Utah Trip Extravaganza 2017!

When typing up the fun things we did at Grandma and Grandpa P's house this summer in Utah I think the easier question to answer would be, "What didn't we do?" We used every second we had to visit dear friends, play with amazing cousins, explore local attractions and wilderness, spend time with fun aunts, uncles and grandparents, work on Grandma's basement renovations, and take care of an adorable dwarf flop ear bunny we named FuzzBert. It was a summer to always remember.

We kicked off our trip by traveling to Utah via Tuscan, AZ to visit our dear friends, the Lee Family. While there we played, swam in their totally cool backyard pool, ate lots of yummy food, caught up on old times, and attended the last day of the Tuscan, AZ LDS Temple Open House. It was so neat to see how beautiful the new Temple was and talk to the kids about the special blessings and promises we get when we worthily go to the Temple. What a gift they are from God to His people.

Check out our first Arizona cactus sigting! Super cool!

Tuscan Temple Open House Family and Friends

It was sad to leave our friends, but move on we must to Mesa, AZ (near Phoenix) to visit with our amazing Aunt Jenny and Uncle Nathan for a few days. The kids LOVED Aunt Jenny's now famous Garlic and Parmesan Cheese Rolls, declared the turtle, Mad Madigan, and the cat, Orin, the coolest of pets, and wondered in awe at the sheer amount of fun video games Uncle Nathan had in his personal home collection. We even had fun going to a unique pizzeria called Organ Stop Pizza where we ate yummy pizza, spent time with the always popular Uncle L. Grey and Aunt Joanne, Cousin Sundee and her hubby, and listened to the amazing organ playing. It was the original organ from the Denver Theater, from Denver, Colorado and use to entertain Great Grandma and Granddad Young during their time as a young married couple living in Colorado.

From Aunt Jenny's in Mesa, AZ we drove the rest of the way to Morgan, Utah, with a few stops along the way, including the Hoover Dam and Zion's National Park. Our favorite stop was probably Zion's National Park. We couldn't spend much time there as we had a long drive ahead of us, but we did drive the scenic highway and get out and hike around a little. It was so beautiful there. We also had the excitement of two flat tires and a ride in a surprisingly roomy tow truck into Ceder City along the way. It added lots of excitementm, memories, and unfortunately time to our trip to Grandma's.

Hoover Dam!


Zion's Park fun

Flat Tire #2!

Inside a Tow Truck! Super Exciting!

There's the family van on the back of the tow truck

Once we finally got to Morgan we were greeted by warm and smiling grandparents and cousins ready to play. We ate and then released the anxious kids into Grandma's magical backyard to run and play and jump until they could hardly move anymore. At last at the end of a long day, we tucked them into a big pile of blankets, camping pads, sleeping bags, and pillows in the cool, dark basement to giggle and talk until they all finally drifted off into contented sleep.

Thus followed the basic setup for most days at Grandma and Grandpa P's. There was never a shortage of cousins to play with or nature to explore. Grandma even convinced her very kind friend to lend us one of their adorable dwarf lop eared bunnies to care for and love for a week. Upon arrival, the lucky bunny was named FuzzBird (changed to FuzzBert) by Maeve. It was a most appropriate name for such a cute little bunny. The kids spent hours feeding him lettuce and carrots from Grandma's garden, drawing portraits of the cute little fuzzy guy, singing him soft songs about nature and the stars, and hopping after him around the backyard. He was a joy and so hard to leave at Grandma's.

We also filled our time with lots and lots of fun day trips. When Aunt Jenny and Uncle Nathan joined us for some family fun in Morgan we partied hard. We all met at the Riverdale Drive-In movie theater to watch the funny "Despicable Me 3" and hang out with lots of great cousins in the backs of well stocked pick-up trucks.

We even had a spa day at Aunt Liz's house where we all got fancy hair cuts, Rebekah highlighted her hair teal, and Liz treated us to beautiful pedicures!

On the 4th of July we had fun catching candy thrown in the Morgan parade, playing with cousins, and eating a great BBQ lunch. We topped off our 4th of July festivities with a reader's theater written by Aunt Jenny about one of our pioneer ancestors and having an epic water balloon fight. After all that fun Aunt Jenny, Grandpa P, and Uncle Brandon pulled out lots of fun fireworks to light and enjoy in the big circle. We were a very good audience and ohhed and ahhed at all the right places and Loyd even got to light a few under the supervision of his cool Uncle Brandon. Maeve kept telling Aunt Karen, "This is some great day, huh!" Who knew that all a little girl needed for the perfect day was popcycles, hot dogs, water balloons, and fireworks? :)

During our visit we also had a grand adventure to visit the Mrs. Cavenaugh's Chocolate Factory and Temple Square. We started our day trip with Owen throwing up in a spectacular fashion in Weber Canyon without a single spare change of clothes in the car. After we cleaned him up and stripped him naked expect for his stylish diaper we arrived at the factory. We convinced the people there to sell us one of their employee t-shirts for him to wear through the tour. He was quite stylish in his special t-shirt. :) We learned a lot about chocolate and enjoyed plenty of tasty sample.

