Utah Trip: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday morning we slept in and took our time getting out and about. It's good to slow down after a busy day. We knew that we were going to go to Splash Summit some time that day but weren't sure when. Splash Summit is a water park comparable to Roaring Springs in Meridian and it was part of our Get Out Pass. My uncle suggested that we could go up the canyon behind Springville to Jolly's Ranch, where we used to have Hansen reunions to visit the park, so that's what we did. We took mom with us and she watched while the girls played on the playground and Curtis, Jack and I tossed frisbees. Garrett decided to watch also. After a little while, we walked down to the creek nearby where the girls found green caterpillars everywhere and Curtis and Jack tossed rocks into the creek. It was cooler down there and nice.

The girls were already in swim suits because they knew we were going swimming at the water park later. Alice wore her clothes on top of her suit.

Mom watched from above and held the frisbees for us.

After our outing to the park we went to Arby's for lunch where we got our food to go and took it back to the house to eat. It was nice to be able to do another smaller outing with mom because she did not come to the water park with us. As it was, we only stayed at the water park for about 2 1/2-3 hours because it just wasn't as fun as Roaring Springs AND they wanted us to pay extra to be able to use tubes, but we decided not to. Their wave pool made much smaller waves. I did like that a section of their river was decorated like a rain forest. The one slide I went down that didn't need a tube I kept getting stuck on it. I did recently buy a new swim suit that covers more of me so it's like wearing shorts and a t-shirt so that's probably why I got stuck. I only tried it once. 

We had talked about the possibility of going to a comedy show in Provo that is family friendly but decided we would rather just relax at the house again after we finished at the water park. Curtis helped uncle Gilbert build a flower box for Aunt Karen. Then there was more playing of basketball, trikes, swing set, four square and Skyjo before we went to bed.

Church wasn't until noon so we were able to sleep in a little again but it was also Father's Day and so Karen was up early fixing breakfast. My cousin Beth came to help even though she was hobbling around on an injured foot. The previous evening she had stepped on a rusty nail twice while taking pictures for some friends. Fortunately, someone from their ward had crutches that she could borrow. Karen cooked the bacon and I cooked the pancakes and the girls helped wash some berries. Some of the pancakes were blueberry pancakes. It was pretty low key since we were out of town and we were already planning on getting Curtis a smoker for his Father's Day gift after we got back from our trip. We did however get my whole family and mom to play Skyjo in the morning before church and that was fun. The girls are getting the hang of it, even Alice. After playing a couple of rounds and getting ready we all walked to church, since it was right next door. Our family came for Sacrament and then left afterwards. My kids really don't like going to class with other wards that aren't ours where they don't know anyone. I wouldn't have minded though. Mom walked back with us so she could unlock the door to the house. We ate lunch, packed up our stuff and then headed to my brother Colby's house.

I was able to get a Father's Day picture with the kids and Curtis after we came home from church. For the record, Curtis said he was squatting in this picture on purpose to help his boys look taller than him. I don't know why. It doesn't make sense to me. 

On our way to Colby's house our van did something weird where it seemed to be stuck in a low gear. We were about 20 minutes away when we pulled over to see if we could figure it out. Curtis tried turning the van off and then back on. After trying to look up videos on Youtube to help us we still couldn't quite figure it out. We were able to get to Colby's house and then he and Colby went to the auto parts store to get it tested. It came back saying there was some little microchip or something that needed updating or placing I think, something that had to be done in a dealership. Well, on the way back the van started driving normal again and hasn't done it since, so we're not sure what happened. I do know that our van tends to have some things not work for a little bit and then eventually they work again, like our sliding door. So who knows.

Tamara and Chris were at Colby's when we got there. They stayed to visit for a little while and eat some lunch before hitting the road back home. Charlotte and Alice had fun getting to know Elowin, their golden retriever dog who is 1 year old. The boys sat around for a little while and then finally got a videogame turned on to play together. We normally don't do videogames on Sunday but sometimes we make exceptions if we're visiting cousins' houses. Colby and Cindy made a nice dinner of roast and veggies and watermelon. Then she baked up some snickerdoodle cookies and they were delicious! They are Colby's favorite so she made them for Father's Day. Some of us played a couple of card games. One is called Racko and then we played Skyjo again because Aunt Karen gave us her extra set so we have our own now.

Playing with Elowin.

The boys having fun.

The girls took her on shorts walks.

Charlotte even asked to brush her fur and Elowin loved it. They said she usually isn't that good when she gets brushed but she was really good for Charlotte. Maybe she just had the right touch.