Utah 2014

We started off our summer of fun by heading to Utah to see my family for a couple of weeks. We had a great time, as always, visiting friends and family. It's so nice to have a few extra hands to play with the kids!

If you want to be the most popular kids at the Portland Airport, make sure to get some Voodoo Doughnuts to share with your out-of-state friends and family.

The first day we were in Utah we met my sister-in-law and her kids at Kangaroo Zoo, a place with tons of blow-up slides and bounce houses. My kids adore places like this :) True to form, Lily is drawn to the tallest slides and insists on going up the stairs and down the slide all by herself. She is pretty adventurous! Tommy is always coming up with new tricks to do as he goes up and down the slides, too.

Lily and Jet going down a small slide together.

Tommy running a bit of interference for Lily so she can get up the stairs without being knocked down by bigger kids. He's a bit showy about it :)

One of the highlights of our trip was the sleepover we did with my brother's kids, Jarom and Makayla. We played at Jungle Jim's Playland for a couple of hours. The girls enjoyed doing the rides. I was actually shocked that Lily LOVED the roller coaster. She didn't look like she was having very much fun while she was on it, but when she got off she begged to go on the "go faster" again. She is an adventurous little girl who always wants to go faster and higher. The boys were less adrenaline junkies and preferred to play games and earn tickets. At the end they had hundreds of tickets, enough to buy two air guitars and some candy for the girls. After our adventure at Jungle Jim's we went to a horrible all-you-can-eat pizza buffet that the kids loved. They mostly ate the dessert pizzas, which are my favorite, too :)
We had a sleepover and watched the Lego Movie. I think the kids were up until past 10:00, but all four of them eventually settled down and slept through the night (miracle!). Did I mention that it snowed the first day we arrived in Utah? In June? It was pretty amazing.

The next morning we got up and decided to hike Donut Falls. Since we don't have many real mountains close to Portland I really love to take advantage of how accessible the mountains are when we visit Salt Lake. A short drive gets you into the heart of the Rockies with opportunities to do easy hikes, harder backpack trips, and everything in between. Donut Falls is a pretty easy hike until you get to the very end. The trail then disappears in favor of large boulders that require all fours to get across.

Here we are at the trailhead. We ate doughnuts and chocolate milk before starting out on our hike. Notice that snow in the back left of the picture. We saw plenty of it - in June!

All four kids running up the trail. I love that my kids love their cousins so much!

We decided that we wanted to cross the river to get a better view of the Falls. I carried Lily while the three older kids navigated their way across rocks and fallen trees to get to the other side. As I watched them problem-solve and make decisions about where and how they would proceed I wanted to cheer. These kids are warriors. They can do hard things. (And don't worry, we crossed at a very shallow and calm place in the river. I kept telling the kids that the worst that could happen would be some wet feet.)

This is about the moment my heart swelled with pride for these kids fearlessly crossing the river.

The kids threw rocks into the river for awhile and then we decided to head back down. On the way back across the river we opted to just step in and walk across rather than navigate over the rocks and trees again. That water was freezing cold! It's all runoff from snow, which made our feet go numb within a few seconds. Again, the kids were warriors and walked across the river holding hands without any complaint. It was a proud moment for me and definitely a highlight of the trip.

At the top and across the river!

On Friday we met a bunch of my friends from high school at a fun park. We got to chat while the kids played. One of my friends brought ice-cold Kool-Aid in a pitcher, which Tommy loved. He kept asking me on the way home, "Mom, do you know how to make that drink? Do you think we could make that drink sometimes?" Love it.

That evening Sadie came to my mom's house and the kids played in the giant sandbox with their cousin, Jet. My mom keeps it stocked with soft sand and fun toys. The kids can play in there for hours.

This sandbox is seriously as big as our apartment in Portland!

Ben flew in on Saturday night after enjoying a full week of bachelorhood at home. On Sunday his sister, Steph, came to my mom's house to play with the kids for a few minutes. We love those guys.

On Monday the family got together at the park to celebrate Tommy's birthday from earlier in June. Everyone spoiled him rotten with Legos and airplanes, pizza and doughnuts, and quality cousin playtime.

Makayla, Tommy, and Jarom at the park.

The Three Amigos.

On Tuesday we took the kids to hike Ensign Peak. It was very hot and dry, but we still had a really fun time. Luckily the hike is short and the view from the top is amazing, so it was worth it. My mom also took Lily and me to get a pedicure. It was Lily's first, and she LOVED it. For days afterward she admired her toes and said, "I have sparkly toes!"

Beautiful, beautiful Salt Lake City.

Our last night in Salt Lake my mom watched the kids while Ben and I went to the temple. We all went for ice cream afterward. Lily loves ice cream more than anything in life and exclaimed, "We go for icey!" all the way there.

Tommy and Grammy are pretty fond of icey as well.

We love you guys and can't wait to see you again!