Utah Visit 2026 Part I

After Hawaii came our annual summer stay in Utah! We always look forward to this trip! I tried to take a log every day, but as you will see I failed spectacularly! But I'm happy with what I have, it is better than nothing. 

Sunday June 21. We slept in; since we got back from our Hawaii trip, I don't think any of us went to church because it was their stake conference. It was Makayla's birthday and Father's Day. I had bought Erik his gifts on Amazon weeks ago, one of them being a Seiko watch to replace the one he lost in Mexico. We also had spaghetti for dinner and celebrated Makayla's birthday with cake and some gifts. Just after, the kids and I left for South Jordan. Erik had a flight back to Phoenix that evening. We arrived at my parent's house later in the evening. I was hoping to get there in time for dinner, but we stayed in St. George for longer than I wanted to. I told them not to wait for us to eat dinner. When we arrived, there was burnt bratwurst (courtesy of Lisa), chips, and corn on the cob waiting for us. I opted for the corn; it was pretty good. Lisa took Elisa and Ian home with her since they wanted to be with their cousins.   

Singing Happy Birthday to Makayla just before we left

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Monday June 22. We love going to the DI when I visit Utah. I always find something good! Elisa and Aaliyah went with us (I can't remember if it was my mom or Lisa or both that came with us.)

A solid copper Gregorian decorative bowl for a dollar? Yes please!

We went to Dollar Tree afterwards, and the girls loaded up on treats.

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Tuesday June 23

Another day that I meant to go running but didn’t because I woke up a little later than I would’ve liked. Ian and I hung around and waited and waited for the Blaylocks to come pick him up for a day at Lagoon. Eric had a work party, and they paid for the Blaylock family’s tickets. Lisa begged me to go, but I said no way. I bought tickets the night before for Ian and Elisa to go. Finally (well after 11), she came and got him. From what it sounds like, they had a fun time. 

Ian waited and waited for the Blaylocks to come pick him up. In the meantime, I had him practice a little bit of piano.

Some pictures that Lisa sent me. The kids said they had a lot of fun at Lagoon!

While the kids were all at Lagoon, I just stayed at my parents' house and went through pictures in the basement for hours. They have way too many pictures, and they were all squished under the stairs in no particular organization. I made piles and tried to organize them the best like I could, but I knew I still had a lot of work ahead of me. One big motivating factor was finding pictures to hang on the walls. We were nowhere near done when my mom insisted that we finish for the day. This was about 8:30pm. We had some coconut popsicles and hung around until bedtime.

I found some pictures of my cousins Rachel and Cami Jo; I sent them to Rachel

I found a poster-sized picture that someone had taken of my dad on his mission where he met my mom. This is their first picture together. I took a picture of it with my phone, cropped it, and sent it to Shutterfly to get a reasonably sized picture to hang on their wall.

So many pictures and stuff under the stairs. This project took me a month to finish. We gave away or threw out a ton of stuff too. A lot of the pictures were already framed; they just needed a place to be hung! 

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Wednesday June 24

I spent most of the day with Lisa. She was hosting a digital circus art party and wanted me over to help. I showed up around 11, but before then, I woke up at 6:30 and went for a short run on the trail. I only went a mile and a quarter, but I could tell it had been a while since I ran. The air smelled smokey from the fires that were going on in Cottonwood. I bathed, got dressed, and tried out my new spray, hair conditioner, and Revlon hair volumizer. At Lisa’s, I took some pictures and mostly just helped her clean up:

My kids love Digital circus, so they had a good time at this art party

After cleaning up from the party, Lisa and I were hungry for lunch, so we decided to go to Mooya’s. It was a new hamburger place that I had never tried before. Unfortunately, was nothing special to me; I didn’t really like it that much. After eating, we went to DI. I didn’t find anything, but Lisa found a bunch of camping gear. Then we went back to Lisa's house to pick up the girls (along with a friend of Aaliyah's) to go to Angels and Devils because Elisa really wanted to go. I got some expensive donuts, two drinks, and strawberries and grapes on a stick covered in hard sugar called Tanghulu.

The girls love this place!

Back at Lisa's, Ian had fun playing with Calvin on the slip and slide, but he wanted to come back with me to sleep over at Grandma's house.

Fun on the slip n slide with Calvin

Back at my parent's house, my mom was very anxious that evening about Michael and his shenanigans. I hung up some pictures of the staircase. Then we ate a few snacks for dinner and went through some more pictures downstairs.

The pictures I hung for my parents on the stairwell

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Thursday June 25

I woke up slightly later than the previous day, but since it was going to be a cooler day, I didn’t need to run so early. I ran a little bit further this time. Ian was sleeping over again, but he refused to go with me. We planned to go to the classic fun center this day. Lisa failed to communicate with me about who was going and what she was up to, so I had to have my mom go and pick up the girls. I guess she was supposed to pick up all the kids from Lisa’s. Lisa even drove to my parent's house, but she drove over here only to drop off stuff for the camp out, not bring any kids. She didn’t tell me until after she had left and failed to tell me when she was leaving to pick up her boys. The girls were upset because Lisa had their skates in her car. We (Michael included) all left to go to the classic fun center, but, thankfully, Lisa dropped her boys-and the skates- off not too long after I had dropped Ian, Elisa, and Aaliyah off. I don’t know how, but Ian got in for free. I rented a scooter for Ian, because he didn’t really know how to use his skates. While they were all having fun skating and scooting, my mom, Michael, and I went to DI down the road. First, we went to the Bean Yard, and I got a chai tea that tasted very bland. Lisa met us at DI not too long after we had been there. I found some Converse shoes for Elisa, and my mom found some Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations. We found a really nice Mason and Hammond baby grand piano, but nobody had the room for it. Someone will sure get lucky with that find! We were hungry, so we stopped by Taco Bell after DI where Michael treated us. Lisa took off, and we had to pick up all the kids. We had to stuff all the kids in my van even though there weren’t enough seats. Then we went back to Lisa’s. I had to drop Michael off at a bank for him to use the restroom because I guess he couldn’t wait two extra minutes until I got to Lisa’s. Lisa was running around trying to get stuff together for the camp out and getting irritated with Michael because he kept asking her to take him places. Meanwhile, my mom and I watered her plants, and I cut more lavender. Then we went back to my mom's house with Michael in tow. He still refused to sleep at my mom’s house, so he had set up something with Ethan and needed us to drop him off at the train station. We stopped at my parents' house for a bit. and then I took him. Thankfully, the station wasn’t that far away. After dropping him off, my mom and I went to Smith’s and picked up a few things we needed; my mom found a ton of cat food on clearance. Back at my parents' house, we ate some of the food we bought including cherries, which I had a lot of. Then Erik called, and I went to bed.

The shoes I found for Elisa