Our Utah Trip

Last week we decided to hurry and have a family vacation before school starts.  I took the kids up to Utah Sunday after church.  It was the fastest I have made the drive with kids.  Nobody begged to pee on Mormon Mesa.  We stopped for a picnic dinner in Beaver.  7 hours.  It's a good reminder that kids do get easier. Phew!

On Monday we had so much fun thrifting with Mom and Aunt Janene and then M'Li and Hana met us for lunch at Wendy's.  It was so great to see them.  After a nap, we went to BYU where Faith took her Health test and we got to see Azya.

Tuesday morning my kids and I hiked to Timpanogas Caves and had the guided tour.  My kids and I made a vow that we would sit on every available bench on the way up.  I'll just post our best bench pictures.

When we were nearly at the top, we saw Jay Allen sitting on a rock by the side of the path. Will got very excited. He said, "Do you think we'll have to answer a riddle to be able to pass?" I did talk to Mr. Allen for a bit and caught him up on Heather. When I told him she had six kids he replied, "Well, that's biology!"  Will was a little bit disappointed when he let us pass and there was no riddle.  However, when we got to the bathrooms, we saw another ranger coming up the hill. We stopped him and asked him how long it takes rangers to make the hike.  After chatting a bit, I admitted to him that we had seen Mr. Allen along the trail and Will was hoping he was going to have to answer a riddle to pass him.  Russ McKell (the ranger) said, "Oh, that's awesome! I'm going to shout it down to Jay."  Will was totally pleased when Mr. McKell went up the hill a bit until he could see Mr. Allen and shouted, "Hey Jay, we have a request that when you're sitting by the path, people have to answer a sphinx-like riddle in order to pass!"  Will thought his request was made even better by the whole "sphinx-like riddle" phrasing.  He is still talking about it.

Other highlights from our hike:

 Beautiful views

 

 Will dancing his way up (of course)

 

This tree that found its way up toward the sky somehow.

 

Bill came and joined us on Wednesday.  We picked him up in the late afternoon from the airport, then went to see his parents in Centerville.  Will and Ivy had fun playing Kendama with their cousins Thomas and Isaac (who are no longer Tommy and Ikie.) It was fun for me to notice that Ivy talked to almost everyone on her own: both grandparents, Uncle Dan, Thomas and Isaac. She can already work a room.  We went to dinner at the new Stake 'N Shake in Centerville.

 

Grandma Joanie had hip surgery to replace her titanium hip just a few short weeks prior.  The doctors took out a butter cube sized tumor out of her left leg that had enclosed some of the heavy metals that were poisoning her as well as several other smaller tumors.  She had started physical therapy, which was extremely hard as her physical therapist was having her do abductor exercises, but apologized when he saw the doctors notes, as they specifically said not to do that - the doctor had removed 30% of her abductor muscle during surgery.

 

Grandpa Evans is still recovering from heart failure in March. Progress is slow in gaining back physical strength lost from the ordeal.  It was really heart warming to see him take care of Grandma - even though they are both limping along now with canes and crutches.  They somehow get along.  They are all heart.

 

Thursday we went up through American Fork Canyon to Cascade Springs. It was such a beautiful ride, and fun to reminisce at Cascade Springs about how Bill asked me to marry him. It was hard for us to find the exact spot he did it, but we think we came close.

 

 These two always have plenty to talk about.  In fact, on the way up Papa Fred said something that sounded like it could have come out of my husbands mouth.  I laughed so hard!  Let's just say that they both really agree about The Boy Scouts of America organization and Friends of Scouting in particular.

 

 Will took this picture.  Who knew I looked this frazzled at the beginning of the day?  Gotta work on better hairdos.

 Poor Will. I had just accidentally pinched his leg in this picture.  Had to include it though because let's be honest - I never look this good in pictures.

 

So much fun! We then went to lunch at La Fountain in Midway and everyone humored me in going to see the house I want to buy in Heber - okay I've never been in it, but I really like the pictures.

 

Later in the day we went hiking up North mountain. It was a bit of a fiasco at first as it was 4:30 in the afternoon, and there wasn't much shade in the beginning.  It got better and on the way down we found the stream where I took pictures:

 

These are the last of my pictures from our trip.  The next day, Friday, we left for Park City and I left my phone at Nana and Papa's house. It's just as well - the kids were all happy to be on vacation without the camera.

 

In Park City we went on the Alpine Slide, watched the ski jumping practices while eating free snow cones, took the kids to some galleries downtown and rode the trolley back up Main Street. The church has a store front on Main Street where we had our picture taken and they help people learn to use family search.  (I'll have to scan and upload the picture.)

 

On Saturday we drove through the Uintahs (which I had never done!) It was spectacular!  We drove clear to Evanston for lunch. Our favorite stops were at Bald Mountain (we didn't hike all the way up, but would have liked to) and at Provo River Falls (wish I would have had the camera for this one.)

 

Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting in Heber and then drove home to Henderson.  It was a fun, full trip.  Just what we needed to feel like we got a break.