Yes, I did it again. I had too many people complaining about not seeing me last time I was in Salt Lake (it was 2 days, guys!), that I loaded tons of stuff in the car, put on my Big Girl Pants and drove to Utah alone. And this time I didn't have a sister in Albuquerque to break up the long first leg. We left after The Captain's gymnastics class since we had missed a few already and we would miss a few more on the trip. So we didn't get going until 10am. We went all the way to Farmington, NM. I thought it would take 10 hours plus a few for stops. Apparently Google lies sometimes and it is 12 hours to get to Farmington. Also, I underestimated Joy's potty training skills and it took us 15 hours to get there. I was good until the last 3 or 4, but then things got hairy. Luckily for me, I have the best sister-in-law who let us treat their house like a hotel and just crash for the night. She also fed us in the morning and gave us a great idea for a place to stop on our drive up to Salt Lake.
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| we totally followed your advice! |
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| Which started our theme for the trip: hiking. |
A) I was really glad that I brought jackets for everyone because we definitely escaped 100+ degree weather and it actually got quite chilly in Utah and New Mexico.
B) THANK YOU to everyone who suggested hikes for us. It is one thing we certainly cannot do in Texas. I'm not up on all the child-friendly ones, and I wanted us to do as many as we could.
We packed in a
ton of fun stuff into this trip. Last time, we were basically in the car the whole time. This time, we did that part super fast so we got have family dinners, play dates, zoo visits, birthday parties, camping trips . . . well, except for the sleeping outside thing, and lots of hiking. Of course, I was enjoying myself too, so I don't have pictures of most of those things, but speaking of the zoo--
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| They had a Lego thing going on at Hogle Zoo, which involved life size Lego animals throughout the park and these fun Legos at the entrance. Here are the kiddos and their cousin. |
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| This is a good example of the Legos. |
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| Joy was the best. Everything was the most exciting thing. It was like "Oooo, Monkeys" |
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| And "Oooo Elephants" |
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| And "Ooo Owl. Who, who". She loved the Bird Show. They brought the owl (a different one) into its cage behind the audience before the show started and she kept looking back there and pointing and saying "who, who" in her sweetest, smallest voice. |
And "Ooo Crocodiles! They're so cute!" That started an epic family battle. The siblings still argue over that one. Every animal was the cutest. This girl has no fear. Even of this:
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| We learned all sorts of cool things about gorillas. Did you know they are herbivores? They only have sharp teeth to intimidate other animals or gorillas, as demonstrated by this male. And their jaw muscles are huge so they can chew plants all day. The same is true for elephants. |
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| See, she happily sat here after seeing the live gorilla |
After we sweated all day at the zoo, we went into the canyon for dinner.
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| Joy got super dirty, so we must have been camping. |
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| Then we went on a hike, of course. |
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| Poor Joy fell behind because I kept stopping her to take pictures. But honestly, wouldn't you? |
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| Eventually we did make it in time to pose with a tree and the cousins. |
After three more play dates, my friend told me about Rocky Mouth Falls, a great little hike in Sandy.
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| I'm glad she warned me that the trail head is literally between two houses. The other fence is what all that green stuff is growing out of. |
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| We got to get right up close, not that the kids cared about the fall or anything. |
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| Barefoot means cleaning out rock toe jam. |
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| Even though it started raining pretty hard on our hike down, The Captain still wanted to explore all the caves. |
I thought it would be fun and fitting to have a little birthday celebration for Joy at Wheeler Farm since we had gone there for
The Captain's 2nd birthday. I had great timing for both since The Captain's was right after my sister-in-laws wedding, and Joy's was right before the same sister's baby shower. But this time was much more fun because it wasn't so cold, and Joy was way more excited about all the animals.
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| This cow looks angry. |
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| Don't worry, it just wanted some love. |
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| Can you tell my mom grew up near a dairy? |
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| She may be a horse whisperer. |
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| Yay, more animals to pet! |
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| I may print this up as her 2 year pic. Thoughts? |
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| Joy sporting her present from Grandma, dress up shoes! |
