Trip To Utah

We decided several years ago that we would make the trek to Utah every other year. I was born there and lived there until I was 8. My parents are the only ones of their siblings to ever leave Utah and stay away. I remember HATING it when we moved away. I wouldn't get to see my cousins or grandparents as often and that broke my heart. As I have gotten older I have learned to appreciate my life away from all the family in Utah and I can even honestly say that I LOVE Oregon. My kids love going to Utah and I love that they are getting to know

their extended family. It is so fun to watch them play with my cousins kids and to form bonds with their great grandparents. Lucky for my kids, they still have 4 living great grandparents that reside in Utah and we had the chance to spend time with all of them. In the picture above Ivy is hanging out with her Great Grandma Randall, my Mom's Mom.Here's me and my monkeys with Grandma and Grandpa Randall.

My Grandpa has always had a funny sense of humor. When I was a kid he thought it was so funny to try to convince me that when singing the alphabet I needed to say "P" twice....."L,M,N,O,P,P". He would often introduce himself as Aunt Mary when we would come to visit too. I have good memories of my Grandparents and am SO SAD that I got no pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Tripp.

One of the first things we did when we got to Utah is go to Park City which was the location of the last summer Olympics. We had a great time seeing the sights at Olympic Park. The kids had a blast on their bobsled ride and came in 2nd place:0)

Tonya took gold in the downhill racing competition.

Matt got to run the torch.

Check out this guy training for freestyle skiing. It was so cool watching these crazy souls speed down the freestyle ramp, then twist and turn and land perfectly in the swim pool. It would be awesome to see on the snow. We met my sister Kari and her family at Olympic Park and had a good time doing the extreme zip line. No good pictures of that.

On Sunday we went out to visit my Uncle Keith and Aunt Janet. They hosted a BBQ for us and invited their kids over so we could all chat and get caught up. It was alot of fun. My niece Karley and Ivy found these bug nets and had a blast running around the backyard with them on their heads:0)This is the best picture I came away with of my cousin Rebecca. I think Ivy took this pic. Bec and I spent alot of time together as kids. I remember playing school in her room and roller skating lessons in her basement all the time, not to mention tons of slumber parties and even some double dates as we got older. Now we have kids the same age and I always love it when we get to spend time together. It's times like these that make me wish we lived closer.

We took the kids to "This Is The Place Heritage Park" one day. It is this fun pioneer village where all the people are dressed in period clothing and there are lots of pioneer activities to do. We went on a horse and buggy ride, a train ride, toured old cabins and houses, got to see an old printing press in action, went to the school where we got a lesson and learned about the "Deseret Alphabet", an alphabet the pioneers developed to make it easier to learn letter sounds. Very strange! We like this place.Ivy in one of the fun playhouses.My sister Kari trying to keep Karley balanced on her horse.

Kari's foot after the horse stepped on it. OUCH!

Kari on her way to the hospital. Warning: If you get stepped on by a horse it will break your pinkie toe! Sorry Kar, what a crappy way to end your day at the pioneer village. I'm glad you got to join us for dinner that night. Happy healing.This is a picture of what the Deseret Alphabet looked like. I don't understand why this made it easier to learn letter sounds. All it did for me was confuse my brain, but that's not hard to do I guess.This says "I love you Mom" according to the Deseret Alphabet. Thanks Ry, I love you too.We had a blast at Lagoon! We spent the first half of the day at Lagoona Beach riding the slides and the last half of the day riding the rides. Next time we do this I think we'll do it it two days. There was alot we didn't get to, but we still had so much fun.

I love this picture of Sophia with Rylie in the background.Matt, Eli and cousin Aayla on the lazy river.

Lagoona Beach had a really great kids area where there were smaller scale slides and these fun swings. Besides the wasp that stung my finger, we had a great day:0)