We were ready for a little vacation mid-June, and we had family events happening that weekend so we booked a hotel for a few nights and headed north! We decided to make this trip about the kids and do things they would enjoy. Wednesday we headed out and first stopped for lunch at Los Hermanos or "Pete's Restaurant" as Lexie calls it because we usually eat there with Pete. We then headed further north to SLC and surprised the kids by taking them to a place called "Jump Around Utah" so they could get out all their wiggles. It was perfect, and they played hard for over 2 hours and completely wore themselves out!
Hoyt had fun going through the maze and Bryan even had fun too!
They loved the big blow-up slides and went down countless times!
And who doesn't love a good bouncy house?
The kids were determined to climb up the bouncy house stairs to slide.
Here they are after coming down the slide together.
And here is a video of some of the fun they had!
Out of everything we did all weekend I think the "bouncy place" (as Lexie calls it) was the biggest hit and we spent a total of $9, so in my book it was a success! I did a little shopping at Carter's where they were having a great sale! I was able to get some clothes for the kids and even a few things for our new little baby girl, including an outfit to bring her home from the hospital! We grabbed some dinner at Costco then checked into our hotel in Sandy right in the area we know and love. The kids insisted on going swimming at the hotel; and even though we were all exhausted, we headed to the pool at 9 p.m. and swam around for a while. We learned a valuable lesson: wearing your kids out helps them sleep great in a hotel! Usually we have a terrible time getting the kids to sleep when we are away from home.
Thursday morning Bryan and the kids had dentist appointments so we got up, ate some continental breakfast, and headed to the dentist office just down the street from our hotel. We love our dentist Dr. Boyden that we started going to while living in Sandy, so we decided to keep going to him. Bryan & Lexie just had checkups and cleanings with no cavities, and Lexie did awesome for her first time! Unfortunately, Hoyt wanted nothing to do with the hygienist so we figured we would just try next time and we went on our way. We ate lunch at our favorite Arctic Circle in Draper that has a fun play place for the kids. I grabbed a few groceries from Smith's, and then shopped a few minutes at Walmart where I found some awesome deals on a crib set for our baby and a few other things. We then headed to our next destination.
Last year we had taken the kids to Wheeler Farm and they had a great time, so we decided it would be a fun thing to do again (and it's free so you don't feel bad if you only spend a short amount of time there). We had fun seeing all of the animals!
Here is Hoyt checking out the cows.
They had a cute little calf just hanging out in the shade.
The favorite part for everyone was feeding the ducks and geese in the ponds. They were so funny to watch.
This particular white goose was really a character.
I love Hoyt in his shades, and Lexie especially loved throwing the bread in the pond.
Horses are always another favorite. We also saw sheep, chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats and all those fun farm animals.
They also have a playground area with a huge lawn. However, it was a super hot day, so the kids couldn't really do much on the playground without getting burned. They did wear themselves out and both fell fast asleep as soon as we started driving. With the kids asleep it was the perfect opportunity for me to shop a few stores. And lucky for us we spotted a Sno Shack while driving from one of the stores! We were dying of heat so Bryan got the 2 of us some heavenly shaved ice which we enjoyed while the kids slept peacefully in their car seats. After stopping at one more store, the kids woke up and we were all starving so we headed to Olive Garden and all ate an enjoyable meal. After dinner we just relaxed at the hotel, took baths and showers and went to bed early.
I have absolutely no pictures from Friday, but it was kind of a crazy day with more travel involved. We got up and tried to get some continental breakfast, but some sports teams were staying in our hotel and those boys pretty much ate all the food before we got down there. We packed up, checked out of our hotel and drove up to Logan for the next phase of our trip...family time! All of the Lyman's were already in Logan when we got up there so we went to James and Jenny's house where the kids played and we visited for a while. We were so excited to see baby Matthew, and I'm sad I didn't get any pictures with him. Some of the Lyman clan headed to the Arts Festival while we went and checked into our hotel. Bryan & I had to change for the temple (Annie's husband Rob was going through for his endowments) and got the kids some dinner, then James & Jenny had arranged for Bethany's birth mom and her husband to tend Bethany and our kids at an indoor play place. We dropped the kids off and all the adults enjoyed an awesome temple session! After we picked the kids up, we headed to Kneaders and had a fantastic dinner with all the family then headed back to the hotel to try and get some sleep because we had to be up super early the next morning.
We had to be at the temple Saturday morning for Rob & Annie's sealing at 8 a.m. I was up at 6 a.m. getting showered and starting to get ready. Hoyt woke up and Bryan put on a Disney show, but while we were both rushing around trying to get ready, Hoyt fell and hit his nose directly on the nightstand causing blood to gush out of both sides of his nose. He was screaming and it took a while to get the bleeding to stop. That put us behind schedule so we had to rush even faster to get us all ready. We hurried to eat a quick continental breakfast and rushed to the temple in a panic with Hoyt in a not-so-good mood. Luckily we got there at the same time as everyone else and the kids all went to the waiting room where Stan's girls watched the younger kids. The sealing was beautiful and it was so fun for Bryan's parents to have all 5 of their children with all of their spouses in the sealing room together and finally have them all sealed!
Hoyt and Lexie especially enjoyed the temple water fountains.
Here is the happy couple, and this picture of Annie and Hoyt is so cute! (Thanks to Bryan's cousin Shandra who took most of these awesome pictures...I stole them from Facebook).
Hoyt was not cooperating getting a picture of Annie with all of the nieces and nephews. And then his nose got bumped and it started bleeding again so it was all over after that. Here he is getting reading to get up and run.
And here he is trying to get out of there.
I love this picture of Annie and the nieces. So cute!
And here is the entire Lyman family! It was fun to be with everyone even though it was way too short and went by too fast!
This is a funny picture of all the Lyman kids and spouses. :)
Mom & Dad, kids & spouses!
We're so excited for Annie & Rob and glad we were able to make it for their special occasion! After the temple we changed, checked out of our hotel and everyone went to lunch at Chuck-A-Rama and pretty much everyone had to say goodbye and leave. We had a little time so we went to James and Jenny's house to let the kids play together for a while. We started the long drive home, but on our way we stopped in Lindon at my cousin Jessica's wedding reception and saw some family and visited (and I didn't get any pictures there either but we were completely worn out by this point). We grabbed some dinner and drove the rest of the way home. It was a long, eventful week but I think in the end we all did have a fun time!
