BYU Day

It's always been a tradition to visit BYU, our Alma Mater when we come to Utah. We take the scenic drive down to Provo, enjoying the beautiful mountain range as we travel. Once in Provo we head straight to the BYU bookstore. Shopping for BYU memorabila is a must. The boys usually pick a baseball hat or a sweatshirt. This year was no different--Easton picked a cool hat, Dallin chose a sweatshirt, Landon wanted a hat, Mom got a really cool sweatshirt and keychain, Dad picked a hat, and Ashton.......well, she wasn't there, but she did get something. She'll find out what it is when we get back to Georgia. hee hee.

After the shopping trip we walked around campus looking at how things have changed. The new Hinkley welcome center was awesome. I didn't expect it to be so big. It is a nice addition to campus. We found Helaman Halls, Ashton's dorm where she will be living in the Fall. She'll be at Chipman Hall and will eat her meals at the Cannon Center. It was good to show Dallin, Lanodn, and especially Easton where Ashton would sleep and eat during the school year.

After the campus tour we headed off to the Brick Oven for dinner. mmmmmm..the kids love that place. We got a yummy extra large pizza, not a crumb was left. Suckers are always the dessert of choice, Root beer was the flavor of choice. Another successful year at BYU and another generation heading off to school soon. We know Ashton will have a great time studying, learning, and playing. Stephen and I are jeaous--can we go too!

The Cannon center where Ashton will eat her meals.
Inside the Cannon center--now that just looks downright homey!

Celebrate America!

What an exciting time for the Carroll's to be in Utah to participate in my Mom and Dad's annual 4th of July family dinner and fireworks show. Every year my parents have a dinner for all extended family members. We have missed it in the past, but this time we were here just at the right time. Everyone was dressed in their most festive 4th of July colors right down to cute little bows and even fancy painted fingernails. The feast consisted of BBQ sandwiches and yummy salads, veggie platters and oodles of goodies. It was so fun to talk to my cousins, Aunts and Uncles that I haven't seen in years. We always have fun when we are together.

My parents live by the Eaglewood golf course. The fireworks show is at this golf course so we have awesome seats for the grand show. We all sit on the lawn in the back of their house and enjoy the "private" fireworks show. We don't have to fight the crowds to find a spot to sit--we have a beautifully unobstructed view of the event. The children ooed and awed at the cool display. There were some new styles this year that were very awesome. It was great. After the show the kids just kind of hung around playing frisbee, football and talking. What a spectacular evening. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great hospitality.Easton and his Dad hang out watching the fireworks.

Dallin and Landon watching fireworks with cousins, Tessa and Madeleine.

The cousins love playing games together. McCoy, Dallin, Landon, Madeleine, and Tessa.

The whole crew. The only cousin missing was Ashton, who stayed in Georgia to work.

HIRES!

We love to eat at HIRES whenever we come to Utah. The hamburgers and onion rings are fabulous, not to mention the shakes. Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins love going. The kids got to sit at their own table this year. They are so mature and grownup. It was fun listening to them reminisce about the past years together. I enjoyed the Bacon Roqufert(sp) burger which is my all time favorite. I think we will have to hit Hires one more time before vacation is over.

Three generations

What a great sport golf is because it allows every age to play. Here's a great picture of three generations of golfers going out on the Eaglewood Golf course in North Salt Lake. Grandpa Homer,testing out his new knee replacement, Stephen Carroll who plays in spite of nagging back pain and Dallin Carroll, healthy and full of energy, but still learning the patience and skill involved in golf. A great time was had by all, no matter what the skill leveland physical challenges. Everyone has a great shot now and then that is right up there with Tiger Woods. John Bytheway has said, "Sometimes your ball lands on the groomed grass, sitting up beautifully for the next shot. Other times the only thing between your ball and the hole is a tree trunk. Sometimes it lands in a divot. That's golf, and that's life. You have to play the ball as it lies."

Discovery Gateway

One of our first outings when we arrived in Salt Lake was to take all the children and all the cousins to the Children's Museum. We loved it. It is fairly new so everything was in great working order. It reminded me a little of Sci Trek in Atlanta, only way better. There were so many on-hands activities that the children could do and it offered learning moments for every age group. We definitely will be doing this adventure again in future vacations.

Easton had a blast playing in the ball center. There were so many gadgets, vacuums, chutes, tubes and interesting ways to move the balls around. Grandma watches as Kaitlyn experiences the balls.

