Happy to leave behind the super sized Maine winter and head West, Greg and I were originally planning to leave on Sunday but were canceled by the blizzard that wasn't such a big deal after all.
We arrived Tuesday evening and Brad picked us up at the airport in Salt Lake and we drove back to the little farm house in Layton.
Feels good to be here with the family, no snow, blue skies and bright sunshine!
Wednesday morning first outing of the vacation, breakfast at a local diner where fried dough is served for breakfast disguised as a scone.
Later in the morning after Will's nap time we packed a picnic and walked to the park up the street.
Check out Will's great moves with the basketball!
his fancy tricks on the bridge
and sliding with Dad
and the big dunk!
Will just hanging out with his friend Abby
Picnic-ing at the Park
Later in the after noon (Brad keeps us moving) we met up with Brad's friend Clint at the Layton Hill's Golf course- a beautiful course. Golf in February!
Greg and I handily beat up on Brad and Cllint in a just for fun golf match. We all played our own ball but scored the best individual for each hole. There's always some competition when it comes to playing with Daltons'.
Thursday was another sunny warm day in the mountain west. After Will's morning nap we went out to the local tennis courts and hit the ball around for awhile then over to the playground across the street where Will enjoyed the swings and big slide. Tanja enjoyed the slide too!
We took a short river walk and ran into some wood ducks, various geese and one crazy looking mean bird.
Later that afternoon we took off for Salt Lake City where we met up with the Phelps family for dinner and skating at the Gallivan Center. Will's first time on skates with a lot of help from his Dad!!
So much fun skating with the graceful figure skater Heather and the speedy hockey player Connor! A magical night flying around the rink with great friends!
Friday morning we went house shopping with Brad, Tanja and Will. They were looking at 3 homes, one in West Layton and two in Clearfield just over the line. We had a lot of fun looking but you have to move fast in this market and Brad and Tanja even though they liked the homes they decided to keep on looking.
Brad and Greg had an afternoon game of disk golf and when they got back we headed for Salt Lake City for another wonderful night with the Phelps family- more on that below but first dinner at MacDonald's
The reason for the trip to SLC tonight was to attend the temple in Draper located in Rob and Cheryl's neighborhood. We dropped Will off at the Jensen's house for babysitting and rushed to the temple to make the 7:00 session. The Phelps were waiting for us and we made it just in time. The temple is always a spiritual experience but this was extra special sitting between my good friend Cheryl and my wonderful daughter-in law Tanja.
Here we are on the way out after our session. A night to remember!
Saturday Early the next morning we headed to Logan to meet for a family brunch at the Riverside in the Marriott. I guess we didn't leave early enough because when we got there Bob told me we were late. Oh well I had missed the memo on the time change. We had a wonderful visit with Uncle George and Aunt Joyce Atwood. My brother Bob, Glady's Anne and cousins, Steve Atwood, Janine and Angie Atwood as well as Tommy and Nicole and Michele, Jonathan's wife. The little ones had a lot of fun running around the big room while we waited for the food.
Will and Charlie enjoying some screen time then Jackson joins the group while Will shows off his belly.
After the lunch we headed up to USU to watch Jonathan's LaCrosse game. He's the coach of the Utah State team. I had never been to a LaCrosse game before so it was kind of fun. I thought it looked like a crazy game of "monkey in the middle" a lot of action and very fast! Utah State won. After the game we headed up to Bob and Annie's house for more family time and got to visit with Jonathan there too.
Sunday was a nice quiet day- church started at 11:00 so we got to sleep in a little more than we're used to. We enjoyed attending Brad and Tanja's ward and helping Will go to nursery. He cried loudly when we dropped him off but the nursery leaders said he did fine after a while.
In the afternoon we had a family nap right a long with Will. Before dinner Tanja and I started working on her "fancy dessert" for her 30 by 30 list- a Black Forest Torte - it came out great!!
Later some friends came by to play and eat cake!
On Monday (our last day) :( we headed down to the aquarium in Draper and met Julia, Logan and Viv and Doug's mother Joanie. Who knew you could have such an awesome aquarium in the middle of a desert. The kids had a blast and we all enjoyed it. Great to spend some time with Julia again too!
Sadly we had to leave our little family later that night. Everyone was sad to say good-bye but we had a wonderful week in Utah.... We'll be back again soon!!
