Friday, August 25, 2017

Day 8... LAGOON! and the dreaded drive home.




It worked out perfectly for us to meet up with Stephanie, Justin and their
10 kids for a day at Lagoon!
They had been in Alta, which is a couple of hours away from SLC.
They needed fly out of SLC the next morning so we made sure to end our trip with a bang!
We had a lot of  "togetherness" that week, so it was fun for the kids to run around
and play with their cousins!

We ended up beating them to Lagoon.
They had our tickets so we took a photo op while we waited.
It turned out that we got there an hour before it opened, whoops!
I was wondering why it wasn't very crowded.
We got a killer parking spot so it was worth it:)



The very first ride and this girl wanted to be a part of it!
She is a thrill junky.


Their ride height requirements were weird.
She was allowed to go on the big roller coaster, but not this airplane ride. 
She was super sad but I was glad I got to get out of line.
This ride had vomit written all over it!


We decided to divide and conquer.
Big kid rides and little kid rides.
Obviously we were generous enough to let the men take the big kid group:)

These 4 girlies were going non stop




Justin's dad was the sweetest and insisted on holding Della for me.
I looked over to see that he had put her to sleep!


While we were in kiddy land, my phone was blowing up with pictures of the coaster maniacs!





 We met up and did the rapids together.



Well, Della and I sat out and took pictures.



Then somehow I got roped into going on the big rides!



Dip n Dots break



I don't know what possessed me, but I wound up getting on this 
ride where you get SOAKED!
If you know me well, I do NOT like water rides.
I hate the feeling of wet clothes and drying off never seems to work.
 I always opt out and watch the baby and stay happily dry!

Lagoon is super fun, but it is SO.FLIPPING.HOT.AND.HUMID in that park.
I don't know if it is because it is covered with trees and the moister has no where to go?
But man alive, I was sweating like a bandit.
So water and cooling off seemed welcoming.

It was kind of  a scarier ride.
Plus with water shooting straight at you while upside down made it more intense.
Dallin's face... the second they harnessed us in, I couldn't stop laughing.



Oh man, this picture does not do it justice!
I could hear all of the kids wailing.
Ashlyn was not having any of it.
She is crying, I am crying from laughing.
It was by far my favorite ride.


I made them do a pouty face.
Funny that now they are all smiles when they thought the world had come to an end.
We look pretty dry, but we were ringing out our clothes!




We had to do at least one ride all together.
Minus, the babe.
Casey sat this one out with her.




Group photo!
This was taken at 9pm.
The day flew by so fast!!
We love the Holmes/Piatchitallis.
So glad we were able to gain 4 awesome new cousins!


Had to snap a picture on our way out by the Lagoon sign.


I believe we grabbed Wendy's on the way home.
Only we were not ready for bed.
We threw on our suits and hit the pool!
They had 2.
This was the outdoor pool.



Then ventured up the pool in the main building.
This one was half outdoor, half indoor. 
You swim underneath that bridge to go back and forth.
And the hot tub was up there.



Nothing like a midnight snack (literally) of left over Pie Pizza!
I think maybe we were trying to avoid the fact that we were leaving the next morning.


The drive home did not turn out like planned.
Actually, the complete opposite.
We woke up too late so the hotel buffet was out since it would put
us an hour behind.
McDonalds had to suffice. Gag.

In St. George we pulled into Chick-Fil-A.
When Casey pulled Della out of her car seat he saw that she
had a MAJOR poo explosion!
Poo was in every crevice of her car seat.
I just stood there not even knowing where to begin.
Funny thing was, she did not have poop anywhere on her clothes!
It was like she missed the diaper completely.
I managed to wipe it as good as I could.
We still had 8 hours of driving time and I didn't want to have to clean up barf 
from dry heaving as well.

I forgot to mention that Della had learned to crawl a week before this trip.
The poor thing had been confined to pack n plays and was so done being held!
She also likes to suck on everything.
Hence the plastic placemats on every square inch of the high chair.
You would have thought we were first time parents!
Public high chairs gross me out and I didn't have my fabric cover so this is what she got.



I had planned to go to the M&M factory in Vegas then stop at the Hoover Dam.
Right as we were nearing the strip, Rusty said Lindi spilled something on Della...
who was now hysterically screaming!
I looked back to see that Lindi had so kindly shared her bag of Rips (sour licorice type candy). 
She had dumped the sour sugar all over her face, which seemed to be a half cups worth, and it was soaking into her EYELBALLS.
At this point Casey was on the main freeway.
It was a good 5 minutes before we could find a safe spot to pull over.
I got her out and dumped a whole water bottle in her eyes, which escaladed the screaming.
I changed her soaking wet outfit, put her back in and told Casey to keep driving until we
got home!
Field trips did not sound enjoyable at the moment.

