Day 75: The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point

Yes, we were very busy the week before Ben's orientation began.  We figured that things were about to get crazy and stressful, so we wanted to make the most of the "vacation time" we had left.  That Tuesday we met some of my extended family at The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  My Aunt Alysa came with her 5 children and my cousin Stephanie came with her 3 children (including her 3-week old baby - what a trooper!).  We all loved hanging out and enjoyed the amazing landscaping.

Alysa & me

Running & rolling down Shepherd's Hill

Don't fall in, Carson!

My cousins were so sweet and helpful with the young children.

Madi, in particular, spent a lot of time with Eliza.

The kids loved the Koi pond.

Stephanie and her kids + Carson

Brooke, Garrett, Blake, and Cat

Madi poking her head into the Secret Garden.

Day 74: Cool Pool & Campus Tour

We decided to try out a cool community pool one day and had a lot of fun, even though we were all a bit chilly.  (We aren't used to swimming in cold water when it's only 85 degrees outside!)  This was a fun place with a big zero-entry pool, kids' splash area, water slides, and diving boards.

Cat loved the water slides.

And she was fearless on the diving board, even though I think it might have been her first time.

She mostly practiced her canon ball.

Jack's favorite thing was running as fast as he could into the pool.

Eliza loved getting swung around in the water by Daddy.

We left from there and met up with our tour guide at the Hinckley Center for an official BYU campus tour.  I felt like it would help me get my bearings, find out more about the various family activities on campus, and generally get a feel for what's what, since I know almost nothing about BYU.

A few highlights of the tour: the Harold B. Lee library, the statue of Brigham Young, the Tanner Building (which will be Ben's 2nd home during the MBA program), and the Marriott Center.

As you might be able to tell from the picture below, the campus tour was not the children's favorite activity.

They wanted to be walking around and standing up and generally free while on the golf cart, but for some reason our tour guide thought they should sit still.  Which means there was a lot of holding Jack and Eliza, who didn't want to be held, and let us know it by yelling really loudly.  Of course, the yelling children also prevented me from hearing a lot of what the tour guide was saying.  Oh well.

But all in all, I would still call it a good day.

Day 73: Mt. Timpanogos Park

While we were living at Wymount our ward met at 12:30 in the afternoon.  The first Sunday was torturous for Eliza, as well as Ben and me, because she was already tired from our week at the Family Reunion and missing her nap resulted in about two hours of screaming.  The following Sunday I resolved to tire her and Jack out enough that they would take an early nap and not scream through Church.  So I took all of the kids to a couple of parks in Provo Canyon.  We started out in Canyon View Park, but spent most of our outing at Mt. Timpanogos Park.  It was so beautiful!  Nice, manicured grassy areas surrounded by lots of flowers and a pretty stream, all set against the mountains.  It was the perfect place to just walk around and explore for a little while.  Jack loved getting to wander around and had a great time throwing sticks and stones into the stream.  Cat was very sweet with Eliza and mostly just walked around and played with her.

And, in case you're wondering... yes, Jack and Eliza both took an early nap and were much happier during Church that day!

Day 70: Temple Square

We spent several hours in Salt Lake City one day and really enjoyed it.
The big draw for Jack was that we rode on the downtown cable car.
We parked near a station and rode it for less than 5 minutes, two stops down the line
to the Temple Square station.  He was absolutely thrilled.

The first place we visited was the Church History Museum.  It was really neat and had an impressive variety of exhibits.  The kids enjoyed standing behind the podium that is a replica of the one in the Conference Center.

In the upper level of the Church History Museum, there's a great children's area that reminded me
of an interactive Friend Magazine.  There was a farm, garden, and kitchen.  There were puppets, a small truck, and great children's exhibits about the Book of Mormon.  My cousin's wife and her 3 kids met us here and everyone had a great time.  Cat's favorite exhibit was one where children dress in traditional Central American costumes and learn Latin dances.  She stayed there for a while.  Jack had fun "building a temple" with Daddy.

After getting a little lunch we walked over to the Church Office Building and took their tour, which culminated in an amazing view of Temple Square and SLC from their 26th-floor observation deck.

