Friday, August 08, 2008
We've been back from Colorado and Utah for almost a week now. I meant to blog about the rest of our trip while we were actually still on the trip, but my camera's were all broken and we were sort of busy running around trying to do everything and see everyone before we left. And, even running from sun up until sun down, we still didn't get to see everyone and do everything we wanted to. I guess vacations are like that. And by the time we got home all I wanted was a vacation from our vacation. I'm still exhausted, literally dragging myself out of bed every morning, trying desperately but failing miserably to get ourselves back on schedule before school starts in a few more weeks. All that said, here are a few things I don't want to forget about this summer's family vacation:
Elitch's: We had a LOT of fun at Elitch's. We divided up the family so all of the adults with kids (which is everyone but Kathy and Mom and Dad) could have a turn riding the scarier rides. The guys went first and us girls dragged the kids through the merciless heat to the kiddie rides. Most amusement parks we've been to allow the parents to ride with their kids, cause most kids I'm around freak out at the thought of going on a ride without their parent. Elitches is not one of those amusement parks. So we were all a little bummed we couldn't go on the kiddie rides with our kiddies. The kids were hot and miserable and cranky so we ended up in this super-cool and shaded ball/climbing area. It was full of little foam balls and tons of different vacuums and cannons that the kids could stuff the balls into and fire at each other. It was awesome--definitely something to put in my Children's Museum someday. Then it was the girls' turn to ride the big rides. I'm totally a chicken when it comes to the scary rides but I also like the adrenalin so I went on all of them except the catapult--only Mel and Kathy were brave enough to try that one. Everyone left after that except for us and we took turns riding the rides we hadn't done yet. Mark rode the Mind Eraser (one of those dangly roller coasters and one of my favorites at Elitches) and I went on the log ride and old-fashioned roller coaster with the big boys. Denver braved the log ride with us and liked it and Noah braved the old-fashioned roller coaster alone, because we had an odd number with us. As we were walking to the roller coaster after the log ride, Noah kept complaining that he had a lump in his shoe. I thought his socks must be bunched up but he persisted long enough that I pulled the insoles of his shoe out only to find this:
It was pretty funny--the air-breather-thingys had filled up with water from the log ride! Here are a few other pics from the day--Jericho's bruise from slamming into the door frame as he ran down the hall in his squeaky shoes, me on one of two kiddie rides they would allow me on, and cousin Zach demonstrating one of the ball vacuums.
 
Denver Zoo: I think the day we went to the zoo was the hottest of them all. Plus we were all dragging from running for so long. But we stuck it out and ended up having a fun time with Melanie and her family. I put together a scavenger hunt for everyone and Melanie and I decided to join forces, since my camera was broken and Hunter found the first peacock feather. Noah found the second peacock feather and was very excited. The best part of the day was during our visit to the air-conditioned monkey house where one of the monkeys was super-charged, running around, jumping against the glass, thrilling all eight of our little boys. The monkey even stopped right by Jericho, put his hand on the glass and let Jericho slap him five. Pretty cool. The hippo demonstration was pretty neat too and I doubt I'll ever get so close to a hippo ever again. After the zoo we had to stop at Target because I lost Hunter's vial of insulin and that's not exactly something you can go without for very long. So we picked up a cake for Mel's birthday too and ran over to Casa Bonita for dinner. I think the best part of the whole trip to Colorado was showing the kids all the things I did when I was little. Casa Bonita was our favorite place to eat way-back-when and it has changed very little in the past twenty years. And neither have the sopapillas--oh, the sopapillas! Yum!
 
Golden, CO: On our way back to Utah we stopped in Golden, CO to visit a train museum we went to with Hunter and Baby Noah about seven years ago. We were very excited for Caleb because he's our biggest train fan yet. It's one of the best train museums we've been too yet, with giant locomotives, passenger cars, box cars and cabooses you can climb all over. You can see what the old bathrooms looked like, ring a train bell, and check out the giant train snow blowers. It's pretty awesome. The caboose is the best, especially cause they are hard to come by nowadays.
 
The End: The rest of our trip was a bunch of scattered odds and ends. I went scrapbook shopping and did some laundry, us girls went to see Mama Mia (which I absolutely loved) while the boys did some gaming. We went to visit family we'd missed, ate at Rodizio (yum), rode Trax to Temple Square only to find out we were too late to walk around the temple grounds, and rode Trax back home. We took the boys swimming at the West Jordan Rec Center and Noah was finally tall enough to ride the water slide (as long as his hair was spiked). We stayed up too late and slept in even later. We tried, twice, to get a decent family photo at Kathy's studio, went to church with Mom and Dad, and showed up late for "family dinner" in American Fork but in plenty of time to pick a whole box of apricots, eat and play with everyone there. Our flight home was uneventful, even a little on the lucky side, and Cliff was waiting for us when we got home. Not a bad vacation if I say so myself.
 
posted by Shana # 10:32 AM 
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