BYU Cougars

If you ask James what his favorite part of our trip was he would now tell you BYU, and we're still trying to figure out why. On Wednesday we took the kids to Provo to walk around campus and see the new buildings. It was super hot that afternoon and we kept the kids going by promising ice-cream from the creamery. It was really neat to tour the new Hinckley Alumni House. I decided the interior of this building will be what our rustic mountain retreat will look like one day, if we end up millionaires!

We had to take pictures by the nostalgic Tree of Life statue on campus. We noticed it's showing its age with a lot of peeling and cracking paint.

Harrison was so enamored by the construction all around campus and would stop walking and stare at the big machines. I would have to say this was the boys' favorite things to see. They are putting in new underground maintenance tunnels so there was plenty of digging and building going on.

We passed this statue near the central quad outside the Bookstore. There's a little girl statue between the mom and dad and James ran up and said, "I want to be the girl," and stood right in front. We added Harrison and look what a happy family they make!

It was so hot that we didn't wait for the creamery but bought ice-cream in the Cougar Eat in the Wilkensen Center. It was kind of a bribe to the boys to be good while we shopped at the bookstore. I don't think it worked because while we were shopping they were both pretty cranky. I don't blame them since we walked in the hot sun for hours and it was getting close to dinnertime.


We happened hit the bookstore during their 24th of July sale and got 25% off all hats and t-shirts. We were already planning to buy our kids some BYU things so this was a bonus. I bought a shirt but it's in a pre-pregnancy size so I couldn't wear mine. We headed to the stadium to take pictures by the big cougar statue.





After we had seen everything and shopped we finally headed back to the car. James saw the curvy ramps that led to the Marriott Center and wanted to go up one to see the bell tower. We had pointed out the tower earlier in the day and he got the idea this was a place he had to go. Looking back I think we didn't want to battle a melt down, or maybe we just thought we should do something James actually wanted to do since we dragged him around boring buildings all afternoon. So we set off in the hot sun pushing a stroller up the ramp all the way to the Marriott Center. Then there was no ramp up to the road by the bell tower so we had to push the stroller up steep grass. We had to stop and take a picture since the whole experience was so painful it became funny. I'm not sure if James was disappointed he couldn't go inside because he got distracted by how funny it was to take the stroller down the stairs. There was no way we were going back the way we came since it was so far out of the way that we just headed down the 3 flights of stairs.




We took this opportunity to take my 27 week pregnancy picture. I'm feeling pretty good but haven't been out running since last week. I'm starting to feel my clothes getting tighter which makes me feel even bigger. I'm curious to see what my weight gain has been when I get home and see my doctor next week. It's been kind of nice skipping 2 months of OB appointments and I feel this pregnancy has flown by. This little boy has been by far the most active of the three. He isn't shy about making his presence known by rolling around across my belly. Even James has felt him move!

We were all so tired and hungry for dinner but I had Jeff stop by the Creamery so I could run in and buy my absolute favorite treat- BYU mint brownies. After all the kids were in bed that night I indulged my craving. What a perfect end to a nostalgic BYU day!

Temple Square and lots of candy

Julie was awesome to watch our kids while Jeff and I left early to drive to Salt Lake to attend a live session at the Temple there. We then planned to have her drive up 2 hours after us and meet us outside the temple with all the kids.

I have never been in the Salt Lake temple other than to do baptisms when I was in college so I was really looking forward to the experience. We were both worried about being tired since we went to a late showing of the movie "Inception" at an IMAX theater with Jeff's brother Timothy and his girlfriend. I should never have worried because I was so captivated the entire time with the beautiful architecture and being a live session.


While sitting inside I was really touched by the sacrifice of the early saints who came to this valley as pioneers and sacrificed to build this gorgeous, amazing building. I felt it was a special way to remember the pioneers with the 24th of July this week.

We ate lunch in the temple cafeteria since we had to meet up with Julie. I thought it was fun that Jeff's entree rang up as "temple pork." We quickly changed clothes in the van in the parking garage and ran into Julie just as she was getting there with the kids.

We only had a short time to spend at temple square before we had to be to our scheduled factory tours. It was fun taking James to see the large Christus statue in the visitors center. He kept pointing at the universe painted on the ceiling and saying, " Look at all the Milky Ways." We had just enough time to go to the South Visitors Center to see the new 6 ft tall replica of the temple with cut away sides showing all the rooms inside to scale. It even had mini working chandeliers!




After leaving the temple we just made it to the Mrs. Field's cookie factory for our scheduled tour. We all had to wear hair nets, including Luke, who is only 4 months old! They didn't allow pictures in the factory but there really wasn't a lot to see. It turns out this is their really slow season so there wasn't much activity except a few tins being packaged with cookies. They don't make the dough here, only bake it to send out in their gift orders. I'd love to come back at Christmas when they are swamped with orders.



