Family Reunion

We recently got back from a family vacation to Utah.  We left on June 13 and got back on June 19th.  We went to Salt Lake City to have a family reunion with my parents and all of their children and grandchildren.  We made the drive in two days (both ways) and the kids did really well in the car.  No one threw up (carsickness, or the flu which hit some families on the way home) and we didn't have any prolonged bouts of crying, and we only made minimal (yet still annoying) stops for road construction.  Kelton didn't quite understand what "Utah" was, but he has determined that the Holiday Inn Express we stayed in was "Utah," probably because that's where we first ended up after telling him we were going to Utah.  For the rest of the trip and anytime since, when he sees a Holiday Inn or even just their logo, he gets excited and exclaims, "Look! There's Noo-tah!"  (Kelton speaks really well, so I don't know why he thinks there is an "N" at the beginning of Utah.  But I think it's cute.)

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  My parents rented a giant house for all of us to stay in.  The kids loved having all the room to run around in.  Natalie and Kelton loved being able to sleep in a room (actually the giant walk in closet of our room) with their cousins Maddison and Callie.  On Wedneday morning we all went and took a tour of the Sweet's Candy factory.  Natalie was very excited to see inside a candy factory.  She's watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory quite a bit.  The tour was very fun.  I was a little disappointed because two of the places where you can see them making stuff were being cleaned so we watched a video instead of how they make jelly beans and how orange sticks get covered in chocolate.  At the end we all bought candy from their shop.  Our purchases included salt water taffy, cherry sours, and chocolate covered caramel peanut clusters.

Later that afternoon, we went to Cowabunga Bay water park with Christy and Chad's families.  Melanie and Rob's families went to Seven Peaks water park earlier in the day.  It wasn't an overly warm day (although it was the warmest of all the days we were in Utah) and the water on the slides was a bit on the cold side.  But, some of us still had fun on the slides.  Natalie went down a few of the smaller slides a few times.  I convinced Kelton to go down a slide sitting on my lap.  Unfortunately, the extra mass and weight (namely, me) caused a deluge of water at the end of the slide to come up over Kelton and plaster him in the face.  Kelton hates water in the face.  He was officially done with any of the slides, which is too bad, because he liked it up until the end.  If I would have known, I would have just lifted him up at the end.  They had a nice beach entry pool that had really warm water, which was nice to discover after the coldness of the waterslides.  Erica, Trevor and I braved leaving the warm water to go and ride all the water slides.  The bigger slides that had drops were actually pretty fun.

On Thursday morning we all went to Temple Square.  We went inside the Tabernacle, up to the top of the Church Office Building to see the city from above, to the visitor's center to see the Christus, and then we took a super quick trip to see the inside of the Conference Center and a bit of the roof.

 Mom and Dad and their children

Mom and Dad and all their grandchildren.

Natalie loved being in the room with the Christus.  The room has chairs back away from the Christus, but Natalie walked right up and stood at the base and looked up at the Christus for a while.  Later she came and sat by us.  When Nate told her it was time to go, she whispered to him, "Can we stay for just a little bit longer?  I like it in here."  Kids have such amazingly pure love and faith.  It's not hard to see why the scriptures tell us to become as little children.

Later that afternoon, Natalie's front tooth was bothering her while she was trying to eat.  Recently it had been getting looser and looser.  (On Monday night at the hotel, she fell out of bed probably five times during the night.  We heard the "thud" every time.  In the morning she was excited because one of the times she fell out, she hit her tooth and it started bleeding and now it was a lot looser.)  So she decided that she wanted us to try to get it out for her.  Uncle Chad, who is a dentist, wrapped some floss around it and popped it out for her.  I think she was a little scared, but she was really brave about it and was excited to be visited by the tooth fairy while on vacation.

That night my Grandma and Grandpa Burgess came up to the house to have a BBQ with us.  We got to see Aunt Deonne and my cousins Kevin and his wife Nikki, Jennifer, and Paige.  It was very fun to see my grandparents because it had been a while since I had seen them last.  Natalie was only two the last time we went to Utah.  Kelton and Damon were not born yet and my grandparents had never met them.  My Grandpa and Grandma are 92 and 90 years old--so I feel so lucky to still have both of them here with our family.

We all had matching shirts that we wore for the BBQ.  Here is a picture of the whole family in our shirts.

On Friday morning we all headed out for an "easy" hike up Ensign Peak.  People who hike all the time must have dubbed it "easy."  For all of us non-hikers with kids in tow, it was quite a climb.  But it was fun to be up at the top and see the Salt Lake Valley.  There was even a man dressed as Brigham Young at the top.  At first I thought, wow, what a job to be stationed up here all day long for the tourist who hike up.  But after talking to him, we found out that he was up there as part of a Stake Youth Conference.  He was even nice enough to offer to tell all the kids his story.  Then, on the way back down, Damon had his first real adventure of the day.  I had him up on my shoulders and I slipped and fell.  I was able to keep him from falling off but I got some bruises on my left side and I later found a little scuff on Damon's back.  Falling did make him cry, but I think it scared him more than anything.  But apparently it wasn't scary enough because later in the day, Aunt Melanie fell down the stairs while carrying both him and Jade.  (Damon had already fallen down the stairs twice on his own.)  The babies were okay, but Melanie was hurting a bit.

On top of Ensign Peak.  The corner of Nate's right sleeve is pointing at the temple.

Friday afternoon, I took Natalie and Kelton to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.  Tina went too with all of her kids except Denae and Christian.  It was fun but definitely not worth the money.  They didn't have as much there as I was expecting.

On Saturday we started the long trek back home and got back home on Sunday at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  On our way out of town, we stopped by my grandparents' house and visited for a bit.  I am still not quite recovered from all the lost sleep.  I was up every night until about 2:00 a.m. talking--which was a lot of fun.  Not so fun when my kids still wake up at 6:00 or 7:00.  But we really enjoyed seeing everyone and spending time together and look forward to doing it again!