. My kids are trying to adjust. After swimming we went home for lunch, showers, packing, and a quick hair bow lesson. And more hugs & kisses for baby Baylor (sooooo scrumptious!!!). We said our goodbyes to the Adams Family, and hopped in the car (with major promises to the kids that it wouldn't be a super long car ride!). I left Chanel's house with a very thankful heart that Heavenly Father has blessed me to have people in my life as great as her. I always thought she was great in high school--truly, I did. SOOO nice. And now, she is extra super just as nice, PLUS all these other things--especially an amazing MOM!!! I learned a lot from her just in the short time we were there--so THANKS, Woman!!! Love ya.

My promise of a short car ride was totally honest, and we traveled just over an hour to Melissa & Drew's new house in Boulder. They moved back to CO about 6 months ago, and just bought their first home about a month ago. And what better way to christen it than by letting 4 crazy kids bombard it!!! I gotta say, this was pretty much the highlight of the trip for my kids--the dangling carrot--since we left Vegas. I think they didn't really know what to expect during the other legs of the trip, but they KNEW they were gonna have fun when we got to Melissa & Drew's house. Poor Brooklyn has been asking nearly every night if we were going to Melissa's house to see Bella (the cat) the next day. The day finally came, and we arrived at the Beckwith's abode just in time for dinner. After dinner we took a little walk around their neighborhood and a bunch of the open space surrounding their 'hood and the surrounding developments. How freakin' nice!!! So green. So pretty. So GREAT for the kids to be able to explore!!! Man, I swear... If it weren't for these two wonderful souls, I don't know if my kids would get nearly the outdoor adventures and experiences they do. In fact, I KNOW they wouldn't. They are so incredibly great with my kids, it makes my heart smile every single time we are with them. Not only are they patient saints with my monsters, they do such fun things with them and TEACH them about so many random things--I LOVE IT! (Drew taught Austin how to tell time on an analog roman numeral clock today, Melissa taught Sydney & Austin what compost is, & she let the kids help her plant her lettuce & basil in the backyard... yeah, they pretty much put the LAME-O MOM sticker smack on my forehead as soon as we come around them!)

We did sort of get eaten alive on our little walk, but that was okay. We came home to share a giant cookie, & head off to beddie bye... with the windows open & a glorious breeze blowing through--and stars we could actually see outside. I'm serious. I'm packin' up my house. Or maybe we will just stay until they kick us out.

 

The Mother of all Road Trips, Day 12

This update is a day late in getting posted due to my total and complete konking out when I was trying to get kids to bed last night. I was totally ripped when I woke this morning to realize I had crashed last night unintentionally, and done so without blogging. Ugh... hate that. So here's the 4-1-1 on yesterday's fun-filled day:

We started out bright and early at 10am (you know by now that that's early for us on this trip) with a HAPPY BIRTHDAY breakfast for my sister at The Creamery. After several days of begging from my kids to eat breakfast at the Creamery, we finally fulfilled the Provo dream for them and indulged in bagels and donuts (and strawberry milk for the kids--nasty!). I had cooked up little birthday surprises with the kids for them each to get Aunt Sarah (or Mom, as the case may be for 5 of the 9) a little b-day present to surprise her. I had given Kenzie the mission to "interview" her mom at the beginning of our trip so we would have an arsenal of things to choose from in her 'favorites' department. Sarah was surprised, or at least she acted like it, although I think the kids were more thrilled with what she was opening. Sarah obliged them in their excitedness and acted just as ecstatic--I mean, who wouldn't scream and shout over reese's pieces, cocoa puffs, coke, lipstick, pringles, twix, gum, a new notebook, and fab-o green earrings??? Oh yeah, and a new jean jacket from your sis. After that we headed up to Salt Lake to go to This Is The Place Heritage Park, which we determined last year after only getting to spend a couple of hours at, that we would DEFINITELY hit that again this summer. I'm not sure Sarah really wanted to spend her birthday that way, running interference with fighting kids and all, but she was an incredibly good sport about it all. I racked my brain to try and think of something to help make the day more special for her, and our plans to even hunt down a Cafe Rio for lunch didn't pan out (yeah, we're having withdrawls from that place...it's been 2 weeks--I think that's a record) either. Anyway, hopefully we'll get a chance to go out & really celebrate when we get home (or when I get home). I'm pretty sure by that time we'll be celebrating a kid-free meal just as much as we'll be celebrating Sarah's big day. I'm so glad my sis has come on this little adventure with us--and put up with my antagonistic kids, their whiny-ness, and their provoking of her own children--it's been so nice to have another adult to have grown-up conversation with. I love you, sis! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 25 never looked so good!

