Our trip to Utah

I'm so grateful my parents are serving their mission in Utah because it makes it easy to visit and I know they are safe and well taken care of.  The saints in Utah are very kind to the missionaries.  I brought the kids to Provo to see Nana and Papa in their mission home and meet some of the missionaries.  I was really just there as a chaperone because the kids are the ones my parents wanted to see!  I'm kidding of course.  They were very fun and took great care of us.  Here are some of the highlights.

Plane Ride - the kids were excellent.  I was only slightly nervous and Bowe and Ava made things go really smoothly.

We visited in early April which happend to be Utah County's school break.  Everywhere we went there were tons of kids and lot's of pregnant women.  I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant and noticed them more, but there seemed to be pregnant women everywhere we went.

We spent a day at the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.

They have a work station with sand and running water and little plastic trees and dinosaurs.  It was messy, but so fun to make tracks and build islands and rivers.  If it wasn't so crowded I would've been playing too.

Picnic with Nana

Free ice cream for kids!  UT has the best family deals.  Bowe tried bubble gum ice cream and loved it.  I think he mostly liked it because it was blue.

Cousins and second cousins. 

Storytime with Nana.  This was the kids favorite thing to do.

There was no end to the fun Nana had planned.  We took my niece to Kangaroo Zoo and played and played and played.  Mom follwed Bowe who did surprisingly well on all the huge blow up playgrounds, and I chased after Brooklyn and Ava who held hands practically the whole time.  Tons of fun.  I came home to NY and searched out my own local jumping, bouncing playground.

The farm at Thanksgiving Point.  We fed cows and ducks.

I had to visit my Alma Mater BYU.  It was strange walking around with my kids in tow.  I haven't been back in a long time and most everything looked the same.  I was almost expecting to see my friends hanging out in the Cougar Eat.  We took a picture in front of Cougar Creations in honor of Erin Graham Steele who worked there for a while.  And of course, I had to visit the Malt Shop for an extra thick shake.  We all made ourselved sick eating too much ice cream, but it totally lived up to my expectations.

And Finally (if you're still reading we're nearing the end) we had the whole family at the gardens at Thanksgiving Point and had a great time.  We lost a few kids, wandered, had races, found a secret garden, a little blood, a fountain with lot's of splashing, and a long trek back to the car.  What more could we ask for?

We had a great trip.  It was wonderful to visit with Monica and Spencer and the girls, and my parents, and I even fit in a few other friends and family.  We hope to be back soon.  This post is a little late in coming, but worth posting because it was a great trip.