Utah Trip: SLC and Home Again

Monday morning was our scheduled day to go to Salt Lake City to visit the Planetarium, Temple Square and the Conference Center. Colby had the day off, so he came with Cindy and his boys to join us. We parked under the Conference Center and then walked over to the Trax station to ride over to the Planetarium. The kids were excited to ride the Trax because it's like a combination of a bus and a train. They also loved that they could stand up while it moved as long as they held on to something. 

I think all of the kids enjoyed the Planetarium. Jack was actually the most anxious to go. He's been there once before in 2018 when we came to conference with the 3 oldest kids. He had forgotten what all was in there but he knew it would be good. We spent a couple of hours there. Colby discovered our 2nd cousin Trent Haverfield, who was working as the Sheriff on duty there at the Planetarium. Colby and I did not recognize him but he recognized us. He said you guys definitely look like Nortons. Trent is the one that asked to talk to Colby and find out about him. I think Colby was a little nervous at first because the sheriff wanted to talk to him, ha ha. It was cool that he knew we were Nortons.

Bought some bouncy balls and watched them orbit. They used black lights so the balls would glow.

Walking on Mars.

Playing with this two story contraption that has to do with Newton's Law of Motion I think.

Playing some space games.

Green screen for weather reporting on different planets.

There's our two favorite reporters.

Blasting off to space in the play area.

Trying to walk through the tornado cloud without breaking it up. They weren't very successful.

The nice thing is that the Planetarium is free of charge. You only pay if you want to watch a movie or to buy food or souvenirs. After we finished up there, we walked next door to the Mall where Lehi got some pizza from Pizza Hut (inside the movie theater) and the rest of us got some food across the way at Buster's. I ordered Parmesan Chicken and alfredo and it was really good. It was getting late in the afternoon and we needed to hurry over to Temple Square and the conference center before Colby and Cindy had to take off to go pick up their cat from the vet. They managed to see Temple Square with us but then we had to do the conference center tour on our own. It was the first time our girls had seen any of these things in Salt Lake. They were really tired and groaned about being tired while we walked over after getting off the Trax, but I think they enjoyed everything.

Up close view of the Salt Lake Temple construction/renovation.

The smaller Tabernacle. We did not go inside this one.

Inside the bigger Tabernacle.

Over to the conference center and waiting for our tour to begin. The water fountains were not on because the church agreed with the city to try to conserve water during the drought a few years ago. 

Had to get a picture by this beautiful painting of Jesus walking on the water.

It was a big painting.

Inside the auditorium. It looks like they were moving things and getting ready for something.

They had a smaller Christus statue in the conference center than the one in the visitors center on Temple Square. I'm glad I was able to get some family pictures on our tour thanks to the sister missionaries that gave us our tour.

Looking at the model of the Salt Lake Temple and what it looks like inside.

Standing on the other side.

I'm so happy we got to go on the roof! It's been many years since I've been up there. The Salt Lake Temple is behind us. We almost didn't get to because it was really windy that day but we got there at just the right time. It was still windy but died down enough to go up. It picked up again while we were up there and so it got cut short but I was still happy we were able to go up and see what we did.

After our tour we headed back to Colby's house where we just hung out the rest of the night. Cindy and Colby made us some German pancakes for dinner. Then we watched a movie called "Dungeons and Dragons". The next morning we all slowly got up and took our time packing up and loading the van.  We decided that we wanted to break up our drive a little and use our Get Out Pass some more so we stopped in Layton to play a game of bowling and then in Ogden to have an hour of jump time. All of us did everything. I'm definitely not as young as I used to be. The trampoline place sometimes gave me a head ache and sometimes one bounce was all I needed and then had to run to the bathroom, ha ha. I think I liked bowling better but they were both fun. It wasn't until we got to the bowling place that we thought to see if my friend Monica could come hang out with us but it would have been too late so we didn't try.  Maybe next time! I would have loved to see her new house in Bountiful too.

Saying good bye to Elowin.

Got a picture of our whole crew before Tamara and Chris left on Sunday. I had to get this off of Curtis's phone since that's the one we used.

Bowling in Layton.

Thank goodness for the bumpers or we all would have suffered humiliating scores 😂 I guess some of us older people are a little out of practice.

Getting ready to jump at the trampoline park.

