Utah trip

Haley flew out to Utah for a girls camp and we drove to Utah to pick her up and visit my Mom. We did not have  a lot of time there, but we managed to pack in a lot.

Eric took Ruby and Lucy on the hike up to Timpanogos caves. The girls had a blast and Lucy took like  200 photos (trees, sky ect.) with her camera.

We went to temple square. If you have not been there recently they have a full model of the temple with the sides taken off so you can see all the rooms and where they are located. We spent a lot of time pushing all the buttons that would explain each room. The girls were really excited to see the rooms where weddings are done.

I have heard about the acoustics at the tabernacle but this was the 1st time I saw them demonstrate the pin drop from the pulpit. The pioneers were such awesome engineers.

We picked Haley up from her camp and just like last year she had a wonderful experience and made tons of new friends.

This year we have really seen Haley come out of her shell and be more social. She is hilarious and so much fun, it was great to see all the girls swarm around her laughing about what a fun time they all had.

We also drove down to see Eric's 99 year old Grandpa. His hearing has really gone bad since the last time we visited so it was hard for the girls (ok myself included) not to giggle as Eric screamed as loud as he could asking Grandpa questions and Grandpa calmly would reply "What?"

I can't believe how well he is doing overall for being 99. 

San Francisco & China Town

We ate lunch at Boudines Bakery. This is my FAVORITE place to eat ever!

Tiffany with 5 of the 7

Then we walked to Ghirardelli for Ice Cream, my kids favorite place to eat ever.

Ruby getting the last drop!

When Tiff and I said we wanted to go to China Town the entire car (Eric included) started complaining. I loved China town as a kid and decided that my kids needed to experience it. As soon as we started walking around and they saw the pretty fans and Hello Kitty stuff they were hooked. Eric was accommodating, but never converted.

We ended up buying all the kids Chinese Pajamas. I had these as a kid and loved them!

To say they loved their Chinese clothes is a gross understatement.

They did a little "Honor China play" for us before bed. Check out Jake and his wood sword!

They wore them to go see Wall-E the next day

...and to our lunch at Mc Covey's.

This was Lucy and Ali in serious negotiations over baseball cards.

They were begging to go back to China town!

Aunt Tiffany's house N. California

My kids love my Sister Tiffany and her family.

Maybe it's because she has 4 kids they love to play with.
Or that Tiffany embroidered cute matching pool cover ups with their initials...


Or that they get to make "recipes" in her back yard....


But I think their favorite part of visiting her house is the ability to consume two gallons of ice cream, two cans of whip cream and an entire container of sprinkles... and it was totally OK.


Ruby asked me later why they were allowed to eat so much ice cream and not get in trouble.
I told her we were on vacation.

WWTD!

The Sundial Bridge, Redding CA

After a long day of driving we stopped at our hotel and let the girls swim. One of the Hotel employees suggested that we take our girls to the Sundial bridge. We did and it was a big hit. It was especially beautiful at night because it's lit up. The girls loved it. I have a little issue with heights so I took deep breaths as I walked over the huge Sacramento river on a glass bridge watching my little girls lean against the railings. We all lived.

The Sundial Bridge was designed by Santiago Calatrava, a famous architect and it is considered an architectural wonder.

Eugene, OR

Our good friends Matt and Ali moved to Eugene 2 years ago and love it. It was so fun to see them and their beautiful estate- seriously, they have like 5 acres and an orchard and deer families just wandering through their yard. My girls loved playing with Josh and Nick. They just ran all over the property and played and had a great time.

Matt and Eric talking about whatever guys talk about... probably quilting.

Ali made a great dinner and Ms. Kira and her father came over. Yes THE Ms. Kira... the one that Ruby worships and has asked if she could trade and have Ms. Kira for her REAL Mom.


The next day Ali took as on a tour all over Eugene. I was expecting it to be an average green area with lots of trees (whatever that means), but it was so charming and quaint. I really liked Eugene and think it would be fun to live there.
This was a fun park we went to so the kids could get out and run.

Pendleton, OR

Eric planned our trip so we could spend the night in Pendelton OR.  He read about the Pendelton factory there and that they do tours in the morning. Knowing that I have been a little obsessed with wool and rug hooking, he knew I would love this, and I did! 
The girls loved it too. It was so interesting to see how they prepare the wool and make the intricate patterns that their blankets are known for.