Sarah's brother-in-law Brandon met up with us at This Is The Place (which thrilled her kids since they LOVE Uncle Brandon--and so does Seth-he was hugging on Uncle Brandon just as much as the Barlow kidlets), and we set out on our day of pioneer adventures. Highlights included train rides, pony rides, the petting zoo where Brock just couldn't resist picking up the baby goats, each of the kids taking their turn standing inside the wooden coffin in the woodworker's shop, candy sticks from the general store, leather crafts, snacks, snacks, and more snacks. I don't know about the rest of the kids or Sarah, but I was pooped by the end of the day. A place like that made me realize that we would be totally stupid to take any of our kids to a place like Nauvoo before they are 12 years old. I would love to go back to This Is The Place with just Sydney--she LOVED it, and she and I could spend a few days there considering there was so much we didn't even get to yesterday in our 4 hours.

Perhaps my favorite part of the day was getting our picture taken in the "Old Time Photo" building where we all got to dress up in pioneer garb. As I mentioned before, we had Uncle Brandon with us, so we wrangled him into joining us so we didn't look like 2 widows with a large brood. Instead, we look like your typical polygamist family from back in the day, huh? Awesome. We explained to the kids that people usually did NOT smile in photos in those days. All of them got that down pat--except Brooklyn, who said, "cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese" through the whole picture-taking session. And seriously, I don't know how I am taller than Sarah in this picture--I kinda look giant. And don't you love my silver hoop earrings? They are so vintage.

After leaving This Is The Place Sarah and I parted ways and I took my kids to my dear friend Marie's house for a wonderful visit with her family. (We passed a really bad motorcycle/car accident on our way there just in time to see the EMTs getting to the motorcycle rider lying on the road--not moving...even with all the fun stuff we did today, I'm guessing that will be a major memory of the day) Marie was so so sweet to invite us over for dinner (which was SO DELISH) and FHE. It was wonderful to give my kids some semblance of a normal meal and family night. I'm hoping she'll forgive me for my kids being so shy. But a HUGE THANKS to her and her awesome husband Ky for letting us invade their adorable home. Dinner was so good, and it was SO NICE to catch up with them. And I'm so so mad at myself for not remembering to take a picture with Marie! Hate that. We had a wonderful time, though. Love ya, Marie! You are super-dee-dooper, and your family is too.

So there you have Day 12. We're winding down our stint in Provo before we move on to our next leg of the adventure...COLORADO, are you ready for us crazies???

The Mother of all Road Trips, Day 11

This is probably the most unconventional Father's Day I will ever spend with my kiddos. It's definitely not normal for us to be away from Dad on Father's Day, and I confess that I did feel bad this morning when all Kevin got from us was a phone call and nobody was there to pound him with hugs and kisses. Truthfully, I'm sure he was thrilled with being able to sleep in but we missed our Dad today, so a big fat HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the best dad we know, from your family on the road. We love you lots!!! I am awful, and seriously tried the whole rationalizing bit in my mind about "being in the beauty of nature that God has created, and that's just as good as church" but I just couldn't bring myself to go that far on Father's Day. Yes, we're having a non-traditional Father's Day this year, but I felt like I at LEAST should take the kids to church (despite the nagging vacation-draw to skip it)--besides, as great of a rationalizer as I am, I'd have a hard time explaining that one to the Man upstairs one day 'cause we ARE on vacation in a place where LDS churches are on every other street corner! So... we hooked up with our high school friend Heather and her adorable family for church in Payson, and she was so so sweet to invite us for lunch afterwards. And her husband Chris was even nicer for letting us crash his Father's Day. Our 9 chillen added to their 4 cuties totalled a whopping 13 little mouths to feed, and we had a great little visit with Heather & Chris.

After lunch we headed back to Provo and decided rather than couping the kids up for the next several hours of daylight and wasting the gorgeous warm weather, we would take them up to see the Provo temple which is only about 3 minutes from home. After snapping a few pictures (of course) we went across the street to the huge lawn (more grass...kids lovin' it) and let the kids run off some energy. Amidst Duck Duck Goose, soccer, and a handful of meltdowns from various offspring (only 5 this afternoon, I think?) we had a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Once we realized it was nearing 7:00 we headed home to fix the kids a Sunday dinner of pigs in a blanket, chips, & apples. Delish. I'm sure Kevin is super sad he missed out on that Father's Day meal. We then had all the kids make birthday cards for Uncle Mike's birthday to mail tomorrow ('cause we're behind, and his birthday is Tuesday, so he'll be getting the love a couple days late) before going into drill sergeant mode for bedtime.

