Utah Trip part 2

Monday I woke up feeling MUCH better. Brad headed off to Provo to meet his cousin and I got to hang out with my grandparents and some other extended family. We were staying at the Canyons Resort in Park City, and they have a gondola ride up the mountain. I know, when you hear gondola you think guys in boats with striped shirts singing in Italian, but evidently whoever was naming these things had something else in mind. Anyway, it's basically an enclosed ski lift that took us up the mountain. It was a really pretty view and at the top is a restaurant and a bunch of trail heads. Everyone but Grandma Cleo decided they wanted to do the nature loop, so I stayed behind with her and we had some hot chocolate and chatted, which was a lot of fun.





<--- The hikers





Those that would rather drink hot chocolate & chat ------>



Notice the stroller my niece is in? Mindy didn't want to lug her big, very nice stroller across the country, and I really can't say I blame her, so she went to wal-mart and got this cheap one to use during the trip. She charged my aunt with the very difficult task of finding someone, somewhere in Utah, that could use a stroller.



We hung out at the pool for a little bit. This was taken in the 15 seconds before Jensen decided she no longer wanted to wear a hat. Cousin Jake had a great time playing with Jensen. Aunt Jan made taco salad that night at the hotel and it was really very good! Aunt Lisa remembered the ice cream freezer, so we had ice cream again. We just hung out at the hotel and chatted, which was nice. Sadly, Mindy, Branch, & Jensen left very early Tuesday morning, so we had to say goodbye to them Monday night. It was so fun to see them! I'm sad so many siblings live so far away. I'm glad we were able to spend time with most of them. (We missed you, Todd!)



Tuesday we ate breakfast with the family and I oversaw some rousing games of Skip-Cleo. (that's phase-10 to the rest of the world). Then Brad and I headed down to Provo. We had lunch at the Skyroom Cafe, where we had our second date and decided we actually liked each other after all! We met Brad's uncle Brad (yes, the one he's named after), his wife (Debbie?) and her almost three year old son Gunner. It was a lot of fun to see uncle Brad. This trip my husband Brad met several of my relatives for the first time, but I've known almost all of his family since before we got married. It had been a while since we've seen Brad, and it was nice to catch up with him. And his wife is just adorable! It was fun to talk to her about how similar our Brad's are. Sadly, it wasn't until later that we discovered we forgot to take a picture with them. We'll just have to go out & have lunch again!


We walked around campus. We've become those people that walk really slowly pointing out everything that's changed on campus. You know, those ones that are always in your way when you're already late for class? Yeah, that's us now. Brad went a little crazy at the bookstore, especially with my discount, and I had to buy a new bag for us to get everything home in. But he has very nice new scriptures! We walked around the new alumni hall, and Brad was really excited for the new sports building. So excited, in fact, that he even took a picture of the rug. If you go on a Tuesday afternoon, a Mr. Allen Peterson will be very happy to give you the tour. And he gives quite a tour! We got to see where all the athletes work out, where they get taped up & do physical therapy, the chronology wall for all BYU sports, the offices of the coaches, etc. He is very excited about BYU sports and I think that's awesome! There really is a lot of cool stuff in here if you're a sports fan. Any sport. They have tennis, track, golf, etc. Mr Peterson has lots of fun stories to tell. He was a fun guide. On one of the walls in the office building is a huge photo of the football stadium during a game in 1998. I'm pretty sure I'm in there somewhere, but I decided not to look for me. But it's pretty cool to think I might be!


After we walked around campus for much longer than we expected to, we met our friends Travis & Allison. They are awesome! Travis served his mission in East TN, and loved it so much he brought his wife back after they got married. Alas, he decided to go back to school, which meant back to Utah. Evidently it had been too long since we lived in Utah, because one of us had some trouble figuring out their address. Eventually we made it to their cute house. We sat around and caught up for a while, then decided to go to Trafalga. If you've never been to happy valley, Trafalga has miniature golf, arcade games, etc. We played a round of golf, including some awesome bank shots, then rode the go carts. The go carts were more funny than anything else. It was just the four of us on the track, which was probably a good think since it was one of the smallest tracks I've ever seen. Travis got the double car, so he was quite a bit slower than the rest of us, and we weren't allowed to bump each other or the sides, so we drove in tight circles for 5 minutes. Literally, it rattled my watch off my arm.



After the go carts we hit the arcade. Evidently Trafalga spends their money adding new features instead of keeping up the old ones. The mini golf course was, quite literally, falling apart. The arcade games are the same ones that were old when I was going to school there. But it was still fun to goof off and try to win some tickets! See how many we got!





We each got a pixie stick and the boys each got a parachute guy. They spent at least 15 minutes playing with them in the parking lot before they broke. Then we decided to ride the "haunted mine" ride, on the advice of a 10 year old. It was also fairly amusing. I'm guessing this is what they've spent their money to add rather than fixing the golf course or updating/repairing the arcade games.


After all of that we were very hungry, so we drove around trying to find the Italian place we used to go to. It's an Indian place now. We found another Italian place. They happily showed us to a table & our waitress informed us we had 2 minutes to get our order in before the kitchen was closing. We decided to not push our luck and went somewhere else. I had forgotten that Provo shuts down at 9:00! We finally ended up at California Pizza Kitchen, which is not a bad place to end up at all! Sadly, the creamery was closed by the time we were done, so we'll have to do that next trip. Allison even made us cookies for us to take with us on our flight the next morning! Did I mention she's awesome! It was also fun to see Killer, their little poodle who is the only dog I tolerate. He's fully grown poodle, but still only about a foot high and for some reason I'm one of his favorite people. So cute! It was fun to see he remembered me. We stayed up way too late talking. Brad and I had to leave around 7 in order to return the car & make our flight, but we felt really bad when we found out Allison had to be at work at 5:30. Sorry, Allison!

The only noteworthy thing about our trip back home was getting busted in the security line for my pepper spray. He was pretty shocked that I didn't think it was that big of a deal. There is a lockbox to get the key that opens the other lockbox where they store confiscated stuff. Evidently they're worried about different things than back in Nashville. He kept going on and on about this form I would have to fill out. After he finally got the last lock box open he freaked out because "the notebook" wasn't there! Another guy came by and said "yeah, we don't have to do that anymore". So, I escaped getting on the government's list this time, but perhaps my blogging about it will put me back on the radar.

The flight was uneventful. I consider that a good thing. We got on the wrong shuttle to get back to our car, so we got a good tour of the Nashville parking garage. I decided next time to pay the extra $200 bucks and fly out of Knoxville. After being on a plane all day that extra 2 1/2 hours in the car seems like forever!

We had a good time. It was fun to reconnect with family members, some of whom I hadn't seen in almost 20 years. It was fun to see friends and spend some time with them. I'm sorry I didn't have more time, as there are many more I wish we had been able to see. It was fun to walk around campus and remember. It was a fun trip. But it's good to be home!

And now you know more than you ever wanted to know about our trip to Utah.