McLaws Moments: August 2011

Friday, July 29th we left for a family vacation to Utah. Bruce and I haven't been there since we have been married so it was a long over due trip. Here we are stopped taking a break in Monticello.

One thing I was looking forward to was to seeing some of the temples along the way. Monticello was the first temple stop.

The first few nights were spent in Salt Lake. The kids were using the cart for monkey bars. They were tired of being cooped up in the van - but they were really good.

The next morning was our trip to Temple Square. We started with a tour of the Conference Center. This place was AMAZING!! Here the kids are at the fountain Pres. Hinckley wanted in the Conference Center.

I couldn't believe how strong the spirit was in this place.

This display of a bunch of the original pictures we see every Sunday was enjoyable.

The view up here was perfect!

Inside the Visitors Center.

After hearing Pres. Monson's story about the boy that took his brother to "touch the temple" the kids wanted their turn of "touching" the Salt Lake Temple.

Sunday I took Bridget, Dustin and Rhett back to the Conference Center for Music and the Spoken Word. Bruce took the little girls to the Theater to watch the session but I guess it didn't work through most of it. I LOVED that! I didn't take my camera in (I guess I didn't think of taking it into a sacred place on Sunday) but I should have. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is of course, AMAZING!

Monday morning we got up and went to This is the Place Heritage Park. It was raining pretty good so we were debating if we should go there. It let up so decided to go.

On the train ready to go!

Here is the "Doctor" in town trying to sell us something to make Tylinn's loose teeth fall out. We first thought he was kidding but then asked somebody else and they said he thinks all his potions really work.

Bruce found a neat little dutch oven in on the of the homes we thought was pretty cute.

Dustin combing sheep's wool.

The kids playing a game at the school house.

We had a lot of fun at This is the Place. The kids got to make arrowhead necklaces, stamp in some leather, pan for gold and other things.

When ever we got on the elevator this is always where Tylinn and Kaylee rode. Wish my buns would fit in the corner like theirs!

Tuesday was Mr. Rhett Man's 10th birthday! It was our day to leave Salt Lake and go to Provo. We wanted to go through Park City to see it and do some school shopping at some outlet stores there. We shopped for a while and Rhett kept asking when we would be finished. I told him we had to finish or he wouldn't have have any school clothes. He said he didn't even care if he had any clothes he just wanted to be done shopping. We went to a couple more store then went to the Olympic Park. It was lunch time when we got there.......we had many lunches out of the ice chest and the back of the van.

We learned how all the ski jumpers practice during the summer. They have the regular slopes for the Olympics but land in a big pool. There were a bunch of kids there taking lessons. It was neat to watch them.

We went inside the museum.

While we were there we saw this cool person hitting the slopes! She was really good!

We hiked to the top of the slopes they do their jumps off of.

Here we are in front of the bob sled track.

A quick shot of a bob sled going by. They let people pay a lot of money to ride the bob sled down.

We headed down Provo Canyon from there and made it to the motel in Provo.

Wednesday morning we went to the temple in Provo.

After the Temple we went to BYU. We went to the book store first so the kids could get their BYU gear. The boys made out with a hat and shirt. Bridget got a shirt and the little girls got their BYU Pom Poms that they love! We ate lunch there on campus....

Went to the Wilkinson Center to play......

and ice cream from the creamery! Yummy!

We went to the Legacy Hall.

We were in there when a lot of the basket ball players were going to practice. Some were nice - some didn't want to be messed with. This guy -Rogers-is from Mesa. He was really nice and very tall!

The boys got a poster and had some of them sign it. They were in heaven!!

The next morning we we to Bridal Veil Falls. We hiked up as far as they will let you go. The water was freezing so the kids weren't too interested in playing much in it.

After leaving there we went to St. George. Bruce has some friends there he hasn't seen for quite a few years so we visited with Jerry and Joe and their families in St. George. We went to the Narrows and climbed around on the rocks a bit.

Some of it was way to narrow for me, Bridget and Kaylee, we thought we would sufficate! Bruce said they were even more narrow then he remembered. Bruce, Tylinn, Dustin and Rhett had fun climbing through the really narrow stuff.

Then on to the St. George Temple. We LOVED how white it is!

After our visit to the temple we went to Brigham Young's Winter home in St. George. There was an interesting story about this tree that got struck by lightening so they put this splint in it to hold the tree together. It was many many years ago they did this.

The kids inside Brigham Young's bedroom.

Tylinn lost one of her teeth while we were in his home. This was the 2nd tooth she lost this trip and believe it or not the tooth fairy found her in Salt Lake and in St. George!