Utah II: Tuesday-Saturday

On Tuesday we went to Salt Lake.

Karen watched the boys so we could go through a temple session.

She passed the time at City Creek Center, which is a beautiful and huge mall complex. She bought Olivia a cute backpack at Nordstrom's then we bought her some Chick-fil-a. They have really good oreo milkshakes.

We went back to Temple Square to take some pictures together.

The spring flowers made the whole area absolutely beautiful.

We went through the tabernacle, which is so small compared to the conference center.

We also went the the Assembly Hall, which was an overflow for the tabernacle built out of extra stone from the temple. 

The seagull monument is outside.

Some cute boys and very nice sister missonaries were inside.

Scott found a crane outside as well. He's very into trucks and construction equipment.

He still loves water, too.

Then, sadly, we had to drop John off at the airport to fly home and back to work. We cheered ourselves up by visiting Summer's cute coffee shop.

 Jonah loved Bret and Summer. 

 Scott loved their juice and cookie.

We went back to Provo and met Sarah and Nate at a food truck they wanted to try for dinner. Scott's burrito was called a lil porky. So cute.

Wednesday Karen went to help Sarah while she was feeling sick and I took the boys to visit my friend Emily and her new baby. We fit three car seats across the backseat to go get lunch.

 Scott found the S in the parking lot. He knows some letters from reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but this was the first time he had pointed one out and it was completely unprompted.

Scott played at the park by their home while we chatted. Mostly about babies.

 We went back to Grandma's where we were staying and Scott asked Stori for the meow--she would fetch the cat for him and turn the pages in his Little Cat book.

The boys played catch with Scott. Then Debbi and Terri took Scott to their baseball practice while Karen, Stephanie and I took Stori shopping with Jonah.

Other than a little black eye, he had a great time hanging out with the big boys.

 Scott and I shared this camp pad in the living room, but he tended to sprawl out in the middle. It was a battle getting them to bed every night and was particularly exhausting without John's help.

The boys loved playing at Grandma's house, though. The aunts bought new, fun toys, a potty chair, a cushy rug, and fruit snacks. They gave Scott Cars underwear and spoon fed Jonah every time he whined. They were spoiled rotten.

Karen was watching Olivia for Sarah and Nate for a few days and nobody looked twice at us when we went out with a 0, 1 and 2 year old. Such a different experience than at home. We took them to Carrabba's to celebrate on my birthday and they were all three extremely well behaved. 

 Then we brought back Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes for the family. Karen took Jonah and Olivia back to Sarah's to put them to bed while Scott and I went to a ballroom dance performance with Kristi and Debra.

Scott sat still, looked mesmerized the whole time and clapped when appropriate. I was pleasantly surprised at how good he was considering it was about 90 minutes long and after his bedtime. On our way home we were pulled over. It was just a fix-it ticket, but the blaring lights made it seem like we were getting arrested.

Saturday Karen waited for Joseph to wake up so they could celebrate his birthday and I met up with my friend Brianon and her husband for breakfast at Kneader's. Their french toast lived up to its hype.

We went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving point afterwards. My Happy Hollow pass gave us free admission, so I thought we'd check it out.

Jonah was happy to be out and about.

They had a lot for kids to do. We were the only ones here for a while, so Scott just did the puzzles until someone else came.

Then the other kids wanted to leave and Scott wanted to follow them.

He copied everything they did. First he weighed himself,

then he rode the dinosaur,

then he wanted to see the turtle.

He drew the line at the shark ("teeth" he called it) and would not go anywhere near.

Jonah was crying to get out and Scott entertained him. He's getting much better about being helpful instead of hurtful with Jonah.

This dark room was scary to walk in blindly. 

The flash shows more light than there really was. It was like the Indiana Jones leap of faith.

There is a whole room for exploration. 

It was designed for older kids, but Scott played pretty well in there and Jonah enjoyed watching everything Scott did.

This animation recorder was fun for me, but Scott just wanted to play with the trucks and line them all up.

He ran through this tunnel with some little girls until their parents made them leave.

Then we headed to Grandma's to say goodbye to everyone and wait for Sarah and Nate to come back for Olivia so we could drive home. We packed a lot in one week!