Utah trip- Part 1

Our long awaited trip to Utah has come and gone. We had a wonderful time. There will be lots and lots of photos on my Utah posts. Enjoy! We hadn't been to Utah since our trek across the country to California during the summer Tim had his internship at Apple. That was August of 2009. Yep! Visiting Utah was long overdue. Our flights to Utah went as smooth as they could have with kids. Poor Gavin had come down with an ear infection the day before we left so he was fighting a fever and was miserable the entire day, but we made it and Gavin has officially had his first plane ride.

My wonderful twin sister, Ally hosted us while we were in Utah. She is such a great host! Our first day was lots of family time. We barbecued in Ally's backyard. The kids jumped on the tramp, played on the swing set, and played in the sand. The adults talked and enjoyed the family reunion so to speak.
Alicia just had her third baby in February and I was so excited to finally meet Avery. She is the cutest, most content baby ever. Plus she's got the best baby rolls and cheeks for squeezing.
Ally has a dog named Tizzy and one of Gavin's favorite things right now are dogs. He pretty much screeches any time a dog comes in contact with him. All he could do was follow Tizzy around the house. I couldn't help but crack up when I saw him with a dog in his mouth as he was following Tizzy around.

Gavin did finally discover Tizzy's tail and thought it was the funnest toy ever, so we had to keep our eye one Gavin to make sure he didn't just yank Tizzy to pieces.
Grandma and Grandpa got to see how much the kids have grown up since their visit last summer.
What is better than sitting in a sand box without any pants on? In Gavin's world, nothing!

Say cheeeese!

Gavin was getting a little ancy after taking so many pictures. As you can see this was probably the last one we took before he jumped right off grandpa's lap.

Xavier just joined in and became a part of the group in no time. He loved being around all his cousins again!

The tramp was Xavier's favorite spot. Is that really a surprise to anyone?

The next day we headed to a park in the morning for some fresh air and take a look at those breathtaking mountains. Boy do I miss seeing those every day.

Majestic mountains

Tio Tim threw the kiddos in the air. What a good uncle.

Isn't this great! It just says so much about these two girls. Ava's tongue sticking out and Myla doing her thing. These girls are adorable and have such great personalities.

My sweet angel. Even though we had Gavin on medicine for his ear infection he had a fever that lasted 5 days and continued to stay around 102 or 103 unless he had Ibuprofen or Tylenol. So the first part of the trip he wasn't his normal happy self. But after that he turned a corner and cheered right up!

Our friend Noah and Kendra and their family were also in Utah. Kendra gave birth to their third son in Utah so we were glad to be able to see them and meet their newest addition. To entertain the boys we went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Tim and Noah helped the kids build their own dinosaur. They also had a magnetic wall to put together dinosaurs.

This was probably the best dinosaur exhibit I have ever seen. They had so many dinosaurs on display and a ton of activities that were child friendly. They had this tunnel that you walked through. It was pitch black with small stars shining as if you were in outerspace. By far my favorite part.

This was my second favorite part. A MEGALADON! It really puts it in perspective to see how big this shark species really was.

At the end Xavier got to dig for dinosaur bones.

Utah trip part II

The weather in Utah had been pretty cold before we got their, but we timed it right and hit some great weather. It was sunny and in the high seventies most of the time. A much needed relief from the mid nineties and humid at home. Since we could be outside more we took full advantage and headed to Wheeler Farm for some outdoor fun.

Gavin saw the cows and didn't stop pointing and grunting. I guess that means he liked it.

Gavin had his first taste of an otter pop. Not much of a fan. I think he just didn't like how cold it was.
After feeding the ducks and mooing at the cows Xavier spotted the tractor and was immediately disinterested in looking at any other animals. So, Xavier, Porter, and Ronan played on the tractors for a while. It was a great opportunity to snag some more pictures. Tim got some cool ones using some of the special effects on our camera.

Buds

I can't say the goats were all that exciting, kind of an ugly animal if you ask me. But the kids enjoyed petting them.

