Utah Visit 2026 Part IV

July 1

I slept pretty well and woke up around eight and went for a 3 mile run on the trail. I came back and took my time bathing and getting ready and took my mom to go pick up Elisa and Aaliyah from Lisa‘s house because Elisa wanted to go to Cupbop. The kids all ordered what they wanted, and almost $50 later, they were fed and happy. I wanted to go someplace a little nicer with my mom. We would have invited Lisa, but she had to take Aaliyah to an appointment and also had a lot of things to do at her house. 

I took this picture of the kids, and my mom took this other picture of me taking a picture of the kids!

My mom chose Tsunami. She wanted to try the curry, and we picked out a few appetizers which were salmon Rangoon and calamari. They are pretty good, but when we got the curry, it was icky. Neither one of us liked it, so my mom told the waitress. The waitress had the manager come out and ask why we didn’t like it. That was a tad awkward. We were able to get Vegas sushi roll in place of it. 

We were thinking about going to DI and having Lisa meet us there, but we decided to just go back home and rest for a bit.  I followed my mom when she took her van and to the mechanics. We picked it up 30 minutes later after laying down. Then we decided to go to Smith’s to pick up some food for Fourth of July and a couple other things. We decided to have ribs, and we got a couple fun things in the clearance section. Then we went to Lisa‘s to pick up Ian; we stayed for maybe 20 minutes. Lisa was stressed out with all the cleaning and laundry she had to do, but we had groceries in the car so we couldn’t stay too long. I came back with Ian and had some dinner and some cherries that were unfortunately not good. But, the ice cream sandwiches we had after were good at least! We watched a little bit of the Phantom of the opera from 1925 and then went to bed.

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July 2

This day was spent mostly with Tootsie. I didn't write a log for this day, so I'll try to remember the best I can through the pictures I took. Tootsie actually reached out to me, which was a nice surprise. She wanted to go to The Bean Yard with us. Ian was sleeping over, so he came along too. I ordered him some avocado toast to share with me. He seemed to like it. My mom had a lavender scone that was good. The Bean Yard is right by the DI, but Tootsie and Ian vetoed going in. After breakfast, we went back to Lisa's house for a little bit (mostly to drop off Ian) and then to my parent's house, and she hung around both houses for a little bit to chat.  

 

A few pictures I took at the Bean Yard. 

My mom likes to take random videos of people without their knowledge. Here is Tootsie and me discussing how to make the perfect avocado toast, haha.

Me and Tootsie

Erik sent me this. We have some smart boys!

Later that evening, Elisa and Isabelle wanted to hang out at mall. I dropped Elisa off at the food court so she could meet up with Isabelle. My mom came with, and more than likely we went to Marshall's around the corner from the mall to have a look around. I'm not sure that I even bought anything.  

A picture together after a fun time at the mall!

After the mall, we swung by Lisa's house to drop off Elisa. There was this little lost dog in her driveway. It was cute until it tried to bite. It ended up belonging to a neighbor down the street.

We were glad to have found this bite-y little pup's home.

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Lisa wanted the boys to go swimming but took practically all morning to get around to dropping her boys off. Ian and I waited and waited at the South Jordan rec center for them. I was tired of waiting (Lisa rarely communicates her plans to me), so I just let Ian get in the water. Luckily, his cousins came shortly after he got in the water. I had to drive waaay out to Magna to pick up race packets for my dad and me. My mom came with, and on the way back from Magna we stopped at her favorite Mexican restaurant in West Jordan, Taqueria El Rey De Oros. I think the food at that restaurant it just okay, but she goes there quite a bit. The restaurant is right by a DI, so we stopped in very briefly just to have a look around. By the time we got back to my parent's house, it was already time to go to the airport to pick up Erik. My mom had to take a cat in to the vet, so she couldn't come along for the drive, she usually likes to come. Erik was coming into town for 4th of July but mostly for our upcoming family trip to Bear Lake. Later that evening, we watched the rest of the 1920's Phantom of the Opera, and we thought it was funny that the Phantom's "real" name was Erik. Not Eric, but Erik.   

Our camera above the garage captured Erik leaving for the airport via Lyft/Uber.

Utah Visit 2026 Part III--The Rest of June (Having More Fun!)

June 27

After packing up the campsite, I headed to Tootsie's house. My mom met us there. We went out to dinner at a Thai Restaurant near Tootsie's house. It was pretty yummy. Then we went back to her house and watched a Netflix documentary, Maternal Instinct. I took this picture of my mom in her car at the stoplight, as we were driving back to her house.

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June 29

Our annual visit to Leatherby's! Lisa doesn't like Leatherby's, so we just took Aaliyah. My parents came and of course so did Elisa and Ian. We enjoyed the food and especially the ice cream. Here, I found out that Aaliyah (with Elisa's help) gave herself a second piercing. I guess she had done it last week, and so far Lisa didn't even notice. Aaliyah couldn't leave the piercing alone, so it got infected not to long after and closed up. Eric didn't approve of the second piercing anyway, so no matter.  The waitress must have been distracted by the rude customer in the booth next to us, because she forgot to include the ice cream on our bill! 

