We were so busy in Utah, I had to split our adventures into two posts!
On Wednesday, July 11th, we headed down for a day of fun in Provo! Andrew's sister, Laura, had just had a baby a few days before, so we didn't stay with them, but we did want to at least visit!
We played at the new play area in the University Mall to start things off:
Lots of climbing!
(Cora managed to rip a hole in her shorts sliding down the black grip strips on this bridge.)
We stayed out of the water this time, but the outdoor play area looked fun too!
Visiting our cousins at Laura and Danny's house! Lots of girls and lots of fun! Maren and Zoey were very nice to share their toys!
And I got to snuggle a just days old Nolan!
He was very popular :)
Aunt Lisa was taking Grandma Jane home from her hair appointment and brought her by the house for a quick hello! She is 93 years old and not doing well, so it was good to see her!
Uncle Danny gave Eve a hammock ride!
More Nolan snuggles!
Aunt Lisa was watching the World Cup match that went into overtime, so we went out to grab some lunch while we waited for the game to finish. We love Spicy Thai! (A restaurant owned by some friends of Lisa's that she just recently introduced us to.) The girls were good and scarfed their food! I did too....
After lunch, we met up with Aunt Lisa and Maren and went swimming at Aunt Lisa's community pool up in Lehi! We all had so much fun!
Eve was busy showing off her tricks, including her first ever cannon ball (pictured below) and pencil dive!
After a nice, long swim, we dried off and had to say our goodbyes :(
Back to Layton for more fun! On Thursday, we hit the road for some outings in Salt Lake City. It was so hot! First up was the Clark Planetarium at Gateway Mall. We wandered a bit as we made our way from the parking garage and the girls all searched out the shade :)
Planetarium play time! Stuck in a storm!
Courtesy of our Science Spectrum membership, we got in free to the show about stars. Everyone was very good, with the exception of Cora who lost it during the last 5 minutes.
Playing on one of Jupiter's moons!
Saying goodbye to the Planetarium:
And off to the Leonardo Museum! Again free! We tried to get the most use out of our Science Spectrum membership that we could :)
We arrived only 45 minutes before closing, so it was a quick visit. The girls had fun with the slide coming out of an airplane! (Until Abigail bashed her leg on something sharp in the cockpit and came to find me with blood running everywhere.)
Trying the flight simulator! It was tricky!
Cora built this lovely stack all by herself!
While Aunt Kelly and Grandma took the older kids to the optical illusions section, I watched Maddie and Cora build with the blocks! This is how the section looked when we arrived, about 10 minutes before closing. A couple minutes later, an employee walked by, said the museum was closing soon, and asked us to clean it up. Haha, probably one of the only times I did NOT make the girls clean up. We weren't about to spend our couple of minutes of play time cleaning up a mess we did not make (which I politely explained to the employee).
Abigail joined us and built this creation!
Levitating arms!
On our way back to the entrance!
Just outside the museum - something from a rocket or some such? All I know is it was filthy. And so were all the girls by the time they were done playing in it.
Over to City Creek to meet Uncle Lance for dinner at Johnny Rockets. It was a long wait, but the food was yummy!
Abigail wanted salad, so we shared :)
Friday! Our last day in Utah! The girls did lots of coloring at this table throughout the week.
We went swimming that afternoon at the Roy pool and it was.....big! Lots of different sections which made keeping track of 12 kids interesting. Aunt Genevieve and our cousins met us there! With one adult sitting out with Blade, that left just 3 to manage the chaos. But everyone had fun and no one got lost!
And Eve went off the high dive 5 or 6 times! She's such a fish these days!
There were two big water slides and Aunt Kelly waited in line multiple times in a row to take various cousins down, so I played with the other kids in the shallow section - Halle and Daryn pictured below:
Aunt Kelly and Abigail on the slide!
Here comes Eve! When I finally convinced her to try them, she loved it and sent down both multiple times!
Getting ready to leave:
Homemade pizza night after swimming! It was delicious!
And kind of crazy with all those cousins!
Burning off some calories after dinner :)
Saturday morning Aunt Kelly entertained the girls with cars and bikes while Mom and I packed and loaded the car.
We were so sad to leave, but I'm sure Kelly was ready to have her house back :)
An uneventful drive back to Colorado and Grandpa Larsen had dinner waiting for us. Eve got to have orange juice in Grandpa's special glass!
Sunday was church and National Ice Cream day, which apparently I didn't take pictures of. Grandpa and Grandma hosted an ice cream party for some friends and we all ate lots!
Monday was our last day in Colorado before we were heading home on Tuesday. We celebrated with breakfast (coffee) cake! Yum!
And introduced Eve to speed scrabble. A picture of her first ever game!
And a picture of the first game she won, later that day! As long as she doesn't try to use "qi" like Uncle Lance.....
Swamp cooler fun! Don't blow away, Halle!
And squeezing in all the outdoor fun we can! Cora insisted on trying to balance on the rock wall and managed not to fall! It was just slow going.
Relaxing with some ice cream sandwiches :)
That night as I was laying in bed, I saw Eve walk past my door. I went out to check and she was passed out on the floor. Not wanting Grandpa to trip on her in the morning, I knew she had to be moved, but I was in no condition to carry her back to bed. And she was out cold. Our little sleep walker :) I woke her up just enough to help her stumble back to bed.
And that was it! Time to head back to Lubbock. We survived just over 2 weeks of a girls' trip, but were very excited to get back home and see Daddy!
