Once Upon a Time (post #2)

(the camera phone story)

This baby elephant was seriously adorable!

The Church History Museum has the awesomest kids floor! Really, they do a a great job. Here Ethan is fishing off the back of Nephi's boat.

The end of that day was topped off with dessert and a drink at The Lion House kitchen, followed by dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Uncle Brad, Aunt Jen, and their adorable twins Bryn and Bree.
Ethan and I wanted to try out Brigham Young's favorite drink, Sarsaparilla!  It was good, until the liquid hit my taste buds and they revolted. Ethan lasted a few more drinks until he decided it wasn't quite what we had hoped for. Let's just say that there is a reason they don't have sarsaparilla soda pop for sale in store now-a-days. You'll also notice the empty plates with chocolate crumbs. This was our "we are on vacation and going crazy pre-dinner dessert." That was awesome as well.

The next day was our attempt to go to Lagoon, which ended in us leaving Utah early, but happily still making it to his very first Pinewood Derby. Yeah, Baby! Because you're just not officially a Cub Scout until you've done the Derby.
In this picture below, Ethan and I are paying a game where we draw our favorite parts of the trip and the other has to figure out what it is. Ethan is wearing his hogle Zoo shirt that we had to buy because he didn't listen to me when I said for him to pack a hoodie. I told him it might be cold there no matter how hot it was in Idaho before we left. I was right, and the Kohl's we had stopped at in Sandy before hopping on the TRAX didn't have one single piece of cold wheather atire.

I have a whole bunch of pictures of me on there that Ethan took, and this is the only one I'll be putting up. Because it's fuzzy.

Yes! Back in Idaho. It's like taking a breath of fresh air. I love Idaho! Here the dark clouds weren't quite bringing down the thunder on us, but still we had rain until we hit Burley. We took pictures constantly and sent them to Brett so he could experiance what we were doing, too.

We got home with just enough time to run in the house, add some weights to his derby car, and throw on his uniform, before dashing out of the house to get to the church on time. We had originally been planning on missing the Derby because we had to get to Utah in between my Spring classes ending and Summer classed beginning, but we were very happy to get there, even if it meant missing out on Lagoon.

Lagoon was simply not to be missed though. So that very same weekend found me and my family packing up and heading straight back to Utah to stay at Brad and Jen's and play at Lagoon for a day. My sweetheart Ethan spent most of his day packing around his baby brother to all the rides he could go on. We so did not even ask him to do that, but that's what he wanted to do more than anything.

This trip was pretty special to me. I love my children, but when they are all together they tend to bicker and argue and do their best to drive me crazy. When they are apart, my kids are so sweet and fun to be around. I loved getting to spend several days with just me and the E-man. I spent most of my day at temple square with a lump in my throat because my first born had just been baptized and seeing him grow up and become a member of The Church is a bit overwhelming.

I think one of my favorite parts of the trip happened at the Hogle Zoo. He saw this pretty cool playground area and wanted to go play on it, but he got to the toys and jumped on a few things, then decided he was just too big for them anymore. I say it was my favorite only because I thought it was fascinating to watch the different emotions run over his face as he tried to decided what was age appropriate for him to do. Once again, my kid is getting huge and I both love and hate it.