Utah Vacation: July 1-7

Clear back in July we went to Utah to visit Josh's family. Our week-long vacation was jam packed with lots of fun stuff. Stuff like going to Lagoon, taking family pictures...twice (we'll get to that in a minute), watching a Drum and Bugle Corps show, lighting off fireworks, and swimming in the pool. And what's a memorable family vacation without a smidgen of car trouble and a dash of family drama?! Our trip had it all. The good and the....not so good.

Here's the play by play.

Wed., July 1: Megan and Jesse (sis and bro in law) and their 3 boys drove over to Ellensburg from their place near Olympia and crashed here so we could leave in the wee hours the next morning.

Thurs., July 2: Around the wee hour of 12 noon we were ready to leave. (our fault, not Megan & Jesse's for the record!) Driving in a caravan, we easily made it to Boise by dinner time. We stayed the night at Oxford Inn. They are nice! It's right across from the Boise Temple, too, so, as you can imagine, the view from our room was spectacular. We all went swimming. The kids had a blast and a half.

Fri., July 3: I throw the jet packs on the mini van and fffflllllyyyy down the interstate. Ain't nothin' gonna slow me down. Got the peddle to the metal. We are making great time until....Jaclyn gets car sick all over the place. We stop near Farmington to clean her and the car up. Josh and I squabble because he insists that it was my crazy driving that caused our daughter to get motion sick and lose her lunch. Grrr. Family drama #1.

Sat., July 4: Played outside, enjoyed the beautiful summer weather. Made homemade burgers and potato salad. BBQed. Lit fireworks after dark. Engorged ourselves on s'mores. And more s'mores. And s'more s'mores. I wish I took pictures of the kids' faces. The combo of the fun fireworks and the sticky s'mores made for some adorable little faces that night!

Sun., July 5: Went to church. Fast and testimony Sunday. Oops. Is it the first Sunday of the month again? That little fact escaped my memory until sacrament mtg. So, as penance, I guess, I decide to get up in front of a bunch of strangers and bear my testimony. 'Cause it should be easier in front of people you'll probably never see again, right?! ha. Then later that day we were all sitting around and a couple of us sparked up a conversation about the family pictures we were all taking the next morning. (For the record, we'd been planning the pictures for at least a month.) During said conversation, my father in law realizes what we are talking about and announces that he hasn't taken work off for the pictures. My mother in law had reminded him to take work off about a dozen times. Time for family drama #2.

Mon., July 6: Family pictures. 10 a.m. At Liberty Park in SLC. A 45 min. drive.

About 25 minutes into the drive, our van starts making some scary scary noises. Hmm. About 35 minutes into the drive, the van begins to scream at us, "if you don't put me out of my misery now, I will do you the favor and kill myself." About 4 blocks from the park, the now knocking, shimmying, burning smelling van takes its dying breath. I can hear it muttering a death bed repentance, asking forgiveness for always being a crappy, unreliable van with horrible air conditioning. Literally right as we are pulling into the parking lot to the park, our van gives up the ghost. The engine does not even turn over. Oh well that's just great. But at least we're on time for pictures, right? Cue family drama #3.

So we decide to deal with the van after pictures. 10:00 rolls around...10:15....then 10:30....still no photographer. Ok. What else could go wrong? Kids are getting antsy. So are the grownups. After finally getting a hold of the photographer and finding out that it was an honest scheduling mistake, we reschedule for Thursday and decide to take some of our own pics. And the kids played to their heart's content on all the playground sets there. Liberty Park is such an awesome place! So, so beautiful. (I'll post pics later.)

Okay, now it's time to leave. Time to confront our suicidal van. Grumble. Lucky for us, Jesse is an awesome mechanic and was able to correctly diagnose the problem. Josh's dad drove back to get his truck to tow our dead to an auto shop in Tooele. ((Three days and $1,200 later, we get our resurrected van back. I wanted to junk it and buy something new, but I was overruled.)) Meanwhile, Megan and I transfer our car seats into their SUV and we take all 6 kids home for lunch and naps.

