Eventually I want to write all about Trek... it was such an awesome experience for Bruce and I. We loved almost everything about it and there is definitely much to tell, but I am struggling to get a hold of all the photos! And any post about Trek wouldn't be complete without photos. So, until I have those, I will hold off on writing that post. Which means I am skipping straight to recording the fun and excitement of Road Trip 2014.
This year's road trip began on Monday, June 23rd. The day before had been a hectic one- early morning meetings, church, the Trek fireside, me jamming the middle finger of my left hand in a major way (as in, it is still quite painful today, 2 months later). There were moments when I wasn't even sure we would make it out the door bright and early Monday morning, but we did it.
The drive north was uneventful. The wee ones played and coloured and listened to three Boxcar Children audio books. I spent 12 hours catching up with my mum. We stopped in Beaver for our traditional stretching of the legs and eating of the ice cream. Before I knew it, we were pulling in to my parents neighborhood and Road Trip 2014 was well under way.
Our first few days were low key. We sat down and made a list of things we wanted to do while in Utah, then we started to cross them off.
First, the girls were super excited to be reunited with Rocket. Rocket use to be our car, but when I got the Jolly Roger (our mini van) for my 28th birthday, Rocket found a new home with my parents. Even though we love our van, we all have a soft spot for Rocket and it was very exciting to not only see him, but to ride in him a few times as well. Once with my baby sister as the driver! When did I get so old!?!
On several occasions, we walked to the park at a school near my parent's house. I think it was the first time my wee ones have ever seen a metal slide! The had so much fun on that thing. As you can see in the photos- Beebs was upset that they didn't make a three person train to go down the slide. That girl has some of the best facial expressions!
We got shave ice at Hokulia. Multiple times. We also had Day's donuts on pretty much a daily basis, and we ate them on my parents back patio as often as possible. The cooler temps felt like heaven.
We made a trip to the BYU bookstore where each of the wee ones picked out a new book. Beebs chose a Berenstain Bears book, Sunshine picked a Magic Tree House chapter book which she then read out loud each time we were in the car. Man Cub got a book called Crocodaddy.
One of our summer fun list items was to go to the splash pad. My parents have a little one just a few miles from their home, so we headed there with my nephew Bodhi one afternoon. Man Cub was not a fan, but the girls and Bodhi had a blast.
The Thursday after we arrived, my youngest sister and I took all the little ones to Salt Lake for the day. Aunt Tee works at the zoo and was able to get us in a couple different times during our stay. We loved watching the lions play soccer and seeing the zookeepers feed the rhinos and tell us lots of cool facts about them. And I always love watching my kiddos get a drink from the lion water fountain. Man Cub's favourite part of the zoo trip was playing with the water feature on our way out. He could have stayed there all day long and he got soaked as he played in it. We also got to ride the train and Aunt Tee let the children use her camera to take pictures of one another at the different exhibits. They loved that!
On our way to the zoo, we stopped off at the Madsen Cargo Bike warehouse to test drive a bucket bike. The children all loved their ride in a Madsen and I would love to own one. Unfortunately, the price is a little hefty, and quite honestly, it's not ideal for where we live. But it was so fun to take it for a whirl!
Man Cub quickly made himself comfortable at Nana's house... his favourite spot to play was behind the curtains in her living room. Somehow he managed to avoid pulling the curtains to the floor. Thank. Goodness. I still don't know how- he spent many hours hiding behind them with his cars along the window sill, or playing peek a boo and hide and seek, with that being his only hiding spot.
And amongst all these activities (which took place in the first four days of our trip!), I started the last leg of my half marathon training- adjusting my lungs to Utah's altitude! I did a couple of short runs and about killed myself on the hills. Then the Saturday after we arrived in Utah, I went on my most favourite run ever- just over 8 miles during which I ran past not one, but two beautiful temples. There is no other place in the world where I could run only 8 miles and see two temples. It was a really neat experience and just an awesome run all around. I call it my run down memory lane as I ran past not only the temples, but my old middle school, the tree streets where my two best friends lived, the first house we lived in during our few years in Provo, and many other important landmarks from those precious years. Utah isn't my top pick of places to live, but the years we spent in Provo while my dad attended BYU were good years and I look back on them with many fond memories. And I ran past many of those memories in preparation for my half! And when I would return from my run each day, our very fickle family cat would come curl up on the grass with me while I cooled off. He ended up getting sick while I was there and despite our best efforts at nursing him back to health, he passed away a day or two after we got back to Arizona. He was a stinker, but I miss him anyway! I'm glad for the snuggles on my parents front lawn, and for the one photo I got of the two of us together.
And that about covers the first five days of being in Utah... only about 18 more days to blog about! Ü
