Summer Fun Part 3: Utah Trip!

Now I'm picking up where I left off in the chronicling our summer adventures. Friday the 6th we booked it home from Craguns, rested up a little, did some laundry, then headed out bright and early Sunday morning (5:00 a.m.! I'm impressed with us too) for our pilgrimage to Utah. One reason we left so early is to get a bunch of miles behind us on our first day, but the other reason was day two of driving itself: it fell on my 40th birthday. Bum, bum, buuuuuuuh. (That's supposed to sound like ominous music in your head when you read it.) We wanted to actually spend part of the day celebrating instead of driving, and we managed to pull it off.

We swung up to my mom and dad's house late Monday afternoon after a relatively easy drive. We had plenty of time to get situated and then drive down the road to Market Street to enjoy a lovely birthday dinner with my Mom and Dad and Andrew and Andrea. (Andrew is not pictured in this photo, since he was taking the picture. Thanks, Drew, for your sacrifice!) As always, the oysters were wonderful.

Then, a few more family members congregated at Grandma and Grandpa's, and we all enjoyed Cheesecake Factory cheesecake (mmmm) and homemade cupcakes (made by Forrest right after we arrived at Grandmas, so we could avoid wasting Cheesecake Factory cheesecake on 5 year olds who simply want a mouthful of chocolate.)

The kids cavorted around the back yard. G&G have a most excellent grandparents' back yard.

And I got to enjoy ooohing and ahhing over the most adorable Enzo. Those eyes!

The next day we took off for downtown SLC. I had yet to see the new City Creek Center built by the church. Even though there's a small part of me that still thinks, "Why is the church building an upscale shopping mall again?" for the most part I get it. We've been in the retail business since ZCMI -- and this place is a huge improvement upon the antiquated ZCMI center. I do have a fondness for the old ZCMI center, though. Not only did Grandma Ranquist take me there every summer to buy school clothes and have lunch at the Tiffin Room, but that's where I spent every lunch break during the summers of '90 and '91 when I worked for my grandpa's law firm as a gopher/receptionist/typist/copy girl. Even in 1990, the ZCMI was  empty-ish, echoey and poorly lit. It reinforced a very real sense of loneliness and ennui that helped me successfully contemplate the terror of my unknown future, the meaning of life, and whether or not I would have enough money for tuition if I spent $3.99 on the spaghetti plate for lunch. (NOT at the Tiffin Room.)

Anyway, nineteen-year-old self, here's what happens in your future. You drive from Minnesota (yes! you live there!) with your husband, Forrest (yes! you marry him!) and your four children (four, just like you thought you wanted!) and your mom and your brothers and sister's kids and hang out for the afternoon and take pictures of all the pretty new places. Not only has the world NOT ended in nuclear holocaust, plague, and the Second Coming, but we get to enjoy sweet open-air walkways and retractable roofs and babbling brooks and really cool fountains like the ones you've heard about in Las Vegas, but smaller. IN the MALL.

The boyz, hanging by the creek. 

Our favorite product at the game store (which was full of snazzy products). The kids found the toy description -- "Walks Alone, Moves Head, and Shriek," particularly hilarious.

The kiddos (sans Tony's kiddos, who live in Utah and have already been to City Creek Center. Like, probably lots of times!) I remember Mayor Rocky Anderson getting all uptight about this enclosed walkway stretching over (what was it?) Main Street? As a resident of Minnesota, land of a multitude of enclosed walkways, I remember thinking, "Dude! Rocky! Relax." Oh, and nice view of the temple, no?

Fancy fountains. 

Men at a mall. Good sports. 

Granddaughter, Grandmother

Looking suave in Ethan's sunglasses. Where ARE those sunglasses, anyway?

Oh, and Self-From-1990? When you come back to the ZCMI  Center 22 years later with Forrest-your-husband and your four children, you will also pop into a Deseret Book and snap a picture of a book on Church history/doctrine/culture written by your little brother, who is also a well-known seminary teacher and church speaker and has a PhD. And it's NOT ANDREW! Seriously. (He is a bishop though.) Nope. It's Tone. All the more reason you should try to talk him out of sneaking out the basement window in the middle of the night, or attempt to calm him down when he's destroying a stuffed Garfield with a golf club.

Speaking of Tony's book, it's great. So proud of him. And it's come out at such a fortuitous time since -- get this, 1990 self -- a Mormon is running for President of the United States! I know. Crazy.

Okay, so enough time travel. More travelogue. (I know you love it!) After checking out the mall, we headed up to Darrin and Katie's beautiful Bountiful home and had some of the most delicious homemade pizza I've ever tasted. That Katie knows how to make a batch of dough.

This isn't the best picture, what with the eating of ice cream cones and everything. But they just look so OLD. Who are these old children? Didn't we just take you all to Disneyland where your dads carried you on your shoulders and you cried at the scary Indiana Jones ride?

Girls on swings. Kinda blurry, yes.

Silly boys.

The cinderblock wall running along the edge of the Wilkey property. Isn't that a gorgeous view? The Wilkeys have such a beautiful yard. And look at all those plaid shorts.