This is how we medicate while on the road with 9 kids (well, Sarah's drug of choice would be Coke Zero). And this is yet another reason I LOVE UTAH!!! They sell Pibb Xtra in the can--in a 12-pack!!! I told you this was heaven. I may be loading down the van with this stuff before we head home.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Mike!!! Your nieces & nephews love you lots (even though Seth kept saying his card was for Uncle Dave and needed continuous correction...shout out, Dave!). We can't wait to see you in just 53 short days!!! Woot! Woot!

And that's Day 11. Peace out.

The Mother of al Road Trips, Day 10

Today was another pretty low-key day on our lil' "gallavanting about the country" adventure. After sleeping in this morning (which is totally noteworthy with 9 kids around) we took our time getting ready to leave the house. We loaded up the strollers with el youngsters and traipsed across the street to one of mine & Sarah's favorite places--the BYU campus. We took the kids bowling at the Wilkinson Center which was good times as always. We had big plans of letting them run wild on the grass outside in the middle of campus but the rain that occurred while we were bowling squelched that idea. It wasn't still raining, but the grass was soaked, so we moved on with our plans and headed over to The Creamery for ice cream and fries. The Creamery is a HUGE draw to Provo for my kids, and they BEG to walk over there for breakfast every morning we are in Provo. (I'm probably setting them up for major disappointment when/if they actually attend school here and realize BYU is about a little more than bowling and ice cream) While enjoying our ice cream the rain started again, and we ended up walking home with it sprinkling. I ran a couple of errands with Seth & Brooklyn this afternoon, and when we got home Sarah had cooked up fabulous bean & cheese burritos for everyone (aren't you jealous? we eat majorly gourmet food when we travel together). After that, I took 5 of the kids with me to take care of some top-secret-birthday-business for my sister, since Monday is her big day. I made a very important stop for the mommies at Red Mango on my way home and we set a record for getting kids to bed by 10pm all in the name of frozen yogurt.

As I was driving today around Provo, I started thinking of a few of the things I love about Utah. Here are a few of them:

Grass. Lots of it. It is almost comical what a novelty grass is for our kids. Give them a huge piece of grass, and they are thrilled--be it at a park, at the temple, on the side stretch of land next to Wal-Mart...they don't care. They love it.

Great places to eat that are nowhere to be found in Vegas. The Training Table, Kneader's, The BYU Creamery (seriously, is it too much to ask for them to become a franchise?!), Magleby's for the best chocolate cake you've ever EVER had, and I'm just gonna throw in cheese curds you can buy around Beaver 'cause I love 'em and you can't buy those in Vegas either.

I love that when my sister and I tote around 9 kids we are not looked at like a bizarre freak show. Well, maybe just a little bit, but I tell myself not really.

I love the plethora of craft stores. Okay, I pretty much love the whole shopping situation in Utah, period (although they could take a lesson or two from Vegas in the whole 24-hour department). Give me some good scrapbook stores, Roberts Crafts, the BYU Bookstore, Taipan Trading, Ikea, and a handful of other AWESOME stores, and I'm lovin' life. Las Vegas suffers big time in this area.

I love that nearly anywhere we drive on I-15 through the different cities we can see a temple of the Lord dotting the mountainside. It's awesome that I was able to take my kids inside one the other day. Thank you, Utah, for needing more and more temples so that my kids could get to go to an Open House.

I love the teaching opportunities it gives me and conversations that are started when we come here--whether it's about what it takes to be able to attend BYU, or about our pioneer heritage and what people went through to settle this region of the country, or explaining why we see so many missionaries down the street from campus crossing the street on their way to the temple, and the list goes on and on.

The smell. Everything here smells better than where we live. The cool air is glorious. The rain smells better. I know it's dumb, but it does smell better here. And maybe it's just that it reminds me of my childhood. I dunno.

The people watching. I won't go into detail here, but it's awesome.

And let's not forget that Utah is home to Swiss Days, and y'all know how I feel about that topic. I don't need to speak any further on the wonderful-ness of that.

That I can get out of a speeding ticket by telling the officer all exasperated-ly that we were late for the Temple Open House...tell me--just tell me, is there any other state where that would work??? Doubt it.

And since it's late and my thoughts probably wouldn't make much sense if I tried to list more (and believe me, I could think of more), here's my last one (as already mentioned earlier): The Creamery. Talk about good ice cream. And fries. And donuts. And brownies. And bagels. And rice krispy treats. (and yes, I had ice cream AND frozen yogurt today. I'm on vacation--don't judge me!)

