A Visit to Utah

We were surprised on our drive out to Utah to see a lake still covered with ice. This was in early June! There were also a couple ski resorts still open.

After school got out, we packed up the family and travelled to Utah for a "pre-move" visit. It was really good for the girls to get a feel for things here before leaving Texas for good. We took them to see the house we would be moving into, along with the neighborhood and park/pool area. We visited church and Alison even got to go to some weekday youth activities.

We took the girls to see their new schools and drive around Kaysville a bit. They fell in love with a place called "Dylan's", which is a local burger place here that also serves ice cream shakes with blended in candy. They got their first experience with "fry sauce," a Utah favorite made from ketchup and mayo, and got hooked on that.

We also did some siteseeing while we were in Utah. We met some new friends, the Olsens, who were visiting here from northern California. Randy had met the husband and wife online on Cougarboard, and when we figured out we'd be here at the same time, we got together for dinner one night. Then the two moms and all the kids went to the planetarium together a few days later. That was really fun, and the girls learned a lot of interesting things.

One day we met Dad at work and ate lunch with him in the Church Office Building cafeteria. Then we went up to the observation deck and had a great view of the whole valley.

Temple Square as seen from Church Office Building observation deck

LDS Conference Center

Utah State Capitol

Afterward, we walked over to Temple Square, where we ran into Sister Bryan, a sister missionary who had served in Rockwall at Christmas time and is now giving tours at Temple Square. We took a tour from her and then visited for a few minutes.

The girls with Sister Bryan

More Temple Square Pictures:

We saw a musical at the Capitol Theater called "1856", which was about the Mormon handcart pioneers and was absolutely fantastic. And we also spent a day at Heritage Park, which is a pioneer villiage with relocated and replica homes and buildings located at This is the Place Monument. The girls had a lot of fun doing all the pioneer activities. Something cute that Hannah said when I was telling them about Brigham Young and the pioneers was, "How come everything in Utah is about church stuff?!"

This is the Place Monument, where Brigham Young's party first entered the Salt Lake Valley.

Pushing a Handcart

Pony Rides

Alison getting a shave?

Emily & Hannah working the printing press

Learning the "Virginia Reel" in the social hall

In the school house

"Carding" wool to get it ready for spinning

This cabin we visited was the home of a family with ten kids! The girls got the opportunity to do a lot of chores here:

Beating the rug

Washing laundry on a washboard (this was Hannah's favorite activity all day, and we had a hard time pulling her away from it.)

Hanging out the wash to dry

And when you have that many people livin' in a place that small, sometimes you have to wait your turn to use the "necessary."