The Last Hurrah!

This last weekend we took the kids to Utah for one last Hurrah before school starts in a week and a half. We spent Thurs. night and Friday with Mary and Clyde. On Friday we went to Maddox which was most delicious!!!! After dinner on Friday we headed to Salt Lake where the kids were jumping around all over the place in the hotel. We took them down to the pool, which was quite possibly one of the coldest pools in North America. (Second only to the pool in Laramie, Wyoming where Andy and Clyde suffered from possible hypothermia after taking Carson and Garett down the waterslide once in the hotel we stayed at during our horrific move from West Virginia.) One family came in and said, "Hey, let's go across the street and use the Little America pool. It's warmer than this one." We are not sure they were even checked into the hotel as we didn't see them again during our stay. We suspect they are just local residents who enjoy hotel pool hopping. The kids didn't seem to think it was cold at all (despite the intense shivering from Jaxon). They said, "you just have to keep moving around and then you are fine." The next morning we tanked up at the free breakfast and headed to Temple Square. We thought the kids would like it seeing as we really haven't taken them there recently. You would have thought we were dragging them through boiling oil by their toenails with the amount of complaining and whining and crying that ensued. "I'm hot! When are we going to the car? I'm tired of walking! My feet hurt! I'm tired! I'm hungry! This is boring! When are we going to be done?" Looking back it probably didn't help that all of the kids had way too little sleep and way too many treats the night before. I should clarify that Carson was great and Garett was mostly good. It was Kelsi and Jaxon that did not seem to be enjoying our attempt at creating some great family memories. I guess we did create some memories...just not the ones that I envisioned. After a tour of the conference center (which Jaxon did a boogie dance throughout because he really had to go to the bathroom and for some reason our tour guide seemed to believe that the ONLY bathroom was down on the first level), a trip to the Chistus statue (which we heard in Spanish), a quick trip through the South visitors center, a tour of the Beehive house, and a family "touch the temple" photo (above) everyone had had enough. We then went to the Mayan to eat. That's the restaraunt where the divers come out and do a little show and dive off of cliffs in the restaraunt. We thought the kids would be thrilled with this. We get there and Jaxon says, "Why is this so dark? Why are there trees all over in here?" So I say, "It's supposed to make you feel like you are in a jungle. Do you feel like you are in the jungle?" To which he replied, "Not really because there are tables and seats in here." They actually really did like the diving show. The divers even came over to our table to talk some jibberish (made up Mayan language, perhaps?) So Carson gave them each a french fry and then they went away. The food was sub-par I thought. I'm not sure why a Mexican place sprinkles parmesean cheese all over ALL of the food. It's a little perplexing. After "Dunch" (Carson's name for Lunch and Dinner) we drove home and I was ready for a vacation from our vacation.
Change of subject: Carson spoke in Sacrament Meeting today and did a stellar job! He wrote most of the talk himself. I just help it flow a little bit. He told us today, "You know it's a lot better if you can get them to laugh in a talk. Then they have a happy smiley face and not a scary serious face." He made them laugh twice...so good for him. And that is our exciting weekend.

Watching cartoons in the hotel room.