Utah Road Trip - Part 1 - ON THE WAY UP

We haven't been to Utah for several years, so we decided it was time to go again this summer. Utah during the 4th of July is particularly fun, especially because there is so much family to visit with. We had a great time, which is why this post is so long!

We started out with a stop in Las Vegas to visit our good friends, Tyler and Christina, and their two kids. We had left pretty early in the morning with the intention of getting there a little after noon. Little did we know that we would have quite a long detour near Baker...we had just passed the town and being summer, it was 118 degrees. Traffic slowed for some unknown reason and as soon as we braked, we blew a tire! Luckily, we called AAA and we were able to be towed after waiting for about 90 minutes back to Baker, where we got a new tire and were on our way again. Thank goodness the car still ran, because we had air conditioning and the DVD player. The detour was actually pretty adventurous...we didn't know that it was legal for towing companies to put you on the back of a flatbed tow truck while you sat in the car. We had a blast doing it--and if you've ever been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, it felt pretty similar to that. Below are the pictures of that quick part of our adventure and the culprit for the blown tire. Once we were fixed, we went on to Vegas and had a nice visit with Tyler and Christina.

After Vegas, we were off to Provo. We wanted to show the kids the town, temple, MTC and BYU and it was a good place to stop for us, so we stopped there for a night before moving on to my cousin's home in Roy.

Over the summer, Kylie had the chance to participate in a play put on by our stake about the Mormon pioneers and their struggles as they crossed the plains to the Salt Lake valley. She played a little girl named Bodil Mortensen. This little Danish girl has become the symbol for pioneer children and their hard work and dedication in the pioneer movement. There is a statue of her at This is the Place National Monument in Salt Lake, so we stopped there before heading to my cousin's house so we could find this statue. We had a nice time there, but it was getting ready to rain so we didn't stay too long.

We had a great time in Roy with my cousin, Laurie, her husband, PJ, and their four daughters, Kaitlyn, Sydney, Jaycee and Tessa. My Aunt Marcia lives with them, too, so it was fun to see all of them. We wish they lived in California--they are just so much fun! Our kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins, going to their Vacation Bible School and being spoiled by their Aunt! We always seem to have a cool thunderstorm when we are there...and the sleepovers, video games, sprinkler fun, dogs and ice cream never hurt!

After Roy, we were off to Cache Valley for fun with Lauriann's family--See Part 2! Thanks to Laurie and family for such a great time this summer!