Utah trip summer 2019

We went to Utah right after the 4th of July for a week. I didn't do great with getting pictures at each event, but I got lots at a few events.

Jay's dad picked us up from the airport. He got out of the car and came and gave us hugs. He asked how he could help and Jay told him that he could walk Little Foot and bring the car over, as we were waiting for our checked luggage.

Well right as we got our checked luggage a woman came over to us, "Excuse me, but my kids told me the entire flight that you had a dog and they were so excited. Ummm, where is your dog? Does it exist? Why were my children talking about a dog?"
Apparently sending Little Foot ahead with Dad made a mom feel pranked.

On Saturday we went to Jay's best friend's son's baptism. He grew up in Texas with Daniel and then Daniel married a girl from Utah and then Daniel's parents moved to Utah a year or 2 back. And somehow they scheduled a Utah baptism the same week we also were visiting Utah. Coincidences are fun.
These following photos are all from the after dinner at Alicia's parent's home.

Arm wrestling match

On Saturday morning (before the baptism) we went to Gabi and Tache's and picked buckets and baskets and strainers of cherries.

Sunday night we had curry with Steve and Stacy's family and then went to a park that had a really nice splash pad. It had an entire water slide that ended in a pool. Clara and Jonah didn't get wet -- they played on the jungle gym and zip line -- but Theo, of course, got soaked. It was great.

I think it was Monday when we came together to make a cherry pie with the cherries. Jay directed the kids a lot. Later Dad made another pie and said that it didn't look as good as the one we all made together. Seth was mad at me for taking pictures -- the flash startled him.

Gabi is an expert

Theo had perfect little fingers for pressing the dough edges.

So "I have flour" meant "I have self-rising flour" so it was kind of bubbly

 Nat has chinchillas, which were cute to play with. Ziva and Abby are mostly fluff and they love to escape.

One morning we went on a hike that Tache suggested. Stacy, Clara, Jonah, and my parents who were visiting from Tucson, joined us too.

You can't see but Jay has Theo in front of him and they are walking over together across the water.

 One day we went to the school where Tache teaches science and he did science activities for all the kids. It was pretty fun. Theo just last night asked me where his fluffy dark blue slime was and I admitted we couldn't take it on the plane. There were tears, even when I told him we could make our own, he still cried about the slime that he had made with Tache.

Balancing a soda can filled with a little water

Milk fireworks

Seth's was one of the best. He did a good job of not over mixing

Sakura's was fun too, but less uniform

Float yourself a paperclip

How many drops can you fit on a penny? I think Sakura won this one with like 29 or something. Water tension at work

Balancing forks on a toothpick on the shaving cream. Theo talked about this the next time I unloaded the dishwasher and he wanted all the forks

Making fluffy slime

Building out of toothpicks and marshmallows and then putting it on the earthquake machine

 I didn't get any pictures, but we went out for teppanyaki with Daniel and Alicia while grandparents watched all the kids. It was a lot of fun and tasty too. They were late and we were early and Jay took me to a nail place and I got a pedicure while we waited.

Another thing we did is we went to Jay's old friend's Chris. Chris just got married and we met his nice wife. Kim made delicious lasagna She had lots of fun with Theo and he loved her magnet letters. Theo got very upset that there weren't enough letters to spell the entire alphabet and also spell out "Now I know my Abcs, next time won't you sing with me?" She helped him improvise. Then we played some kind of rocket ship game and I'm pretty sure we lost horribly. It was a team game where you all survive together and I think we tried but still died.

One afternoon Steve took it off work and we got to a lake and rented a canoe and 2 kayaks. We had fun on the water with Steve's family and my parents. Also, Stacy had brought shovels and pails and Theo got his first sand castles at the beach experience. It wasn't as good as the ocean -- no tide, so we had to bring buckets of water over to the sand -- but Theo was so excited. He had asked me lots of times to go to the beach to make sand castles, so I'm glad he got to do that. Sorry no pictures. 

Jay made Hot Cheeto Cheesecake. It was yummy

After we got home Tache sent Theo a labcoat (from Amazon, not his classroom) and a Magic School Bus science kit and also eye protection

 For my birthday the primary president came by and gave me a loaf of banana bread (I am a primary teacher), then my ministering sister dropped off a little pumpkin pie and balloons, and then I got this fruit bouquet from Gabi and Tache, and then Jay (who had biked to work since it was only 99 degrees out) brought me home a Back Dough pumpkin pie. He also got me a new phone AND a hardy case so it doesn't go the way of my old phone. I'm waiting for a sim card and then I'll have a new phone. My parents watched Theo that night. We had talked about going out, but I hadn't been feeling super well and instead ended up getting a baked chicken from a deli and going home and watching the first episode of Good Omens.
I felt very loved for my birthday. My parents also had gifts and I got a card from Grandma. I also got lotion and a bracelet from 2 of the other primary teachers.

He loved the fruit bouquet, but wished there were more grapes