We had a very busy four days! I don't know what else we could have possibly squeezed into our fun-filled weekend! Our kids were pretty much going nonstop.
We left our house on Thursday morning and drove down to Logan, Utah. We had to pick up our new bathroom countertop and bank of drawers from Cache Valley Builders, which was the builder they used for our bathroom vanity when they built our home. We had been wanting to put a bigger vanity in the master bathroom ever since we bought the house (since there was totally room for it and the builder just apparently cheaped out and put in a small one) and so we finally decided it was time. Luckily we were able to just buy another bank of drawers so that it adds about 18 inches and wasn't as expensive as totally replacing the whole vanity. We did have to buy a whole new longer counter top though.
So we picked that up, then dropped it off at Josh's cousin's house in Logan and left it in his garage so we wouldn't have to drive around for four days with it in our van! Then we just picked it up again on our way home on Sunday.
On Thursday at about 1:00 pm we made it to our first destination for fun - Thanksgiving Point. They have this "Museum of Natural Curiosity" that we had heard was amazing. So we went in there and spent about three and a half hours exploring it all. They had all these different stations like a water area, wind tunnel, these tubes that would push hankercheifs in and around a maze of tubing and back out the other end, climbing structures, a "kid-o-polis" town, and more. The boys and Josh even did this "high ropes" course where they were tethered to the harnesses and would walk around on these beams and rope ladders that were seven stories up in the air!! It was kind of scary! But they thought it was really cool. Avery got a bloody nose out of nowhere while Josh and the boys were up on the ceiling in the ropes! He also had the van keys in his pockets up there, so I had no way of going out to the car to get her a new clean shirt. So, being the resourceful mom I am, I took of my own tank top that I had on underneath my button-up shirt and put it onto Avery, tying a knot in the straps behind the neck so that it looked like a little halter dress on her. Lol I felt very proud of my McGyver-like creativity.
Then Thursday for dinner we met up with Stacey, Kamrie, and their room mate, Breann, and we all went to eat pizza at Two Jacks Pizza (grandpa were you one of the Jacks?!). After that we went to the newly built Provo City Temple for the open house/tour. It was cool to see how they had rebuilt it all after the fire that gutted it about ten years ago, but they built it to look like it was the same way it had historically been with lots of dark wood and grand spiral staircases and beautiful murals on the walls. Crazy story about the fire that gutted it, when the firemen were pulling out things that were burned, they found a big frames picture of Christ. All around the frame and the edges of the picture were burned and blackened, except for the part where Christ was…. Crazy!
Friday morning, we woke up and got ready to go skiing at Sundance. Avery stayed with Stacey all day and went to Build-a-Bear workshop and the mall (and came home with the pinkest teddy bear I have ever seen- pink bear, pink dress, pink shoes, pink hair bow... All picked by Avery). Me, Josh, and the boys first went to BYU to rent our skis and gear and then ate a quick breakfast at Kneaders before heading to Sundance. It's so beautiful up there and it was soooo surprisingly warm! It was the first time I have even been so hot while skiing. I was wishing I hadn't even wore a jacket!
We started at the bunny hill and the boys learned how to use the tow rope. The first ten minutes, I will admit I was a little worried. Caleb seemed to catch on pretty quickly but Gabe was getting pretty frustrated trying to just stay up without falling. Apparently Jsoh is a better ski instructor than I am and he was able to help Gabe get the hang of it. After about a half hour on the bunny hill, we headed over to the (still intimidating to me) chair lift. I really didn't used to get bothered by heights but now, in my old age, I have realized I really could fall and die and I don't like heights much at all. The first time we went up, Gabe was next to me on the chair lift and I think he was even pretty scared. He was like "why don't they have seat belts?! They really need seat belts!!" But then we discovered the rail that you could pull down and have across your lap for a little more security so that made us both feel a little safer. Once we got to the top (not the VERY top, but the first place you could get off) we actually excited the lift without any falls which surprised me! Caleb did fall once time getting off later, but he was okay after a short cry. Lol Overall it was a very successful first skiing experience. I know they did sooo much better than I did my first time.
At about 3:30 we left and went back to Stacey's house to shower and get ready for dinner. We took everyone out to Outback for dinner. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the gift card that one of Josh's little basketball boy's parents had given him with the thank you card was for $50!! Josh was apparently the world's best basketball coach in their eyes! Lol I guess their son was somewhat difficult Josh said, so maybe his parents realized that and were extra grateful to Josh for his patience in coaching him.
After dinner, Stacey, Kamrie and I went to the mall and did a couple hours of shopping while Josh and the kids went and visited this old friend, Dean Larsen. (Josh has a lot of friends that are over 70... Lol)
On Saturday morning, me, Stacey, and Kamrie left the apartment at about 7:30 to head to the Payson temple. It was such a beautiful temple! It's interesting to me how different the inside of it was compared to the Provo City temple. Everything was so white and bright and tons of beautiful stain glass windows. After we were done there, we went out to luck and then headed back to find Josh and the kids. They had gone swimming at the indoor pool/water park at the Provo Rec center while we were gone.
After meeting up as Stacey's and all getting changed, we all went separate ways again. This time Stacey and I went to Ikea (I love that place) and Josh and the kids went to visit another old friend, President Cameron (this one is probably only about 67... Lol). This was Josh's mission president from when he served in Pittsburg. The kids played in his backyard and had fun I guess so that's good. I'm glad they are at least putting on a good front when they are meeting new people. Lol
At about 5pm we all got back to Stacey's house and got ready for the evening. Josh and I went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Chris (Josh's old mission companion, the one we went to the wedding in San Diego for) and his wife Holly. Stacey and Kamrie took our kids to this trampoline center place. (Could our kids BE any more spoiled?) Then they even took them to Culver's afterwards. No wonder when we told Avery it was time to go back home to Idaho this morning, she said "Can we stay here???"
It was a really fun weekend, but time to go back to school for the kids and back to Etsy work for me. Josh has a few more days off because of the way his schedule fell, so he is going to work on getting out bathroom vanity in tomorrow. I am also in this Spring Cleaning/Organization mode and am redoing my pantry and a few other "zones of chaos" (as I call them) in our home.
Here are lots of pictures of the weekend! I will have to post some before and afters of the bathroom and the pantry when we get them all done!