As we walked into the store Ruby asked is she could get a stuffed sheep.  I looked at the price tag and tripled the price in my head and said no.  After the tour as we were walking out through the store Lucy asked if she could get a sheep and Eric said "sure".  I don't know what he was thinking, but the girls were thrilled and obsessed over their sheep the rest of the trip.  At one point Ruby said "This is the best vacation ever... I can't believe Dad let us get these sheep".

Shoshone Falls, ID

While driving through Idaho we stopped at the Shoshone Falls.

Ruby and Lucy found a real rainbow!


Most of us enjoyed the stop, chance to walk around and look at the beautiful waterfalls... well almost everyone.


Thanks to Eric's Brother's suggestion- Eric printed out all the Costco's on our path that had gas. This was brilliant and saved us a ton of money on gas!

Timpano cave

While Lucy was getting her portrait taken, Eric took Haley and Ruby on a hike up to the Timpanogos cave cave. It was a long hike for the girls so they got really hot and sweaty until they got inside.
Once inside they were freezing! They took turns wearing Eric's jacket but still thought they were going to die they were so cold. They all had a great time and came home talking about all the cool stuff they saw.

1st stop Utah

While driving through Utah we stopped in Richfield to see Eric's Grandfather who is 96 years old. He is amazing. Other then not being able to hear he is doing really well. I can't believe that I didn't get a photo with him!

We drove from Richfield to Salt Lake City where we stayed with my Mom for a week. We drove Haley to softball camp at BYU. This was terrifying for me. The camp is for girls 10-17 and she will be 10 in July. As we were standing in the line to pick up the housing assignment (yes she slept in the dorms for 5 days!) I could not but help notice that all the girls in line for the camp were SOOO much older and taller then her. Most of the girls were taller then me and looked strong enough to throw a 10 year old across a field. I was seriously questioning our judgment to send her when I heard the group of 5 older girls in line talking about how small and little Haley was.... then one of them said "I would never send my little kid to a camp like this- that's crazy"

After Eric was done catching Ruby and Lucy and encouraging them not to hang off the railings and run through all the lines, he came and stood by me. I told him what I overheard and said that I was officially the worst Mom and we just needed to just take her home. He said, let's just wait and see. The amazing thing was that at no time did Haley comment about being a shrimp among the sharks, she was just so excited to be there.

Thank heavens when we took Haley to the dorm I saw several girls her age. Her roommate was a cute 10 year old from West Jordon.

After we unpacked all her stuff we took her to lunch at the cafeteria (the Cannon Center) and both Haley and her roommate headed to the dessert island 1st thing. Again I questioned my parental judgment as I realized I had no control over her eating habits over the 5 days of the camp.

Overall Haley had a great time at the camp. Although one night she called on a cell phone (we loaned her) from the closet of her dorm to complain about her roommate letting too many girls in the dorm.

Ruby especially missed Haley terribly while she was gone. After we picked her up Ruby and Lucy gave her the longest sweetest hug as she was getting in the car. If only everyday was like this!

Check out Haley's clothes. I could not believe how dirty all her clothes were!

While Haley was at camp Ruby and Lucy were in heaven at Grandma Bonnie's house. I need to explain that in the past it has been exhausting and stressful to take my kids to my Mom's house. She lives on the top floor of a super cool old building. So there is no backyard to send them too and the house is full of stuff that is antique and breakable not to mention she has candy all over the house so you need to monitor the consumption. As a kid my Dad used to tell me "We can replace you... but we cannot replace that" when referring to antiques.

Anyway this time was different. The girls are old enough to know how to behave around nice things. When I started stressing about the candy Eric said:

"We are on vacation, I am going with the WWTD philosophy" he explained that was "What would Tiffany do". Tiffany, my Sister is famous with my kids because she lets them eat cake and ice cream for breakfast.

So we did not intervene at all on the candy.
The kids were in heaven and I was much more relaxed.

We got to visit with the Bowmans. Ms Dori actually watched Lucy and Ruby all day so we could go around to quilt stores all over SLC. Later that night we had dinner with the Bowman's and we ended up staying way to late because no one wanted to leave.


The next day we went to Temple Square. The girls were so excited that they saw a REAL bride!

We went to the Church Museum that had a great exhibit for kids an exhibit on The Relief Sociey with some beautiful quilts.