There's No Place Like Home: Utah Trip continued part 3

Day 5 - Tuesday

We spent another day at the hotel which the kids loved. We played games, watched TV, and I took a walk with Victoria to the local park.

It's snowing!!!!! So much fun!!!!!!

Allan helped Lizzie and Benjamin color & work on puzzles.

Elizabeth reading the Bible from the lodge.

Day 6 - Wednesday

Since we brought all of our snow boots, coats, and gloves we needed to get some use out of them. There wasn't much snow left in Park City, so we drove about 5 miles up the mountain. We found a closed ski resort and we asked an adjacent art gallery if it was okay if we played in the snow there. It was quite an adventure getting all of our gear on (snow pants, boots, gloves, hats and jackets). We were able to borrow four sleds from the lodge we stayed at and my brother loaned us three snow ball makers. This was Elizabeth's first time in the snow. She loved helping her big brother build a snow fort and making snow balls. Victoria and Nicholas got tired of sledding and decided to build their own forts. They tried recruiting the other family members to their side. Benjamin loved sledding! I think Allan and I sledded the most because it was tough for the kids to climb back up the hill. We saw about 6 dogs taking a walk with their owner with no leash. Wow! Imagine all that space to just roam! Our favorite part of our snow day was our snowball fight. We had a few casualities with hard snow hitting a few faces, but thankfully we didn't need to make any hospital visits. To get down the hill, we rode down on the sleds. Lizzie hadn't braved the sleds yet. At the end of our sled run, she exclaimed, "Let's do it again mommy!" But it was time to go back to the lodge, get warm, and drink some hot cocoa.

Allan thought it was quite funny that my foot got
stuck in a deep hole in the snow.

Nicholas and Lizzie working on their snowfort and snowballs
for our snowball fight.

Day 7 - Thursday

No more sitting around the lodge, it was time to visit the sites around Salt Lake City. We bought a two day connect pass that we could use at up to 13 locations/attractions. Our first stop was The Lion House Pantry Restaurant which is the historic home of Brigham Young and is located in Temple Square. We walked 3/4 mile to The Lenardo, a really cook sci+tech+art museum as well.

These are some of the beautiful flowers at Temple Square.

Nicholas trying to write his name using a mirror at the Leonardo.

Victoria & Benjamin getting creative with paper.

Trying out how it feels to walk with prosthetics.

Does this picture look like me? Ha! Art is not my best subject

Nicholas trying to walk down stairs. He
feels like he is walking on stilts.

Day 8 - Friday

Needing to get the most out of our passes, we started early at the Discovery Gateway which is an interactive discovery center for younger children (8 and under). Across the street, we headed to the food court for our lunch. After we devoured chinese and pizza we headed for the Clark Planetarium. We could have watched a film in the dome or IMAX theaters but opted out since we figured the littles would get bored viewing those films. Instead, we moonwalked through the space exhibits touching moon rocks and exploring other planets. Oh no! Our day was not over yet. Another recommended activity was Thanksgiving Point which we were able to visit their Museum of Ancient Life and their 55 acre gardens during their tulip festival. The museum has an amazing discovery room with hands on science. After leaving the discovery room, you begin your adventure back in time for a super-sized, hands-on prehistoric experinece. The museum is one of the world's largest dinosaur museums. All of the kids enjoyed the sand table and dusting sand off the dinosaur fossils. We probably should have gone home, but we wanted to visit the gardens down the road from the museum. We walked and walked and walked through thousands and thousands of tulips. The garden was very impressive! We didn't even make it to the children's garden. Oops! Sorry kids!

Victoria and Nicholas building together.

One picture of Lizzie that she is actually
willing to look at the camera and smile

We are about to enter one of the largest dinosaur
museums in the world.

The kids loved digging for fossils at the dinosaur museum.

This gives you a glimpse of the acres of gardens we walked
through. There were waterfalls, fountains, and large statues.

Nicholas and Lizzie resting by the rows of tulips.

Day 9 - Saturday

Let's hit the road Jack! We were back on the road heading for Las Vegas. The blazing sun lit the sky which was a vast difference compared to the foggy, snowy trip we ventured into entering into Utah. Las Vegas greeted us with high temperatures in the 90s. All the kids were told no electronics, so they played games, played ball in the house, and ran around with nerf guns. It was fun to see all of them playing together ranging from age 3 to age 14.

Ben, Nick, and cousin Diana playing go fish.

Day 10 - Sunday

Benjamin begged to stay and live with his cousins for a little longer. It was time to go home to our sunny state of California. I couldn't wait to sleep in my own bed because it is so comfortable. Of course we hit traffic, but the kids for the most part behaved well. As we drove up to our little house, I asked Lizzie, "Where are we?" and she said, "home sweet home."