Trip to Utah

Well howdy!  As if we hadn't been in and out of the house enough lately, this past week we headed out to Utah!  It was Audrey's baptism, so we had a very good reason to go.  All the cousins even sang a special musical number at the baptism!

On Monday we had our roofer out to look over a few final things, etc. to finish up paper work on their end, and of course while he was there it started to hail.  Not too insignificant of hail either, though definitely not as bad as the storm that did all the damage.

Grayson's been enjoying various toys throughout the house, and lately he's really loved to play with Winry's horses she got a while back.  He plays all kinds of games with them, and lately, some of them have been kissing games.

When we were getting ready to go to bed, Monica picked up her phone and put it in her pocket.  Then, halfway across the room it got pulled right back out because it was still plugged in!  She was charging it and didn't even notice when she picked it up.  It was hilarious!  We tried to recrate it, but we ended up with a bit of a different result.

Winry wanted to show off her hoola hoop skills this past week.  I'd say she did a pretty good job!  I don't think I can keep one up.

On Thursday we drove out to Utah.  We took I-70, and somehow there wasn't a fire, or a mudslide, or a carrot truck that caught fire...  Anyway, it's typically been uneventful for us, but I know there's been a lot of issues along there over the past few years.  We made it to Grand Junction without any major interruptions, and had some time to play on the playgrounds.  Brooke rode the zipline.

And I rode the bear!

We set up Grayson's bed in the closet in our room.  He has really been into this lately, and loves to explore his "own room."  He even loves when his room is a much smaller hotel closet!  Anyway, this time he had a hanging bar right above his bed!  Oh happy day!  He also could reach the light switch, and it was inside the door, so there was no keeping that off and we'd have to wait for him to fall asleep (which was a bit later than usual, likely due to the light) before we could turn it off.

We met Monica's friend Heidi and her family at a park the next morning, and had a fun time all playing together.  There was a spinny thing there the kids were all enjoying, and Grayson even wanted to take a turn pushing me.  The downside to this thing, though, is that it stops itself, so it's actually pretty rough to get it going, and it usually doesn't spin much once it is.

After the park in the morning we went to the Saratoga Springs temple open house.  It was a lot of fun to go tour it, and it was the first time Winry or Grayson ever got to go in a temple, and the first time Brooke remembers it!  We went out front of the temple after our tour, and there was some water works that Grayson just had to play with... and almost fall in!

Monica and I also took a picture together!

After the temple open house the girls all departed for high tea in Salt Lake!  Gram took all of her daughters and granddaughters that were there.  It looks very fancy!

The girls loved it and told me all about it when they got back.  I think my favorite detail from the whole thing was when we asked what tea they chose, and Winry picked hot chocolate!

On Saturday we had Audrey's baptism.  I'm sure it was lovely, though I spent the majority of it in the gym following Grayson around.  We did have an adequate time, though I would have rather actually been there for the baptism.  Also, I showed it in the video, but Grayson is a light switch fiend lately.  He's flipping switches ALL the time!

There's always fun toys to play with at the grandparents houses!  I've learned an interesting lesson though.  One time Brooke was absolutely in love with their waffle blocks, so for her birthday that year we got her waffle blocks, and she didn't play with them the same at home, and never played with them out there again since...  So the lesson I learned is that, at least for young kids, it's really the new factor.  I think Winry stacking this pile of cups is a really good example of this.  She was having such a blast playing with these!

Saturday evening we headed to the park that's close by for dinner with some of Monica's extended family.  The park also has a pond, which has always had ducks in it when I've gone.  The kids loved watching the ducks, and there were even a bunch of babies too!  The babies were fun because they dive into the water a lot.

Winry and Laura built a blanket fort in the bunkroom as they were getting ready for bed that night, and Brooke had a sleep over with Audrey at her house.

The next morning we got up, got ready for church, and then drove up to my parents house.  We got there a little before church started, but we basically got all our stuff inside and then left, which means I didn't bring anything.  No activities for the kids, no snacks for Grayson, no diaper for his weekly nursery poop...  So yeah, I made it about 75% of the way through church before I had to head back home! :)  I had a really good time while I was there though.  I'm a bit surprised, because I feel like I saw a lot of the adults I interacted with more growing up this week, and I feel like I've never chatted with so many of them in one visit before.  So that was fun too.

After church we came home and had lunch.  Grayson wanted a cheese sandwich, but with only one piece of bread.  I just thought it was funny to see him eating it.  Also, speaking of Grayson and bread, he's been a champion of only taking 1 piece of the sacrament lately, instead of one handful.

There were some various things out at my parents house as Niki prepares for the family fair at the start of July that we won't be able to make this year.  But the girls were having a fun time wearing all the rings!

And then good news!  We got to have our own mini-fair!  I don't know if we got to play all the games, but we had so much fun!  We had a sack race in the backyard.

And we got out the pool rings to do a human ring toss!  This was super fun.  The aim was to not move your feet and catch the rings.  The rings flew pretty well, so eventually there were some long range attempts with a little movement from the catcher.

And Winry and Alyson were on a team, and they were just SMASHING it!

The fishing pond made a strong return.  If I remember right everyone took a turn catching a fish, but Grayson stayed and played for quite some time.

And new this year was chicken chuckin'.  It was actually pretty tricky, because they'd all stick to your finger a different amount.  A few of them may have even found their way to the roof... but nothing a quick ladder trip couldn't solve.

We also played plinko, and I swear there were move photos and videos of this, but maybe I was watching them all on my sisters' phones.  Anyway, if you got it in the middle you won $2, so of course we all just kept playing till we all got some of my dad's money! Though Monica got hers in on her first attempt!

And then there was a duck shoot.  I was pretty impressed with how well the guns shot.

And the grand finally, which almost broke Grayson's mind, was a pig race!  Grayson went CRAZY over the pigs, and we even had to get them back out the next day so he could play with them all day long (oops just realized I poked into the future!)!

For my family call we do "Nailed it" and our challenge this week is to make a Pokemon.  So we got Pokemon Snap on my mom's switch to help people get a little more familiar.  I think my mom had a great time, and I always knew she was a Pokemon master.  I had to get it from somewhere!

And that's everything for this week.  Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of this trip, and whatever we do when we get home!  Will it be cleaning?  Will it be packing?  You'll have to come back and read the next one to find out!