Utah here we come!

Some people are amazed that one of my best friends in the world only lived here for less than a year when we were teenagers as her dad was military and she moved around a lot. Although Angee's time here in Alabama was short, we developed a friendship that has lasted. Anyway, I decided that this summer I was going to make sure I made it out to Utah to visit her so I sent her an email asking when would be a good time. That's when I discovered her hubby and my hubby were both going to be out of town the next week and thought that would be a perfect time to go for a visit! It was short notice, but we were so excited!

Oh, in case while looking at the pictures you notice a lack of Elizabeth there is a reason for that. Once she realized that my friend had no kids her age she wasn't very excited about going. Andrew and I gave her the option of going on the trip or of staying behind with some friends her age since we figured she was old enough to make that kind of decision herself. Well she opted to remain with friends and had a great time while we were gone.

As I've mentioned before one of the really nice perks of Andrew's job is getting to fly for free which makes spur of the moment trips across the country possible :) Although Andrew wasn't able to make the trip with us, he was allowed to help me get through security and get us all settled on the plane before he headed off to work. It was such a great help!

I was so excited when we landed and I got to see Angee again! It had been six years since we had last been able to spend time together. I had a minor snag with the luggage, but soon we were off to her house where we took it easy that first day :)

The next day however we went to Temple Square and had a blast! Emily didn't quite get the wording right and kept saying that we were going to the "Square Temple." Too cute. Here are the kids at the front door of the Salt Lake Temple.We went for a tour of the Conference Center and I explained to the twins that this was where the prophet was when he spoke to us during General Conference. I loved Sarah when we first walked inside and the girls saw how big it was. All she could do was stare wide eyed and say "awesome!"

This is Emily and Sarah (in pigtails) along with Angee's two kids inside the conference center.

They really were amazed at how big it was in there!
After touring the inside we went up to the roof which was more fun than it sounds. Up on the roof (great, now that song is stuck in my head) is a very beautiful garden that we got to walk through. The view from up there was amazing!

The girls loved looking at the temple from up above. Oh, and this is the only picture of Angee and I together that we managed to get :) Just ignore my big belly!
Now comes my horrible mother moment. Once we were done looking at the garden we headed back to the elevators with our tour guide to head back down. The twins love elevators and got on first with our tour guide followed by Angee pushing the stroller. Well the doors started to close on the stroller and instead of opening back up when she pulled the stroller back they simply closed and the elevator descended with two of my kids in it! We quickly asked the security guard what floor she was going to and got in the next elevator. When we made it down there we Emily and Sarah sitting on a bench with our tour guide who was saying "see I told you mommy would come!" At least it happened there instead of at the airport!!

Anyway we also had the chance to go to the visitor center and see the Christus. It was such a neat experience for the kids.

Since most of the day was spent touring we decided the kids needed a place they could just go and play so we headed to the children's section of a museum at Temple Square.

Sarah wanted to pretend that she was giving a talk :)

This was to mimic a stain glass window and Joseph spent a lot of time putting different colors in and out.There was also a section where the kids could take care of the new born babies by weighing, bathing, dressing, and feeding them. Sarah loved playing mommy :)

At this station the kids were able to build their own temples with building blocks and all of the kids spend some time here :) I was very happy that Joseph actually helped build instead of just knocking every one elses down!

I love the intent looks on their faces

OK, so the next day it was off to the Animal farm. Joseph was so excited about getting to pet the sheep.Most of the horses kept their distance, but his pony was quite content staying right by the fence while the kids pet him and fed him hay.

The animals the girls commented most about after the trip I don't even have a picture of. It was the "stinky pigs" and yes, they did smell pretty bad!

Joseph was fascinated by all of the farm equipment, especially this large tractor! I couldn't even get him to take his eyes off it long enough for a picture :)

Our last day there we were planning on going to a waterfall at the base of the mountains, but both Angee and her daughter ended up getting sick so we did the best we could at creating some water fun at home for the kids. It's amazing how much fun they can have with a slip-n-slide!

It was so nice how well all of the kids played together during the week. We really didn't have any fights and they seemed to have a blast with each other.

Our last night there we took a short walk to this little pond by Angee's house. The kids though it was great fun throwing rocks in and watching the splashes.
The girls favorite part about the whole trip was getting to see the mountains and especially the snow on the top!! These mountains are also visible from Angee's back yard and sometimes the kids would just stare at them. It is an amazing view isn't it!

Next morning we got to the airport dark and early to try to catch a flight home. We have to fly standby (only get on if there is an empty seat) and due to some bad weather the night before the flight was fuller than expected. They ended up with only 3 seats for the 4 of us. Since Joseph is not yet 2 yrs old he can still fly as a lap child so to ensure we made it home we took the 3 seats. It was a little amusing since as you can see from some of the pictures a lot of my lap is already taken up with the new baby. It was a fun 4 hr flight, but we made it home safe :)

I had a blast visiting Angee and getting to know her kids. Oh, and her birthday was the day before we got there so it was nice to be there for that as well. We all had such a great time maybe we can make a tradition out visiting during the summer! What do you think Angee?