The Utah "Megablog" Post

There is so much to say about our trip to Utah and so, so many pictures.  This may be a posting just for us...I don't think I have ever put so many pictures on one post, but I just had such a hard time deciding what to delete...so here we go!  On the flight to Utah I saw one of the most amazing sunsets I had ever seen.  The colors were so vivid and you could see so many different colors...this picture doesn't even kind of do it justice!

On our way...

Uh oh...turbulance!

We got into Las Vegas really late (our flight was a few hours delayed) and we went to the Luxor.  I couldn't believe how long the check in lines were at 1:30 a.m.!!  We were lucky enough to get upgraded to a suite and the kids were thrilled (so were the parents)!

This is a view of the first room...

And this of the second...

The next morning we got up early and started our drive to Utah.  This was us leaving the Luxor...

And headed to Utah...

The kids were so wiped out.  We went to bed at 4 a.m. Duluth time and only got 6 hours of sleep.  There was a lot of napping on the way!

Once we arrived, we went to the Riverton rodeo.  Beth and I went a little early to get good seats and then the gang arrived.  They started the rodeo by having 5 skydivers jump into the arena.  It was really fun.

Okay, now this is something I had never heard of before - cash cow.  Now don't get me wrong, I've heard the term "cash cow", just not in the rodeo way.  They got all of the kids (in two groups - 6-9 and 10-12) and let them loose to chase a few calves that had money taped to them.  Crazy.  Crazy, crazy.  And who was even crazier?  Yep, us.  We let our kids do it.

Andrew was the only one who made it back with some cash.  He and Eric had made a plan to stay back and wait for the calf to come towards them instead of chasing it...that way they could be in front of it.  Eric took one side of the arena and Andrew took the other.  Andrew was well positioned, fearless and quick!

Oh yes, and a little trampled!  Once he grabbed the money, the mob was right behind him, he got knocked down and then the calf stepped on his leg.  Ouch!  This was right after...you should have seen the bruising that followed over the next week!  What good parents we are...

I loved this picture of the rodeo stands in front of the mountains...seemed so Utah.

On Monday we spent the better part of the day at BYU.  We went bowling...

Did some acrobatics in the hallway...

Played a little football...

And just had fun at the "Y"!

 Who knows?  We may have some future BYU students on our hands.  That night there was a Craig family gathering at Beth's house.  We had a great time with everybody and it was a really nice way to visit everyone at once!

This may seem like a strange picture, but these are the boots my Grandpa Robinette wore in WWII when he got dressed in an airman's uniform and went up on a flight...even though that wasn't where he was supposed to be!  He was "allowed" to keep the boots and gloves and he still has them and uses them.

This is one of his many medals...I have so much other stuff I could post about this day, but for now I will just say that it was incredible and invaluable to me.

The Utah fires were burning bright the whole time we were there.  These are pictures I took outside of my Grandpa Robinette's house in the afternoon.  This fire wasn't even started when we arrived that morning!

The morning of the 4th of July, I went to the store and bought some things to be able to mount this flag that Rick had.  It's a 48 star flag and it seemed like an appropriate 4th of July activity.  Beth and I mounted it and Rick hung it...I think it turned out great.

 

Then we made fireworks shirts...

Here's one I made for Beth...

She's so cute!

Here's the gang hanging out for our picnic dinner before the fireworks.

Doing a little dancing on the sidewalk...

Enjoying the sunset...

Making things out of glow sticks...

So they could glow!  This is Zach...

And this is Ava!  The fireworks were amazing...mostly because we had an amazing spot...we were right under them.  We could also see the fires on the mountains just blazing.  It was a strange sight to see the mountains on fire too.

The next day we drove down to the Porter's for the day.  Ava and Claire made fast friends and had a lot of fun dressing up.

Then the Porter's introduced us to a game called 'Slap Stick'.  We played as adults first and later in the day the kids played.  Greg took a beating with the game too...good times!

On the way back, we stopped at my Grandpa Craig's house.  The apricots were out and it just killed me that I couldn't pick a huge box and can them...we ate a bunch right off the tree.  They were perfect.

Then we went to Holly's house and had a King Henry reunion.  I love my friends.  Here is Ava with Holly's girls...

Beautiful...

We got a picture of the Crows...

And the Porters, but missed the Williams, Rawlings, and Ben and his girlfriend.  It was a great night with lots of laughter (seriously, I lost my voice) and wonderful friends.  Holly and I even got a little late night time after the party ended! 

On Friday we spent the entire day at Bridgette and Brit's house.   They let their house be the meeting point for all of our friends from the old neighborhood in Draper.  People came in and out all day, we cooked and cooked, had a great time with our friends and got to meet Bridgette and Brit's new little girl, Ilili.  It was a perfect day.

Saturday we were back with the cousins and onto another adventure!  Ice blocking!

It was a huge hill and the kids had to carry the blocks back up each time.  It was a very hot day and Andrew eventually found a way to cool off...ice block pillow!

That afternoon Grandpa and Jeri came over.  We went to the pool to watch the kids, visited, had dinner and played in the back yard.  It was a wonderful day!

Here is a little video of the girls playing in their room and dancing.  They had so much fun together!
 

 

My Grandpa started throwing the ball with Ryan and Andrew (Andrew's all time favorite activity) and they ended up playing for about a half an hour.  Grandpa kept telling Jeri, "just one more", but that went on for another 20 minutes!  So fun to watch...

All the kids got in on the action and had a great time. 

I love this picture.  Love.

This one too...

The last morning in Utah we got up early and drove outside of Delta, Utah with Beth and her family.  They had been trilobite hunting there before and thought we would enjoy it too.

They were right!  We had a good time (even though it was very hot) and found quite a few trilobites.  It's so fun to bring real fossils home...but heavy...that's a story for another time!

This was the whole business office for the place we went fossil hunting!  So funny!

We passed this crazy tree on our way out fossil hunting, so on the way back we stopped for a picture.

A tennis shoe tree!

We didn't have any shoes to hang, so we hung our kids!

Our last stop with the cousins was lunch.  After, we took this picture of the kids and started to say our good-byes...

There was some group hugging...

That turned into really crazy hugs...

It was sad to say goodbye, but we made great memories and had a wonderful visit.  We wish we lived closer, or could get together more often, but we really made the most of all the time we had!

On the road again, back to Las Vegas. 

It was HOT!!!

I had been teasing Greg that since I got us a suite on the way in, it was his job to try to get us a suite on the way back.  Man oh man did he ever live up to that challenge!  We arrived at the New York, New York hotel and he somehow managed to get us into an 1100 square foot room!!

WOW!!  I mean, seriously, WOW!  It was awesome.

Andrew found the robes and slippers right away and was in heaven.

He is his mother's son!

The kids all went "swimming" in the jacuzzi tub and then we got cleaned up and went to dinner and the arcade.  It had been a long day that started early, we played really hard and we all slept like champions that night!

We had great views of the strip that night too.

 

The next morning we ordered room service.  This is Greg Bacon, wearing his bacon shirt, eating bacon...

Then we had a little time to walk around...being MGM lions...

And celebrating M&Ms!

We happened to be there when the staff and this M&M came out and danced.  It was fun.

Ava loved the green M&M...

There was the replica Statue of Liberty outside...

And the jelly belly replica inside!

Then it was off to the airport.  Here's Ava waiting for the flight.

We had some amazing views on the way home too!

What a trip.  We couldn't really have packed much more in, but we also had lots of fun, plenty of time to relax with people we love and made many more memories to add to the ones we already cherish with our friends and family.