Family Vacation part 2- Utah

The second leg of our family vacation was spent in Utah. We spent time in Springville (not Provo), Lehi, West Jordan, and SLC. A H U G E thank you to Danny and Kelly for letting invade their home for four days and five nights! We had a great time!

We got to Springville Tuesday evening. We wanted to eat somewhere unique to the area, and after some time, we ended up at the BYU creamery. The burgers I shared with Anna were pretty good, and the ice cream was quite good too (Anna and I picked at the kids' ice cream). The most notable thing was how busy they were the whole time we were there. The line for ice cream was continuously long.


Once we were done at the creamery, we headed over to a little hole in the wall named Sammy's for Pie Shakes. Sara and Josh swear by these, so how could we resist try some our selves? Anna got the banana cream pie shake. I had the mint oreo pie shake. Kelly and Danny got the pumpkin and coconut ones. They were nice enough to share some bites. They were all very good. And if you're wondering what I "pie shake" is... They put a slice of pie into the shake and blend it all up with the ice cream and milk. It sounds crazy, but it works.

Wednesday, we met my good friend Ginell at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. There's a VERY cool dinosaur museum there. The kids had a blast with all the hands on stuff there is to do there.

Here we are at a build your own dinosaur area.

They got to play Paleontologists.

Also at Thanksgiving Point, there are shops and eateries, garden and farm areas, and this very cool interactive water sculpture. The kids played there for about an hour, and loved every minute of it. It was great fun to watch them try and wet each other.

Tegan preferred to play with the tiny dinosaur toys we bought at the museum.

The ice cream counter had amazing deals! Small kid cones for 25 cents! That's what Jennan and Tegan are enjoying in this picture. The 50 cent cone was quite large, and the dollar cone was even bigger! (Anna and I got the dollar sized ones.)

That night we went to Tucano's for some delicious Brazilian style BBQ. SOOOO good! We stuffed ourselves. The grilled fresh pineapple was awesome.

Thursday we hung out a bit more with Ginell, and also went to dinner with some of the other friends we have out in Utah that are from the old group I ran around with before my mission. Jared came with his two little boys. Kara came with her 4 kids. Even Ginell and Kara's parents were in town, so they came too. It was great to see them all and have a chance to hang out. It just wasn't enough time. Next time we need to spend more of the day all together. A big thank you to Ginell for making the arrangements.

Friday we went to Cabela's to see the "dead animal zoo" as Anna put it. There are tons of taxidermied game animals there. Plus lots and lots of cool outdoor and camping stuff, all under one roof. We met up with my old friend Danny there with his family.

Cabela's is across the 15 fwy from Thanksgiving Point. We went back there to go play in a children's garden we heard about, that had an area where the kids could play in the water. Again, the kids had a great time. After here, we went back to the water sculpture for more water play... and ice cream!

We decided to stay an extra day and go to Temple Square on Saturday. Kelly went with us. (She was with us all day Friday, too.) She was a good guide. Here we are with the Christus in the north visitor's center. There were a lot of things to see at the visitor's center.

We also went to the top of the church office building to look out it's observation deck on the 24th? or 26th? floor (one of those). The elevator gets you up there in 22 seconds! We also saw the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith building. The movie is very well done.


Here are the kids in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

After some lunch, we made it into the conference center. Here is one of the water fountains in one of the lobbies. We got to inside and see how truly HUGE it is, even from the inside! Duncan recognised it as the place we watch church on tv. It was a good teaching opportunity.

We also made our way out to Bridal Veil Falls. Tegan was tuckered out.

Anna and the rest of the kids made it to the base of the falls to check it out. There were a lot of people there. We didn't stay very long. But we were glad to see it.

That next morning we started our (long) drive home. Traffic was HORRIBLE. But we made it home without any problems.

We had such a good time. We already have a list of things to do next time.