Our Weekend!! . . . sighhhh . . .

To celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary on August 1st, Dirk and Tina threw a wonderful party all weekend long in Deer Valley.  It started Friday night with a barbeque at their home (well, really it started Friday afternoon in the temple).  They booked the entire Hotel for everyone to stay in, and a weekend of festivities.  

Saturday morning we had a European breakfast at the hotel with everyone, then went over to Olympic Park for some ziplining,  Alpine Bobsleds, and a ski jump show.

The scenery was so pretty on the way down.  I thought the warning signs were pretty funny, too.

We watched the ski jump show in the afternoon.  This is the only facility in the world like this, so people come from all over the world to practice here. They had many Olympians, and Olympic hopefuls performing.  It is amazing!  The water is aerated right before they land to break the landing better.  They have to swim out of the water wearing skis and all the gear.  It was really amazing when 9 skiers jumped at the same time.  Here is a 20 second video clip of one jumper.

After the Olympic Park activities, we rented mountain bikes and took the ski lift to the top of the mountain and rode down. It was a lot of fun . . . but it was so hard! I nearly bailed so many times and all I could think about was having bruises and scrapes in my formal dress. Nothing like spin class!

It was so beautiful, serene, and peaceful up on that mountain.

Then we had appointments at a salon . . . I got an up-do and John got a massage.  I wish I had time for a massage after that bike ride!  

An hour and a half, three ponytails, one braid and 50 bobby pins later:

It was so heavy on my head I had to take Advil!

We got dressed to the nines.  John was so dashing in his tux!  I pretended we were celebrating our 15th anniversary (since it passed without a wink).  We had a marvelous time with wonderful people, a beautiful dinner, dancing the night away.

The next morning there was a farewell brunch put on at the hotel.

Then John left for the airport (he had to be in San Francisco all week) and I went back to Elk Ridge to get the kids!  Again, we are so grateful for Joe and Heather for taking our kids all weekend.  It's not like they don't already have their hands full with their own five kids!  Especially with Ashlyn . . . she never did warm up completely to Joe . . . not even after he was the lucky one who had to change her massive dirty diaper.  Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Here is a rundown from the week of July 28- Aug 1.  We had another busy, fun-filled packed week of sightseeing, movies (love the $1 theater!), shopping, eating, swimming, and fun.  We packed up our Cottonwood hotel on Thursday and headed to Provo to show the kids BYU, then went down to Joe and Heather's in Elk Ridge.  They have such a great place with a fabulous view.  We enjoyed staying with them, and the kids loved being able to hang out the whole weekend with cousins!   We are so thankful for Joe and Heather for taking our kids the entire weekend so we could attend the temple and the weekend activities!

Friday:  The catalyst for this whole road trip:  The Sealing of Dirk and Tina Gates!

We are so happy for them.  They were sealed in the SLC Temple on Aug 1 - their 10th anniversary.  We attended his first endowment session and then the sealing.  It was very emotional when the children came in to be sealed together with their parents forever.  

John and John DiGiovanni - a friend from work.  John D and his wife toured temple square while we were inside.

July 30th

Wednesday we headed up to Deer Valley to visit the Gates family

so the kids can play with Iyan and Aden.  We loved their cabin home - so beautiful and peaceful!

John loved having a place to work without interruptions, and reliable wi-fi.  He had been going down to the hotel lobby late at night to work each night.

and then on to Draper . . . Swimming and a barbeque at Kim and Kyle's! 

We were fortunate to be the first ones in their brand new pool!  

Brooke and Taylor had too much fun palling around together!  They were so cute.

Christian loved how EVERYONE has a theater room!  

He said he wanted one in our house (sorry, no basements here!) and would rather have a theater than the beach!  Who's kid is this?  Geesh!

Kim and Ashlyn on the trampoline

Madison and Brooke ended up sleeping over with Taylor and Riley.  They had so much fun with girl time and I'm grateful for the lifelong friends that we all are!

July 28th

On Monday morning, we hiked Mt. Timpanogos and toured the freezing caves.  The kids were troopers and made it up the 1 1/2 miles nearly straight up it seemed.

The views were spectacular!

Ashlyn needed to be carried the whole way up (that was a workout for me!). . .

and the whole way down (she slept that whole time).

