Thursday, August 25, 2011

Time to Sit Back & Unwind...yeah right!

This summer we headed off on The Great American Road Trip (read that with reverb) with
day 1 stop at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. This hotel was way too cool for us, not really family friendly- I guess the marketing slogan of "What happens in Vegas" is not referring to being crazy and swimming without goggles just this one time. (Don't worry, my kids wore their goggles while everyone else in the pool was mingling with their cocktails; we totally fit right in.) This was the one foot pool where we felt marginally less uncomfortable.
Getting ready for a night on the town.
So adorable cuddling up with his bear.
For dinner we found a restaurant that was a fun mix of food, family, & Vegas at Max Brennar's.
Elli's main course, grilled banana and peanut butter sandwich with chocolate dipping sauce.
Spaghetti sauce syringe for Addie's pasta.
Day 2, headed to Provo for a look-see at the BYU campus. The girls want to go there when they are older but had never visited before. Go cougars- grrrr!
See the "Y" in the back? This picture will be framed in their dorm room some day, I can see it now. We then crashed our friends Stadium of Fire party, thanks Craigs for the yummy food and good company.
Days 3-6 we were off to Island Park, Idaho to spend the 4th of July with our good friends the Henries. We had fun celebrating Parker's birthday, floating Mac's river, visiting Yellowstone, swatting mosquitos, eating tots in Idaho, enduring crazy weather with lightening and hail, & a power outage.
Look at my guys in their patriotic ensembles.
Justin & Jason, friends for 18 years, half their lives.

Old Faithful, check that off their bucket lists.

Dear Sheets family,
Thank you for having us over for a fabulous dinner. Your tablescape was so lovely. It was great catching up with you and your family. You guys are totally blogworthy, but the real question is are we disneyworthy???
P.S. Congrats on your promotion, your are #1 on our most influential friends list.
Retrieving Addie's wayward shoe by lowering a child into the creepy neighbors back yard, hopefully he doesn't read this blog.

While in Salt Lake Valley for days 6-9, we ate at some of our old favorites:
Temple Square
They would have made cute pioneers.
(They would need to get by on their cuteness because they don't do well with manual labor.)
We ran the gamut of places to lay our heads at night, and our favorite was The Grand America which welcomed us with a chocolate piano - yum.
Day 8 we headed to Park City to ride the alpine slide & alpine coaster then off to picturesque Midway; would be such a beautiful place to live if it weren't for those darn winters.
Elli really wanted to see the hospital where she was born, which incidentally is run by our friend, Jim Sheets. (Excuse me while I go pick up his name.)
After all the go-go-go we finally slowed down on our last day and lounged poolside.
What you don't see is days 10-15 in Roseville with cousins, dinner with Grammi and moo-moo, lemonade stands, & swimming with flippers.
We were then off to Danville for days 16-19 to stay with Poppa & Linda for eye exams, a visit to "the city", hanging with Uncle Randy & Katie, and a tea party.

I lost count of how many times my car was packed and unpacked, but it was a really great getaway for our family filled with fun, sightseeing, cleaning up blowouts in the Walmart parking lot, and friends and family that we love.

4 comments:

Emily said...

It was great to see you! And there was no crashing involved -- you were incited guests! Come back!

Andrea Sheets said...

Loved the post! Best one ever! So worth the wait! Next Sheets/King dinner - Blue Bayou!!!
P.S. Why didn't Jason don a pioneer bonnet?

AnnieB said...

This is John. I know it is a lot to ask to drive all the way to San Ramon from Danville while you were passing through town. Perhaps too much driving by day 16?

Elli said...

John, Jason was never in Danville and Annie was in Utah while I was there. We always try to meet up with you.