Everyone got into the act as we worked together to create motion with the balls.
Easton got to climb a rock wall. He did awesome as he manuvered up the cliff. Easton does a little shopping. He loved going through the "real life" store shopping, working the register, and restocking the shelves.The older cousins used their creativity to create a claymation motion picture. They worked hard taking a bazillion photos to create their 3 second masterpiece!
Here is the finished Claymation product. Even though it's short, remember that it took a lot of working moving each piece and setting up the scene for the next shot.Creating parachutes out of muffin frills, cups, and pipe cleaners was so cool. There was a lot of experimenting to get the right combination of supplies so that your parachute was light enough to travel up the narrow wind tunnel. Some really went sailing and others just didn't move.This was a cool ball obsticle course. The kids had to arrange and rearrange the track so that the ball that was released would be guided into the hole at the bottom of the track. A lot of trial and error and the cousins were successful.

Superior Lumber Company

One of our stops we took as we drove across country was in Rock Springs, Wyoming to visit my Aunt Joan and Uncle Daron. What an event it was. We got lost trying to find their home after getting off the freeway. I could see where it was, but just couldn't get to their house. After finally getting to their home, they weren't there so of course we headed to the Superior Lumber Company where they work and found them at last. What a thrill to walk through the doors--all my childhood feelings and memories came flashing back. We would often walk to the Lumber Co. from Grandma's house to visit. Grandpa would let us get a lemonade out of the drink machine and Uncle Sam always gave us suckers out of the top drawer in his desk. We would get to go in the back of the store where they kept the inventory and lumber. There was a slide that was used to slide inventory to the storage area that we would always slide down. It was always a fun, exciting ride. Grandpa loved having his grandchildren visit and he always made us feel special and important. The Superior Lumber Co. is celebrating 100 years in business this year. A legacy of hard work, honesty and dedication has been left for the next generation. Aunt Joan explains to the boys how to measure nails by the pound and use the large metal hook to scoop them up onto the scale.

Uncle Daron is restoring an old Model T in the back of the store. It was cool to see the progress that he has made. What a hard worker he is.

The infamous slide! Landon sits on a paper bag and gets ready to sail down. I remember it being much longer as a child. It was downright scarey, but when you finally got up enough nerve to push off, it was an awesome ride.
Easton was a little cautious about going down the first time, but after that he kept going and going and going!
Aunt Joan gives Easton a ride on the dolly. Thanks for the special VIP tour that we received.

Our 2000 mile drive

We started our 2000 mile drive to Utah on Saturday, June 28, 2008. Mom, Dad, Dallin, Landon, and Easton headed out of Suwanee, Georgia at around 11:30 am, a little later than planned. It always takes us longer to actually leave the house than we plan. We always say we are going to load the car the night before but that just never happens. Oh well. We spent our first night about an hour west of St. Louis.

Our first dinner was at a lovely Bob Evan restaurant. Nice and air conditioned. The boys enjoyed breakfast for their dinners!

Don't you love this freaky looking cloud? The picture doesn't do it justice--it looked electrifying!
A picture of the arch as we drove by. The Mississippi river which runs by the arch was overflowing and the tops of trees were just peaking above the river.
Another very freaky cloud. We debated about stopping before we ran through this storm or trying to outrun it and continue through it. We decided to press on, thinking that it would be better to get through it and possibly beat it, than hang around and see what damage it could do.Sunday morning we took a detour off Interstate 70 to visit Liberty Jail in Liberty, Missouri. We took a wonderful tour and learned about Joseph Smith and the others that were held captive for months. We felt the spirit there and gained an appreciation for what went on there and the suffering that these courageous men went through.A replica of the Liberty jail. Stephen and Landon looking inside.We loved seeing these really huge windmills throughout Kansas and Wyoming. They are definitely larger in person! Wyoming found us at the Lincoln Memorial at a cool rest stop. I used to stop here every summer with my family when I was little and have our lunch. By the time we reached this reststop after leaving Rock Springs, Wyoming where my grandparents lived it would be lunchtime. We never talked to mom from Rock Springs until we reached this stop because she would be crying and sad after leaving her family. It was an annual thing for her. She would cheer up after eating lunch and sitting at the picnic table for awhile. She was always fine after this stop in the trip.

We reached Bountiful, Utah around 7:00 pm Monday, June 30 after a nice drive. The kids were great. They played a lot of ps2 games and watched a lot of movies. We were all glad to get out of the car and see Grandma and Grandpa and all the Aunts, Uncles, and COUSINS!!! We will add more posts about our vacation so keep checking back.