From the chocolate factory we went on to buy Owen some clean clothes at a nearby Ross Dress-for-Less and ride the UTA TRAX trains to Salt Lake City and Temple Square. After a 3 hour long train trek, crying toddlers, getting directions from the helpful homeless of Salt Lake and making more train transfers than was necessary, we finally made it to the beautiful Salt Lake Temple grounds. We ate a much needed and delicious late lunch at the Lion's House and quickly toured the temple grounds and visitor's centers. Tired and cranky, but now well fed, we made a much easier trip home on the UTA trains. If memorable was what we were going for with this crazy day trip to Salt Lake then memorable is what we got, but I'm not going to say how memorable.

Can I just say about the picture of the kids with the Christus, the family that took their picture just before us posed like professionals for a magazine shoot and took some beautiful pictures in under a minute. Our crazy crew wiggled and giggled and squirmed for over 5 minutes and this is the best we could do. Such is my life. ;)

While we were in Utah we also helped Grandma and Grandpa P put their basement back together after they had a sub-pump installed. Dustin and Nathan worked tirelessly to put their wall boards back up and move their storage room furniture back into place. All the little grandkids had fun restocking Grandpa's food storage shelves with cans of soup, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Grandpa had a few outdoor projects he needed help with that the kids were happy to pitch in and do for him. Grandpa had an abundance of little helpers at his beck and call. Grandpa was in supervisor heaven.

Loyd working hard

Supervising Uncle Nathan

Now, don't think that was the end to our action packed visit. We took a couple of trips to the Morgan City Park Splash Pad to play in the water and visit with old friends from high school. It was fun to see how everyone's families are growing and growing up, and hear about the fun adventures everyone is having in motherhood and life. Yea for time with Laura, Cami, Ann and Trinity. :)

We got to go to the SeaQuest Aquarium in Layton, Utah with my sweet friend Jill and her two boys. Loyd couldn't get enough time at the stingray pond. He spent a whole hour with his arm up to the shoulder in water touching and exploring the curious and friendly stingrays. Owen discovered that sitting in a room with over a hundred parakeets is not as much fun as you would think it would be. It was so sweet to see Jill. She is a friend forever that became a friend during a special time in our lives when we were all young and new at mothering and found support and love and joy in our group of friends here in League City. I still miss them all now that they have all moved away.

We drove up to Provo and Mapleton to spend the day with Uncle Royal and Aunt Loretta and their amazing children. We talked and played and made a huge Lego mess and enjoyed every minute with them. It is always so hard to tell them goodbye. It was a treasured time in my life when we lived close to one another in Utah County. We had fun together and helped each other (mostly they took pity on their college bound sister and helped me). It always feels like home when we are with them. After our visit with them we took the kids to the Bean Museum on BYU campus. It is a cool museum filled with taxidermy animals and insects from all over the world. We dubbed it the "dead animal zoo." It was quite exciting to see the animals up close and know they couldn't bite you back.

We also took a trip to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. We learned all about the Great Salt Lake, the difference between oolitic sand and regular sand (oolitic sand is round like marbles and regular sand is jagged), ate a quick picnic lunch under the watchful eye of the local seagull family, played with my dear friends Kelsy and Adam Hinton and their great kids, squished our toes in the stinky, salty brine that is the Salt Lake, went on a fruitless, but fun wild buffalo search across the island, and learned how to skip rocks. Loyd and Xavier both got their rocks to skip twice across the water. Time is never enough when I am with Kelsy. All worries drop away and it as if no time at all has passed between us whenever we get back together. She is my kindred spirit and friend of the eternities. How grateful I am for the time we have together despite separations of time and distance.

Aunt Karen also finished her amazing playhouse in time for the cousins to play and pretend in it. It is so cute! I want one too!

We also got to visit Cousin Anthony and Becca at their new mink farm. We all got to learn about how Anthony raises his mink each year, how he houses them in his special mink sheds, what they eat, how he feeds them, and how many times a day they get fed and watered. Anthony even took a baby mink out and let the kids feel its soft and silky coat that will be harvested around Christmas time. Getting to ride on the feed tracker with Anthony and checking out all the cool farm equipment was a highlight for all the little boys.

Not to be outdone, Uncle Thomas took us all out to dinner at the yummy Tagarts. It was fun to see the peacocks strutting around outside our window as we ate. He also took the boys for a special shopping trip to buy them boss watches that will earn them respect from all who behold their awesomeness, and a visit to his storage shed where he keeps his big digger truck to let all the little boys take a spin around the parking lot, testing out the controls for themselves. Aunt Liz knew she had stiff competition with Aunt Jenny's turtle and cat so she managed to scare up a snake in her backyard that caused all sorts of afternoon excitement. Aunt Liz and Uncle Thomas contended hard for most favored uncle and aunt.

We also found time to visit Grand Great Ruth Cornelius, spend some time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa C. in real life, and wrestle with Uncle Jason and Uncle Jared. It was so fun to see so much family and spend time with them all. Uncle Jason and Uncle Jared showed off their sweet apartment club house complete with swimming pools, giant TVs, game tables, and a video gaming room! Oh how fun!

It was a busy and fun trip. It went too quickly and no one was ready to come back to Texas, but back home we came. After three long days in the car, on the Nasa Rd 1 bypass, 10 minutes from our house, Owen announced, "I'm ready to go back to Grandma's now." Poor kid, it's going to be a while yet before we head back for more summertime fun. Every morning I am greeting by him with a request to go play in Grandma's garden, or to go jump on her trampoline. There are few places as sweet and as magical as Grandma's house. We are so thankful we got to go and spend a wonderful summer with Grandma and Grandpa and all the rest of the family this year. What a blessing and treasure they are in our lives.