Utah Trip

It's been a week since we were in Utah, so this is a little late, but I wanted to include pictures and didn't get a chance to upload them until yesterday.

We left last Wednesday morning around 7 am and dropped Corey's car off at his work so it would be available when he was back in town on Thursday and Friday for his finals. The drive was long and exhausting. Because Utah is an hour ahead of us, leaving at 7 meant that we really left at 8, Utah time. Just north of Flagstaff, the wind really picked up and between Flagstaff and Page, near the Grand Canyon area, we drove for about 50 miles through a terrible dust storm where visibility was at 0 in some spots. I was driving since Corey had closed on Tuesday night and didn't get home until about 3 am. It was miserable driving through that dust and all the high winds (which continued from Flagstaff until just north of the Point of the Mountain).

Westley sleeping in the car

Travis in the car

We stopped in Page for lunch and ate at the city park across from the high school. The boys got to run around and stretch their legs, even though it was really windy and a bit chilly. With all the other stops we made for bathroom breaks and diaper changes, the drive seemed so long and miserable, and we didn't make it to West Valley, where we stayed, until after 9 pm. Once we got to Nephi, it started snowing also. It even snowed some on Thursday as well, and I was worried it would be too cold for all the outdoor stuff planned for the wedding.

Westley and Caleb at the park in Page

The lovely snow that welcomed us to Utah

So we arrived on Wednesday night after 9 pm to my cousin Andy's house in West Valley. We pretty much unloaded what we needed for the night and went to bed. Corey had to be up at 4:30 am to get to the airport for his flight at 5:45 so he could go back to Phoenix and take his finals. He was gone until late afternoon on Friday.

On Thursday morning, I went to the Valley Fair Mall kids' club with Andy's wife Lori and all the kids. After that, I ran some errands and met up with Aaron and Kaori to give them Maggie's clothes for Adam and Eve's wedding and for them to give me some diapers for Eliza. We had lunch at Andy and Lori's and then, after naps, I took the kids for a visit with my old college roommate, Jessica. She has three kids close in age to mine, so they played together while we visited.

On Friday morning, I tried to get in touch with some friends of mine for visits, but none of it worked out. So Lori and I put the kids down for early naps and then, right after lunch, we took all the kids to the nearby fitness club kids' center, which was very similar to Makutu's Island (all you Arizona folks may be familiar with this), except that below the massive jungle gym was a mini-city for the kids. There was a car race track, a little grocery store complete with plastic food items and real kid-size grocery carts (courtesy of Harmon's), a police station, a fire station, a theatre, a "library" (more like a reading nook), and a few rooms for video games. The best part was that it only cost $2.15 for kids over 3 and free for adults! Since I only have one that age, I only had to pay $2.15! Sure beats Makutu's $32.50 for my family right now! Unfortunately, I left the camera in the car, so I didn't get any pictures. After that, I went to pick up Corey from the airport. We went straight to Sugarhouse for the BBQ for Adam and Eve, and arrived by 4:15. We stopped at A&W to get drinks (we were SO thirsty from playing at the kids' center. Then we went over to Sugarhouse park and walked around the pond watching the ducks.


The rest of the weekend was wedding stuff, so I will use another post to talk about that and a third for the drive home.