Ahh.. it's that time again. Time for me to blog about our trip to Salt Lake for the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Lots of the same stuff over again, lots of new stuff. Brace yourself for lots of pictures and I will try to let them speak for themselves, so that this doesn't take all night!
This year we decided to go down on Thursday instead of Friday, so that we could have two days, but still be back before Sunday. Even though our hotel did cost $60 more for a weeknight- crazy!!!
So, once we got to Salt Lake, of course the first place we had to visit was the Christus Statue. One of Alex's favorite places in the world. After this visit he asked me if we could paint his room like this. He wayyy overestimates my painting abilities.
Beautiful weather in Salt Lake and flowers popping up all over the place!
Then we went to the Scottish shop for socks for the boys, walked around downtown a little, where Alaina said hi to everybody and asked what their name was, then off to the hotel for dinner and swimming. The hotel has a free buffet dinner on Thursday night, so we thought that would help offset the extra cost. But let me be honest. These pictures look all cute and wonderful, but Alex was being quite, well, horrible. Danny and I were working hard to hold our tempers. And downtown Salt Lake has all these stylish, young single people and after being in the car for 3+ hours, I wasn't feeling very attractive. And our family felt very big. And out of place. We just don't fit in to that scene anymore- not that we ever really did, but now it is more obvious. Even the lady at the Scottish shop said, "Wow, you guys are loud." Yeah, we noticed. In your teeny shop with our 5 kids + Mark and Justin!!!
When we got to the hotel for dinner, Alaina announced our arrival by running into the dining room and yelling loudly, "Hi everybody!!!" Which just brought attention to the fact that we were the only ones there with children, that we had a lot of children, and that every table was full.
The nice worker lady who was nice in that kind of patronizing way that drives you crazy, quickly offered us a tray so we could take some food up to our room, but we opted to eat outside on the patio. None of the kids wanted to eat, and so on and so forth, but at least outside no one could hear us!!
Fast forward to swimming- this is the only picture I got! The kids had a lot of fun and Alex's eyes were red for the next 36 hours, but it was worth it.
Even though, shortly after we got there the nice lady and her two teenage daughters left the pool area, and then the annoying worker lady came in and said someone said there was something in the pool. We looked all over and found a band-aid at the bottom, which wasn't that big of a deal. But I felt all betrayed, because who would have said something except that lady, and she had been so nice! Maybe I was a little over-sensitive at this point, and Alex had worn me down, but I kind of wanted to splash water on the worker lady. I think I might have felt better then.
Watching tv in the room. The kids were up soo late. Yikes!
We slept in late the next morning, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, took forever to get ready and by the time we got loaded up in the car it was time for lunch! Since we were way south already, we went to Ikea for lunch. It took forever to get our lunch, and I was waiting with the kids. Thought I was going to go crazy with Emme and Irelyn crying. By the time Danny got there, I went out to the car to feed the baby. I'm not trying to be negative, but really, the kids had been sooo cranky up till then and whiney and you just wonder what it's all for!! But, I called Megan and whined to her and then I felt better. :)
After that things got a lot better.
We took the kids to the Living Planet Aquarium, which was really fun for all of us. Huge tanks of fish, tarantulas, anacondas, penguins, otters, sharks, jelly fish (which Alex and I looved. Alex kept saying, "Come here Squishy. Bad Squishy!), an octopus, seahorses, sting rays that you could touch, and lots of other animals. Here are lots of pictures!
Who knew that someday I would pay for my kids to touch a garter snake? We used to see them all the time outside for free!!
Tristan petting the stingrays. They are very slimy. Not at all like dolphins.
It was a lot of fun! This is Alex wearing his mask that he got at the gift shop. We told each of the kids that they could pick out something under $5. Megan, can you imagine what we would have thought if we had been told that when we were little?! Alex looves this mask, and Tristan got a shark tooth that he is very proud of. Emme got a poofy penguin, that popped before we left the parking lot and Lainey got a glowing squid.
Got pizzas, went to the hotel. This is where Emme said she was sleeping!
As we went to put the kids in jammies, we noticed that all of Alex's stuff was gone. That was Danny realized that Alex had put all of his clothes in the dresser in the other hotel. (We were at the airport hotel the first night, now we were downtown.) So then Danny had to drive over there and get Alex's stuff.
This is the kids the next morning watching tv in our room while we got ready. Ate breakfast and then dressed up for the parade. By the way, Alex was being normal by now, and we were all having a lot more fun. Good thing! !
Haha! This picture is actually from last year! Danny forgot to bring the camera to the parade, but it looked about the same. We had great weather, amazing, and we got candy for the kids to throw. They were all so good, and there were sooo many people there for the parade! The kids all loved waving and being in the parade, but after it was over they were all a little sad when they realized that had thrown all the candy and didn't have any for themselves!!
This is a picture we had someone take of us after the parade, at the hotel.
Then we changed clothes, packed up, and then drove around Salt Lake and showed the kids where Danny lived while we were dating. And then I found my new favorite neighborhood! We will definitely have to go here on a girls trip! All the houses were so different and unique and beautiful!!
Don't you want to live here?!
Then we went to see the Christus Statue, again, and then got Subway and headed home! Oh, and stopped at Curry in a Hurry and got some to go and stopped by TaiPan and got a couple of little things.
All together it was a great trip!
Lots of fun, lots of memories, and luckily, over time all you remember is the good stuff!
3 comments:
Your family picture is sooo cute! even Irelyn's looking at the camera! I'm glad you wrote about how miserable it was at times, because I always am jealous that you guys go down there and have such a wonderful time and go shopping and stay in hotels (this is something I have a feeling Dallin and I will never do!). But it's true that in the end you usually forget about the annoying things, which is why I'm glad you wrote about it now. :) The houses look gorgeous! Yes I want to live there! I think I need to get out of Idaho. :) Your kids look adorable in the parade!
I really enjoyed seeing the pictures from your trip, especially the great group pictures and the one of Emme in her life jacket, looking so proud and happy.
I'm glad Alex improved his behavior, so that you weren't miserable the whole time! The kids are cute in the hotel room bed.
Do people think your big family is cute, dressed in their little kilts and so on? Did you have to carry the little ones the whole way? You probably used a stroller, right?
Do you carry a Clan Campbell banner or anything?
It's great that you do this each year. Your kids will have a strong sense of their Scottish heritage on both sides!
Awwww, your kids look so happy and cute watching movies at the hotel and touching fish and at temple square! Alex's face while in front of the cristus is classic. He is soooo happy! We want to take our kids to temple square this summer since I'm sure they don't remember it there. Well, Aiden MIGHT remember, but probably not.
It is so great that you have this St. Patrick's Day tradition and I'm sure your kids will always remember and talk about the fun trips to Utah you took! Of course, they won't be nearly as wonderful and memorable as your trips to West Virginia though. :)
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