The Smiths: The Rest of Our Utah Vacation

We used our days in Provo to the absolute fullest! We had 5 1/2 days, but they flew by! When you're having fun.... :)

First things first - fill that pool! And of course they all got soaking wet in the filling of it.

We meant to let it sit in the sun for a while before beginning the swim time, but little girls don't like to be kept waiting! And don't mind cold water, apparently....

And since it was the 3rd of July, we figured some snaps might be kid - approved. And so they were! Under Aunt Laura's supervision, the girls had a great time making a mess of Grandpa's driveway :)

The 4th was a hot, tiring, fun day, beginning with the Provo parade. Lance joined me to help with the girls, thankfully, and we squatted on my parents' seats. Also thankfully, it was fairly cloudy until just as the parade was ending. It was hot enough regardless!

This cowboy balloon particularly caught the girls' attention - they were convinced it was Luigi and still talk about it:

Uncle Lance treated the girls to otter pops for which they were very grateful!

We're not as grumpy as we look, but parades can be exhausting!

After the parade, it was off to my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Kathy's house for a Larsen 4th of July bbq. We'd just seen everyone the day before at the close of the reunion, but this gave us one more chance to mingle. Or sit in the shade with Uncle Evan:

And play with our cousins!

Then back to the Smith's to cool off in the pool - with more cousins! Eve and Lexi were fairly effective at wetting the entire back porch.

I tried to keep at least Eve up for fireworks that night, but they took their sweet time in starting. We did see some smaller displays from Grandpa and Grandma's front yard, but went to bed before the Stadium of Fire began it's show. But not before Eve got to do some sparklers! Halle and Abigail pooped out much earlier.

Sunday was fairly quiet and Eve devoted herself to cleaning out the Smith's ice cream supply:

On Monday the girls played, and played, and played!

Halle joined me that afternoon for an excursion to buy new tires for our car and enjoyed playing with blocks in the waiting area. Two stores and about three hours later, we finally had two new tires!

We swung by the store on our way back to Grandma's and look what we found???

Grandma made a feast that night and we devoured it! Yum, yum!

Then Kayla and I went to work - she's been tempting me for over a month now with a recipe she found for Andes mint cake. So of course we had to make it!

I said I would help with the baking as long as Kayla did the decorating - with a little help from Lisa, it was soon done!

Not professional, but pretty dang good! And you can bet we enjoyed it :)

On Tuesday, we went on what I thought would be a half-day trip, but ended up taking until almost 7pm!

We headed north to see my friend Katie and play at their house - which we did with zest for a couple of hours! It was so good to see her! Kelly even stopped by for a bit and Grandma came with us, so it made it all the better!

Things have changed just a bit since we were roommates....8?...9?....years ago. Either way, it's been a bit :)

After a fun morning with them, I wanted to make a couple of stops on our way home. I'd decided I wanted to take the girls to see the 10 temples in the vicinity. And since I wasn't planning on driving this far north again before we left, I thought we'd see the first few that Tuesday afternoon after leaving Katie's. Little did I realize how long it would take. The temples will get their own post, but needless to say, that's how we spent the rest of the day on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we made our trip to BYU to see Grandpa at work! Maren showed the girls how to leave their mark:

We love Grandpa!

Afterwards, we met up with my friend Marinda for lunch at the Creamery. I really wanted to take the girls there for ice cream, but the line for ice cream was so ridiculously long (and never got shorter the whole time we were there!) that I gave up after we ate. That'll have to wait for another trip. But it was fun to see Marinda!

We were starting to realize that our time in Provo was almost up, so it was back outside to sit in grass - you know, stuff you can't do in Texas. Got to appreciate it while you can!