Utah trip 2011 part 2

The month has just gotten away from me and I'm finally doing the 2nd part of our Utah trip.  I have a couple of other new things to blog about also but those will be for a different post.

So on the day we left to come home from Utah we managed to go several places:  The Pie Pizzeria, The Planetarium, and the Church History Museum.  Of course this time we had the kids and took them to see the kid stuff.

Here's our first stop at the underground Pie Pizzeria restaurant.

They have the biggest pizza we've ever seen!

 Looks like they were enjoying their pizza.

 My brother Stillman and his wife Michelle (and kids) joined us for this outing.  Afterward they headed to take their stuff to the condo while we did our own thing.

At this restaurant the walls are covered with signatures of people who have eaten there so of course the kids wanted to sign their names.

Even Garrett scribbled something.  Not sure if he actually wrote his name or not.

 Now we're at the planetarium.  We just knew when we came in June that we'd have to bring the kids here.

And of course they loved it!

 Now it was their turn to walk on the moon!

 And Nikki on Mars.

3...2...1...Blast off!  To infinity and beyond Garrett!

They had some cool gadgets for sale.  This ball was for show.  It's the kind that expands and retracts by pulling or pushing.

 Riding the trax over to see the church museum now.  The kids loved riding on the "train".

See the excitement on Garrett's face as he looks out the window at everything.

 Their favorite part of the regular museum stuff was the wagon and the ship replicas.

 Sitting below deck in one of the bunks.

And there's the ship....Now time to go up a level and see the fun kids stuff!

 This picture didn't load in the order I wanted it to but it's a rubber fish from Nephi's boat.  Jack just loved it and carried it around for awhile.

 Inside Nephi's boat.

 Going fishing.

Nikki's going to make sure they make it to the Promised Land!

 Now time for a little cultural dancing!  And notice he still has the fish?

 They had this screen they were looking at and would do what the person on the screen was doing to dance.  So fun!

Garrett wasn't really sure what to do so he just watched.

 Riding in a truck full of stuffed animals and puppets.

That bird is going to make them crash!  hehe

 Time for some tortilla tossing into a bucket!  Don't worry, they weren't real tortillas.

And of course they had to have a replica of the gold plates for the kids to see and even feel how heavy they were.  I couldn't even lift it!  Joseph Smith had to be one STRONG man!!

And last but not least we had to take them to see the Angel Moroni statue.  They loved everything but now it was time to go on home to Idaho.  It was a great weekend!

Utah trip 2011 part 1

On August 6th my sweet cousin Alivia was married and sealed for Eternity in the Bountiful, UT Temple.  We were fortunately able to attend and it was a trip worth taking.  Friday the 5th they started with a "Preception" where we dressed casually and basically had a BBQ party at the park.  I even played a couple rounds of tennis with my brother Stillman.  Neither of us had played in years but it was so fun!  We'll be playing again soon  ;)  Then Saturday was the sealing in the late afternoon, which I was thankful for because I needed extra sleep from staying up late the night before playing a video game on the Kinect all about dancing.  That was at my other brother Derek's house where we were staying.  I loved playing that game!  Anyway, I caught a picture of the happy couple after coming out of the temple.

 Cory and Alivia sealed for Eternity!

After the ceremony all the family and friends met at Chuck A Rama's for dinner which we were pleasantly surprised to find out it was being paid for by the groom's family.  We were this close to going to Carl's Jr. or just paying for ourselves at Chuck A Rama's because we didn't know anyone was paying for us.  It was a good thing I knew what Cory's last name was because they asked if we were part of their party.  No way am I going to pass up a free meal, lol.

Sunday we attended church with my brother and family, along with my other brother, sister and their families.  The women in Relief Society thought my sister and I were twins because we both said where we were from at the same time.  We are 5 years apart in age and I'm the youngest.  Funny enough this is not the first time we've been mistaken to be twins!  So funny!  

After a couple hours of relaxing after church we headed out to visit my mom, grandma, aunts, and cousins.  They too were kind enough to provide dinner for us.  It was a nice relaxing time of eating, talking, and playing yard games.  And the kids had fun throwing rocks in the creek.  Here are some pictures:

My 90 year old grandmother, my son Jack, and me watching everyone play.

First they played a couple of tossing games.  One they have to lasso the blue, yellow, or red bar with a rope that has a ball on each end.  I can't remember the name of it.  The other was a washer toss game in boxes.

My sister doing the lasso game.

My niece Katelynn playing around with the bean bag toss game.

Me trying out the washer toss game.

Now time for a little croquet.

The cousins playing in the gravel by the playset.

The kids had fun riding around on the trikes.

Family picture of all that were there that evening out of my brothers and sisters and our kids with my mom in the center.  It was a good time!

More pictures to come soon for the rest of our trip!

Pioneer Day Celebration

Last weekend we celebrated Pioneer Day at the stake center and we combined with another ward.  It turned out to be lots of fun!

 We started with a parade for the kids where they could ride their bike, pull a wagon, or walk.  Those who rode bikes and wagons decorated them.  Then we walked around a couple times in a designated area in the parking lot while everyone else stood on the sidelines and cheered for them.

 After the parade was a dinner of sloppy Joe's, hotdogs, salads, and chips.  Then some of the kids wasted no time in running around the baseball field and kicking up lots of dirt!

Now time for some kid games.  How about a little tug of war!  Go Nikki and Garrett!  I think their team won that time.  This was one of Garrett's favorite games.

Next was a relay game where they fill a cup with water from one bucket and run it down to the other bucket.  First team to reach the line on the bucket wins!  The boys loved this game!

I don't remember what these are called but each of the kids made this spinning toy and Curtis is trying to get it to work.  Those toys aren't easy!

Then there was the clothes pin drop where you have to stand on a chair and try to drop clothes pins into the jar on the grass.  Jack is trying the nose technique that he saw one of the dad's doing, LOL.  It was too funny to watch!

He gave up on the nose technique and went right to the ground.  So much easier this way!

After the kids games the youth started playing volleyball and then the adults played a game of softball, one ward versus the other.  Curtis even got in on it starting out as catcher but then later moving to the outfield, trying to avoid running because of his knees.  But it was fun to watch him play and I wish I would have gotten out there and played too.  I was too chicken to ask to play though, LOL.  I haven't played since I was a Beehive!  This activity turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought.  So glad we went!