Trip to Utah

Sorry, really long post...
Ok, so we got back over a week ago, I am a little slow in posting. We had such a great time. We were gone for 9 days. What a difference in temperature! We left Arizona, it was still high 90's and wound up in Utah where it was 40's-50's. I froze!!!! Everyone there was so happy when it hit 60, they were in short sleeve shirts, some were in shorts! I wore a jacket and jeans! They laughed at me. We spent the first few days with David's parents. Then David had to fly home to work.
We took a drive up the canyon before he left. It was so beautiful. We went to Cascade Springs and Sundance. I really miss those canyons! He was suppose to fly back out to help us drive home, but he was swamped with work and wasn't able to come back. So my dad drove home with us and flew back to Utah. Anyway, I had many things planned for our trip.
Most importantly we had to go to Gardner Village and see the witches! I absolutely love this place. It is such a great little place to shop and spend time with friends. Which is exactly what we did. We spent the entire day with 'Auntie Paige'.
Started off at Gardner Village where we found all the witches, did some 'window' shopping (found a dining room set I really want!!!), had lunch at the Naborhood Bakery, went to the Hay Maze and the petting zoo. We met up with another friend, Anne, that I haven't seen in YEARS!!! Anne, Paige and I were all nannies together in California forever ago! It was so wonderful to see her and spend a few hours with her and her cute little boy! It was hard to say goodbye...
Then it was off to the first of 6 temples we visited. We decided it might be fun to do a Temple Tour.
There are so many in the SL Valley, and the kids have been talking about temples in Primary all year, so we started with Jordan River. It was closed, but we were still able to go onto the grounds and take a few pictures. Then we went to visit another dear friend of mine whom I grew up with. Jennie and I have been friends since we were, gosh as long as I remember... 4 or 5 years old? It was so fun to see her adorable family again. She has 6 kids. Hers are all about the same ages as mine, except the last little surprise she had just a year ago. :) I could've stayed there all day. It was so nice to see her, and the kids had a blast playing and running all over her HUGE yard!! (6 acres!)
Then we headed to Salt Lake to meet up with my sister, Lisa. We had dinner and then headed to the SL Temple, where David and I were married. We rode Trax, which the kids thought was really cool. The temple was closed by the time we got there, but we were able to go into the Tabernacle and then we went across the street to the Conference Center. The kids loved seeing the difference between the two. We walked all over Temple Square. It was so much fun!
Tuesday, we waited for Paige and then headed to the new Draper Temple. It was so windy and cold up there! But it was beautiful. It was open so we took the kids into the foyer and showed them all the beautiful pictures. It was really neat. There was also a wedding -or at least a bride and groom having their pictures taken, so we watched them for a few minutes. Such a beautiful Temple! Then we headed across the way to the new Ochre Mountain Temple.
It was, again, very windy and cold! It, too, was open so we went into the foyer again. The kids thought it was so neat that they got to go 'into' the temple. Then we went for lunch at Chick Fil A. We let the kids play for a while so Paige and I could just talk. Then we headed toward home, but first we had to stop for Iceberg!! The best shakes on earth!!!! Yummmm!!!! Then Paige had to say goodbye. She had a meeting that night. It's always so hard to say goodbye to Paige. Lisa met up with us and we went to Aunt Sarahs for dinner. It was fun to hang out. Sarah and Alton had their High School Yearbooks so we opened them up and basically laughed at how rediculous we all looked with our big hair! The kids were getting a big kick out of it. It was a fun night.
Wednesday we headed up to my parents cabin. It is so beautiful up there, and always a fun adventure! The weather was not very cooperative on Wednesday. It was rainy and a little wet, so we didn't go quadding that day. But we still had fun hanging out at the cabin. Thursday we went quadding, swinging and zip lining. It was so fun. We had tinfoil dinners, roasted marshmalows by the fire and had a blast with cousins and family. Lisa and Daniel came up, Aunt Cami with her 3 boys and Kim, Dustin & Marissa were all there. (plus grandma and grandpa!) Sarah got sick and wasn't able to make it up. It was such a fun trip.
We left the cabin Friday, but on the way home we swung into Manti to visit the Manti Temple. It was also closed for cleaning and maintenance, but we were able to walk around and the kids played on the big hill where the Pageant is every year. It is the Temple that Grandma and Grandpa were married in, so it was fun to visit it with them. Once we got back to Grandma and Grandpa H's house we showered quickly and then -almost- the entire family came over for dinner. (we missed you Brian and Teresa!) It was fun to see everyone.
We left Saturday. Said a goodbye to David's parents, then went to pick up my dad. It is a tradition to get an Iceberg Shake on our way out of town. But, since we were leaving from my parents house, there is not an Iceberg close by, so we went to Arctic Circle to get shakes. They are really yummy too! So, with shakes in hand we were off to Arizona. It took us a long time to get home. Since we were so close, we decided to stop in St George and visit the Temple. It was nice for the kids to see one more Temple. We went into the Visitor's Center, but the kids were a little cranky at this point in the trip, so it was a quick visit. We decided to explore a different way home than we have ever taken. It was a beautiful drive. It was 20 miles shorter than the route we were going to take, but I don't know that it was any faster. Oh well, we were happy to get home. It was a great trip and hopefully it won't be another 2+ years before we go back.