Utah!

After Jill's yummy dinner on Thursday and some Must-See TV, Rich & I headed back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep (we'd been up since 3am, after all) and got to the temple in the morning.We had a lovely time doing initiatory work at the Jordan River Temple Friday morning! Afterward, we couldn't get hold of Jill or mom (they had our kids, so we figured they must have taken them out or something), so we stopped at Target for some essentials and went to the hotel to change out of our Sunday clothes and into something comfy to wear to the zoo. We picked up some Chadder's for lunch (which is almost as good as In-n-Out), tried to find Mike & Amy, and found mom at Jill's with my kids and Jill just arriving with hers. They were working on Jill's yard and waiting for "the guys" to come home from golfing.

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We got our kids ready to go to the zoo because we had promised Heidi she could see the elephants as part of her birthday celebration. As we got ready, more and more kids wanted to go, so my mom handed me $20 and we broke the law by double-buckling a couple of kids, and headed up to Hogle Zoo in SLC.
Zoo Entrance (not my photo)

Heidi, Addie, Ally, & Belle waiting for their zoo tickets.
Here's most of the gang that ended up going to the zoo Friday afternoon.
(Jake, Matt, Matt's friend's daughter Brooklyn whom the Posties were babysitting, Belle, Abby, Sam, Addie, Ally, Rich, Heidi, Jack & James in the stroller, and me)

Jake, Heidi, & Belle at one of zoo potty breaks

Addie & Ally
James showing Jack his Diego elephant
Heidi, Addie, Ally, & Jake check out the albino alligator


TRIE LOVE! Heidi with the elephants
This isn't a great picture, but James loved watcing the monkeys--they were so entertaining!
Addie and the lemurs

Matt made friends with a giraffe
Sanck break at the giraffe building. Amie brought strawberries and crackers, I brought graham crackers, water, and gummi bears. We all shared and the kids stayed in good spirits.
Heidi & Jake with the turkeys

Toward the end of our visit (3:45-ish), we rode the zoo train. I got to sit with James and my adorable nephew, Jack.
James loved the tiny train!
From the train we discovered the zoo playground, so we gave the kids 15 minutes to play there. Here are Belle and Addie coming out of a turtle shell.

Addie being fake-devoured by an alligator
Belle & James on a caterpillar
Heidi & Jake hatching from a dinosaur egg.

Heidi pushing the water ball--

you can see Belle, Jack, and Rich in the reflection, but I don't know the boy in the green jacket.

Here's the Zoo Crew(click to enlarge) on the way home (Matt & Amie had already taken off to meet up with the Bailey's and give them their child). I had planned to stop in Holladay to visit my old friend M.E., but the traffic and the tired kids proved a bit too much for a good reunion, so I sadly had to postpone.

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We got back to Jill's just in time for me to freshen up and go out to dinner before Janet picked us up for Girls' Night Out/ Amie's Birthday Party in Provo. Rich and the other Daddies took the kids swimming together at our hotel. We ladies first stopped in American Fork to pick up our little sis, Amy. We waited around for her for a while and finally called her cell and found out she couldn't come. So we just headed straight to the movies cuz we were too late for dinner. Jill and Mom had made us all some crazy birthday hats to wear and that was pretty fun (see pix on Jill's blog). We watched "27 Dresses" which was a pretty cute movie. Amie's mom and sister were with us for the movie, and then her cousins joined us at Olive Garden for desert (which turned out to be dinner cuz we were starving--I had the tilapia and it was great). We were expecting Amy Drews, too, but she couldn't meet us there, either, dang it! I got back to the hotel near midnight.

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Saturday morning came fast and we all took showers and got dressed for another busy day, including a solemn assembly to sustain our new prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and a new apostle, Todd Christofferson. We ate breakfast at our hotel and then went to Jill's house to watch the first session of conference. We'd planned to take the kids to see Horton during the break, but they voted for playing wiht cousins instead! So we folded clothes and listened as the kids played together quietly (mostly). We stood by quorums and auxiliaries to sustain President Monson and we were taught some good principles. Between sessions we went to Tai Pan for some home decor and Cafe Rio to pick up lunch. We hung out with the Petersens for lunch and then headed over to Posties for second session and dinner (they had invited us). We kind of had to rush through dinner to get Willy and Rich to priesthood meeting on time, and so I could get to the Trax station to pick up Aunt Marti. Then Mom, Janet & Christa, Audrey, Jill, Marti, and I ended up at the pool at mom's hotel to swim during priesthood session. We got the kids in their jammies and met the Daddies (Will & Rich had gone in Herriman, Mark & Steve had gone in So. Jordan, the Mayberry boys had been at Temple Square, and Drew had gone with his dad). Jill offered to let all the girls have a slumber party at her house, but then she felt bad for Marshall and invited him, too. She took off with a car full of niece and nephews, so Rich and I had yet another restful night! We grabbed a bite to eat (thanks, uncle Ralph!) with Mayberrys and Drews, and hit the hay, exhausted again!

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Sunday morning we took bagels and cream cheese over to Jill's to eat breakfast and let the cousins say good bye one last time. Rich & Drew went out to Saratoga Springs to fetch some of Rich's tools at Jeff's and look for Matt (Matt was on his way to conference in the conference center).

Mom and Mark came and got their kids and went over to the Grays' and we left for home (after taking this picture of all the kids). We stopped for lunch in Draper and drove to Poky through the last conference session (we listened on KSL radio). It hailed like crazy on the way......but the sun mercifully appeared so the girls could get their ya-ya's out!

We stopped in Pocatello to visit with my dad, Becky, and two of Becky's daughters and their kids. Dad had grilled a giant round steak and made a deluxe salad bar, so we all visited and played and ate. Dad & Becky gave Heidi her bday gift early--it's a light tabel/ coloring desk so she can trace pix of Littlest Pet Shop pets and color them...a perfect gift to use in the car.

However, she didn't get to use it in the car because she and Addie were OUT in like 20 minutes! We left Pocatello at 6:20pm, and they crashed before Blackfoot! James never did settle down and drove us nuts all the way home whining for a bottle and to get out of his seat. I guess that's how it goes--as soon as you get one kids out of the crazy toddler stage, another one starts it up.

Despite ominous clouds and hail, our trip home was pretty nice and mostly clear. We arrived safely at home around 10:30pm Sunday and were glad to be here. It was a great trip.