Family Vacation

We actually took a little vacation as a family the last weekend of March.  We stayed in the Hilton in downtown Salt Lake.  We went down Saturday morning, checked into the hotel and found our room.  The boys begged and begged to go swimming right then, so mom and dad agreed and shimmied into swimming suits too.  Mom was worried someone might actually catch sight of her in a swimming suit so hurried to jump in so fast so excited to get in the pool, she forgot to take her two month old cell phone out of the pocket of her swimming shorts, and didn't even think about it until about an hour into swimming when Carter hollered, "Hey Mom!  Your phone sinks!  I think I can reach it!" 

Yeah, can't have a day where I do something b.r.i.l.l.a.n.t. like that...

Needless to say, Carter could NOT reach it and Damien was tickled pink to get back in the pool and retrieve the soggy, dead as a door knob, phone.  (I am currently using the one that Damien dropped into the toilet, clean toilet-but toilet none the less, and soaked in a bowl of rice for days, so I apologize for any dropped calls, lost signals, or fuzzy conversations!) 

The whole swimming thing went a little longer than anticipated, and we had to eat dinner somewhere before the boys went to Jazz game.  We loaded everyone up into the van, thinking we'd drive down the road and find a choice of 20 restaurants, eat a lovely dinner that I didn't have to cook, then after dropping the boys off in front of the Energy Solutions Center, swing back to the hotel for a quiet night of Dora episodes and mom's latest library checkout.

It turned out like this, however: 
Damien drove around and around the same three or four blocks for 30 minutes, looking for a quick restaurant we could eat at, Mom trying to keep the tired, hungry children from getting to a volume above a soft whisper, knowing it would only make driving in downtown Salt Lake with a tired, hungry husband a complete joke difficult task for two grown ups who have lived in Southeast Idaho most of their lives and who have never taken a trip without someone else who is in charge. (To say we are not the traveling/vacation type is a MAJOR understatement)  Then after a few "discussions" between these two grown ups, we enjoyed the lovely cuisine of a well known restaurant, Wendy's, where Damien found a bug on his lettuce leave and Ashley miscounted the hamburger count and forgot to order something for herself.  The boys had a block to eat their hamburgers, and then we caught a red light and Damien hopped out, I scooted across the mini van to the driver's side, opened the side door and the two boys climbed over the seat (kicking Addison in the head and making Eden cry because she wanted out too) and jumped out to join their smiling dad, where they walked the final 500 yards to the game.  I went back to the hotel and didn't even finish a page in my book.  The girls were tired and excited to be in a hotel, which is a very bad combination actually.  The boys came back from the game in MUCH better spirits, and had a blast at the game, even though the Jazz lost.  It was almost eleven before we had everyone quited down for bed, but I forgot a fan, which is a MUST for all of us, so it was a little hard going to sleep.  We could hear every little cough, wiggle, rustle, and Eden found great entertainment in rubbing the sides of the play pen with her little fingers and toes. 

If you don't know how annoying this sound is, Try this:

1. Set up your child's play pen.

2. Pretend your exhausted and trying to go to sleep.

3. Rub the sides fast, slow, stop, slow, fast, slow, fast, stop.  Repeat until temper is lost. 

Finally, everyone was asleep, but in between knocking knees with Damien and Eden snoring like a truck driver, I was pretty glad when morning rolled around!

Sunday was a huge improvement from Saturday, thankfully.  We realized if we wanted to find somewhere to eat we would have to leave downtown.  We found an IHOP, had a yummy breakfast that I didn't have to cook, and then headed to Temple Square. 





The kids were really little the last time we visited so they were so excited to see everything-especially the Christus statue.  There were a TON of people there so we snapped a super quick picture before moving on to the other sites.  The kids had a great time at all the new stuff and loved the hands on kids stuff.  They were fascinated by the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum and loved all the old tools and machinery.  It was great to spend a few hours there and feel the spirit that is on Temple Square.  We plan to make this an annual event, only with much more planning and preparation!

Had to add this "real life" video of our trip....it cracks me up!