Dueck's Roost

So I've finally made it to the actual purpose for our Utah trip. The reason we travelled the total of about 32 hours, was because Kevin's younger brother (who I first knew as a cute 10-year-old) was getting married to an adorable girl with an infectious laugh. They are super cute together and we are very happy for them. We are also happy that their beautiful wedding forced us to make it back to the beginnings of our own little family, and of course visit some wonderful extended family members (Aunt Sue & Uncle Carl were especially gracious for allowing us to invade their home for the week). Even though the day before the wedding had been rainy and wet, the wedding day itself was beautiful and mostly clear (albeit a little windy). I guess someone was looking out for the special couple. Aunt Sue keeping the kids entertained with her iphone cute cousins the kids keeping themselves entertained with Aunt Sue's iphone brothers... can you picture one more? wow, have we change...

I seriously better pick up the pace of my entries or I'm never going to get caught up. I still have so much to blog about just from our Utah trip alone. Obviously, I didn't quite make my perfect goal of a post a day (not by a long shot), but oh well, perfect is not really my thing anyhow. Okay, so today is all about our wet but wonderful day at Temple Square (kind of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'--aka, Mormon--headquarters) in Salt Lake City. Since I accidentally uploaded the pictures in reverse order, I guess we're looking at our day from ending to beginning. We finished up a very full day at the Museum of Church History and Art that I had never visited before. We didn't even arrive there until after 8:00 at night and the museum closes at 9:00 so our time there was short but very well spent. We went straight to the very hands-on children's exhibit that was currently displayed (I think it's changed now to something else). The kids loved it...

One thing that all BYU freshman do is hike the "Y". Typically this is done after midnight when the group of students involved are annoyingly hyper and have no better outlet for all that pent-up energy. Well, I don't know if it's because I was obsessed with spending every second of my time with Kevin (my roommates would probably say "yes" to this), but for some reason I never made the hike up to the infamous, and rather large concrete symbol. So, enjoying hiking as we do, we decided to fulfill this BYU tradition as a family. The hike is really not all that far, but the trail is actually pretty steep. That coupled with a much higher elevation than we're use to made the hike just a little tough for all involved (or at least me and the kids). We stopped frequently to drink water (it was an 80-degree day) and well, breathe; but it was again exciting to watch my kids, tired as they were, keep at it all the same. It's sort of hard to see, but this pictur...

Our first official day in Utah (the Provo area), was spent taking a trip down memory lane-- primarily on and around the campus of Brigham Young University. We pointed out the hospital where our oldest two were born, drove by old apartments we'd lived in (including my freshman dorm where Kevin and I first met), showed the kids the spot where Kevin proposed, shopped at the BYU Bookstore, admired the many changes since we were last there six years ago, and more. The favorite activities of the day, however, had very little to do with old memories and mostly everything to do with making new ones. They were the following ... Playing in the arcade at the on-campus fun center. Having fun in our first (non-Wii) family bowling game. Eating at both of the BYU Creameries; at one for lunch and then at the other an hour later for desert. And visiting the awesome "Bean" Museum with Grandma, Auntie, and cousins. We had a blast!