A Surprise and more visitors!

I dropped my dad off at the airport early Wednesday morning. 

That brought the airport pickup/drop off count to 4!

We took my mom to the rec center.

Sadly, no pictures.

She left Thursday to spend more time with Christopher and his family,

so we were back to just the 5 us!

We met up at Pioneer Park.

It was a beautiful, warm day hanging out in the shade and splash pad.

Cheetos monster!

We were feeling spontaneous so we took everyone to Nickel City for some slots, lol!

It's crazy how far change can take you with arcade games. 

Stephanie got me hooked on Deal or No Deal!

Pretty sure after round 4 I screamed, THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER!

I'm pretty easy to please:)

We had heard about murals in the downtown area.

Sure enough, we found one!

We fed the kids dinner at home then left them to go on a sister date. 

Bombay House is top rated in UT.

It's Indian, which normally I don't go for.

But with all the hype, I knew I wanted to try it!

Dine- in was closed, so we got it to go and sat by the mural we found earlier.

While we waited, everyone kept walking out with some sort of orange drink.

They owner got us hooked up with some Mango Lassi's!

It was delish!
We shared 2 of their most popular items,
 chicken tikka Masala and shrimp coconut kurma.

YUM!

I was excited for the next morning because
Casey text earlier in the day saying he was flying in!

Best surprise, ever!!

He was also bringing our sweet neighbor girls, Anna and Amber, with him.

They originally were going to come the next week, but we thought it would

be fun to bump up their flights a few days earlier.

They had never flown before, so they were ecstatic!

The kids had no clue.

I said I was running to the grocery store real quick. 

First I needed to run through a car wash.

My car was baaaad.

I got a kick out of the sticker.

Only in UT, hehe. 

They were surprised!

I think more in shock, not sure how to process what the heck was going on.

We ate breakfast at Waffle Love before meeting up at Vivian Park with Stephanie and kids!

Then off to Heber for a train ride!

Stephanie discovered this.

It is a real steam train that takes you through the city. 

We needed to introduce Amber and Anna to Leatherby's!

Which brought that count up to 3:)

The next day was a day at the rec center.

Again, no pictures.

I was sad because the Evans would be leaving for Flagstaff the next day.

It was hard to comprehend how fast our time together flew. 

Words cannot describe what a memorable time we had together.

Having a twin, with children that all line up is such a unique blessing.

I hope these kids know how lucky they are to have each other!

This UT experience was so incredibly special.

Sacred even.

I was secretly wishing we had at least one more day together.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. 

And little did the children know, they would be spending lots of time together

when school started back up. 

We had our farewell dinner at El Gallo.

Sunday was an exciting day!

Our ward was getting a new bishopric.

They were going to zoom the meeting from the stake center.

We loved Bishop DeWitt so much!

Casey was lucky to serve with him for the first half of his calling.

Our new bishop wasn't a big surprise.

We all saw it coming.

Bishop Blaylock will do great!

And, the surprises kept coming!

The girls dad was put in the bishopric.

We made an early dinner then took the girls to see Bridal Veils and a scenic drive

up the canyon. 

I dropped everyone off at the house and took Casey to the airport.

It was a short visit, but so grateful he was willing to come just for a few days!

Seeing this airplane either brought me joy, or tore my heart out!

This time the latter. 

Up, up. and away he went.

While I was gone, the kids had a little photo shoot out front!

We took a walk to the temple.

And found more murals to pose in front of. 

 

Week 3 of Utah

Grandma playing us some tunes after at home church. 

The Yamamoto's swung by to visit after driving in from St. George!

 

Another family Sunday dinner with BYU creamy flowing strong.
I needed it because I dropped Casey off at the airport.

He wouldn't be back for 2 weeks to help drive us home. 

2 weeks seemed like an eternity!

We did still have Grandma and Grandpa staying with us which helped.

Monday we went to Thanksgiving Point!

Olive spent the night so matchy hair seemed fun.

We started at the Dinosaur Museum.

Then on to the Museum of Natural Curiosity 

Grandpa lets us do all the fun things!

Ropes course for the boys!

 

I had never been out their gardens. 

The koi ponds were massive!

And loaded with hungry fish fighting over food.

Christopher met up with us on his lunch break. 

My mom always raves about this Light of the World garden in Ashton Gardens.

Maybe it's because we know the sculptor.
It was hot and at the end of a long day, but we took her word
 for it and walked a mile to get there.

She was right, spectacular!

There were about a dozen or so hand sculpted statues of Christ life or church 

historical events. Amazing!

Hangry was an understatement!

Leatherby's hit the spot once again.

And this snuggle buddy of mine.

I didn't mind since by big snuggle buddy was at home in AZ.

We hiked to Doughnut Falls up by Brighten ski resort.

They call it Doughnut Falls because the water shoots into a big donut looking hole:)

The picture below is bad, but you can see it. 

It was a little treacherous.

At one point grownups had to climb down a mini cliff to hand kids off to.

Then walk through the freezing cold, rocky stream to get to the Falls.

We made it and it was worth it!

Then we drove up the mountain a little further to get to Silver Lake

 where Jael and her kids were waiting for us. 

This was more of a scenic walk around a lake.

It was pretty!

Stephanie fed us dinner at her house.

My parents hadn't seen it yet.

The kids played and played once again!