our last stop...salt lake city.

our last major stop on our big summer road trip was salt lake city.  i hadn't been there for some time and my kids had never been there expect for jack who was like barley one so that doesn't really count.  i forgot what a beautiful place utah is and how special temple square is.  there is so much (mormon) history in that one little area and it makes me a teensy bit excited to maybe start doing some research on our church history myself.  but it probably won't happen any time soon even though i am fascinated by all of it.

we had a good day in salt lake.  some of our highlights were finding the one and only dunkin donuts for breakfast, walking around the temple grounds, taking an elevator to the top of the church offices building to get a view of the whole salt lake valley, eating at the lion house and enjoying some of the best rolls of our lives, touring the beehive house (aka brigham young's old home), and doing some back to school shopping.

we finished off our day with some swimming at the hotel pool which is always a kids dream and then trekking in our pj's to the olive garden to get some take out for dinner.  one of the many bad parts about traveling as a single parent with four young-ins is you have to take them everywhere regardless of what time it is at night.  for example, the night before, we arrived in salt lake and it was close to midnight and we hadn't had dinner yet.  so, i gathered the troops and we took to the street to see what was open this late at night.  we found a pizzeria that was filled with loud drunk college kids who looked a little scary and stared at me as i walked in pushing my stroller and had three other kids trailing behind.  bottom line, we got our pizza and it was actually really good considering the awkward situation i had to encounter in order to get it.

so, there we sat in our hotel room on the last night of our almost three week road trip eating olive garden and watching the much anticipated premier of disney's teen beach movie.  i think it was the perfect ending to our big adventure. (my kids had been counting down until the showing of this movie and since then i think we (they) have seen this movie over a hundred times.) thank you disney for bringing so much joy into my children's lives.  i cannot compete with you.

next stop.....HOME!

yellowstone and old faithful.

before leaving wyoming for good, we made sure to visit yellowstone on our way out.  i had never been before and i wasn't sure when i was going to be back up this way.  also, i wanted my kids to see it too.  however, i wasn't aware that it was going to take close to four hours to drive from the east side to the west side.  although it was very beautiful and scenic, the roads were windy and traffic was slow with little opportunities to pass.  jack kept getting car sick and was on the verge of throwing up so we had to pull over few times to let him get some fresh air.  of course, the main reason we drove through was to see old faithful and maybe a bear or two.

we finally arrived to old faithful after driving in yellowstone for a few hours and after my patience was about completely used up from a boy crying (i mean screaming like he was on his death bed) of his stomach hurting, kids complaining they were starving, one always saying they had to go pee, and from getting stuck behind the slowest grandpa drivers or the ones pulling a 100ft trailer.  but we made it and boy were we glad to get out of the car.

once we parked and walked a gazillion miles over to find old faithful, we found out it wasn't going be shooting up in the air for another hour or so. so, we headed to the nearby ski lodge for some lunch where we ordered way too much food because we were starving and all throughout our lunch these asian people kept taking pictures of my kids.  it was awesome.

after our lunch, we headed back over to old faithful where we found our spot on some logs and waited. and then about 10 or 15 minutes later it started to rise.  at first it was just a little water and then it got taller and bigger and more taller and then it got small again.  i'm not sure what my kids were expecting and maybe i talked it up way too much but ava's reaction summed it all up.  "that's it." she said.  "that was boring." okay, well someday i am sure you will appreciate the fact that you can say you've seen this incredible natural wonder.  i thought it was pretty cool and i think jack thought so too.  jonah was just along for the ride.

so, we've been there and done that.  that's all.  peace out yellowstone.  (ps jack was the most excited when we entered montana for about fifteen minutes as we exited yellowstone.  that was one more state he could say he had been to.)

more fun in wyoming.

just a few more photos from our amazing trip to wyoming where we spent almost all of it outdoors.

our friend's backyard was basically a kids dream.  lots of grass to run and play in, a jungle gym playground to slide, swing, and hang upside on until your heart's content, a bridge with a stream under it where plenty of rocks where thrown into it and next door neighbors with an inground trampoline that had a slide that took down under the tramp.  wow.  it was no wonder the kids never wanted to come inside.  they also played hide and go seek at least a hundred times.  this is how summer should be spent.

to top off our wyoming trip, my friend, summer, who was a week away from opening up her own ice cream shop, invited us in for a sneak peek. her little shop is so darling and can we talk about the ice cream? it is seriously the best i've ever tasted.  she had the most delicious flavors and my kids thought they had died and gone to heaven with all their scoops of ice cream. (which they had several days in a row)  i still have dreams about this one particular flavor called graham slam.  i am salivating just writing those words.  i so wish we had this ice cream in arizona.  i guess it gives me an excuse to head back to wyoming again soon.

thank you lofgrans for an unforgettable time and for spoiling us rotten with your outdoors and tubs of ice cream for breakfast.  you made it really hard for us to pack up and leave your wonderful town and state.