August - Trip to Utah, SLC Section

In August, we took a family trip to Utah. It actually began as a boys' trip when Spencer and Adam took off to Seattle for Tyler Lively's wedding (and to see the Boeing airplane factory). They left on Adam's 30th birthday, and we met up with them in Utah a few days later, after a very long, delayed flight during which John slept very little. Fortunately, Emma was a model traveler, so we made it intact. While we had a few things working against us on the Utah trip (not sure we had one symptom-free day since I began and ended the trip with cold symptoms/laryngitis and the rest of the fam took turns with the stomach flu), you'd never know it from the amount of fun we packed in. It was a vacation to be remembered. Hence, this blog post.

Adam doesn't like to drive superfluously, so we segmented the trip by geography. We started in Salt Lake, staying several nights at Jeff and Karen's home. This made it so that we could easily meander over to spend days/afternoons with Great Grandma Wride at will. Adam really wanted our kiddos to have some time making memories in Grandma Wride's backyard because to him this is what summer is all about. He was a regular visitor every summer, coming from various countries overseas.

The kids took to the playhouse immediately. They formed clubs and spent lovely hours serving food to Gma and me out of their "restaurant." Adam was working much of the time indoors (someone's gotta make the money so we can play), but when he did take a break, he was served up "apple pie" and "lemonade" on the very same dishes that have been playhouse staples since his dad's time...plus a few new additions in the form of a Beauty and the Beast tea set, which Emma was pretty happy about.

Here's Johnny responding to the request to "say, cheese!"

Emma making her recipes.

Spencer, fresh out of the sprinkler.

Let's see...what should I order?


The kids and I used some of our Salt Lake time to see the sights downtown. Here we are at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

We also took a tour of the Beehive House. One of my favorite stories about this home is that Brigham Young's children had one window that they referred to as the "storybook window." The children would watch through this interior window as the fine-dressed ladies and gentlemen arrived for evening parties, thinking it looked like something out of a fairy tale. Here are Spence and Em posing by the beehive handrails in the later addition to the home.

Here we are outside the Beehive House: Spencer, Emma, Marie, and John.

Here are Spencer and Emma holding up the cards they collected with pictures of the temple. The picture is crooked because John was trying to squirm out of my arms and run around the beautiful grounds of the temple while I was snapping the photo. That little man wants his independence and will run any chance he gets.


One of the evenings we were in the SLC area, we went up Mill Creek Canyon to roast hot dogs with the Wride clan. Here are Gma Wride and Aunt Lori.

John, Adam and sneaky Uncle Randy. John loved being up the canyon, though he took a few rough falls because he would set off running on uneven ground with a rock in each hand. So unwilling was he to give up those rocks that he wouldn't brace himself and came away with a few goose eggs. Later that night when John was the first in the fam to exhibit signs of the stomach flu, Adam and I were wondering if John had a concussion from all his tumbles. Fortunately, 24 hours later he was no worse for the wear. (Big thanks to paramedic brother Dan for calming my fears and talking me through symptoms.)

Uncle Jeff, roasting some s'mores. My kids LOVE their Uncle Jeff.

Emma latched on to Adam's cousin Maggie during this trip. Maggie was about to get married, and the idea of someone wearing a beautiful dress easily merits Emma's attention. Maggie was very sweet to let Emma follow her around, asking all sorts of questions.

Spencer talked Berkley into conquering the mountain with him. There was a steep incline near where we were having dinner, and Spence thoroughly enjoyed traversing that slope with Berkley in tow.


We took a brief hiatus from our SLC stint to travel down to Spanish Fork to celebrate baby Bridget's 1st birthday. That is one cute birthday girl! Johnny has a bit of a cousin crush.

Emma loves playing with cousins and all their cool toys.

Spencer had a great time too. He is looking big to me these days. Not so much a "little" boy anymore.

And Johnny - oh, Johnny. Just sweetness. Look at those cheeks!


Back in SLC, Spencer and Emma came with me on a tour of the conference center while John was napping and Adam working one afternoon. We had a fantastic tour guide, and this proved to be one of the highlights of downtown for me. The kids really enjoyed it as well. Here we are on top of the building.


On our way back to the car, I saw one of my college roommates from Sophomore year - April. She had just moved from Seattle area and was with her two sweet boys.


More Utah highlights to come!