Mini road trip

We've taken up a new hobby as a family ... listening to the Harry Potter series on c.d. in the car.  :) Elle & Paige are new fans, while the rest of us have been long time fans.  When Christian was little little, he was such a Harry Potter fan that he drew himself a lightening bolt scar on his forehead with my eyeliner on a daily basis.  We woke him up for midnight book releases at Barnes & Noble, I sewed him a cool wizard cape with a skinny little pocket just for his wand.  Aahhh … those were some good times.

So -- knowing that the kids start school next week, and knowing that Christian wasn't feeling up to doing much since he had just gotten his wisdom teeth out, and knowing that we wanted to listen to the cd's as much as we could, and knowing that my kids haven't ever seen the salt flats before … I figured we could take a field trip out west and have a little outing.  Everyone was really excited.

He was excited.  I promise.

And then we hit serious rain and gray clouds that stretched as far as the eye could see.  Not the best weather to explore the salt flats, but what could we do at this point?

We finally found the giant ball sculpture thing.  Still raining hard.

But we braved the weather and ran out onto the soggy, gray salt flats anyway.

The kids were totally humoring me by this point.  "These salt flats are amazing, mom.  Soooo glad we drove all the way here for this lovely experience."  I couldn't stop laughing.  Sorry, guys! Not what I had envisioned for our day.

By then, the signs read that Wendover was only 20 miles away.  I totally thought Wendover was like 3 hours away, not 1 1/2 hours.  So, hey -- why don't we go see the giant waving cowboy in Wendover while we're already out this far?  And we're so glad we did, because about 10 minutes outside of Wendover, the clouds parted and the sun shone out!  It was perfect. :)

 Blue skies to the west, and this to the east ….

The salt was really wet and sticky.  My car is still covered in gloppy white salt.  But it was worth it.  All of the kids agreed that the brilliant white salt was worth the soggy drive to see.

And here he is … the cowboy I remember from my childhood.  We drove the route from Salt Lake to San Francisco more times than I can even remember.

Fun little field trip.  Plus we listened to a full 4 cd's worth of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Pretty great day. :)

July 2014

Our almost-annual Sun Valley trip.  Dad goes to meetings while we play.  Not a very fair deal for him.

Posing wherever she went.

The Bingo game is always a big hit.  The prizes are fantastic.  This year, Paige was the big winner of our family with this bluetooth speaker.

Poor Haley had a nasty case of strep during most of the trip, so it wasn't nearly as fun for her this year.

Soon after we got back, Haley went in to have her tonsils removed - something she has long needed to have done.  The poor girl.  We had no idea how hard her recovery would be.  She lost 12 lbs in about 10 days.

Being led into surgery :(  She's all recovered now, though, and can actually breath and swallow like a normal person. 

Then, Mike & Haley headed to Girls Camp. Each ward did a skit for everyone else, and here is what the stake leaders came up with ….

Gru & his minions.  He was in his element. :)

Christian and the Millcreek Jr. High jazz bands played in a 4th of July parade.  Last time they all wore their jazz band shirts together.

Circle of Fire with our friends...

Poor Haley was being such a good sport that night but she was in so much pain.

A few days later, we had some craft therapy,

and also made apricot freezer jam…  We are in high fruit season at our house.  7 fruit trees keep us pretty busy.

Paige spent a very cool day at Geek Squad Academy with her friends.  They programmed robots, wrote music programs, and all kinds of other cool smart stuff.  She's a geek and proud of it. :)

We spent a day at the new Museum of Natural Curiosities.  Christian found fun high in the rafters while we girls stayed on the ground.

Elle was the only other willing person at our house willing to hike up Mueller Park with me.  We rewarded ourselves with pedicures afterward.

Cute Haley was the only child to go see Wicked with her mom & dad.  Everyone else was out of town.  Lucky girl. :)

These 2 girls went on a road trip with grandma & grandpa to Seattle to visit cousins.  Fun grandparents, huh?

Christian went to Zions for scout camp ….

We girls went to see Mary Poppins at Hale Center ….

Went to a fun dinner with some neighborhood friends :) ….

Elle had a fun week at Princess Camp ...

Mike & Christian saw Boston in concert.  They bond at rock concerts.

And we girls took an impromptu carriage ride around downtown SL.  Checked that off of Elle's summer bucket list.

I'm being a slacker to lump entire summer months into one post.  But it's about all I can do at this point. I'll catch up when they're all back in school … :(