After being tossed around in a huge rain storm, making a pit stop in sketchy place you would see
(or find your body) on an episode of Dateline and one more nasty fast food meal, we were HOME!!!

This girl was more than happy to be a free range chicken again!
And of course I loved seeing the dirty clothes pile start mounting.




All in all, the trip couldn't have gone better.
I love my little family.
The end... until next Summers trip:)



Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Day 7... Park City



Olympic Park had been much anticipated by these munchkins.
Pretty sure they know nothing about what the Olympics are, they just
knew outdoor activities would be involved:)

We went up to head quarters first.


Walked around the museum and
sat in the bob sled.





 This free pin ball machine sure grabbed their attention!


We walked down the gigantic hill to get to the bottom of what 
was the ski slopes when Park City hosted the Olympics.
It looked completely different not being covered in snow when we were there back in February!

They had so many different things to choose from.
We decided on a ropes course for the boys.

Getting all harnessed up.


You can barely see Lane in his bright orange shirt in the middle.
I'm glad he wore that color so I could spot him from a far!


 The line was a tad long, plus they had to wait for the person in front of them.
They would have flown through in 10 minutes if they had the course to themselves!

Us girls found a nice shady spot and some treats while we waited:)



She got a little turn with the help from dad.


The last part was zip lining to the end!



Here are the ski slopes.
Above are the big zip lines.
Summer sledding was on that green astro turf.
It looked super fun...but also super scary!!
The tubes would go up to 60 mph, yikes!
No thanks, I'll stick with my spectating and a Magnum bar:)


We grabbed some more frozen goodness before hiking back up the
hill!


Her eyes... That nice tan of hers sure makes that blue pop!


Watching these teenagers practice their flips with ski's on was so fascinating.
You can barely see them in the air, mid flip.


We drove over to the Park City resort for the Alpine slides!
It was super crowded.
We wanted to do the alpine slides and coaster.
Both with an hour wait time. Yuck.
Everybody could go on the slides except Della.
Casey took the older kids while Della and I waited in line for the coaster.
The goal was that once they were done with the slides, I would be close to the front for the coaster
and we wouldn't have to wait twice!

This is not us, but I knew I wouldn't be able to take their pictures coming down
if I was in line at the other ride.
Just a visual for what it looked like.


Here they are on the ski lift from a distance.



I am glad I didn't have to ride this to the top.
Something about snow underneath giving you extra cushion if you
were to fall off.
And taking Lindi would have made me nervous.
I am turning into a wimp in my old age!


I made Casey promise he would take pictures for me.
He sure delivered!
In fact he had one hand on the stick and the other on his phone taking video!
Super impressive. 


She lived for thrills on this trip!
It surprised me.
My videos wont load on my computer but the whole time she was
giggling and laughing like it was no big deal.
Coming from a child who is a baby to do ANYTHING adventurous was a breath of
fresh air, lol!





I barely saw them in time to snap a picture of them at the end


I was too busy talking with my new best friend, Candace!
Long story short, we were shooting the breeze as strangers standing in a long line
together.
She lives in Waco.
We talked Chip and Joanna for a while.
Then moved on to family.
After about 25 minutes of gabbing, we finally introduced our names to each other.
Then somehow we made the connection that they went to dental school in Buffalo with Stephanie
and Travis, my twin sister!
Small, small world!!
I honestly loved getting to know her.
I feel like we are bosom friends now!


Our plan worked and we basically were able to hop on the coaster!
Lindi wasn't tall enough so she stayed back.


getting cranked up to the top, like a real roller coaster!


You are attached, so that was comforting.
You can also control the speed.
They did say it was best to go full speed ahead with no braking.
I took their word for it, even when I swore we were going to fly off
the edge when a sharp turn came.
It felt like those horrible mouse coasters at amusement parks.

Not going to lie, I was grateful to see the end!


We were famished, so we called in Pie Pizzeria.
Christopher swore it was the best in the State.
We picked it up and took it back to the hotel room.
He didn't lie.
The BEST pizza I  have ever had!



Nice and cheesy:)


We quickly threw on our swim suits and jetted to meet up with 
the Lindbloms for swimming!

This public pool was up the street from their house.
The bummer part was that we got there at 7:30 and the pool closed at 8!
Waa, waa.
Oh well, it was still fun.


I couldn't get over how pretty those mountains looked.
Definitely something you wouldn't see in AZ!


Ice cream is a must after swimming!
Vincent Drug Store from the movie Sandlot was close to the pool.


Along with Leatherby's!
This is a kids scoop.
 Finally an ice cream parlor that doesn't go skimpy.
And homemade:)



I am itching to have a giant scoop of the toasted almond!