Our last Hurrah part 2

part 1 was about the "work" part of the trip for me and part 2 is about the work part of the trip for Kyle.  His isn't in quotes because it was real work for him and really the whole trip was just fun for me.  Sunday night we went to Salt Lake and stayed at Little America so Kyle could get up and go to the U for meetings first thing Monday morning, and because Brashley was coming to stay at mom and dad's and needed our room!

  I feel like I need a "now and then" picture from Jillyn right here because I know that her kids have been in a picture just like this and these kids remind me so much of Kyle and his sibs...
My kids love staying in any kind of hotel but we had to tell them that this one was fancier than most we have stayed in before and so they had to be extra quiet and nice...I was extra grateful we had a garden room and not one in the tower because they still couldn't resist jumping on the beds.

We have always set the three kids sideways on the other bed and it has worked really well, but I am afraid we are just one summer away from having to get a suite....Matty slept on a mat in the corner.
We painted the town red Monday morning, doing all our favorite things....riding trax, the new mall with fish in the stream, temple square and riding the elevator at the Joseph Smith Memorial.

 Then we ate lunch, I was already tired, and was having a hard time finding fat free food to eat, but I was excited to be able to meet our cousins at the zoo so I fed the kids and we powered through.
The Hogle Zoo is such a different animal than it was when I was a kid.  The lay out is basically the same but it has improved leaps and bounds and the animals were in rare form for us this day.

Evan and that baby elephant were so hyper! The elephant was so fun to watch because it was contained......Evan, also pretty fun to watch.

oh Evan.....you should have seen him 1 minute ago when he was high centered on that big horn...

The tigers were making everyone really nervous...they were having the most intense staring contest I have ever seen....but nothing really ever came of it, but it is amazing how much difference the water makes in these habitats.  They loved the water.

George loved the eagles, they were amazing. I don't know what Evan's expression is...he didn't want to hold still that long...4 seconds.... I am too demanding.

It was a pretty hot day so Grandpa bought everyone an ice cream cone.  Matty was never going to make it through hers so I asked Uncle Brad to help....

 There is a big polar bear behind Matty's head (and an iguana some brown bears and giraffes)
It was a little disappointing that it was just laying there, it looked miserable so Emily asked the workers why the bear wasn't in ice?...good question.

A bunch of monkeys in front of a picture of a bunch of monkeys!

Some things never change.....

I love the lion drinking fountain and it's
millions of germs.

Andy and Sarah didn't make it to the end, it was just too hot, but we sure had a great time. 

Brad and Ashley weren't in this picture either because they couldn't get enough of the animals.

We went back to the hotel and got Kyle, went shoe shopping and to get some dinner and then Traci and her boys met us at the hotel pool to cool off and relax.

Emily and Evan went home with Traci and slept over there.  They had a great time and we got to sleep in. WIN WIN! George and Matty didn't wake up until after 9:00.

We did a little more shopping and then headed up to Bountiful to Traci's fun house.

(that sounds like an amusement park).  It was fun, but we went to a different amusement park called Get Air.  It is a much better version of our Anti-Gravity Trampoline Park and the kids had a blast.

I had to pry them away to go back to the U and pick up Kyle on time. 

We stopped for a quick dinner in Lehi and packed up all our canned goods and headed home.

We got home about 10:00 pm on Tuesday night, school started at 7:10 the next morning, not the most responsible parenting, but I think it was worth it, we had a fantastic trip.