After spending a weekend playing for the Symphony in the Park, then going straight to Girl's Camp for 5 days, we turned around and left the very next morning for Salt Lake. Our usual hotel was not available for the first two nights, so we dropped Andrew, Joey, and Grace off at my sister's house, and headed to Layton to stay at a different hotel. It was kind of sketchy, but Famous Dave's was right next door (yay for Dad!), and it was still a hotel room with two big beds (yay for Matthew).
Matt was so excited, and acted very weird the first night. He was jumping from bed to bed without reservation (as usual), but still managed to fall asleep, sharing a bed with Haley.
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The next morning, we went to Lagoon. It was packed, and it was 102* outside. We had to split up for a lot of the day, so that the little kids could go on their rides (which Matt loved - even the roller coasters, of course -- he laughed the whole ride and wanted to do them over and over again). Another favorite was the bumper cars. Haley, Andrew, and I loved Colossus, and Haley, Grandma and I went on Wicked (which was awesome). Lagoona Beach would have been really fun if there were half the people there, but it was at capacity, and full of drunk smokers with lots of tatoos. But we still got cooled off a bit, and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
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The next day, our family went off on our own to downtown Salt Lake. It was the 4th of July, and it was dead down there. We almost had the Children's Museum all to ourselves, which was a welcome changed from the last time we went. Matt loved the vacuum ball room, mostly because he used the bins as "garbage cans" and moved those little balls all over the place. He kept trying to get back there the whole time. We were there for about 2 1/2 hours.
Looking cool, as usual.
Umm, I don't think your butt goes there.
It was time to move on to the next room, so Matt tried to be invisible on the floor. But I found him.
Matt had the most wonderful time playing in this room.
Wow! It's windy in here!
Haley and Grace organized the whole shopping center, and Grace was a great check-out lady! Haley was busy checking-out the cute guy who worked there.
The construction center was right up Joey's alley. In no time at all, he had a full crew of complete strangers listening to his every command, and had constructed all of the houses, plus a few extra projects.
Haley and Grace enjoyed the little house. There were a lot of domestic things to be done in there.
Grace took a little break on the front swing.
Daddy couldn't help but play right along with the kids all day. He's really weird sometimes, but so much fun!
It didn't take Andrew long to scale this wall.
Matthew was in organization bin heaven. I thought he might float all the way up tot he ceiling, he was so happy!
Daddy turned around, and Matt had climbed up onto this horse. Andrew joined him, just to be safe.
I think I'm seeing a future in construcion for Joey. He was serious about leading his crew of "dudes" to a successful completion of this project.
Then, it was time for the water area!
Andrew humored Matt and helped him organize the kitchen area, and take food back to the store with the shopping cart.
Andrew constructed his own tower.
We look like the Beverly Hillbillies in this one.
Dad being weird again.
This cartoon drawing area was one of the kids' favorites. They could have stayed there all day.
Haley didn't do any cartoons, but she tatooed herself.
Joey loved the sound room. He made sound effects to a bunch of different stories. Dad loved to play there, too.
Then, they all made a really weird movie.
Here's Joey constructing again. This time on a magnetic wall.
And, at last, the helicopter. The kids loved puttering around with the controls, and especially loved being the air traffic controllers, just like grandpa!
I don't know why she thought she had to get so close, but it was really cute.
Right after the museum, we went to Temple Square, where we met up with a Sister that used to be in our Ward. It was fun to see here again. Joey rounded a corner, and she said that she thought, "Hey, I know that kid!" She took us to see their brand new movie about forever families. The kids were pretty tired during our walk around the Square. They were sure ready for dinner and fireworks afterwards!
We went up to one of the visitor's centers, and this Christus is there. We took a break on the sofa, and I pointed to the statue and asked Matt who it was. He said, "My friend." What a perfect answer from a three-year-old!
We had to give some piggy-back rides on our way back to the car. Everybody was really tired by then!
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After dinner at Winger's, we enjoyed our own private showing of fireworks right in the front yard. It's not illegal there, so Haley decided that we'd come down to Utah every year, where the laws are much more reasonable. We thought it was funny that both Ben and Andy were wearing the same thing. They lit off the fireworks for us, and we all joked that they were hired because they looked like they were in uniform. We enjoyed some ice cream sandwiches, and laughed at Zach and Matt, who were unable to sit still for very long.
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On our last full day, we enjoyed a rainy day at the Roy City pool, which is awesome -- especially when there's not very many people there! Then we went to Burger Bar, which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. It was pretty good. Then we took the older kids to the Air Force Museum. We had a great time looking at all the old planes, and some new ones, too. The Flying Fortress is always the favorite, especially because Grandpa Jerry's dad was in one during WWII, and the kids think that's really cool.
This was the biggest helicoper I've ever seen.
I'm not sure if Joey's mimicking the shark, or pretending he's afraid of it. Either way, it's funny.
They had a real pilot's seat for the kids to try out.
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After the museum, Ben had to go into Salt Lake for a meeting, so the kids and I sacked out at the hotel. They all huddled up to watch a Disney movie, and I packed to get ready for the ride home the next day.
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There was some good scenery, as usual, through the park and the Gallatin pass. The wildflowers were in bloom, and there were some pretty cool looking clouds in the sky. We saw a bear, too, but we see those all the time, so we didn't stop to take a picture.
