Utah

In July, I packed up the kids and drove to Utah to visit my friend Maria.  Ben was busy this summer with work and school so I thought it would be fun to take a little road trip.  Forget that I hate road trips.  I didn't want to waste the summer so I opted to suffer through the driving in favor of some fun.  In the end, the driving wasn't too bad at all.  The trip on the whole however, was challenging to say the least.  The night before we left Liam fell out of his bunk bed in the middle of the night which resulted in a trip to the ER with Ben.  I was really worried that Liam seriously injured his back because he was in a lot of pain but it turned out that he just had a sprained wrist.  By morning he ditched the splint and we were on our way...just a few hours later than we planned on leaving.  Prior to the bunk bed fall, Liam had been on antibiotics for an ear infection and eye drops for pink eye, but he was on the mend, so we packed up the meds and hit the road.  We made it to Utah in about 13 hours.  We got settled in, ate a late dinner and went to bed.  That night, Ammon didn't sleep at all, like AT ALL.  By 5:00 am after rummaging through Maria's house for tylenol or ibuprofen, I headed out to Walmart only to set off John and Maria's home alarm.  Fun times!  Let's just say that the following several days were interesting.  By the time we headed home a day earlier than planned, I had a bunch of sick kids: 4 cases of pink eye (we were sharing the drops on hand), 3 ear infections (plus one more that came on the day we got home), 2 trips to urgent care, lots of snotty noses.  Keeping track of who needed what medication was enough to send me over the edge, but thankfully we were staying with a great friend who's as crazy as I am and helped me laugh through the chaos.  We did manage to squeeze in some fun between doses of ibuprofen and trips to the doctor.  We didn't get to nearly as many of the fun adventures as I had hoped, but maybe my expectations were set a little high to begin with.  Road trips with six kids are hard.  Road trips with sick kids and no hubby back up...really really hard.  

The first day of our trip we visited a little pond near the Trump's house.  The weather was weird because it was overcast and little rainy, but still hot.  Very different than California.

This is how Ammon looked a good portion of the trip.

The Trumps have this awesome swing in their basement.  The kids loved it.

We headed to Salt Lake to see the church sites.  I was excited for the kids to be wowed by Temple Square but they seemed less than impressed.  When asked what their favorite part was they said the cool fountains at the mall across the street.  

In the tabernacle.  Liam was not wanting to take a picture.

At the visitor's center.  We had fun enjoying the air conditioning and the exhibits.

More fountain fun

The temple!  

Maria, Sydney, and Sierra

These two were fast friends

Playing at the Children's exhibit of the Church History Museum

The entire day Seth walked around holding his ear.  Poor guy!

I don't think Eli felt good either because he just wanted to sit and play on my phone.

Watching the American Fork parade.

We got to visit my friend Katie and her family for dinner a couple nights.  She's kinda like my long lost sister. It was fun catching up.  Katie and I picked right back up as if we'd seen each other last week.  We laughed that we were wearing the same color shirt.  Great minds think alike!  

Katie's kids and my kids.

Katie and her sweet husband Jason.

Katie's cousin Corrinne is a good friend of mine from high school.  She was really instrumental in me joining the church and has always been a great example.  She couldn't make it to dinner the first night, so we had to get together again.  It was such a blast to reconnect and realize that we're still so much the same.  Notice how Katie and I are matching again?

Our last day in Utah Maria and I packed up the kids and went to This is the Place, State Park.  

The park was so cool.  There was way more stuff to see than we had time to see it in, but we all enjoyed learning more about the Mormon pioneers.

Waiting for the tram to take us to the bottom of the hill.

Maria and Abby on the tour of Brigham Young's home.

In front of Brigham Young's home.

Waiting to watch a native american performance.

Making pioneer crafts

Pulling the handcarts.  Ammon will just crawl to Zion!

Panning for gold

Maria and Abby on the train.

With the Brigham Young and Joseph Smith statue

I had wanted to take the kids to the BYU campus to show them where I had lived when I went to school there, but we didn't have time or patience for a walking tour so we settled for a quick drive and stop at the creamery.

My buddy Maria.  When I first met her I was told that she didn't want anymore friends.  I'm glad she made an exception for me!  We had fun staying up late chatting and catching up.  We're really similar in our crazy-mommy-ness.  

Maria and John  They were so patient with the house full of sickkies.

Playing bball with John.  I think this was while I was gone one of the times to urgent care!  

All in all, I don't think I'll brave another road trip by myself again, but hey, it's what family memories are made of right???