Fast forward to the next day. The older kids all slept over at the Wilkeys (thanks guys!) and I  enjoyed a fun breakfast (or lunch -- I can't remember. The days all blur together. I had one fun lunch with Sally, another fun breakfast with Darlene, and another fun breakfast with Kathy. Can't keep the days straight, but they were all fun). We also went and saw Spiderman. Well, not ALL of us -- Forrest stayed home because he was sick, and Wyatt stayed home with him, since we try not to be TOO egregious with the PG-13 movies we allow him to see. And, hey, Forrest was sick. Turns out that a great and terrible stomach bug (the GTSB, Andrea calls it) rampaged among the extended family throughout our entire stay. Elise and Jonas were stricken the second day (recovered quickly), and Forrest was stricken the third. Anyway -- Spiderman was good. Then later that day we went and visited Mindy and Peter. Alas, I forgot my camera! But at least I got one good picture of Enzo at the birthday party, right? I took another one on my phone that night at Mindy and Peter's:

Our time with the Colasurdos was way too short. I'm hoping they'll come out to good old MN sometime soon and hang out for a good long time.

The next night we went to Aunt Karla and Uncle Richard's house in Mapleton. They also have a most excellent grandparents' back yard. It was great to see all the cousins and the kids had a riot bouncing on the trampoline, playing playing volleyball and bocce ball, and swinging on the swing set. The only hiccup in the evening was Wyatt getting stung by a wasp (three times!) but he recovered quickly, thanks to Aunt Karla's home remedy. Those dang Utah wasps.

A little bocce action.

Cute nieces, leaning on a post.

Meghan's new baby. Oh, how I love new babies. And she even let me hold her! (The "she" applying to both Meghan and the baby.)

All the cousins appreciating Macy's most excellent trampoline somersault.

 And that'll do for now. Next up? Bear Lake! Good times await.

Summer Fun Part Two -- Craguns

We went to Craguns again this year with friends from our ward and it was a lot of fun. The kids had an especially good time since there were a few more of their friends along this time around. It's always amazing to me, too, how quickly you can feel like old friends with a group of people. We've lived here for a little under two years, and already some of our ward friends feel like they've been our pals for years and years.

A few pictorial highlights:

Elise and Somer, hanging on the boat

Some excellent tube action!

More excellent tube action!

After lots and lots of excellent tube action (read: driving the boat around in circles), Dad's "getting a little tired of pulling the tube" face.

Guitar time.

 Getting ready to toss the football.

 Aaaand, catching the football.

Elise and the girls.

Some serious sandcastle building.

Ethan, at the net!

"Why don't I get to play volleyball?" says the youngest kid by four years at the whole shebang. Don't feel too sorry for him though. I've never seen a little guy get so much big kid attention as the Wy-Dog.

Elise, playing volleball. YES! Playing volleyball. I was proud. :-)

She's also pretty, that one.

 I think I should sell this to the Squirt people. They can use it in an ad.

Happy 4th of July!

Jonas and his pyro friends (are all 11 year old boys pyros?). The night after the 4th (which would, yes, be the 5th) I came down to the beach at 11:00 p.m. and found Jonas and Alex (the boy in orange) lighting off fireworks with absolutely no adult supervision. That's what happens when you go on vacation with big kid people: the parents all start wandering off. Us included.

And nature's fireworks! We were treated to an excellent show on the 4th. And a tornado warning, which caused guys from the resort to drive around in golf carts telling us all to go inside and gather under stairwells. Forrest proceeded to stay outside and watch the lightning, then step over everyone in the stairwell after he finished watching the lightning and head to our room. After about 10 minutes, we all did the same. (He swears the app on his phone made him certain that no tornadoes would be sweeping away Craguns Resort that night.)

Girls on the tube.

Elise and Somer, double knee boarding.

 Wyatt on the knee board. I love Wyatt's smile. But I REALLY love Ethan's head in the corner. That's what happens when your parents dump you in the middle of the lake, throw you an extra large life jacket, and say, "Hold on to the edge of Wyatt's knee board until he gets up and then we'll come get you!" The sacrifices the eldest are called upon to make . . .

Hanging with friends at dinner time.

Cute girls, nice light.

Dad's frisbee catching style.

 Son's frisbee catching style.

 Joe Bear

Wy Dog. (After realizing I hadn't seen Wyatt for a few minutes this is where he was finally located, waiting patiently for someone to help get him down.)

 Jonas, playing a very popular "Throw Pop-Its At Somebody's Bare Back" game.  Guess who created the game? If your answer is a guy who's six foot two, has blue eyes, enjoys premium ice cream, bow hunting, and listening to Twins games while he works on his emails, then you guessed right.

Yep. That guy.

Also, that guy. Isn't this a beautiful shot of the lake at night?

41 years old, still got it.

And a little better shot, without the back lighting.

 Ethan on the wake board. He's been able to do a few more tricks and jump the wake (still not quite as high as Dad, but getting there.) Alas, I didn't get any pictures of it!

Jonas on the wakeboard.

 Jonas OFF the wakeboard.

Chilling with my little man.

The freedom! The wind rushing through his hair!

 A giant game of "big booty" with the our group's passel-o-offspring.

So much fun. Gotta love Minnesota!

And now, coming soon to Grandmas who care, Utah trip pics. Within a couple of days, I promise!