We didn't pack any jackets for our whole trip, so we brought a blanket from the hotel to wrap up in.  I'm glad we did because it was so cold inside!

After hiking and then swimming at our hotel, 

we went over to Jason and Emily's for a barbeque.  Tiffany and Eddy were there

with their darling kids.  It was so fun to get together!  We miss

our good friends!!  Ashlyn loved holding baby Catelyn.  So cute!

SUNDAY: Only in Utah!!!

In the morning, Madison,  Brooke and I went over to the Conference Center to see "Music and the Spoken Word".  It is the longest running program in this history of radio or television broadcasting.  My friend Marie really encouraged me to attend since seeing the Choir and the full orchestra is really something . . . and I'm glad we did!  

To our surprise, The Osmond Family was performing along with the Tabernacle Choir as the last stop of their reunion tour.  That was unexpected!  Then, just as the broadcast was to begin, everyone stood up and I didn't know why at first . . . until I realized President Monson walked in the room followed by President Eyring and their spouses.  I didn't recognize him at first because he was wearing a brown suit (instead of the customary navy or black).  

After the broadcast, President Monson gave each of the Osmonds a special gift for their 50 years of music and missionary work.

What a treat!

After the broadcast, John met us and we toured around the top of the Conference Center.

THEN, we went up to Jamie and Karmel's

to attend church with them and see their new home.  Again, to our surprise, we saw Elder Nelson at church, along with Sheri Dew!  Only in Utah!  How many "celebrity sitings" can one have in just a couple of hours?

We had a fabulous day. 

Thanks Harpers for a fun evening.  You have a beautiful home and a fabulous view!

Vacation Update: Saturday is a Busy Day

Saturday morning we went to This is the Place Monument and Heritage Park.  It was a very hot day, but a beautiful day nonetheless and we all had a great time.  We spent a couple of hours at Heritage Park, pretty much as much as we could handle with the heat.

The Candy Cannon:  this little cannon shot salt water taffy across the road

Ashlyn again didn't care for the loud noises and was content standing off to the side covering her ears.  She cracks me up!

Madison in the old school house

Christian and Ashlyn loved the pony rides

Being so sunny, and Ashlyn being so fair, I bought her a bonnet to keep the sun off.  Brooke wanted one too.  So cute my little Pioneer Children (sang as they walked and walked)

After the baking hot fun in the sun, we headed over to the Gateway to have lunch, go to the Discover Museum and play in the water.  

The museum had wonderful hands-on activities.  All the kids loved it.  They got to do news casts, attempt science experiments, go in a helicopter, play music, and much more.

A cool relief for a hot day!

THEN, we went back to the hotel, changed and headed back to Temple Square to see some stuff we missed the night before.  We toured the Beehive House, and had dinner at the Lion House Pantry.  

I loved this little play room for Brigham Young's children

After a fun-filled day, we walked back to our hotel and swam in the indoor, yet outdoor pool until it was time to close it down at 10:00 p.m.  Fun, fun day!  Now stay tuned to see what Sunday brings!  Wow!  Full of surprises!!!  

Vacation Update: see the post below first

On Friday, July 25th, we checked out of our hotel and started another packed day:  we went to the famous Dinosaur Discover Museum - the largest dinosaur tracks finding in the world. 

Then, continuing along on our road trip, we stopped at Cove Fort to tour a little Pioneer history.

The Ingalls Family

Laura, Carrie, Mary, Caroline, Albert, Charles

We arrived safely in Salt Lake City and checked into the downtown Marriott.  Then we headed across the street to Temple Square.  

The beautiful, historic Tabernacle.

The Visitor's Center is phenomenal.  I was amazed at just how many people are at the square to help, give tours, and how many visitors there are from around the world!  Astounding!

The Assembly Hall has always been one of my favorite buildings.  I just love the beauty and architecture of it. 

John and I have a picture of us here when we were dating (I'll have to dig that one up!), so we had to pose once again.

We stopped for dinner at the Garden Restaurant at the top of the beautiful Joseph Smith building.  Fabulous view!

This is the view that we had from our hotel window.  At night it was gorgeously alit . . . the kids loved falling asleep to it . . . what a perfect night light!  We hoped staying downtown would create memories such as this . . . and it worked.