Thursday, August 12, 2010

When are we Going to be Out of the Middle of Nowhere?!

We drove to Utah at the end of July. Our trip was quite long. We stayed in a disgusting hotel in St. Louis and then a really nice one in Denver and finally arrived in Utah on the third day of driving. The mountains past Denver were scary to me and it didn't help that Chad kept pointing out things along the road, instead of paying attention to driving. Then, the drive through Western Colorado and Eastern Utah was treacherous. Heidi was asking when we would be out of the middle of nowhere and said she just wanted to see a house! There is nothing, not even billboards- because there is nothing to advertise. There was seriously one stretch of road where there were no services for 130 miles! Every once in a while there were some cool mountain views, but those lasted for about 3 minutes and then back to desolation and ugliness. We drove through Zion National Park. That was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was cool and scary. They were doing construction so a good portion of the drive was on gravel and it was raining, so parts of the road were washed out. Even the kids screamed once because they were scared. Again, Chad was pointing out formations and waterfalls while driving. That did NOT help my nerves! We arrived in St. George at 9 PM and it was still 98 degrees! While we were there it was about 107 each day. We took the kids to see the temple there, went to a fun splash pad and an animal museum. We got to see some Chad's cousins and the kids all had fun playing together. St. George is such a nice city. It's definitely my favorite place in Utah.
After St. George we headed up to Pleasant Grove and got to meet cutie Grant and spend some time with Whitley and Brent. We went to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point and had delicious Pizza Factory pizza! The evening was finished with yummy ice cream cones! Then, we headed to Sandy to stay with Chad's parents. Chad's brother and his family came up from Phoenix too. We went to Temple Square and the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and ate at The Pie. It was fun to go to good restaurants out there that we don't have here. Antelope Island was our next destination. It was SUPER windy and a little chilly. The kids thought it was pretty cool to swim in the Great Salt Lake. The next day we went to an aquarium and hiked to a waterfall.
Friday we headed to Bear Lake to meet up with Chad's other siblings for the weekend. It was great to see everyone. We did 4 wheeling, swimming, a rodeo and went to a play- Bandito Rides Again. It was super cheesy, but had some pretty funny parts. We left Sunday and drove about 6 hours to Cheyenne and stayed with Chad's sister, Kristi. We went to a fun park and the boys lit fireworks for us to watch. It was really nice. The boys have guns and Owen said to his cousin, Cole, If you get a bb gun for Christmas, you'll shoot yours eye out. Noah and Owen were sad that Uncle Christian had already left for work by the time they woke up.
The drive back home wasn't too bad. We stopped in Omaha at the Winter Quarters museum and we saw the temple there. The kids got to dress up as pioneers and wear the clothes the whole time we were at the museum. The humidity about killed us when we got out of the van in Omaha. It's crazy how much hotter it makes you feel. Driving was boring at times, but we got to see some cool stuff too. We saw a ton of antelope in Wyoming. The kids fought just as much as they do at home. We don't have a DVD player in the van, but we did hook up the lap top and they watched a movie once on the way out and once on the way back. We had lots of treats and I had bought a bunch of stuff at the dollar store for them to play with. Heidi and Noah were both glad to be home, but Owen wanted to turn around and go back to Grandpa and Grandma's!

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