P.S. I have to give a huge shout out to my sister-in-law Rachel who had her tiny baby twins today--I'm really bummed I can't snuggle them right now, but I'm so glad they are here and they are healthy. Not that you're reading this Rachel (who knows when you'll have time to read a blog again?!), but huge CONGRATS to you & Ben--I'm so happy for you both to finally have your babies here!

The Mother of all Road Trips, Day 9

What we did today: a whole lot of nothin'. Pretty much. In a nutshell, not my most favoritest day of our vacation so far.

We did get to sleep in today after our chaotic morning yesterday. Yesssss. That was awesome. We stayed in a good part of today and lounged around. Our initial plan had been to take a picnic lunch up into the canyon and eat & let the kids play. But we discovered a water leak/damage problem when we arrived here, so we waited for a water damage company to show up today to assess the damage & deal with that. That gave Sarah and me plenty of time to catch up on uber-important issues in the world via the internet. Our picnic plans got bumped to dinner--totally fine since it stays light outside in the summertime up here until like 9:30pm (LOVE THAT!). By this afternoon, it was very apparent that we needed to get the kids out of the house, so we packed our picnic & figured we would be on our way. Yeah....no. I went outside to leave & my van was totally dead. I won't tell you what I uttered under my breath at that point. While waiting for Sarah to come back for us & stressing about how I was ever going to get my van jumped since we were in covered parking that Sarah's tractor-beast was too tall for, I tried 1 more time to start the car. It very sluggishly turned over, and by some tender mercy (Yes, I am fully aware there was another force at work here) I got it started with a few pumps of the gas pedal. Again, the picnic plans were bumped for a trip to Wal-Mart, surely to buy a new battery. Ugh! I was more irritated since we had taken my van into Honda before I left town for them to do the major maintenance on it & the battery tested good. But of course, since we're on vacation, this would happen. And of course, the receipt for the batter we had in the van is at HOME in Las Vegas, so I wouldn't be able to utilize the warranty we still had on the battery. I schlepped the kids over to Wal-Mart, they ran the diagnostic on it, and sho 'nuff, we needed a new battery (more prayers of thanks that it wasn't something more serious like the alternator). We waited and waited, and just as they came in to tell me it was ready & it would be $75 for the new battery, Kevin called & said he found the receipt for the old one and gave me the receipt number so they could pull it up. Score. It was within the 3-yr warranty period, and we got out of there with a brand new battery, without paying a dime. More prayers of thanks. Finally we made it off on our picnic, although we opted for a much closer park just inside the canyon entrance. Still, the kids had fun & burned off some of that crazy energy that had built up all day, threw a few tantrums, and had fun with Aunt Sarah playing Red Light, Green Light with them & Simon Says. I found it horribly entertaining to watch the meltdowns ensue as the kids got 'out' or got 'sent back'. Then it was back home for ice cream, baths, & bed. Nothing too exciting today to report. Tomorrow will be much more fun.

The Mother of All Road Trips, Day 8

 

After staying up until 4am ('cause we're just dumb) Sarah & I were up bright and early this morning to be sure we had the troops all dressed in their Sunday best to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. I was so excited when I realized there was going to be an open house going on during the time we would be in Utah. Sarah and I made plans to go today, and at 4am we were cursing ourselves for picking the 10:30 time slot--which meant needing to get up by 7:15. Ugh. But we did it. And booked it out of here with just enough time to make it to the temple...that is...until I got pulled over for speeding!!! What?!!! Yes, I was on the phone with Sarah trying to discuss some important matter (because we ONLY discuss important matters while driving...funny thing is, there are a lot of crucial things to discuss while on the road!), and NO I did not realize the speed limit is only 30 next to the BYU stadium (which is why I was going 45!). I had no idea how fast I had been going, and figured I would take my chances at trying to explain to the guy that we're in a hurry to make a reservation, are from out of town, was trying to figure out where my sis was, & were just trying to get to the temple!!! He was so super nice and didn't even waste time asking for all my info, just told me to not get distracted on the phone, gave me a warning & sent us on our way as Sarah pulled up behind me. Whew. Chalk that one up to the blessings of going to the temple, huh (even though I was breaking the law getting there)? Between the 2 of us, our track record isn't great so far this trip. I SO did not want to have to explain that one to Kevin.