It was much more fun at the Sweet's candy factory tour. Again we all donned the hair nets and even had to remove all rings and other jewelry. They even made Callie cut off her plastic wrist band from her admission at a water park, even though there was no way she could have taken it off. They gave us plenty of samples along the way like a giant jelly bean, chocolate orange stick, jelly bar, and salt water taffy. The best by far was the taffy and we ended up buying a pound in their gift store before we left.







Afterwards we drove to Orem and met up with Craig and Timothy at Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We all had reading coupons which got each kid a free meal for reading 5 books.

Utah and cooler weather

We were not at all sad to leave Las Vegas and the incredible heat. We managed to get off pretty early since I had packed our suitcases the night before. Harrison took a really good nap and James was entertained playing games on Jeff's iPhone so the drive was really nice. We even hit a big thunderstorm with pounding rain and we welcomed the cool weather. Our van has an outside temperature gauge and we watched it go from 102 degrees when we left Vegas to the 80's in Cedar City and then back to the 90's.

We are staying the week at Julie and Craig's house in Spanish Fork. We slept in the basement where it was nice and cool and it was refreshing to actually need a blanket at night.

It was nice to spend the first day here just relaxing and hanging out at Julie's house. They had a big inflatable pool in their backyard which the kids played in with water squirters. After awhile they started getting creative and offered to wash the tires on our van. Callie asked if she was going to get paid for doing it- what an enterprising girl!

The kids all ate dinner outside since they were still wet from swimming all afternoon. James decided orange soda is his new favorite. I don't see how he can have a favorite since we rarely had soda at home. We're going to have to go through a junk food detox when we get home, mom and dad included!

Another favorite thing for our kids was riding bikes in the garage and driveway. It's much cooler here so I don't mind sitting outside and watching them. Harrison is looking so grown up and has changed so much since we started this trip.

Julie's kids have a fun craft called Biggie Beads. You print out a pattern on the computer and set a clear tray over it. Then you put the coordinating bead colors on the little pegs in the tray to make a design. After it's finished you iron the top to melt it and make your pattern permanent. James begged all day to get to do it so we finally let the kids.

Jeff asked if you could design your own pattern and Julie said no. So, being of the engineering and creative mind, Jeff spent his day creating a program you can click on a color and place beads on a computer version then print it out to make your own pattern. Amazing! I think he should contact the company and sell them the program.

Sharks and more

On Saturday we took the kids to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay Casino. We were thinking we'd get the local discount from the $16.95 ticket price but it ended up being the 10 year birthday of the aquarium so the tickets were $10 adults and $5 kids. We all got birthday shark crowns and a cookie with the name of the aquarium on top.

All the older kids were given these "phones" for the audio tour. Harrison insisted he get to hold one but wouldn't keep it held to his ear long enough to hear anything.

There was a touch tank for the various rays. Harrison would look but there was no way he'd put his hand in the water.

Happy Birthday Shark Reef Aquarium! We wanted pictures of our kids with their mascot but James wouldn't go near it unless we went with him.

After the aquarium we all piled into Darrel's van and he dropped us off at the curb by the Bellagio fountain so the kids could watch the show. Luckily only had to wait about 10 minutes for the fountains to start since there is no set schedule. They all loved the dancing water and after it was over we called Darrel to come pick us up. Then a second show started! We were able to see the second part before Darrel got there and we met him along the road to the Bellagio parking. It was nice of him to do this for us since I really didn't want to take the kids through the casino which is what we had to do if we parked in the lot.

Angela teaches preschool out of her house and has an entire room full of toys and fun activities. James was in heaven! Angela even let him get out the paints after Harrison took a nap. I think James is really looking forward to going to the big preschool at Glencoe High School in the fall. The last day we were there we all helped to a pre-school clean up to sort all the toys back into their bins since toys were everywhere.

Darrel and Angela are expecting a baby in December. Their youngest is 6 years old and after many years they were able to get pregnant again. I think they're going to have an adjustment when their little girl comes since it's been so long since they've had to baby-proof anything. Angela set her primary bag by the door as she usually does. We wondered why Harrison was being so quiet and we looked over and saw he had found her bag which had tootsie pops inside. He had helped himself to a dozen or so!

Darrel was super patient with Harrison the whole time we were here. While he was working on his computer Harrison climbed up on the ledge where it was sitting. Darrel let him climb behind it and made him a fort with the window shades. This became his favorite place to play. Darrel even gave him old CDs to play with.