Tues., July 7: LAGOON!!!!!!! We met a sweet old granny in the parking lot who sold us 6 discounted tickets (was she supposed to do that?!). With our big group, that meant that we only had to buy 3 at full price. Sweeeeet. What a fun day!!! We took the kids (minus the really little ones, so Benjamin, Jaclyn, and Jayden stayed behind with grandma) in the a.m. and they rode every ride they possibly could. Joanna was somewhat nervous at first to get on the rides, but once she realized that they were safe, there was no stoppin' her! She had a ball.

Aunt Lauren (Josh's sister) with Josiah and Joanna

Josiah on the boat ride

Lexi Gill and Joanna taking a joy ride

Joanna riding The Jumping Dragon with Lauren. Joanna loved this one! She insisted on riding it twice.

Joanna (can't really see her) and Lauren, Josh and Josiah waving

A silly Joanna riding the carousel

Lexi and Joanna

Josiah, Megan, Joanna, Lauren

Around 4:30 that afternoon grandma came to pick up the kids so that the "big kids" could stay for the rest of the day and ride the big, scary rides.

Now for a little background on yours truly. I DO NOT like scary rides. Never have. I don't like roller coasters, period. Not even the "kiddy" kind. And I especially don't like the idea of knowingly stepping into a cart that will whip my body (and brain?) around in space going like 70 mph. Oh yeah, and being 5-7 stories up in the air at the same time. I want to wet my pants just thinking about it. I'll admit it, I'm a wimp and I'm proud of it.

This is a very, very bad thing when you are the only one is a group of 8 people that is deathly afraid of roller coasters. The peer pressure was on like donkey kong. For the first couple rides they were content having me be the moral support, sitting on a bench holding all the wallets and cell phones. But then....they turned on me!!!! Even my own husband. My protector. They basically stripped me of all my God-given agency and made me go on this hellish looking torture device: See below.

The line to ride the Colossus was a mile long. And you can bet your bottom that I was psyching myself out the entire time. Then before I knew it, it was our turn. We boarded the roller coaster. And, of course, my loving husband insisted on getting in near the front. I hesitantly pulled the safety harness down to my lap. Then I triple-checked it to make sure it was locked. ((Holy cow guys. As I'm typing this, I am getting butterflies in my stomach. No joke!!!)) And then the darn thing started to move.

If you've been on this ride before, you know that it ever so slowly inches you up and up a few stories before you suddenly catapult into two back to back loop de loops. Good times. As we were creeping upwards, I kept saying over and over again to Josh, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you....." To which he lovingly (with a twist of sarcasm) replied, "I love you!"

We plunged towards the loop de loops and that was terrifying. I screamed at the top of my lungs. (Meanwhile, there were kids less than half my age on the ride, thoroughly enjoying themselves, no doubt.) But then a most unexpected thing happened. We soared through the loop de loops and on through the rest of the ride, and when it came to a stop, I realized that I actually enjoyed the ride!! Shocking, I know.

So then I thought, well, if I enjoyed the Colossus, maybe I'd also like "The Wicked". Everybody had been coaxing me to go on that one all night as well.

So stupid me decides, "you only live once, so why not." (all the while thinking, "you only die once, too.")

The Wicked is pictured below. Notice the ninety degrees up and ninety degrees down part of the ride?!?! Who comes up with this stuff?? Once again, we magically get seated right at the very front of the ride. My friends and family are just laughing at me by this point. Then the ride starts, and I scream bloody murder the entire duration of the ride. This made them laugh at me even harder! That ride was wicked, that's all I have to say. But I'd honestly go on it again.

Getting off that ride and knowing that I finally broke down the wall that held me back was empowering. Kinda like natural childbirth in a way. I was so scared to give it a try but once the ride was over I felt so proud of myself for conquering my fear.

The most wicked part of The Wicked was the fact that my cell phone fell out of my pocket during the ride!!! Lagoon workers found it the next day---all six pieces of it. ;-)

And because of my incessant screaming that night, I lost my voice the next day. I was so hoarse that I was unable to holler and cheer at the Drum Corps show the next night.

We also went on some fun, less heart-pounding rides that evening. We went on "the white roller coaster", as all the yokel locals say, and Rattlesnake Rapids, among many others. Rattlesnake Rapids was my favorite because it was a hot summer night and getting soaked to the bone with cold water felt so refreshing!!