After getting to walk through the BEAUTIFUL temple we changed our clothes in the car, grabbed some lunch, and took off for the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in Salt Lake. I was a little hesitant since the children's museum in Las Vegas is marginal, and I wanted to make sure the price was worth it. And let me tell you, this museum beat the pants off of the Lied Museum in Vegas!!! It was awesome, and the kids totally L-O-V-E-D it. We stayed for 3.5 hours, hit Wal-Mart for groceries on our way home, and came home to crash and listen to the kids get extra squirrelly & fight. We are pooped. We didn't do a ton today, but it seemed like a super long day. Tomorrow will be low key and we WILL be sleeping in--none of this 10:30am reservation mess! We're hoping for zero rain and no speeding tickets!

The Mother of all Road Trips, Day 7

After staying up way too late last night updating blogs, catching up on FB, emails, and other business, we woke this morning and started packing our things to leave our beloved Idaho. Although we checked out of our lovely little motel (which we LOVE), we had a full day planned. Our first stop was here:

I have very vague memories of visiting Shoshone Falls when I was little--I do remember going there & having a picnic as a family, but that's about it. Since this is the perfect time of year to see the falls Sarah and I decided to go check 'em out with our kids. I don't really think it mattered much to them when we were trying to explain that these falls are even taller than Niagara Falls in Canada. They didn't care, since they have no idea what Niagara is. But still...they were impressed, despite the shrieks from being sprayed by all the mist coming off of the falls. As long as the sun was out there was a BEAUTIFUL rainbow right in front of the falls also. It was awesome.

We had a picnic lunch at the park there, and the boys tried rolling down a couple of the big hills there only to find random sticker patches in the grass. Talk about a bummer. What good is a grassy hill if you can't even roll down it??? Sarah and I both decided we would love to come back next summer while we're there and spend a lot more time--talk about serene!!! I loved it!

After Shoshone Falls we made a quick stop to show the kids the Twin Falls temple & snap a few pictures while they stretched their legs. That was cut short when Brooklyn had to go pee, and it was a serious emergency. After our potty break we headed back to Burley for another visit with Marsha. We pulled up to her house and Brooklyn wasn't very happy. She cried, "Nooooo, not this house! Marsha's other house!" She was hoping for the cabin. Yes, Brooklyn, me too. We chatted with Marsha while we waited for her daughter Megan to come over for us to see. Megan was our BFF while we lived in Burley 25 years ago, and she is expecting her 1st baby--we're so excited for her & it was SO FUN to just sit & chat & reminisce & giggle with those two. I swear, I love that family! I'm hoping maybe next summer we'll get to see more of them while we're there (yes, Brandon, that means you & your family too!).

We said our goodbyes to Megan & Marsha and (of course) enjoyed dinner at Taco Bandido before leaving town. We called our Uncle Larry to come join us for dinner, and I'm so glad he did. I'm pretty sure he was a little stupefied by the craziness of our 9 kids, but he was a good sport about it. While Sarah was up at the counter there was another guy in there that asked me if all of those kids were mine...Whaaaaat??? Do I LOOK old enough to have popped out NINE kids? Whatever, Dude. Now here's the thing I LOVE about Taco Bandido (other than the FOOD of course): We were only in Burley 2 days. Yesterday when we walked in during the lunch rush, we ran right into Ron & Carol--our next door neighbors & very good friends from when we lived in Burley 22 years ago:

Then today when we went there for dinner, of course we wouldn't be lucky enough to run into old friends two days in a row...WRONG-O!!! Sarah totally shocked me when she came around the corner with my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Wyatt. It was so so so GREAT to see her, and I was so mad at myself for not having my camera with me! Ugh! Bummer. But still... just one more thing I love about the Bandido. Even after being gone for 22 years we can still run into people we know.

After gorging ourselves on divine yummy-ness we finally hit the road and headed south to Provo. I figured we would probably hit some rain on our way here, but OH MAMA. I have NEVER EVER driven through such horrible rain in my life!!! I could not see the road as we were driving through downtown Salt Lake. Talk about SCARY. I had passed out glow necklaces to the kids when it started getting dark, thinking that would make it fun for them. Of course, just as we got into the massive downpour & I was SURE we were going to die before ever making it to Provo, Brooklyn decided to bite a hole in one of her glow sticks & get the glow crap in her mouth. Sydney freaked, then I had to freak out a little & explain that I was trying to not kill all of us in the stinkin' rain. Syd confiscated the broken glow stick, and later when the rain was not letting up & only getting worse I suggested maybe one of the kids should say a prayer that we make it to Provo safely (again). Sydney said, "I've already said 2." I thought that was pretty sweet, although this mom must not have been doing that great of a job at hiding my stress. :-) And now I think every single muscle in my body is sore because I was so tense & seriously white-knuckling it for an hour! Whew. It just made getting here that much sweeter. See ya tomorrow.