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June 30--a fun day! I spent most of the day with Lisa. Disclaimer: I'm relying on a hazy memory here and the few pictures I took!  We went shopping at TJMaxx. I can't quite remember what I got, but if Elisa was with me (which I think she was?) then I probably bought stuff! I think my mom was with us too, but I can't quite remember. I spotted this rug and told Lisa about it, and she immediately bought it and put it in her living room. We gathered the boys and dropped them off at the rec center to swim. Then Lisa, the girls, and I all went to Walmart because the girls wanted to buy some treats before going to see The Backrooms at the movie theater. In the hour or so that we were kid-free, Lisa and I went out for a late lunch/early dinner to Taco Mania. It was actually pretty good; I'd go back if given the chance. The we went to pick up the boys, and I bought everyone an ice cream cone at Arctic Circle. After dropping the boys off at Lisa's, we went to get the girls since they were finished with the movie. Then I hung out at Lisa's until about 8pm, we probably watched a movie in her room, but like I said--hazy memory!  

 

The rug fit in Lisa's living room perfectly!

On the other side of the nice rug is the kitchen, which we can plainly see was being used by five kids and zero adults.

Lisa at Taco Mania!

I took this picture of the boys after they finished swimming at the Rec center.

Ian enjoying his ice cream cone from Arctic Circle

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

Utah Visit with Elisa, Part II (Himitsu Station and Shopping)

May 3,2026

As part of Elisa's many gifts, I booked us (us as in me, Elisa, Aaliyah, and Lisa) an escape room session in Salt Lake called Himitsu Station. Lisa told me about it before I even bought plane tickets. It looked like something fun to do. Elisa is a huge fan of Japanese culture, so I signed us all up. It was quite expensive for four people. I made Lisa pay her own way, but I did pay for Aaliayah's ticket. Looking back, I should have just paid for all of us. Oh well. 

It was a totally immersive experience. We walked into a Japanese train station straight from the 1950's. Then we were led through an ice cream machine, of all things, to the escape room itself. I should say rooms. This was a little bit different than a traditional escape room where you are only released/win if you figure out how to escape (hence the name). For Himitsu, we were promoted to the next room regardless of whether we figured out all the puzzles or not. The goal wasn't to figure out how to escape, but rather to collect "soul coins" by solving as many puzzles as possible. Sometimes they were given out just because. The first room was a little overwhelming. There was so much stuff packed into the room, it was hard to figure out what to do at first. We solved a few puzzles, but overall, I would give us a C- grade on our puzzle-solving. These rooms are timed, so regardless of how few or how many puzzles were solved and soul coins earned, they moved us along after a certain time. The next room was "boiler room." This was the room Lisa helped out the most with. I was waaaay overthinking this room believing that everything was a puzzle to solve, but in fact all we had to do was follow a few directions in order to perform a couple of physical activities. We got our soul coins and were able to move along to the next room. 

The next two rooms were solved by mainly me and Elisa. Poor Aaliyah enjoyed the experience very much, but as far as helping solve puzzles, she stuck to her own world, let's just say. Lisa did try her best to help, but in reality, it was mostly me and Elisa who solved ALL the puzzles in both rooms. The last room was a restaurant, which Elisa helped me a lot with. Mostly it was just adding things up and using elementary math to figure out. We ended up with 12 (or 14?) soul coins. The employee said we got about as many as a group of 6 would, so good job to us. One of the best parts of this experience was all the free ("free") snacks at the snack bar. We could take what we wanted and however much we wanted. I loaded up! Well, not too much in order to not look like a greedy weirdo but enough to keep me munching happily on them for the next day or two.  

Waiting for our session to start

Entrance is through the ice cream machine! 

In one of the rooms, trying to figure out what's what. Some items/decorations were just there for looks, and others were the key to solving a puzzle...

We did it! That was fun. Maybe we will do it again someday and get even more soul coins.

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May 4. The next day was my last day, and we (Lisa, me, and my mom) made sure to make the most of it! First, we dropped the girls off at the Classic Fun Center. Elisa and Aaliyah had a good time, except for the part when Elisa lost the $20 in cash that I gave her. I told her right before leaving, "Don't lose the money," I guess she only heard the "lose it" part haha. While they were skating their little teenage hearts out, we went to lunch at a restaurant that none of us had tried before, Tin Roof Grill. The food was alright--the fish and chips were especially good--but man was it expensive for a diner. Lisa didn't like it at all. So, I guess that was the first and last time at that restaurant. Then we went to Goodwill. I can't remember if I found anything good (probably not, I couldn't take much back anyway), but Lisa always finds stuff. Then we picked up the girls and went to Ross just to look because I didn't find anything worth buying.  Then we went to the Blaylock's house to make sure Elisa had all of her things to pack. We took some pictures and headed back to my parent's house with Aaliyah in tow too. She is Elisa's shadow! I discovered that our flight had been delayed (no big surprise for Frontier), so we had a couple more hours to kill. Elisa hung out with Aaliayh while me and my mom got our toes done at a nail salon. Our flight left much later than planned, which meant we got home pretty late--around 11. I, unfortunately, had to sit next to the stinkiest, most foul-smelling woman I've ever had the displeasure of sitting by. I had to continually put my Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer in my hands and take breaths through it as to not faint from that woman's odor. Yikes. Besides that, a very fun (albeit short) trip up to Utah! Elisa sure got spoiled with a good time!

 

My mom and I at Tin Roof Grill

Lisa checking out at DI, looking a little shocked that I took her picture

I can't remember why I took this picture at the Blaylocks's while I was waiting for Elisa to get her stuff together.

A few pictures of Grandma and her granddaughters on our way out the door.

Getting our feet done!