August 8

Our trip in Utah was great.  Monday morning I dropped Ellie off with my parents and the rest of us went to 7 peaks.  Cade loved the slides and Cami loved jumping around in the kid pools and the lazy river.  We all had a lot of fun.

Tuesday morning Kirk, Tom, Scott and Connor all left early to go golfing.  We took the kids to the BYU museum of Palentology and saw some cool dinosaurs.  Lisa talked to one of the students working there and he knew Tom and gave us a special tour of the storage room and the place where they use drills to dig out bones.  He even gave each of kids a chunk of dinosaur bone.  We drove to Bridal Veil falls and had lunch.  The kids and I did a quick walk up to the falls and back, but Ellie was done and we didn't stay long.  That afternoon Kara, Lisa, Laura (Kirk's cousin) and I went shopping and left the kids home.  It was a fun day.

Wednesday we loaded up Scott's new side-by-sides, chairs, coolers and people and drove to Strawberry reservoir to do some 4 wheeling.  It was fun, but pretty slow.  We had 12 people and only 4 seats.  I got lucky and went on an early ride.  I've never driven a 4 wheeler before.  It was pretty fun.  We went up on a ridge and could see quite a ways.  While I was riding, Kirk and Tom took the kids to the visitor center and for a short hike.  Unfortunately the visitor center was closed and so they didn't see too much.  We were able to escape the heat and wind by hanging out in Scott's trailer.  He had a door and windows put in it and it was pretty nice.  Skeeter decided to roll around in dead fish and stunk all day.  Cade and Cami thought it was super fun especially when they got to go on their long rides.

Thursday was a busy day.  Scott, Kara, Kirk and I got up and went to the 7 am temple session.  I had forgotten how big Provo Temple was!  We then took Cade and Cami back to 7 peaks for a couple of hours.  That afternoon the guys went golfing again and we stayed home and played with the kids.  I ended up having some super onery kids that evening.  At one point all three of them were crying.  Cade decided to gag on his chicken at dinner and throw up in the napkin drawer.  Luckily they all wen to bed well and Kara and I got to go on a late night Dairy Queen run with the guys when they got back.  It was a long day though.

Friday Kirk went fishing at Currant Creek.  Kara and Scott took Connor back to 7 peaks.  I took the kids and picked up my parents and we all went to the aquarium in Sandy.  None of us had been there before and it was really fun.  We saw 2 4-D movies, seahorses, octopus, rays, turtles, otters and lots of fish.  Our favorite exhibit was an aquarium tunnel with sharks swimming all over.  We ended up spending 5 hours there and saw much of it twice, just for fun.  It was fun to spend time with my parents and the kids too.

Saturday morning we met my parents at the donut shop and got the traditional Grandpa donuts.  Cade and Cami downed theirs in a few minutes.  Cade likes the tiger tail donut and Cami loves anything with sprinkles.  From there we went and fed the ducks.  Then we went to my parents house and picked raspberries.  The kids had fun playing with toys and jumping on the love sac downstairs.  We also took everyone to Cabelas and visited with my grandma and grandpa Waters.  Funny story from Cabelas:  We walked around a room with lots of deer and elk and other animals.  In the center of the room is a talking maniquin that scared Cade and Cami.  They later told Kirk's parents that we saw a dead guy at Cabelas.  I think they thought the guy was taxidermy just like the animals.  That evening we headed back to Provo and loaded the truck.  We left early Sunday morning (5:00) and ended up taking the long way home through Montana and Spokane because of the forest fires in Oregon.

It was a great week.  It was fun for the kids to see their grandparents' houses.  It was fun to be able to hang out with the Morris' after the kids went to bed.  It is always nice to get away from home and the responsibilities that come with it.