Tues/Wed

Tuesday

Tuesday we woke up early again and drove over to “This is the Place” park in Salt Lake City. It is a pioneer village that has really grown in size in the past few years. We got to see a lot of different houses and buisnesses that would have exhisted in the pioneer days. There is a petting zoo, blacksmith shop, printing shop, bank, carpenters shop, leather workers shop (I can’t remember the official name) church, school, pony rides, wagon rides, “train ride” (the train was not really a train). The kids had a great time.

That afternoon we then went over to Temple Square. We took some family pictures in front of the Salt Lake Temple, and then went on a short tour Rich’s mom put together for the kids. She did a great job with some simple facts and clues that kept the kids attention. The tour included the top floor of the Joseph F Smith Building, the Beehive house, a walk by the Lion House, the Tabernacle, the North Visitors Center (with the Christus statue) and the new assembly hall. Angela fell asleep during the time at the Tabernacle, so I sat down in the visitors center and had a wonderful time chatting with my brother in law’s girlfriend while the others finished the tour.

After our tour was over we all headed over to Golden Corral for a big family dinner. Again we had a good time and then it was time to say goodby to the family members that we had reaquainted ourselves with during the trip. The kids had a great time getting to know cousins that they don’t see as often. Then we headed back to the house to sleep.

Wednesday

Well kind of Wednesday… Angela had the hardest time going to sleep that night. She would wake up after an hour or so and cry… around 3am she started screaming in pain. Poor girl. I wound up sitting up on the couch in the game room for the rest of the night with her sleeping on my chest. With all the excitement and going going going that we had had that week I had forgotten to give her one of her allergy medicines and she had become really really stuffed up. The congestion got to her ear and she was in pain and had a fever. So… after that loveley night we all slept in a little later than the past few days and the morning hours were spent getting kids fed and dressed, and Sharon’s family and mine needed to pack up our suitcases and search for missing items around the house.

We went and had a fun little picnic lunch up at a state park near the house and the kids had fun exploring the little structures they had there. We went from there and ran to a grocery store to pick up more pain reliever for Angela with her ear ache, and then we went to the Heber Valley Railroad. We rode the train down provo canyon. It was a fun and scenic ride. It was a little bit hot though, so on the return trip we “had” to get the kids some ice cream to help them cool off. Poor Angela though was just not feeling well and spent most of the time on my lap and dozing off and on. She did however find enough energy to play on the play structure at Vivian park- the halfway point on the round trip down and back up the canyon. It just amazes me the energy she can find when she gets near a slide- even when she is feeling sick!

After our train ride we said goodby to everyone and drove down to Orem to stay with my parents for a few days. At my parents house my dad took the three big kids over to the park to play with the helicopters he had given them again. Alex had a great time getting to know Mom and Dad’s dog Tasha. He kept sneaking out to the garage to toss her a treat. For Alex this is huge since he has always been so fearfull of dogs.