Utah trip: This is the Place

Andrew worked at This is the Place Heritage Park this summer, and Aaron and Emily's families volunteered there once a week. We went there on their day. 

Andrew walked around and sang with a little group. Some days he narrated the train tour. What a fun summer job!

They rotate which house they work in each time. They talk about the pioneer family that lived there and what day-to-day life was like. In this house they demonstrate cooking on the wood stove. Emily made chicken noodle soup.

The kids get to hang out at the house or wander around the park. What a fun thing they get to do every summer!

Troy's sister Joy volunteers too. I don't think I'd seen her since Troy and Emily's wedding! 

 They even have cute pioneer clothes for Margot.

 A bunch of cousins walked around the place with us. We especially enjoyed the pottery house.

 And the dentist/doctor/barber shop was hilarious. First he pretended to pull out Brennan's tooth.

 Then he gave him a shave. He was quite entertaining.

We stopped by Marrisse's place too. The person who lived in this house was an artist.

 The highlight of the day for Chloe was the pony ride and horse stable. 

Peter and Dallin were just barely short enough to do it.  

 Funny ducks!

 The blacksmith was also very entertaining.

We all met back at Emily's place for lunch - chicken noodle soup with herbs from the garden. Emily and Marrisse went home (they have a 4 hour shift), while we stayed a couple more hours.

After lunch we headed up to the Indian village. They had dancing in an air-conditioned tepee.

This was one of my favorite things there. I loved it! 

Next we panned for gold. It was shady and relaxing. 

Of course it wasn't real gold (I think it was iron pyrite), but it was shiny and fun to find. 

A little train went around the whole park, and we could get on and off whenever we wanted. 

 Chloe has told me several times that she want to go back there and ride the train.

They made arrowhead/bead necklaces. Andrew told us that one day his job was to remove the "Made in India" stickers from the arrowheads. Haha!!

We were all pretty tired by this point, so we made one final stop at the candy shop and then drove to Aaron's house for dinner.

 It was a beautiful, relaxing evening. We ate outside and visited until the sun went down.

Chloe loved playing with Katrina! They were instant friends. 

Cuties!

Utah trip: Kaysville cousins!

We stayed with my sister Emily while we were in Utah. We especially wanted to spend time with Andrew before he left on his mission. Plus their house is a party.

My brother Ben and his family live there also. We didn't see Ben much, since he was doing the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, but we loved getting to know his baby Margot!

We didn't have any huge plans while we were there. We just wanted to spend as much time with the fam as we could. There was lots of silliness, games and laughter.

 Sabrina is a character! 

Daniel is  tall! They're hoping his feet stop growing or else he'll have to special order all his shoes.

Tim works at Arctic Circle - he got us a discount on our ice cream cones. He is so funny, I could talk to him all day!

We were going to go to the air force museum one day (we still have never been there), but then we realized it was closing soon, so we went to a park with a fun water pad instead. It was awesome! And free!

We suggested swimming suits, but Chloe was the only one in my family to put one on. I don't think they knew just how wet they would be getting!

I love Sabrina's hair! She probably gets tired of hearing it, but it so dramatic and curly and pretty! 

We gave all of Chloe's clothes to Kate, and she passed them on to Margot! I was so happy to see her wearing them!

 We helped Tim cross off an item from his summer bucket list: get duct-taped to a pole.

While we were at the park, we launched paper rockets with Troy's air compressor. It worked great!

Alison's summer job was babysitting Margot while Barbara worked. It was nice to have her around all week.

Margot is a very sweet, easy baby, and she warmed right up to me - almost like she already knew me! You can't help but take that personally.

 After shooting the rockets vertically for awhile, they started aiming them at each other.

Peter had his birthday while we were there. We made dry ice cream to go with his cake. He was the only one who had made it before, and he was a little vague on the amounts. 

It was hilarious! First, they put it in a smallish bowl, but it obviously wasn't going to fit. So they transferred it to a bigger bowl, but it quickly overflowed that one too. I love the progression of Emily's face! And Sabrina laughing hysterically in the background! Finally, they put it in an even bigger bowl, and that worked. It was all very exciting.

We went to a wave pool on Peter's actual birthday.

A couple days later, Spencer, Tyler, Dallin, Brennan and Peter went to Lagoon to celebrate Dallin and Peter's birthdays. They had so much fun!!! And Brennan was able to ride ALL the rides. He was so happy!!