Utah - Logan Style

Lisa and Gary chose to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple at the end of July and invited the famiy to join them if possible. We thought it would be great to support them, Danny and Gwen, and take a vacation at the same time. Kenny took the last week of July off and away we went for 9 days in Utah. We spent most of the trip in Logan with Danny and Gwen. They have several spare bedrooms and were kind enough to let all 6 of us take over their house for the week.

Saturday - We drove all day July 24th, and after 13 hours in the car we arrived at 9 pm and it was just barely getting dark, thanks to daylight savings. It was a long day!

Sunday - We went to church, played games, including several versions of settlers, and watched the Mad Men season premier (I couldn't wait until we got home to watch it).

Monday - We went to Bear Lake, but no pics since I thought I left my camera in the car, only to discover it was in my bag the entire time. On our way there Danny showed us the Crockett House. The Crockett family were founding father's of Logan, related to our Crockett relatives that settled in Eastern AZ. The guy that owns it now has an amazing flower garden, designed to look like a space shuttle blasting off. Later that day we played more games, and went to Costa Vita for dinner with Danny and Gwen while Tyler babysat.

Tuesday - We drove down to Provo to eat lunch at Brick Oven (YUM!), go to the Bean Museam, Dinosaur Museum, and the BYU bookstore (this has become a tradition on our trips to Utah, and the boys still wanted to go). Then we drove up Provo Canyon and hiked from Canyon Glen to Bridal Vail Falls. Before heading back up to Logan, we drove by my old house in Lindon (my family moved here just as I was born and moved to Orem when I was 7) then stopped at Purple Turtle for ice cream for the drive.











Wednesday - We checked out all the Logan sites. First we went to the Logan Temple, then USU, the cheese factory and Firehouse for lunch. Later that day we went to the small Zoo and park next door to meet with my friend Jenny and her cute family. They have 4 girls and we have 4 boys. Jenny and I went to high school together before I moved to AZ. We hadn't seen each other for 15 years! It was so fun to reconnect!








Thursday - We all drove down to Lagoon for the day. I hadn't been since 9th grade, and Kenny hadn't been sice he was a priest in YM. A lot had changed! Since we are total Disneyland pros, it was strange not to know where we were going and what rides to go on. But it was also fun not to already know the rides and have everything be unexpected. The best thing was cooling off at the new water park, Lagoon-a-Beach, midway through the day when we were hot and tired. It was nice to cool-of and rest in the lazy river for a while. Disneyland needs a water park! I'm sure as the boys get older, we will be coming back to Lagoon on our trips to Utah.







Friday - We drove down to Salt Lake to see all the church sites. Danny had to go in to work and Gwen stayed home for a nap (and break from us, I'm sure) First we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building and ate lunch then went to see the movie about Joseph's life. I know the boys learned something, because they ahve talked aobut it since. Next we went to the Beehive House for a tour. I was able to show the boys where my dad dropped a screwdriver through a light fixture while restoring the building before his mission. It's still there! Then we went to temple square to see the Christus statue and visitors center briefly. Last we went to the church history museum where they had a children;s exibit that was interactive for the kids so we spend most of our time there. After driving home, we left the boys with Tyler (watching a movie) and went to Smokin' Blues BBQ with Dan and Gwen. So Yummy!


Brayden thought this stand in the children's exhibit was for conducting music.
He was cracking us all up!


Saturday - We planned to stay with Wes and Linda in Spanish Fork that night to cut a few hours off our drive the next day. So, we packed up all our stuff and said goodbye to Dan and Gwen. Then drove down to Salt Lake for Lisa and Gary's sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. The temple was super busy, so the sealing ended up being almost an hour later than planned. Thank goodness Wes helped keep an eye on our boys, and even got to change a stinky diaper! Afterward we walked over to the Lion house for the luncheon and pictures. Before leaving, we stopped at the conference center or a quick tour (which we had done before, but the boys seemed interested so we did it again). On the drive down to Spanish Fork we passed by my Orem house (where I lived before moving to AZ when I was 16). By the time we got to Wes', we were all exhausted, so he turned on a movie and made popcorn and let us chill. We were sad we didn't get to spend more time with them, but it was good to see them and chat for a while.


Sunday - Wes and Linda made us Tigger and Pooh waffles with cream cheese and strawberry freezer jam (MMM!) for breakfast before our drive home. We made pretty good time and pulled in around 8 pm. It was a different trip than our usual Utah trip, but so much fun! I know we will have to incorporate some of the new things in our Utah trips in the future!