Utah Summer 2018

We just returned from the most wonderful visit to Utah!!  How I miss that beautiful state and the incredible mountains!!!

We started our visit with a few days at a cabin with some of our favorite cousins!  Grins enjoyed the mountains, trees and 4 wheeler so much he didn't even mind being surrounded by all girls!! :)

The girls had a blast being silly together!  The favorite activity of the trip was "playing school" with "Miss Sophy" as the teacher.  We laughed that we are on summer vacation yet they want to play school!

While in Utah, we hiked to Lake Mary to visit the resting spot of my dear friend Bea.  I miss her dearly!  But being there in her special spot on Lake Mary was so peaceful and serene, I knew it was the perfect place for her.  We enjoyed sharing some silence and some fond memories and gratitude we felt for having had such a lovely person in our lives. (Sadly, our Dad was ill and couldn't come with us, but he was there in spirit)

The hike was hot, very dusty, and we were short on water, but my sweet children took it all in stride.  These four mean everything to me.

We paid a visit to Thanksgiving Point and recreated a picture we took 7 or 8 years ago.  The kids look a LOT different but the shark hasn't changed a bit! ;)

Likely because I booked our airline reservations at night after a very busy day, I somehow managed to select a SEVEN HOUR layover in Denver!!  What was I thinking?!  Initially we planned to go explore Denver but since we'd been traveling since 3am and most things were closed for the holiday, we just slept in the airport.  We did squeeze in a bit of exploring while we were there, though, and enjoyed some rides on the "underground railroad" at the Denver airport! :)

The Cabin

With summer drawing to a close, we decided to take a quick, day trip to the family cabin in the mountains.  We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery and, of course the rushing rapids and frigid swimming hole!!!

There is a large rock overlooking the swimming hole that we used to jump off as children.  Actually, I think I only ever jumped off once, as I tend to be quite cautious.  The Mr, however, is much more daring, and jumps off at least once every trip.  So he bribed - er, motivated the kids (with promises of Ben and Jerry's) to jump.  We were surprised when they ALL went for it!!  Angel and Grins even did it again!!!

Trip Across the Country - Part 5 (THE END!)

Day 12: OREGON!  We finally arrived at our destination!  Tired of cheap hotels and unhealthy snack food, we were grateful to arrive in Oregon (but we gave thanks for the modern conveniences of A/C, restaurants, hotels and a car that drove us much more quickly and comfortably than our pioneer ancestors who crossed this country decades ago!!!)

After 12 days in a car, we were feeling pretty silly! :)

We were greeted by aunt Abbie and Grandma!  When we finally pulled up to their house, The Mr. and I immediately got out to stretch our legs.  Imagine our surprise when the children remained in the van!  We said "You've been in the car for hours - don't you want to get out?"  We had to literally drag and coerce them out of the car - our SuzyQ (our van) had become our cozy little "home" and the kids were sorry to see our road trip come to an end.  It was quite endearing! :)

It was an enormously successful journey!  Not only did we make it to our final destination in one piece, but we were blessed with the incredible opportunity of seeing many parts of the country we had never seen before, and enjoyed wonderful time together as a family, making memories which are sure to last a lifetime.  You can be sure there are more road trips in our future! :)

Trip Across the Country - Part 4 (Are we THERE yet?!)

Days 9-10: WYOMING

A friend from the Mr's and my college days lives in Wyoming, and we hadn't seen her in 15 years (that made us feel old!), so we decided to pay her and her darling family a visit.  They so generously hosted us, and our children played together beautifully! We all had a WONDERFUL time!

.After our visit with the DeGraws, we headed to Yellowstone National Park.  On our way, we saw SNOWwhich amazed and delighted the children!!!  We couldn't believe there was snow when the temperature was in the 90s and we were sweating!!  It was SUCH a hot day that we welcomed the refreshing stop!We had fun throwing snowballs and sliding down the mountainside!

Yellowstone National Park was stunningly beautiful!  We could have spent WEEKS there, and were disappointed we only had one day.  We will certainly be back soon!  We did make our way around the whole loop and were able to see quite a bit, including Old Faithful Geyser.

Here we are at a lake:

Grins took his first "selfie"

Naturally, we enjoyed the 'stinky' hot springs.  

One of the "clay pots" was gurgling so much it spewed hot clay on us!  That was pretty exciting!!

Of course, seeing Old Faithful erupt was one of the highlights of our visit!  

Another highlight was swimming in the stream! The cold (but not frigid!) water was refreshing and invigorating given the heat of the day!

We thoroughly enjoyed the abundance of wildlife we witnessed while in the park!  Here, we pulled over and exited our car to watch a buffalo in a field beyond a small stream.

We watched as he crossed the stream....

But when he drew nearer to us, we quickly hopped back in our car! 

We saw so many beautiful sights and remarkable, breathtaking views.  

