Life is busy. This summer has been fun but I feel like we are constantly on the go. I thought I would try and finish my thoughts about our vacation before I talk about what we are doing here.
June 26th we got up early and started our drive to Utah. I was thankful that it was a one day drive. It was nice to think that we were starting from our “half way” point from when we lived in Texas. We had a good drive and the kids traveled well. They are use to long drives. We made it to my parents home in Orem in time for dinner. We enjoyed visiting with them that evening.
Saturday morning we went to Thanksgiving Point with my niece Jessica and my sister Rachel. We were able to go to the Museum of Natural Curiosities, and it worked to use our museum family membership, we didn’t have to pay anything for the museum in Utah. We spent the day at the museum. We had brought our lunch with us and enjoyed a picnic then went back in for more fun. The kids loved the museum. It had some great active things to do.
Jessica and Rachel
The out door play area
Our picnic
The kids played in the water room for over an hour
The giant Lego room
Sunday was a quieter day. We went to church in the morning and visited with members of my family in the afternoon. It was fun to see my sister Jeanie, who came down that week end to see us. The family gathered for dinner and we enjoyed lots of visit time. I enjoyed sitting around with my four sisters visiting about life. It is nice to have sisters.
Monday morning a group of us went to BYU to the Bean museum. We enjoyed looking around and seeing some interesting things there. We went back to my parents home for lunch. My sister Mandy and her kids were with us for the museum but Mandy wasn’t feeling well, so I took her two older kids, Grace and George, with my four kids to Trafalga to do mini-golf. Neal stayed home to rest. It was me with seven kids. We had fun. I took them out to ice cream after playing an exciting game of mini-golf on the indoor black light course.
at the Bean museum with cousins
Monday evening Neal met up with two of his brothers and his sister in law. The four of them wanted to hike Timpanogos. They left about 9:30 pm to go up to the trail head. They wanted to be on the summit by sun rise. The next morning I got a text message from Neal about 5:50 am that said they were on the top. They had a good hike and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
Tuesday morning I took the kids up to the Timpanogos caves. We met up with Neal’s sister Holly and her family. The kids hiked up the caves with Holly’s family. Neal met up with them at the cave exit. I didn’t hike because I had a really hard time on that hike last time I did it and didn’t want to have my knees screaming at me again. I enjoyed some quiet time at the visitor center reading and enjoying the view of the canyon.
Tuesday June 30th was Grandma Johnson’s 90th birthday. We met the family at a restaurant and enjoyed some visiting time with them. This started the big Johnson family reunion for the week. It was good to see so many aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Wednesday we drove up to Salt Lake City and went to the “This is the Place Monument” and went into the Heritage Pioneer village. We enjoyed seeing the pioneer things, getting pony rides and visiting with many of the family who were also there. After spending most the day there we met at Dallin’s apartment complex for a birthday party for Miranda, Holly’s daughter. It was fun to relax and visit with everyone there.
We got back to my parents home Wednesday evening and I helped Neal and the kids pack all their camping gear up and they left to go up the American Fork Canyon to camp with the Hubbard clan. I choose to stay home. Neal had fun with the kids up the canyon. The were able to do some hiking Thursday and also a little fishing. They enjoyed being with all the cousins and having time with the Hubbard family.
I choose to stay home with my parents. I needed a break and just really wanted to have some time with my parents. I enjoyed my day off from the responsibilities of being a mom. Thursday morning my Mom and I went to the Scera park in Orem to see their displays on colonial life. I really enjoyed looking around. In the afternoon I had some time to visit with Dad about family history. That evening we went out to eat dinner at Sizzler. It was nice to have so much time to visit with them. After our dinner we ended our day by watching an Audrey Hepburn movie. It was a good day for me. I felt so much more relaxed after having that day with my parents. The last few months have been stressful and it was good for me to have a break.
Friday morning Neal came back with the kids from camping. They picked me up and we went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. We met up with my sister Rachel again and also other family members were at the zoo at the same time. It was hard to keep everyone together but it was fun to keep running into family members. The kids were worn out from their camping and had a hard time enjoying the zoo. We left a little early and drove down to Orem. We went right to the Scera park to see the exhibits with the kids. It was very busy at the park. The main reason we went to the Scera park was because Gail Halverson was there that day. If you saw the movie “Meet the Mormons” Gail Halverson was featured in it, he was the “Candy Bomber.” We missed hearing him speak to the crowd but we were there for the fly over and the candy drop, so were about 50,000 other people. I didn’t expect it to be so crowded. We saw the plane go over, low down and I got a glimpse of the little parachutes with candy on them coming down, but we didn’t get any candy. It was neat to be there though. The kids were so tired by that time we just worked our way out of the crowd and went back to my parents home to eat and relax.
At the zoo they had dinosaurs out, it was a fun addition
Saturday morning, the 4th of July! we got up early and went down to Provo for their big festivities. Growing up it was part of our tradition to go to all the Freedom Festival events that we could. I was excited to go to the parade again, I hadn’t been for ten years. Rachel went with us. We first went to the balloon launch. It was neat to see the large hot air balloons inflate. But, they didn’t get to launch them because the weather wasn’t right, it was cloudy and a bit windy. We were down in Provo in time to get a good seat for the parade near the beginning. We enjoyed the parade. I enjoyed seeing all the bands and floats, horses and entertainers. It was great. The best part was that it was cloudy and didn’t get too hot.
After the parade we dropped Rachel off at my parents home and went on to American Fork for a big reunion lunch at the park. It was the main event of the Johnson reunion. We had fun visiting and spending time with family all afternoon. For dinner we went over to Grandma Johnson’s home. The kids like going to her house and playing with the little wagons and rocks. We enjoyed visiting with the family.
After all that craziness we decided we were too tired to try to go any where to see fire works and went back to my parents home. By the time we got there we had a great view of all the neighbors setting off fire works. It was a great display and we enjoyed seeing some good ones. I was surprised that so many of the neighbors were doing big things on the street. It was loud and pretty. The kids thought it was amazing, until they got too tired. The boys went to bed, even though it was still blasting fireworks everywhere.
Sunday was a quieter day. We went to church with my parents. In the afternoon Mandy and her kids came over for a visit again. It was nice to see them one more time. That evening we went to Neal’s old room mates home in Provo. We were able to visit with collage friends all evening. Five of the room mates, with their families, were able to gather that evening. It was fun to see everyone and see their kids. It is nice to keep in touch with friends. Neal was blessed to live with some great men while at USU.
Monday morning we got up and packed up the car and headed home. It was a long drive. The kids were tired and a bit more grumpy about being in the car all day. We were all very happy to get back to our home and our own beds!
Well, that was our vacation. On Friday July 3rd when I was at the candy drop my camera got bumped and I reset the date wrong. So all my pictures from then until I figured out my camera problem were off by a day. I have the date stamp on and so all my pictures have the wrong date stamped on them. Hopefully that wont be too confusing to anyone who noticed.
So now we are home and keeping busy with activities here. Next time I will write about our summer in Albuquerque.
