I had to break July up into multiple posts because we have so many pictures from our amazing trip to Utah!
But first, we celebrated the 4th of July with fireworks on the 2nd. I'm not sure why they split up the fireworks and the parade into two different days this year but on the 4th we went to the parade in the morning, which was one of the lamest parades I've ever been to. But the kids got candy so that's all they cared about. We were laughing because people kept handing Brooklyn candy and then looking right at Kaylee and Kenna but skipping over them. We told Kaylee the next time someone does that, she needs to yell after them, "I'm cute too!" That's become a joke for our family that we say to each other whenever someone overlooks us or compliments someone else.
McKenna took on an alter ego called the Denominator who is a super villain. She went around playing silly pranks on people all day and at night Richard and I found these heart notes on our pillows. I picked them up, thinking they would be a sweet love note from our daughter and then was dying laughing when I read them. They say "Dear Richard, Have evil nightmares. Love the Denominator" and "Dear Kelli, have a BAD day -the Denominator"
We went for a little walk at the Municipal Park, which Kenna was not thrilled about. Her mood quickly changed when she found the tiniest bitty frog and then carried him around for most of the walk. The poor thing kept trying to jump away and would land on it's back on the cement but that didn't deter Kenna from picking it up again and cuddling it close!
We headed off to Utah on the 12th! Since we took so many pics, I'll just post about one week at a time so I can cover all the fun things we did. I was really worried that our flights would be canceled and/or delayed because airlines have been a huge mess this summer with not enough employees and problems leftover from COVID, plus everyone wanting to travel after being forced to stay home for so long. By some miracle, we had zero issues with our flights and I was very grateful! I was already pretty worried about traveling again and this helped my stress and got our trip off to a happy start.
The first couple of days we didn't have many big plans and mostly just hung out at Mom's or Scott's house with people. We walked down to my old elementary school and played on the playground for a little bit and it was sad to see how run down that area is getting. Mom had an old wheelchair and it became the kids favorite toy. The Andreason's got in the day after us and it made my kids SO happy to constantly have people to play with, even when we didn't have plans.
Sharon did come down on Thursday and we went to the Planetarium with her. The girls were not super excited to go but once they got there, they didn't want to leave! They mostly had fun playing all the space simulations and games they have throughout the museum. Kaylee also thought it was hilarious that her sweatshirt blended right into the green screen so it made her have a floating head on this news report.
Since we were only two blocks from my dad's work, we decided to walk over and say hi to him and show the girls where he worked. It was really fun and he was able to show them what he does and walked us down to a classroom to show them what it looked like and that all the desks in every classroom face towards the temple. It was fun to see my dad in his element. As we were walking out, we met a group of his students who were very loud and boisterous and obviously loved my dad. It was really fun to see them tease him and know that he does the same dumb jokes with them that he has told me my whole life!
The next day we headed to the AF and got to celebrate Julie's bday with lunch and cake. Richard, Holly, and I went to Mt Timpanogos temple with the kids who could where Kaylee was able to do baptisms for the dead with Katie, Chris, Alex, Emery and Logan. Kristi, Julie, and Mom stayed behind with the other kids who were mostly playing with the chickens in the backyard. Kenna and Madeline were in heaven and didn't want to do anything else! We also made cards for Aunt Rita who would be going in to have surgery on her leg the next week. After we left Julie's, we went to Kristi's house and hung out the rest of the day.
Saturday morning we met the Henricksen clan for family pictures at a park and then went to Rob and Ingrid's new house all afternoon. The kids mostly played downstairs while the adults just chatted upstairs. McKenna found a special someone who became her almost constant companion whenever we were with the Henricksen's. She can't resist a cute baby!
In the evening, all the Henricksen's headed over to a splash pad, which also had a playground and climbing stuff, and Rob brought a badminton set. The adults were sitting in camping chairs chatting and Richard tried to adjust in his very old, ripped one, and the bottom completely ripped through! It was pretty funny and we made sure to get a picture of it to remember forever.
Sunday was pretty low key. We went to church with the DuVall's and then Dad did an FHE for the kids in the evening but mostly we were just hanging out, which was good because we had a very busy week ahead of us!
Monday morning Chase took all of the kids swimming at his parent's house while the rest of the adults got ready for our trip down to St George. Jen's parents were nice enough to host all of us (except the Gregory's who were at their in-laws) for dinner! We chatted and played games until it was time to go to Tuacahn. We were so excited to see David Archuleta in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which is one of our family favorites. It was ridiculously hot but the play was pretty good and it was fun to see it with literally the entire family except for Dad and Sarah.
Everyone else had things they needed to get home for so we decided to take our time and make it a fun trip. We decided to do a little hiking in the morning and Scott recommended the Petrified Sand Dunes. They were so cool! It was even more fun for us because we had just been to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes last year and so it was fresh in our minds what a huge span of sand dunes looks like. These had the exact same feeling and look to them, just without the soft squishy sand under our feet. It was also gorgeous to see the bright red sand dunes one way, with black and white hills of different kinds of rock the other directions. It really was such a cool area. Kaylee was super brave in her climbing, as always, and jumped around like a little mountain goat. We wanted to keep hiking but it was getting really hot and we were running low on water so we hopped back in the car and started north.
We decided to make one more stop at Cove Fort since it wasn't too far off the freeway. The kids were not as thrilled with this stop but I thought it was important to take advantage of a Church site they might not ever pass by again. They liked peeking through the walls of the fort where lookouts would go and looking in at all the rooms they have set up, but there really isn't much else to do. The missionaries did tell us about how Cove Fort started with President Hinckley's grandfather and we learned a lot of interesting facts about it. At the end they gave all the kids a pioneer yo-yo. I was still glad we stopped even though it was more walking around in the heat and made it so we got home later.
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