Then we spent some time just walking toward the temple and taking pictures.

It really is awesome, and the flowers and water features were gorgeous as well.

The last thing we did was walk around in the South Visitor's Center.

It has a cool cut-out replica of the temple where you can get an idea of what the inside looks like.  

Cat enjoyed the exhibit that taught about how the temple was built.

Then, back on the train that took us to our car.

A great outing!

Day 67: The Provo Temple

Our first Monday in Provo we decided to walk up to the Temple (about 1 block away from our apartment) for FHE.  It was so neat to just be able to spend some time walking around and talking about the importance of the temple.

The kids really loved the fountains.

I couldn't believe how many flowers were on the temple grounds.  It was gorgeous!

"Jack, where's the Angel Moroni?"

The back of the temple was just as beautiful.

My pretty girls.

 

Walking back to our apartment.  It's behind the fence on the left side of the picture.

 

Any guesses what our FHE treat was that night?

Yep.  Creamery ice cream.  We felt sooooo Provo.  :-)

Day 65: To the Y

On Saturday we left St. George and headed to Provo.  This was our view coming onto the BYU Campus and into our neighborhood for the month of August...

My aunt and my cousin and their families were kind enough to come help us get our few things moved into our apartment.  I quickly learned that one of the best things about living there was having these little playgrounds dotted throughout the complex.  The Moms and kids hung out here while Ben, James, and Carson brought things up to the apartment.




Then it was dinner time, so we all went down the street a couple of blocks to the Creamery.  I've been hearing about the BYU Creamery for years and it definitely did not disappoint.  Kids meals that include an ice cream cone for $3.50?  Yes, please.  And, if you look closely, you'll see that there are 10 children ages 1-14 at that table, and only one adult.  Funny, though... nobody at the Creamery seemed to think that was odd.  :-)

So, Jack and Cat each had their own ice cream cone from their meal, but I decided I needed one of my own. When I came back with my ice cream cone, Eliza commandeered it and then shared a couple of bites with me.

Thank you for all of your help, guys!  That was the best way we could have moved in and we loved getting to "extend the reunion" by a few hours.

Day 64: Fun Stuff around St. George

On the last day of the Family Reunion, there weren't any big group activities planned, so we just did a few fun things with our kids.  The first stop was the St. George Temple Visitor's Center.  They actually did pretty well in the Visitor's Center and really enjoyed the exhibits there.  They sat pretty reverently during the Christus presentation and a "moving" movie about The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and liked the interactive q&a TV screens.  It was also neat for Cat to see the pictures of what the inside of the temple looks like.  Then we walked around the temple and a nice person outside took a picture for us.  It is now one of my favorite family pictures.  Can you tell why? 

Here is a closer look.  There we were after walking through the Visitor's Center and enjoying the Spirit on the temple grounds, posing for a nice picture in front of this beautiful temple... and Eliza is trying to stick her finger in Jack's nose.  Yep.  I guess that's just us.  No pretense of perfection here.

Then we met up with a couple of my cousins and their children at this fun park in downtown St. George that has a big fountain and a big stream for the kids to play in.  They all had a blast and I only wish we'd had more time to hang out there!

That night my Oma and Opa treated us to tickets to Tuacahn, a cool outdoor theater in a beautiful red rock canyon.  We saw The Little Mermaid, which was of course really exciting for the children, and also very fun and entertaining for the adults.  Jack hadn't had a nap that day so between being extra tired and being scared of Ursula and her minions, he didn't make it through the whole show - Ben took him back about 20 minutes before the end.  But Cat stayed until the end and was rewarded by getting to meet Ariel and Prince Eric!  We were so excited to see the cast members come pose for pictures when the show was over.  Even though Cat is normally pretty brave, I was thankful that she was with my cousin's daughter, Abbie, because she suddenly became shy and otherwise she might not have gotten in there for the picture.  Thanks, Abbie!  And we had a somewhat less-pleasant sighting as we walked to our car... a couple of tarantulas hanging out in the parking lot.  We were in the desert, after all.

And that wraps up our St. George Family Reunion Week-o-Fun.

But don't worry, there will be more Family Reunion excitement to report in a couple of years.

Location: TBD