That's how we felt about our recent family vacation to Utah. After our year full of stress, followed by a year full of adjustment and recovery, we finally woke up out of our daze and decided to do something PURELY for fun. So, when James Abbott invited Nate to come out to Utah for a special concert, we made plans to make it the most fun time we had ever had on a trip to Utah. And it couldn't have gone better. Hooray!
So, get ready for a long post with tons of pictures from a memorable family trip.
We drove to Utah on Wednesday, August 1. Now that we live so far south of town, we took a different route and had to spend an extra hour on the road. Plus, this was the first time we travelled with Baby Trey. And all things considered, the road trip went remarkably well! One small mishap was when we stopped in Edwards, CO for lunch at Larkburger and spilled two drinks . . . we ALWAYS spill drinks at Larkburger, thanks to the Larkburger-Drink-Spilling-Curse . . . ugh! We arrived in Bountiful at about 7:30pm. Thankfully, Trey was completely cooperative about sleeping at Nana's house, too. So, we cleared two big hurdles there and we were ready for a great time after that.
On Thursday morning, we went down to Liberty Park, where we met up with the Call family and the Bair family for lots of fun on the playground and the splash pad. We picked up a package of ice cream sandwiches on the way to celebrate National Ice Cream Sandwich day (which, surprisingly, the stores weren't celebrating with major discounts!). Everyone had a great time playing and visiting. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of this outing!
But, we did get a picture of the kids when we went out to lunch afterwards with Hanna and her children Sydney and Baby Evan.
This was taken at Grinders 13 on State Street in Salt Lake City, one of Nate's favorite old haunts from his young adulthood in the area. He even took me there on a date once before we got married. It was just as good as we remembered, and nobody spilled a drink, either! Although, Trey did grab a fistful of fry sauce with his bare hand, slurped it up, and then proceeded to wipe what was left on my pants. So it goes with a tired toddler and no high chair! :)
The only other thing that we did on Thursday was to stop by my BFF's Jen Julian's new house. They have lived there for over a year and I had not yet seen it. It was fun, and so good to see all their giggly little girls! Then we spent the rest of the day chilling at Nana's house, watching the Olympics, while Nate went to rehearsal with the band.
The next day was nonstop fun from dawn until way past dusk! We took the children for their first time at LAGOON, baby! Yee-haw! It was so, so, so much fun for everyone. We were there almost all day. And, since the Calls live only about 10 minutes away, I was able to take Trey to their house for a little nap midday, allowing us to spend even more time partying at Lagoon. Plus, I got to hang out with the Call girls in their lovely home for an hour, so it worked out perfectly. Here are about a gazillion pictures of what we did at Lagoon:
This is Courtney on the Fighter Jet ride.
On the first pass of the Kiddie Roller Coaster, Coco wasn't so sure about it.
But by the second pass, she loved it!
If you look closely, you can see me and Chase on the fourth row from the top on the left side of the Tidal Wave ride.
Chase and I finishing up the Tidal Wave.
This is my favorite photo from Lagoon! I wish Nate had been able to be in this adorable picture, too. That would make it complete!
Courtney on the Mini Bumper Cars.
Avery on the Mini Bumper Cars. Avery was still BARELY small enough to ride some of these kiddie rides with Coco. He was happy to join her on them so she wouldn't have to ride alone. That boy is as Good as Gold!
Crashing into each other.
Waiting in line.
Riding the Dragon Fly.
Hands high!
Coco on a Space Ship!
Flying without a license. :)
Chase and Avery riding the Kontiki.
Oh yeah . . . that one was a breeze!
The Space Scrambler, where (as Chase says), "Avery completely squashed me!"
The Tilt-A-Whirl!
Fuzzy picture of Avery on the Big Bumper Cars.
Pre-collision. Chase (on the left) chose a Mercedes. He comes by it honestly!
Ferris Wheel!
Coco wants you to notice how VERY high up she is!
Not the least bit nervous.
The Ody-Sea
The Flying Aces!
Nice and easy on the carousel.
Chase on the carousel.
Reading the map. What's next?
Waving at Daddy and Trey from Rattlesnake Rapids.
The sign at the beginning of Rattlesnake Rapids says, "You will get wet. You may get soaked." Guess what? We got SOAKED!
Waving from the Log Plume. Couldn't miss that one!
Hey, Trey was there, too! Hi Little Buddy!
The last ride of the day: The Jet Star 2! Remind me next time to wear a neck brace to prevent whiplash. Geez!