When we finished at the trampoline place, we got some lunch at Costco and then hit the road for Nampa. Another quick short visit with my in-laws. They had to be to the temple in the morning for their shift so they left when most of us were still in bed Wednesday morning. The boys and I had stayed up late to watch another movie called "Last Action Hero". It's an older one with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I had to take Garrett to an orthodontist appointment at 11:15 the next morning so we cooked up some eggs and bacon and toast for breakfast. Then did a little vacuuming and washed dishes before we packed up and left. Jack actually walked to his friend Porter's house to hang out until we picked him AND Porter up after Garrett's appointment. We had made plans already to bring Porter back with us to our house so he and Jack could spend some time together. 

It was a great trip and I'm glad we did it and what a great kick off to our summer, especially for the kids!

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.

Utah Trip: Springville and Lagoon

School ended on the 14th and we wasted no time in taking off for a family vacation. On the very same day we packed up and drove to Nampa to stay the night with my in-laws before driving down to Springville the next day. Curtis and I listened to the 7th Harry Potter book while the kids watched movies or played video games. If there was ever a time when the girls weren't busy with tv or games, because they were not interested in the movie or waiting their turn for the games, they would constantly ask "how much longer?" or "how many more minutes?". Thank goodness for technology sometimes when it can keep them distracted! When we stopped in Twin Falls for a potty break at a gas station we happened to see my sister, Tamara, and her family there also! It was not planned and we weren't traveling together since they were hauling a camper and staying at the Lagoon campground. However, we were planning on seeing them the next day at Lagoon.

The last day of school and she brought home her Kindergarten diploma and "Kit Kat Award" for always giving your teacher a break.

Quick picture of her cute class stick figure shirt she wore on the last day of school before packing up and heading to Utah. Each student drew a stick figure of themselves and wrote their name. Then they ordered shirts for everyone.

We arrived to my aunt and uncle's house, where my mom also lives, in the afternoon, earlier than they thought we would get there. Curtis decided to help Uncle Gilbert hang up his new basketball hoop and the boys played a game after. Then Curtis picked up some Panda Express for our dinner and we played a game called Skyjo. I was familiar with this game already because my cousin Alivia introduced it to us last Christmas and it is very similar to our Golf card game. Later, we all went outside and played some PIG. Mom sat on the porch and watched us.

Curtis and Gilbert hanging up the backboard.

Time to play!

The girls also enjoyed the playset.

If you couldn't tell, the boys are posing for me. Ha ha

We decided we better not stay up too late that night since we needed to wake up early for going to Lagoon. It's about an hour drive from Springville. For once, we actually left right when I wanted to leave, 8:30am. Lagoon opens at 10am but we needed some time to pick up some sandwiches and ice for our cooler and to get better parking by getting there before it officially opened. I bought the Get Out Pass for Utah that includes one day at Lagoon. It was my first time using this pass so I was nervous that we would get there and it wouldn't work. Fortunately, it went very smoothly. I just pulled it up on my phone and marked who was using it and then it gave codes for them to scan at the gate. Easy peasy! We weren't sure how long we were going to stay at Lagoon but we ended up spending the entire day there. My mom followed us and watched for most of the rides but did ride on the train. She was worn out halfway through the day and so after we ate lunch, she was able to go rest in Tamara's camper. It was such a blessing to have that option.

Colby and Cindy didn't show up until close to noon because they had to take their cat to the vet but we did finally catch up with them. Part of the day our family would do our own thing and then sometimes we would find Tamara's and Colby's families and meet up with them. It was fun to be there with them. Some of us adults are finding that we just can't handle the rides like we used to. Queasiness and headaches came with some of those rides. But everyone had a good time.

Getting ready to ride the big swings.

The girls and I took a train ride with my Mom.

And Tamara, Anna and Corbin.

Saw some animals while on the train so it was like riding through a zoo.

Sister picture!

High in the air on the ferris wheel.

Our family fit in one cart but it was a tight squeeze. We did not do any spinning unless it was very slow to change the view.

Flying aces ride. This one was named "Curtiss Falcon". Had to get a picture with it.

In line to do flying aces (2nd time for my girls) with Colby's family and Chris and Tony.

Me and my boys.

They loved that they both had their own steering wheel.

The kids seem to have so much more fun when riding with their cousins.

Even Jack rode with Tony and Corbin.

Tea cup ride.

The last ride of the night, the carousel. Alice wanted to ride this all day. She got a cat to ride on.

Charlotte was super excited to get on this golden retriever dog. She's currently trying to talk us into getting a real one.

Lagoon closed at 10pm and so we were all pretty tired by the end of the day and got back after 11pm. We were looking forward to sleeping in the next day!