Park City - Rafting

My brother from Chicago and his family came out to Utah a little before out big Paul family reunion.  One of the things he wanted to do with his daughters was go rafting.  He wanted to go on a basic river so they could see what it was all about.  It turns out that Jake and I have a good friend from our mission who is a river rafting guide in the Park City area.  We connected with John and he was the guide for my brother, his family, my sister-in-law, niece and Tade.  I wanted to go rafting, but had just gotten over being sick and needed to stay home with Seth and Andelyne who hadn't seen so much of me while I was sick.  I did go with the group to the meeting point and followed them to the river so I could get some pictures.  It was so fun seeing Tade all ready to go rafting.  It was a VERY tame river so I wasn't nervous.  Now Tade can say he's done something his mom hasn't.  Someday I will go rafting.

See you later guys.

Park City - Willow Creek Park

After two weeks with Jake's family we headed up for a month in Park City, UT.  My parents had wanted to rent a house for a few weeks so everyone had a fun place to gather.  It turned out that renting a house for a month was a much better deal than renting it for just a few weeks.  We found the best house for all of us to fit in without feeling like we were on top of each other for the summer.  The house has since sold for over $1,000,000 and we know with new owners there is no way it will stay as affordable as it was.  Well I'm glad we could enjoy it for one summer.

A few hours after we checked in my sister-in-law texted me to let me know that one of her boys had thrown up.  Of course he did because what would a big family vacation without the flu.  Within the next hour Tade came down with a fever.  He went to bed early so I went to the airport to pick up Shauna and Asher.  As I was waiting for them I began to feel a little off, but didn't think too much of it.  As we were driving back up to Park City my stomach began to churn.  We were in Parley's Canyon at this point and in the dark it's a windy scary drive.  Shauna kept talking to me and I'd answer in one or two word answers.  I was just concentrating on breath.  I was also praying over and over again to just make it into the driveway before I threw up.  One enjoyable moment before everything fell apart way when we turned onto our street.  I could see Shauna surveying the houses.  She stopped on one house.  I pointed to the house she was looking at and told her that was our house.  Her comment was, "we never get the biggest house on the street!"  We had the big house on the street and it was totally awesome!  Anyway, we went inside and as soon as we walked in as I was running to the bathroom I realized my prayers had been answered.  We made it home before I got sick.  After Tade and I this bug hit Brielle, Asher, Grandpa, Grandma, Shauna, and Scott.  It hit hard and fast.  The only good part was it was a very short bug.  Fortunately it hit all of us but Scott before our big Paul family reunion.

After the first group of sickos healed we needed to get out of the house.  We found a really fun park called Willow Creek park.  The kids loved it because the play areas were themed after a barn and tractor.  Also instead of having a little climbing wall there were real big rocks for climbing.

Odds and Ends From the Beginning

Our Utah trip began with two weeks in Layton Utah with Jake's family.  Here are some random, mostly cell phone, pictures from that part of the trip.

Seth was able to go out with his Uncle James on patrol.  I have never see this kid so happy.  He was on cloud nine.  Seth ended up being gone for 3 hours on real patrol.  When he got home I asked him how it was.  Seth was a little sad because they "didn't catch and bad guys."  He did come home with plastic handcuffs and toy police cars for him and all the cousins.  Thanks James for making Seth's year.  You are for sure the coolest uncle now.  The only thing that would make you even cooler was if you were a firefighter :)

Oh Utah and their delicious fry sauce.

Jake had just a few places he wanted to make it to in the short time he was in Utah.  Burger Bar was one of them.  This was featured in Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Food Network. 

Big Family dinner at Golden Corral.  They had endless cotton candy which made the kids incredibly happy.

Andelyne's best buddy from the beginning of the trip.  She loves her Madi.

Hogle Zoo

Utah's Hogle Zoo recently opened a now exhibit called Rocky Shores.  The zoo now has a polar bear, otters, sea lions and seals, and bald eagles.  It was a pretty cool exhibit.  The polar bear was very cooperative with us which you will see later in this post.  It was a perfect overcast day.  The animals were all pretty lively.  The kids even got to ride on a carousel and train.  The train sure made Seth's day.  We also go attacked by a flock of white pigeons, literally.  It was crazy.  I wish I had been video taping at that moment.  Have you ever seen the movie The Birds?  Well it was totally that just not with black birds.  Anyway, it was a good trip o the zoo.

Seth had wandered off for this picture.

We finally got him back for one.  Thankfully the other kids had one last smile in them.  Well most of them.

This didn't last very long.  As soon as we were in the zoo these two wanted out.

Once again Madison was a lifesaver with Andelyne.  It made it easier for me to keep track of Seth who I think is a worse wanderer than my two year old.

Seth is my goofy one and since I was following him so closely I got the most pictures of his silliness.

My Madagascar lemurs.  Had to get a pictures of those.  I used to see these guys sitting as pets on fences when I was in Mada. 

I seem to always get these hands against the glass shots with Seth, but I love how they turn out.

So my brother-in-law was talking a bunch of family shots in front of the polar bear tank.

To our surprise the polar bear jumped in right in the middle to him taking the shots.  Perfect timing!

He even swam around for a while before deciding to get out.

Yes, Andelyne is riding a giant preying mantis.

Seth for some reason chose to riding in the stationary peacock and was so excited about it.

Checking out all the animals.  We saw all sorts.  Normally I don't post many of the animals we see at the zoo, but the kids will enjoy looking at this post with all the animals.

At the end we got to go on the train ride.  It amazes me that Seth isn't sick all the time with the things that go in him mouth.

My excited little boy...

...and girl.

This is as close as we got to anything pioneer day while we were in Utah.  We were up in Park City for the 24th and they don't do a thing for it up there.