And we did lots more, too, that we didn't get in pictures. Lagoon was loads of fun, and the children could barely make it to the car at the end of the day because they were SO tired! There were no complaints about bedtime that night! And many plans were hatched for "next time." I'd call that a raving success!
But, we weren't done yet! After we put the children in bed, Nate and I headed out to the Usana Amphitheater for a Journey concert. Yeah, baby! Incidentally, my pants were still soggy from Rattlesnake Rapids until about halfway through the concert (totally worth it!).
We were late, so we missed a performance by Loverboy, but we weren't crying over that. We did get there in time to see an amazing Pat Benatar. Here is a picture of her from the back . . . (what?):
Anyway, she was great and it was fun to see her show. Then Journey took the stage and their show was amazing! Their lead singer from Manila is awesome, but he's small enough to fit into your pocket. So much shorter than I expected! Sadly, Nate's fondest dream was not realized because Journey's drummer hung in there to the end . . . destroying his fantasy that the drummer would keel over mid-show, and someone would run on stage and call out, "Is there a drummer in the house? Who can play every Journey song ever made?" At which point Nate would jump on stage and save the day by filling in for the rest of the concert. *Sigh!* Ah, well! One can dream, right?
We managed to have a great time anyway. All of our pictures turned out fuzzy, but I will post a couple of them just to give you the idea.
Told you I was still a little soggy . . .
Ok . . . time to take a breath and a break . . . before I finish posting about the rest of our fabulous vacation!
Saturday morning was Cherry Hill. This was a little different from what we were expecting, but it was still really fun! We spent most of our time in the lazy river or going down water slides. And, Courtney and I spent a little time in the pool with Trey. Truthfully, Trey didn't enjoy much about this outing, so I spent most of my time hanging out with him while Daddy took everyone else on the water slides. But, I didn't mind too much, because by next year I should be able to take Trey down the slides with me. My water slide days aren't over yet!
We all got a little bit of sunburn that day, but nothing too serious. Here are some pictures of our fun in the sun!
Coco and Trey
As if that wasn't enough, the final highlight of our trip was the big concert on Saturday night. This was a benefit concert on behalf of a man with cancer whose family needed help with medical expenses. James Abbott's band, Frequency One, was playing at the concert, and James had asked Nate to sit in as a guest drummer for two songs. This was so awesome, since it has been many years since Nate was on stage playing the drums! We were all so excited for the performance!
We took Nana with us for this event at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake City. When we arrived, we found many other friends and family who came to support us and see Nate play. My parents were there, along with my sister Hillory. Hanna came with Baby Evan. Ed and Audrey came with Tabitha and Caleb. Nate's half-brother Thomas came with his wife, Laura, and daughter, Joelle. James' wife, Heather, was there with their 3 children, along with James' mother. We also saw 2 or 3 other old friends from Nate's youth, there with their families. It was so great, and I was hopping from one family to the next the whole evening, as well as trying to manage our four children while Nate was helping out on stage. It felt a little crazy, but it was worth every moment to see him play, and to see Nate's excitement about being a part of the concert. My pictures of this event weren't that great; we got most of it on video, but I will just post a couple of photos here.
Daddy's groupies.
Trey was happy to add his claps to the cheering section . . . and to play with Avery's belly button!
Here the kiddos are joined by cousin Tabitha. I was trying to keep them entertained while waiting for Daddy's part of the show by having them do yoga poses. This one ended in disaster . . . can you guess why? Hint: observe Trey in the wrong place at the wrong time. Haha!
Daddy on stage!
I had to sneak backstage for this shot.
A really fantastic, memorable night. Go, Nate!
You might ask, how did we have the energy for all of this? I don't know, because there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on between all of these super fun events. But, we were blessed with adrenalin or excitement or love or whatever kept us going without any problems for the whole vacation. We drove back home to Colorado on Sunday. And, dare I say, this road trip was even more pleasant than the one out to Utah? It was very smooth and everybody travelled very well. Our one meal on the road at A&W certainly cured us of wanting to eat there again anytime soon (flies with that drink, anyone?), but at least no drinks were spilled!
This is a picture of Copper Mountain, as we were only a few hours from home. A perfect day, a perfect trip, and lots of perfect memories. We were happy to arrive home safely and get back to our regular family routine. But, believe me, we are not going to wait so long before we do something like that again. Yay for an awesome family vacation!!!!! :)
Yea! It was fun to live through it again - and you know I was just reading to find my name a few times - ha!
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