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.