Day 2 started in Salt Lake City (with no continental breakfast).
We stayed at the the hotel right on temple square.
It would of been super awesome if we had a temple view
but
we got to look at the parking lot.
but
that isn't a complaint
I was just glad we had less than a half a block walk.
Did I mention that on day one of road trips with kids that you try to pace yourself...
you pace yourself because you don't want to kids to revolt so close to home
you will be apt to turn the car around and not even attempt.
We save crazy for day 2
this is your warning.
We started off the day with lovely strawberry smoothies via my magic bullet that I packed.
they were cheap
(but I think I only used it one other time... good intentions I suppose)
Then it was off to the FREE museum.
There was oodles of cool things to see
BUT
the very helpful elderly couple at the info desk
totally told are kids about the awesome kids part upstairs
so we didn't get to see other awesome stuff.
Just awesome kid stuff.
Like this pretty cool ship (Nephi's ship)
Ellie and Lucy fished for magnetic fish.
Meanwhile, Penny found her new career. Ship-builder.
Lucy translated some ancient writings on some brass plates.
Penny found some chickens.
We could hear them clucking and couldn't figure out what was going on.
They needed their eggs collected.
Penny was the only one brave enough.
Seriously
Stuffed chickens
and the other two bolted like
chickens...
They did some fancy dancing.
Ellie practising her tortilla toss!
She thought this should be a school sport.
A family picture in front of the the Salt Lake Temple.
I printed out these travelling books.
They were filled with facts.
So they got to read tid bits of temple trivia before arriving at each temple.
The seagull monument
(the Utah state bird)
They thought it was so funny that they made a statue of a sea gull.
There is a massive wall that was sandblasted with all these people on the top of the conference center.
The garden was enormous.
and there was lots of water features.
After our little tour of Temple Square (about 4 hours BUT that included Lunch at the Lion House- which was amazing. Dusty and I found ourselves fighting over the kids rolls) we hoped in the car and hit the road.
We still had a lot of stuff to see that day. We took my parents car. It has navigation. Dusty prefers maps.
At this point in the trip he yelled at the car.
She didn't tell him soon enough to turn so he missed the first exit to the interstate.
Insert yelling.
Then me laughing.
and crying
(because I was laughing at him)
and then insert
children then mocking the car the ENTIRE rest of the trip.
(she re-routed us.... and we made it to the interstate and weren't lost in SLC the rest of our lives...)
The first stop was the Draper temple.
It was not far away.
like 45 minutes. Maybe.
Ellie at the Draper Temple.
She wants a gold door.
Flowers. A big deal to penny.
We spent more time on this holiday looking at
flowers for penny
and water features with Lucy.
Then it was off to the Mount Timpanogos temple.
It has lovely bright blue windows.
Pretty backdrop.
and this is where we started running into a little warmer weather.
the coats came off.
The kids burned some energy running from the flag to the temple
(a few times)
Dusty didn't really want to stay on the interstate.
He wanted to see more of Utah so we took back roads from this point.
We stopped off to see the Manti Temple.
It's been my favorite in pictures.
It did not disappoint.
It was stunning.
Even the hinges on the doors are amazing.
This is a staircase to the back of the temple.
Lucy said it was the longest staircase ever.
It gave her a blister.
Not her favorite temple.
In Manti we stopped for fuel.
We learned an important lesson.
or two.
1) don't let children pick their own snack
2) never let children have sticky candy in a car that is not yours.
I have already learned this lessons.
I was busy getting medicine out so I was unaware of Dusty's upcoming lesson.
It has been learned.
Luckily
I packed enough wet wipes to clean an army of
8 year old boys.
Next stop.
St. George.
Future home of
ME.
for real.
It was so lovely and warm.
The air was fragrant with flowers.
The children were giddy
(mostly because of the sugar)
Couples and families were everywhere walking around the temple and sitting on the benches.
The visitors centre was packed with activities for the kids.
I was in visiting with the sister missionaries and when I came out Dusty and our girls were laying on the grass right out front of the temple watching the bats swoop down in and out of the trees in front of the stark white temple. It was so beautiful.
Lucy is obsessed with bats.
This temple won her heart.
They laid there for a little while just enjoying the warm grass.
We had a picnic of strawberries on the grass by the car and loaded up for our final destination of the evening.
LAS VEGAS.
I did tons of research on hotels best for kids etc.
We drove into the strip and lights and glitz.
The hotel had a Circus and an amusement park.
I thought the kids would love it.
They didn't.
They HATED it.
It cured all of us of ever wanting to go back.
We found the strip in Las Vegas to be the polar opposite of what we had seen earlier that day.
It was dirty, noisy, glitzy, and smelt of smoke. It was obnoxious and in your face.
Maybe mine and Dusty's experience would of been different if we had gone with out kids but after spending a lovely day of picnics and fresh air and beautiful buildings and then dealing with the kids outright disgust... I don't think we would ever go back either.
We spent little time downstairs and retired to our beds because we had some busy days ahead of us.
1 comment:
St. George is beautiful!
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