A summer vacation wouldn't be complete without some swimming. We went to an indoor pool in the evening and it was so much fun. There was a jungle gym area right in the water that the kids could play on, they had a small lazy river, and a zero entry play area, plus they had a huge water slide for older kids. Eric and Ally had a water proof camera and got some really great shots. Eric even got some video clips of us going down the water slide. He would go down first and then me and Xavier went down after him. It was fantastic to get that on video.
Gavin loved being in the pool. It was his first time. Xavier is our little fish and had no problem finding his way around the water. This is our splashing maniacs in action.
We love the water!
We couldn't leave Utah without going to one of our favorite Brazilian steakhouses. Tim is always smiling if he can score some Guarana.
The kiddos did such a great job at lunch and everyone did not leave this place with one corner of their stomach empty.
After lunch we went for a wonderful drive up to Squaw Peak. This may be known to many as a romantic place to bring a date. It also had a killer view. Since Tim and I did not meet at BYU nor date in Utah we had to see what it was all about- the view that is. Not much making out going on for us except this smooch Tim snuck in during our rest at the top.
After our many years of attempting to get a good picture of all three boys we finally have one where they are all looking in the same direction! Success!
Once again, I just couldn't get enough of the mountains. I forgot how much I missed them and I had to soak it in every second I could while we were here.
After 12 years I also got to meet up with a great friend of mine. Cynthia was actually my best friend in middle and high school and probably the girlfriend I've known the longest. We lost touch after high school. Cynthia moved around a bit and ended up in NY until just a couple years ago and thanks to facebook we were able to connect once again. So we had dinner and enjoyed catching up on old times. It was as if we had seen each other yesterday. I'm so glad I was able to see her again.
The mountains still have a ton of snow and because Utah has been getting more rain than usual the water levels were dangerously fast and high. Many children have drowned because of the high water levels in many rivers up the canyons. We wanted to go hiking, but because of this we decided to forego the hike. But Allison has the best backyard and even has a fire pit, so we roasted marshmallows and hung around the fire all evening.
Tim meet fire. Fire meet Tim.

Mmmmm good! Marshmallow and chocolatey goodness.

Utah trip part III

Our last couple days came faster than I hoped. It was so wonderful spending so much time with my family, but I hate that it has to end so soon. We did, however go out with a BANG!

We ventured to Park City and got to ride on the Alpine Slides. This was something we never did as kids and I'm so glad Tim and I could take Xavier and Gavin up here. They even had a new ride called the Alpine Coaster that is on a rail.
The girls: Kendra, Alicia, Alana, me, Ally. Alana and her family live in California, but they decided to drive to Utah to see us the last two days we were there. It was crazy of them to drive such a long way to see us for such a short time, but it was great to have all us girls together again. We all have such different personalities, but we are still sisters and we are rarely in the same place at the same time. This was definitely a momentous time. All of us girls went on the Alpine Slide together. We rode on the lift together and rode down the slides. Ally and I rode down the slower lane being the more nervous and cautious of the group. The old sisters rode down the fast lanes. It was great being on a big slide and riding down the mountain.
Ally and I rode on the Alpine Coaster together. The guy that gave us instructions made us both nervous that we would be going so fast that we were a little nervous at the beginning. As we began our decent all our fears washed away and Ally just pushed full force down the track. We were twisting and turning and not once did Ally put the brakes on. We were screaming and laughing and tears were coming down my face, but we had a great time. Out of the two, this was by far more fun and the chances of falling out were zero. So we went full speed ahead until the finish line. I will say right towards the end I did scream for Ally to slow down, but she didn't. Funny thing was that Ally was more nervous about it than me at the beginning and she just let it fly. Fear conquered.
Xavier and daddy. I definitely didn't have to worry about Xavier being scared. He loved every minute of it.

After our fun in Park City, Tim, Eric, Ally and I went to see a REAL soccer game. This was our first experience with a professional soccer game and it did not disappoint. Well there was actually one disappointment....One Republic was supposed to play a post-game concert and it got rescheduled for another day. I was really looking forward to seeing them.

We had a great time though. The arena was within walking distance from Ally's house, so we walked there and we had a great view.
Instead of doing a wave everyone passed a flag around the stadium. This was way cooler.


Despite living far from each other, Ally and I have seen a Real Soccer game, a Tigers Baseball game, and a Pistons basketball game together. That might not seem cool to anyone else, but I thought that was kind of cool.

We had such a great time, but the best part of the trip for me was spending my birthday with Ally. It's been 10 years since we've been together on our birthday and I'm glad we got to finally celebrate our day with each other. My sister Alicia hosted and made an delicious spread of food. Kendra made our cake. Everything was so great! Thanks to my awesome party planning sisters this was definitely a great birthday.

My sisters minus Kendra. It's fun to see us all together now that we are moms and so neat to see all the cousins play together. Life couldn't get better than this. I feel so blessed to have such great girls in my life who are so talented, so fun, and such wonderful mom's too.

Happy Birthday to us!

That is all she wrote with strawberries on top!