THURSDAY - JULY 30th

What a change to wake up to 61 degrees! We headed up to Olympic Park to watch the USA Aerial Team and the USA Women's K90. I have never been to a place like this. It was so amazing to see this in action. I never realized how serious people take the olympics. There are only 2 places like this in the US. It was so neat to see where the Olympics took place, see the venues, ride on the actual bobsleds! The tour was so worth it. Our guide was so informational and I learned so much from him. I have a whole new respect for the winter games for sure! If I had the time, I could sit and watch them jump all day long. The Australian Team was there too but we only watched a little bit of them.

In the summer they jump into a 10 foot deep pool. Right before they land, the controller fills the area he is jumping with bubbles to soften their blow to the water. They said it hurts pretty bad when they "forget" to do it.
Andy road the bobsleds on the actual track they used for the Oympics. You pull 4G's on the ride! They say it is a ride of a lifetime and Andy agreed!

I have a whole new respect for the height they jump from. Here we are at the top of the jump!
The Olympic Museum was so educational. I thought it would be boring and a waste of time. I was so wrong. To see all the pictures, metals and the history of the Olympics was just amazing!! I am so glad came here today and took the time to learn more about the Winter Games they had here in Park City!

We weren't sure what do to for dinner tonight but since it was only 6:00 we were hoping for a better restaurant. Everyone had been telling us to eat at Chuck-A-Rama's or Up-Chucks as Colette calls it. So we decided to drive to Salt Lake and eat there. I have to say the food was pretty good but I can't wait to get home to eat a home cooked meal! I will even cook it!

WEDNESDAY - JULY 28th

Today we were heading up to Park City for the rest of our vacation. While we were packing everything up Andy saw something about the MLS All Star game tonight right across the freeway (maybe a few miles up) from us. We called on a few tickets people had for sale but then realized it just wouldn't work for our schedule. Oh how sad Lauren was. She wanted to go so bad!

We got checked into the hotel and then off to the outlets! Oh boy! Did I have fun......I told Lauren that we could do some school shopping while were we up here and we came prepared and even brought an extra suitcase with us! Old Navy was having 40% off the entire store and then I had a coupon for an extra 15% off! Old Navy even shipped it all back to my house for me!! Whew....room for more goodies! We walked the entire area in about 4 hours. I was dead near the end and couldn't carry another bag! We unloaded at the hotel, rested for a little bit and then up to main street to sight see. Did I mention that I love it here!! One more thing....Lauren got a cookie sandwich at Mrs. Fields and oh my....she couldn't fit it in her mouth!


We at dinner at Red Banjo Pizza. I was talking to our waiter and asked what is a must see here.....come to find out that he is on the national USA ski team. He and his brother were practicing at Olympic Park on Thursday. We were planning on going there of Friday but changed our plans to go on Thursday to see him jump. Dinner was GREAT!! I am always a little nervous to try new restaurants because I want to eat good food and if the food isn't good I feel like I wasted my money!

Since we had a long day we drove around a little bit and then came back to the hotel at about 11:00 at all went straight to bed! Guess we will be sleeping in again tomorrow! That is what vacations are for! In case I didn't mention it....

I LOVE IT HERE!!!!

TUESDAY - JULY 28th

LAGOON here we come!!!

I have to preface by letting you know that Drew doesn't like Disney except maybe the carousel. SERIOUSLY!! He doesn't like dark rides, loud rides, fast rides etc. So basically nothing at Disney. Anyway.....we pulled into the parking lot to hear Drew say "No thanks Mom!" just as sincere as can be. I turned to Andy and we bought looked at him in shock. Out of the blue it came! He was not wanting anything to do with going into Lagoon. We weren't even parked yet!I am not a big roller coaster girl so I was gladly waiting with Drew although we did manage to get him on 2 of them. There was NO wait at all on any rides. It was so nice to get right on the rides without a long wait. The funniest part was how wet we got on the kiddie ride (basically dumbo with water). You could move your sea creature up and down and they had animals "spitting" water out at you at different heights. Of course Drew got me soaked since he was controlling it. He thought that was so funny!
We all rode the go karts too! Of course I won the race. Poor Lauren kept making us all stop because her kart wouldn't go....so sorry Lauren! After we rode the go karts, Andy and Lauren rode the dragsters! WHOA......70 miles per hour for Lauren was REALLY FAST! She did a great job and on the last race Andy beat her by just a tenth of a second! GO GIRL!

