Ugly Photo Tag

I'd like to thank Anya for this wonderful opportunity to show you an ugly photo of myself. More difficult than I thought considering that I take all the photos and therefore I am not in any of them (and I delete the ones I really hate). But really, does it get uglier than about to deliver a baby with an oxygen mask on your face?

I will be checking your blogs, people. Just do it.

Summer Vacation Part II

I'm sure this is way more detail than anyone really cares about, but I just don't want to forget!


We woke up on our first morning in Utah with lots of energy and feeling ready to explore. We had a busy day. We started out with a trip to the local grocery store to stock the little kitchen in our timeshare. Even though we were on vacation, it was so great having a kitchen and being able to prepare our own meals. It saved lots of money and kept us from getting so sick of eating out. We ate pretty much every breakfast, and more than half of our lunches and dinners at the resort. (I packed most of the food from home and then just needed to buy all the fresh/refrigerated items when we got there.)

After breakfast we explored the grounds of the resort. It was fairly small, but had a really nice pool. We spent a few hours out on the lawn playing baseball, catching little fish in the pond, and just enjoying the beautiful scenery.


















After lunch we headed into Ogden for a visit to the Eccles Dinosaur Park, where they had a small indoor museum and then a large outdoor trail with all types of dinosaurs.







We were all terrified to see the world's most dangerous creature. Thankfully it was in a cage.



We had dinner at the very yummy Cafe Rio and got a glimpse of the Ogden Temple and tabernacle (the temple looks pretty much identical to the Provo temple). We then drove back into Eden and decided to explore the Eden/Huntsville area and the Pineview Reservoir. It really is a beautiful area, with some quaint little houses and lots of gigantic mansions! Being really close to several ski resorts and also the water, it seems to be a popular vacation spot. We found the swimming/beach area of the reservoir and talked to the park ranger. He let us know that "if you want to come on Sunday, come early because church gets out at 11:00 and then it gets packed." We were quite entertained by that and decided that we would not come back on Sunday. Sadly we didn't make it back the rest of the week either. (I'd rather swim in a clean swimming pool than a reservoir anyway.) We found the home of President David O. McKay in Huntsville. We were too late for the tour but it was cool that we were able to see it. We also found a monastery that looked interesting but visiting hours were over there as well. (The daylight savings really threw us off. It stays light until almost 9 pm).

After all that it was time to end our day with a dip in the pool. We had a great day. More to come . . .

Summer Vacation Part I

We had the chance to take a trip to Utah a few weeks ago, and I'm already starting to forget the details so I better document it now. It all started out with my parents inviting us to go on vacation with them using their timeshare. No cost for hotel? Okay, we're up for it. So we helped them pick a place that was close enough to drive and would have some good places to visit, and Utah it was. (The number one question we were asked while there: Are you visiting family? We might be unusual in the fact that we really have no family living there. Joey maybe has one uncle there, but that's it.) So that was all decided back in January.

Of course you remember that in March my dad had open heart surgery, leading to many complications that required a total of 5 surgeries and much stress! Since he is just going back to work tomorrow for the first time since March, my parents really couldn't make the trip because it just wouldn't be wise considering that my dad had only been off his IV antibiotics for a few days and my mom just couldn't take any more time off work than she already had. But since it was too late to cancel the reservation, we drove up without them. (Sorry Mom and Dad, we know you really wanted to get away, and you deserve a vacation!)

I was absolutely dreading the drive, which ended up being a total of about 14 hours including our stops. I just wasn't sure how my kids would handle it. I tried to be as organized as possible so that they would stay entertained. I did a little shopping to have some "surprises" in the car, we had the DVD player ready to go, lots of snacks and CDs, each kid packed their own backpack of car activities, and I made an activity packet of things I printed from the internet, mostly common car games and age appropriate activities for each kid. Then I tried to structure the time and only let them watch a movie at certain times, give them a snack at certain times, work on their packet at certain times, etc. I wasn't sure how it would go, but they were so great on the whole ride. I couldn't believe it. (We have an unfortunate vacation history over the last few years, which I'll save for some future blog, so now I always anticipate the worst when it comes to vacation!)

As it was getting dark we finally arrived at our destination: Wolf Creek Village in Eden, UT. It is north of Salt Lake, you have to drive through Ogden and then through a canyon and past a reservoir, a really beautiful drive to get there. We checked in, unloaded the car and set out to find dinner before every place in this little town was closed for the night. Thankfully we found a pizza place willing to serve us when they were only 15 minutes from closing time. After that we settled in for the night and assigned beds to everyone. There was a huge loft upstairs with a king size bed and a bathroom, which of course was for the grown ups! Hannah and Kendall shared the downstairs bedroom, and Noah got the pull out couch. We would have to start the real adventure in the morning because we were definitely tired!

(Is anyone still reading this. Wow, I just wrote a lot didn't I?)

To hear about our 4th of July including some unforgettable photos, click here.