It was with heavy hearts that we had to leave the park.  Had any hotel or campground within driving distance had vacancy, we would certainly have extended our time at Yellowstone.  Sadly, however, we were unable to find lodging, so we knew it was time to move on.

DAY 11: MONTANA

Montana was gorgeous!!!  Again, we wished we had planned more time there!  We would have loved to venture into Glacier National Park but had been on the road long enough that we were feeling ready to move on.  We determined that we would take a trip to Glacier soon, though!  It was beautiful!

Day 12: IDAHO - WASHINGTON

We drove through Idaho, then stopped and stayed in Washington: Our final state before Oregon!  We stopped in Spokane and spent the afternoon at Manito Park, an incredible park boasting multiple BEAUTIFUL gardens and ponds!  We saw ducks, birds, enjoyed some cherries from a tree, and studied dozens of different flower varieties in the Rose Garden.  An entire afternoon wasn't nearly long enough to explore the garden, so we are hoping for a chance to visit it again soon!

   It was beautiful, despite the fact that much of the foliage was out of season and not in bloom.  I can only imagine how amazing it is when in full bloom!!!

The rose garden had HUNDREDS of different varieties of roses!  Who knew there were so many breeds?

We took pictures with some of our favorites.  Here is Angel, with "Angel Face"...

 ...and "Little Darling"

It was a spectacular visit!

Trip Across the Country - Part 3

Day 6 (July 4th): MINNESOTA - SOUTH DAKOTA

I wish we'd taken more time to explore Minnesota! Angel had studied it the previous year in school, and I'm sure we would have had a great time there!  As it was, we were in a hurry to get to Sioux Falls for the Fourth of July Celebrations, so we just stopped for our token state sign picture, and were on our way. :(  Maybe next time!  (Note: the scratches on poor Angel's face were from Mt. Olympus Water Park, where she face planted during a wave in Poseidon's Rage wave pool....)

SOUTH DAKOTA

Who knew there was SO much to see and do in South Dakota???!!!  We could have spent days and even weeks exploring the state - there were so many fun things to do, so we had to be very selective in what we chose.  Our first stop was Falls Park.  It was BEAUTIFUL!

We spent several hours exploring the park, then visited an amazing Children's Science museum, and finally, headed to a local carnival where we played, had a picnic, enjoyed an incredible Independence Day celebration, and finally, experienced some INCREDIBLE fireworks UP CLOSE.  No exaggeration - the fireworks were lit about 20 feet in front of us and exploded literally over our heads.  We had ashes falling down on us - that's how close they were!  After the first explosion, Wiggles began to panic, to the point that I had to get up and RUN (not walk) her to our car (1/2 a mile away) - but that still wasn't enough to calm her fears.  I explained what fireworks were, tried to reassure her of our safety, gently sang to her, stroked her hair, rubbed her back, etc - but the only way I ultimately got her to 'calm down' (sort of) was by turning our car radio up very high, putting a blanket over the two of us like a fort, and holding her close.  We remained like that until the rest of the family returned from watching the show.  She had not done this before, so we weren't expecting it - but it will probably be awhile before we try fireworks again with her; it was pretty traumatic, the poor dear! :)  Since then, she has also developed a similar phobia of thunder.  How we love our tender-hearted little one!

(Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of us at the Fourth of July Celebration.)

Day 7: SOUTH DAKOTA

We headed west and had a LOT more fun in South Dakota!  I was really shocked by how much there was to see!!!  We stopped in Mitchell at the Corn Palace (I remember stopping there as an 8 year old girl on a road trip with my grandparents!)  It was under construction, so much of it was bare, but it was still quite impressive!!

Then we headed west again and stopped in Wall - home of the famous Wall Drug Store and community.  

There were some small fountains there, which were very refreshing, given the incredible heat of the day!  But the fountains sprayed very briefly at each spout, moving about in a random pattern.  Wiggles could never seem to time it right - so she seemed to spend nearly all of the time waiting by a spout, only to give up and move - shortly after which the water would shoot out.  It was so entertaining to watch - and eventually, she got wet! :)

The big dinosaur was a hit when he started moving and talking!

DAY 8: SOUTH DAKOTA - WYOMING

We stayed the night in Rapid City, SD where we attended church that morning, and then hit the road in the afternoon! :)  We first stopped by Mount Rushmore.  We didn't actually enter the monument, since it was Sunday - instead, we just did a 'drive by' and a couple of stops to see it from various angles.

Here, the Mr. thought it would be fun to have each person in the photo pose as one of the faces on Mt. Rushmore (in their respective order).  This was the result. :)

We stopped at another site where we could see Washington's profile.   Angel came up with the clever idea of pointing to Washington....

...while Grins, darling boy that he is, decided to pick Washington's nose.

Finally, we stopped by the Crazy Horse monument, where we experienced beautiful Native American cultural arts, including dancing, singing, bead work, sculptures, and more!  It was a beautiful experience and a wonderful opportunity to learn more about Native American culture, which is near and dear to the Mr's heart!