Look at those adorable water babies! After swimming, we'd let Tommy take a nap in the hotel room while Mommy and the girls got dressed for the day - and watched more cartoons. In the afternoons we explored Temple Square, City Creek Mall, Living Planet Aquarium, and some of downtown Salt Lake. We squeezed a whole lot of fun into our three day trip.
Tommy's favorite feature of the hotel was the tissue dispenser right at his level. He promptly emptied it the very first night we arrived while Mommy and Daddy were getting dressed to go swimming. Annie loved all the restaurants she got to try.
The Church History Museum is always fun for our kids. Lily and Annie loved seeing all the brides on the temple grounds taking pictures. All the flowers were being changed out for summer so the grounds weren't too pretty this trip, but the sunshine and trees were gorgeous.
The fountains at City Creek were a blast. We all got wet and laughed till our tummies hurt. There was almost no one around so we had a water fight. The girls pretended they had magical water powers to control the fountains. Tommy just loved being splashed and surprised by the water. That afternoon we went back to the hotel for a quick nap before our next adventure....the new aquarium!
I met my friend Liz from our BYU days and her four kids for an afternoon of exploring. The first thing her kids wanted to show us was this rope bridge. Annie jumped right on and trekked across it several times. Lily was very scared. Finally Lily got up the guts to give it a go. Can you see the fear on her face? About halfway across I thought she might have a breakdown, but my brave girl took a deep breath and kept going. She gave me a long hug afterward. And did not attempt the bridge again.
Tommy could not get enough of the fish. He would scream and pat on the glass when the fish swam by. I think the stripes on his shirt were a visual draw for the fish because they would swim closer to Tommy than any of the other kids. My favorite feature was the shark tunnel. It was a beautiful underground glass tunnel that surrounded us with fish and sharks of all kinds.
After the aquarium we went to Liz's house so the kids could play a little longer. Thanks for the awesome afternoon Liz!
And no vacation would be complete for our kids without one trip to the place they call "Old MacDonald's" aka McDonald's.
We liked City Creek so much we went back another day to play and have lunch.
Money can't buy happiness but it can buy Godiva chocolate covered strawberries...and for Annie, that's the same thing.
My attempt at getting a sweet sibling picture by the temple....ha! Families can be together forever, but they don't often take good pictures all together.
After another long day of playing and fun we picked up Daddy from his conference Friday afternoon and met Grammy and Grampy, cousins, aunts and uncles to decorate graves for Memorial Day. Then we drove home. Tommy was so tired, he fell asleep in the car and slept most of the drive home plus slept though the night. Friday night we had a full house: Grammy and Grampy, Uncle Clark, Uncle Jake, and three cousins stayed the night.
Saturday morning Grampy made our big crew a huge wonderful breakfast and took us to see the graves of his grandparents and other ancestors. We even recorded Grampy and Clark telling us some funny family stories. After visiting the graves we said goodbye to everyone and came home to our quiet house. What a wonderful week of travel and family!
Wow! What an amazing posting! SLC, Memorial Day, preschool graduation, keeping the kids alive...no wonder you're exhausted! Thanks so much for updating the blog. I loved it.
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