Vacation

We went on a family vacation to Salt Lake City, Utah. We left the morning of July 3rd and got back the evening of July 8th. 

On the way down, we stopped in Rexburg, Idaho and stayed the night with one of my former young women (Shiloh) and her little family. Crazy how MY young women is now married with kids! It was great to see Shiloh, Scott, and their two little girls! 

Before we left Rexburg in the morning to head the rest of the way to Salt Lake, we stopped at the Rexburg temple. What a beautiful temple!

Then we stopped at the Idaho Falls, Idaho temple. Again, such a beautiful temple!

Once we got to Utah, we stopped at the Brigham City temple.

Right across the Brigham temple is the Brigham city tabernacle. This tabernacle is over 100 years. I believe it was built in 1903. We didn't think we would be able to go inside being that it was the 4th of July, but one of the doors was open, so we walked up and sure enough they were doing tours that day!

After seeing the Brigham City temple and tabernacle we headed to Salt Lake City and checked into our hotel. Then we went to Lehi and had dinner at watched fireworks with our friends the McCombs who used to live in Spokane. It was great to see them, it has been years! 

The next day (July 5th) we toured temple square in the morning. There were so many wedding groups all around the temple taking pictures. We tried to get a family shot, but there really wasn't anywhere to get a good one. Oh well, next time.

That night, Jeff and I were able to do a session that night. The McCombs came to our hotel and watched our kids. Kinley cried the whole time, sorry Ben and Nicole! Being in the Salt Lake temple was an awesome experience. There is so much history in that temple and I was in total awe of how beautiful it is. Being able to go to at temple for hands down the highlight of vacation for me.

The Christis, one of my favorite things about the visitors center.

Saturday July 6th, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. The kids loved it. 

Saturday night was the Man in the Moon event put on by Glenn Beck. This was the whole reason for us going down. On the drive to the event, it was pouring rain. This was a rain or shine event, so no refunds were going to be given. We sat in our car in the parking lot for over an hour and a half, waiting for the rain to stop. We waited and waited and waited. Finally the rain stopped. Our "seats" were on the lawn. We only packed the boys' small character blankets and figured that would have to be good enough because no lawn/camping chairs or unbrellas we allowed at the even. (Probably so others behind you could also see.) So, we were totally unprepared for sitting on wet grass. While sitting in the car, I came up with the idea to take the fabric off the boys' boosters and have them take them in so they could sit on something dry. We also had one of those thick plastic mat things that you put under carseats to keep the kids crumbs and other stuff on the seat of the vehicle. We took that with us too. We also packed the Moby wrap so we could snuggle Kinley in to once she got tired. 

Kinley crawled around on the grass or sat with Jeff or me until the even started. She began to get tired, so I put her in the Moby and went to the back of the yard so I could stand up and get her to sleep. Worked like a charm. She stayed asleep the whole time!

 There were planes that flew over head a few times at the beginning of the show.

 That big circle is the moon.

Before leaving Utah, Jeff saw a fire station in Ogden. We stopped there for a bit and Jeff traded firefighter shirts with the firefighter.

On our way back home, we stopped in Rexburg again and stayed the night with my friend Shelley and her husband Blake. Their three kids are all around the same ages as our oldest three. Their oldest is 2 days older than Mason, their middle is 3 months older than Cooper, and their youngest is 2 weeks older than Shiloh. It was fun to see them! Our kids all got along so great.