The trip as a whole

So, the Utah trip was great. We left Saturday morning about 10am or so, arrived around 3pm. The trip down was nice and uneventful, we stopped in Tremonton and had dinner at a McDonald's with a play area so the kids were able to stretch their legs as Suzy fed Brighton in the car.  Suzy read Fablehaven #5 to the kids on the way down (and back).  We drove directly to Little Cottonwood canyon to meet Papa Mustache. It was a good 10 degrees cooler (so only 95°).  We had a blast, the kids loved hiking around and playing in streams that ran throughout the campsite.  We roasted marshmallows, had hot dogs, hamburgers, steak and watermelon.  We left about 8:30pm to head back to the hotel.

The hotel check in was fine, despite the least well thought-out parking garage ever. It has 5 levels, but levels  3-5 don't have access to the hotel. You literally have to walk through the structure carrying a whole bunch of stuff until you get to the lower level. Then take the elevator back up.  I wasn't too happy. Luckily some kind of super old people convention was just getting over (okay, maybe it was some kind of concert at the tabernacle or something, but I think the average age of the attendees was 95). I drove the car down to a much friendlier spot.

Then came the sleep period. Or lack of sleep period, often known as night.  4 kids, in the same room.  Yes, it took a while, a long while for everyone to calm down enough to sleep. I think this is why people in the 1800s (including pioneers) worked their kids to exhaustion, cause they all lived in one room huts, or caves or something.

The next day was great, we saw Temple square, the kids loved it. Jace liked throwing money in the fountain (for some reason the kids all ask for quarters. We never throw quarters in the fountain, but they all clamor for quarters. We give them pennies. This will make paying allowance much easier I guess).  Kate liked the "Galaxy" room (see previous post for pictures).  We saw Tenielle (spelling?) and Papa Mustache. On the way back we stopped at Monique's place in Farmington. Unfortunately, Farmington has enacted a series of laws that restrict cell phones to one local carrier or something. I gathered this since my phone barely worked anywhere. Also, they have parks with no visible access. We tried to go to one, but apparently one of the "streets" (the only street leading to the park) has a parking lot in the middle of it.  Look up Woodlands Park in Farmington and you'll see what I mean.  Anyway, we finally got to see Monique and family.  It was fun, but then Faith started felling sick........... (these dots are portentous. Not pretentious though).

We started driving back. At one point, there were a bunch of cones on the side of the road. This is the point where Faith said "I think I'm going to go" (meaning go to the bathroom, diarrhea style) . Suzy let me know that if I didn't hurry up and find a spot to pull over, I would have to clean it up.  We had given her a bag to throw up in just in case. I didn't pull over immediately (my bad) but waiting until we were past the cones (a few hundred yards), but it was too late. She threw up. and diarrhead down.  I did clean it up, Suzy held up the towel while we cleaned up the poor sick girl.  The throw up was the worst. She had forgotten about the bag we gave her. She threw up a few more times on the way, but we made sure she had both hands on the bag.

Then we were home. And we got to sleep in our own beds again!
We had a great time, with lots of good and funny memories.

Temple Square

Little Cottonwood Canyon. And Throw-up

Road trips are always fun! Especially with 4 young ones.  We drove down to  Salt Lake City to see "Papa Mustache" (and stopped to see Temple square and Monique as well). Originally I had a business trip to Utah, but it got moved. We went anyway. We met Papa at a campsite in Little Cottonwood Canyon, it was beautiful as you will see. 

We be Bush Folk. Oh yeah. Sign us up as the next Duck Dynasty family. 

 Papa with Brighton

Sassy Posing at the "Rock Meadow" (So dubbed by the girls after a short climb found the location of lots of rocks, which are like flowers, but harder and less colorful). 

Jace, at the Rock Meadow

Kids Playing in a stream

Throwing Rocks in the water. Almost better than Movies, or the iPad. 

ps we stayed in a hotel. One room, 4 kids.

What do you do when it's potty time

You sing Gangnam style, apparently. Also, twinkle twinkle little star

Jace and the Balance Bike

Jace love's his little balance bike. I hear this helps when they graduate to a pedal bike.

Horsing around

We surprised Faith on her "half-birthday" with a horsey ride. Some friends in the ward have horses and were very nice to let us borrow them for a bit.  Faith was pretty excited, as was I since I love animals. So much. 

A very merry unbirthday

We celebrated Faith's half birthday. Mostly because we usually forget to celebrate her real birthday since it's 2 days after Christmas and on our anniversary.

Here are some things that spontaneously happened.

Things were decorated.

Lots of Girls made "Tie-died" Shirts 

Feelings were bruised (but not for very long) 

A bit of musical chairs 

A fun game where you have a balloon tied to your leg and people try to pop it. By people I mean girls under the age of 8.

Awesomely fun dress up relay races

The old fun "pick a penny out of a bunch of flour using your mouth" game. Kate went first. 

After they saw how much "fun" Kate had, others wanted to to try it. 

Cake? Who needs cake when you can have special Birthday Ice Cream Sundays.

Different from standard or norm

We've started a tradition where we all say something nice about the person who's turn it is to say the family prayer. Jace has only said 2 things. "I like that [Insert name here] Plays with me" or "[Insert name here] is nice".  This has gone on for a month or so.  Until last night. When Jace finally said something original and of his own making! It was Suzy's turn to pray, and what did he say?
"I like that she is weird and crazy".

Also, here is Trogdor. Also weird and crazy.
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html

Slip n Slide

Who doesn't love a good slip n slide! Although, I think they were longer when I was a kid. Also, if you ever go back to your grade school, you'll be surprised by how much it has shrunk. 

Comedy Sportz

We went to Comedy Sportz at the beginning of June. Kate and Faith were selected to help out with one of the impromptu acts. They were to tell each cast member that stepped forward that there is an _____ In my soup (the blank is whatever the audience shouted out). They took a few tries to catch on, and they always seemed to not notice one poor fellow, but they had a great time with it.

A normal conversation with Jace.

Here's Jace. The Intellectual. 

Singapore Trip

If you recall, I had a Singapore trip in March of this year. I had to go again at the beginning of June.  This time though, we were able to hold a "team building" exercise! We went Golfing. It was pretty fun. Apparently they have a rule that you have to wear golf shoes. I didn't have any. The stated reason for the rule is "so it doesn't mark up the green" (your regular shoes). This rule obviously makes no sense since golf shoes with their cleats will mark up the green more than tennis shoes (which I had). Singaporeans are nothing if not rule abiding though, so I was forced to were their golf shoes. Which were 2 sizes too small.  You can see below that I had to wear them as if they were slip-ons. When I was up, I would kick off my shoes to hit.  

 I thought this was a funny sign - apparently most folks don't look too hard for their lost golf balls out here...

This was a Korean BBQ place. They're pretty popular in Singapore. They cook the food at your station over a bed of hot coals they place under the grill. The vent can be lifted or dropped depending on need. They drop it while cooking to vent away the smoke. 

Here's me enjoying some authentic Korean BBQ with chop sticks. I used a fork most of the time since I'm woefully bad with chopsticks.