MONDAY - JULY 27th

What an awesome day today is going to be!!! Emily is going to EFY today with Brooke Thompson and Lara Porter. Our started with a yummy hot breakfast at the hotel. What has been so nice is the relaxation we have had on this trip. Usually our trips are scheduled from sun up and sun down so this has been so relaxing....no alarm clocks for this trip! Emily got all packed and we headed down to Provo to meet up with the Thompson's at the Bean Museum. WOW...I have never seen so many stuffed animals in my life. Not the animals you win at the carnival or get from your grandparents....the real ones! From elephants to zebras to bears and hippos.

Preview

After the museum we took a quick trip to the Creamery! I didn't know what to expect but it was a way fun place....grill, ice cream, grocery's, yummy bread...what else do you need! It was so busy that Emily had to grab a sandwich and then off to check in for EFY. We all met in the stadium parking lot at BYU. What a relief when Lara, Emily and Brooke were all in the same company and they were rooming right next door to each other!!! They are staying at Heritage Halls in Harris. They are going to have so much fun!!!

After we got the girls off to EFY we went back to the creamery and ate lunch. It was yummy!! On our way back to Salt Lake we stopped at Thanksgiving Point. Our first stop was the Farm Country. Well....we could have done without it but it was still fun.

Then off to the Dinosaur Museum. It was neat to see all the different dinosaurs. I think Andy had more fun playing in the sand then the kids did!!

We have decided that Provo is a place that we can live (or at least think we can). It is so beautiful here!! I am sure come November we would be crying to move back to Mesa since we don't own coats let alone shovels!

SUNDAY - JULY 26th (part 2)

Later on Sunday afternoon we went to the Discovery Gateway Museum. What a cool place to take the kids to. I think the big ones had the best time! It was three levels with so many hands activities. My favorite was the news anchors. The girls we reading their newscast about the old lady that swallowed a fly. They wanted me to try and I will tell you that I have a whole new respect for news anchors. I must have only been 6 or 7 words into my news story and messed up. The girls started laughing at me. Here are some of my favorite pictures:


After another long day we took the kids swimming for a little bit and then tried to find something for dinner. We are quickly figuring out that you eat before it starts to get dark. It is very hard to find dinner at 10:00 in Utah. It is so wild that it doesn't get dark until 9:00 here....how would my son ever go to bed!

SUNDAY - JULY 26th (part 1)

We woke up early this morning and head to the conference center to listen to the choir perform. I have to give one minor detail to this. Unfortunately, we only brought 1 set of church clothes and wore them yesterday. I called Laurie and asked if it would be okay to not wear Sunday dress. She said.....sure there will be others not in Sunday dress, don't worry. So off we went. As we parked the girls mentioned loudly to me that we are the ONLY ones in vacation attire and they are NOT getting out of the car. I said that the Lord wouldn't care what we are wearing, he would be glad we were there. There were probably 7-10 people wearing "vacation clothes" and we were 5 of them!! After a little forcing we all were walking into the conference center. That place is MAMMOTH!! Drew and Andy had to watch in the children's theater because it was a live taping they didn't want extra noise. Wow is all I can say...nothing compares to it!

After they performed we met up with the boys and took a tour of the conference center. That place is more then I imagined! HUGE is definitely and understatement. It was so awesome to hear all the details that were thought about during the making of it. Like having no pillars or beams to block anyone's view....or the way the upper level is on a teeter totter weight system. WOW!!
We were so incredibly lucky to meet on of the 12 apostles - Elder Christofferson. He was upstairs with an intimate group of about 6 people looking at the apostle pictures and our tour guide asked if we new who we just passed. I wasn't paying attention but Emily did! Drew was best friends by now with the tour guide and she took him right over to him to meet him. We felt a little out of place with our dress but we so grateful for the opportunity!


Off to the roof of the conference center. It is like a mini city up there! Who would ever have thought that there would be trees, flowers and water up there!!


After we finished the tour of the conference center we walked over to the church museum. It was so incredible to see all the history of the church. The kids all had a great time learning new fun things about our chuch. Since Emily would only be with us for a few days we asked her if she wanted to do church history or Lagoon......she chose church history!