Covid was starting to ruin everything.
Including our original Summer trip to TX.
Calling to cancel our reservations at the Schlitterbahn
was gut punching. I was SO excited to finally
be able to go to this water park.
It has been on my bucket list for awhile.
Rumors were swirling that AZ was going to issue a mask mandate.
No thank you!
All of the public swimming pools were closed for the entire summer.
It's too darn hot to be outside.
Plus all parks were still caution taped off.
What in tarnation were we supposed to do for 2.5 months?
My mind started to wonder how we could salvage our Summer without
going insane in the membrane.
I knew UT was pretty open as far as restaurants and parks were concerned.
If anything, we could just hang outside in the cooler weather.
And it would be a much needed change of scenery.
I hopped on airbnb to see what I could find.
Much to my surprise, there were lots of options.
I found a house that was available for a month that was severely discounted.
I am assuming because of covid?
The only perk to this situation!
I asked Casey what he thought about us escaping for a month.
He was totally on board.
Am I crazy?
I have never left for a WHOLE month!
But I was completely over it.
I needed out of AZ, stat.
I knew Casey couldn't stay with us the entire time.
There is an airport in Provo with cheap flights.
We checked and sure enough we found flights that would work.
Both in Provo and SLC.
We figured he could fly in and out on a weekend or 2
.
Plus, he was able to come for a week during the 4th!
The house was pretty big, so I asked if Stephanie wanted to come along
on this wild adventure with us!
They were IN!
They could only come for 3 weeks due to a family reunion the last week.
I didn't care.
I was so grateful something was finally working out in our favor!
When it got closer to leaving, a house fell in their laps for
them to stay in.
Which in the long run ended up being better to have
our own places.
We left on Saturday June 27th!
We loaded the burb and borrowed my dads trailer.
Off we were on our first long adventure away from home!
A was a ball of different emotions when pulling out of our driveway.
Mostly excited and grateful beyond measure.
Also a wee bit nervous.
This was something I have never done before!
Ready or not, UT here we come!
I am blessed with children with strong bladders:)
We only needed a few pit stops along the way.
One if Flagstaff where we ate breakfast at the gas station restaurant
attached to the Little America hotel.
One in St. George, and one in Payson UT.
This picture was about an hour away from Provo.
It started to feel real!
And it got super real when we pulled up to our cute home away from home!
In the flesh, instead of staring at it from a computer screen.
418 E Center St.
I didn't know Provo that well so it was hard deciding
on what location would be best.
I couldn't have picked better!
It was on the historical streets right on Center street.
An easy walk to the Provo City Temple, parks,
downtown restaurants, you name it.
I felt completely safe and was in a good neighborhood.
It was bigger on the inside than I thought it would be.
Which was nice because when my family and other visitors came there was
plenty of room.
A little tour:
From the front door there are 2 different seating areas.
To the right there was the tv room.
We actually brought our on tv from home and put it in this room right in front
of the fire place.
To the left was the "toy room".
We rearranged furniture to accommodate the bins of toys I brought!
Dining room that looks to the front door, tv room and toy room.
The guest room with a bathroom
Bunk room where the girls slept.
Mine and Casey's room.
The bathroom we used that was right next to our room.
The upstairs was a huge renovated loft area where the boys slept!
It had 3 trundle beds underneath, so 6 beds total.
We unloaded the trailer and car and started getting settled.
As cute as the house was, it was pretty dirty.
We ended up cleaning way more than we would have liked, which led
to some not nice texts to the landlord.
Which then led to us knowing he would not be of much help during our stay here.
Ugh.
Oh well, what do you do?
We were bushed so off to bed.
We woke up and tried to get as much done as possible before we needed to drop
Casey off at the airport.
Thank heavens for Costco delivery!
It was Father's Day, so we headed off to eat at a
Mexican restaurant down the street
called El Gallo Giro.
YUM!!!
We have the best dad, ever!
One who drives us to UT, gets the house ready for us only to leave the very next day.
Then, it was time.
Casey's flight was leaving soon.
I was dreading this.
I solemnly dropped him off and gave him a tearful goodbye.
I don't know why it was so hard for me.
He would be back in 5 days, for a week!
It helped knowing that the Evans' would be here the next day.
We picked up more groceries from Smith's then
took a walk to a park down the street.
I decorated the kitchen window all festively.
We woke up and found out that the Evans's had made it to UT!
They needed to get their house in order so we had an easy morning then
met up at the most anticipated Prove Rec Center!!
Holy cow, this place is AMAZING!!
Why oh why can't we have one in AZ?
It has a full gym, day care center, playgrounds, basketball, pickle ball, racquetball courts,
an olympic sized indoor swimming pool, a huge indoor play structure pool, skate park AND
an enormous outdoor mini sun splash swimming pool area WITH a concession stand to boot.
$20 got the whole family in for the day!
It was the first of many days spent here.
We swam and swam then put the little kids in child care while Stephanie
and I took a High Fitness class.
It was nice because the older boys could roam freely as they wished!
And hallelujah for high fitness again!
AZ gyms had been closed and I was missing it.
We got dinner and dessert at the Creamery.
When in Rome:)
Hiking at Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove was the
next days activity!
She quickly remembered how much she hates to hike and I got a hip buddy.
Anything with water and these kids are pleased and entertained for hours.
We made dinner at my house and sat in the backyard for hours while they
played and played!
UT Summer nights are just heavenly.
Bridal Veil Falls was the first stop before heading up the canyon to Vivian Park.
This park was like a page from a story book!
I have never seen a more beautiful park.
It was so green and lush, with the sound of the river
trickling along.
As we were walking in, there was a girl braiding her sisters hair
while her dad read to them out loud from a book.
Other families quietly playing or taking a nap on sprawled out blankets.
It was unreal.
And here we were with our noisy crew about to snap
every one out of fairytale land, lol!
We had a picnic lunch and enjoyed the shade and babbling water.
See, storybook I tell you!
They were beavers and spent HOURS building up this dam.
And got the water to rise pretty high!
They weren't happy we made them destroy the fruits of their labors.
Probably shouldn't change nature:/
We ate dinner at Stephanie's house that night.
Her house was super cute!
It was in Provo about 6-8 minutes north of our house.
Funny how we lived closer to each other in UT then at home in AZ!
Her backyard had these huge trees with yummy flowering plums on them.
I was popping them like candy!
And they had a big creek running through their backyard!
Who needs a swimming pool?
Up the street from us was Splash Summit water park!
This place gives our water parks a run for their money.
It was SO clean and little more upscale of patrons.
Perks to UT, once again.
And with groupon it was as steal!
We couldn't believe we blew through our first week in UT so quickly.
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