Summer Pilgrimage to UT: The Brady Family Quick Visit

We drove down to Grandma and Grandpa Brady's with lots of trout. I'm not a huge trout fan and I didn't think my boys would eat much, but they all agreed to try it since they had caught it. Grandma is a culinary genius and added lemon, orange, and butter to make it delicious. With three good size trout, they might still be eating it when we go back next time. ;) They were such good sports about the whole thing. Grandpa also made us smoothies in his new VitaMix. Yum.

Grandma always sets up for my boys. She had a dinosaur floor mat with little dinos to play with on it. Liam adopted it immediately. The boys went right for all of Grandma's BRIO trains and built all sorts of tracks (just like at home), and had fun with a geo tracks train set as well.

The boys were so dirty from fishing and traveling that we threw them into another bath. Baths are so much more fun at Grandma's.

We all went for a little walk together, before we indulged in raspberry creme and strawberry pies. Both pies were wonderful, but that raspberry cream pie was one of the best pies I've ever had. (Does CA have Kneaders?--Does anyone want to start a franchise with me? The raspberry pie is reason enough to invest!)

Grandpa has been spending some time rock hunting lately, so he served as our guide out to some remote rock piles. My boys pick up asphalt and rocks in the parking lot (even if they're little and black-covered in tar!) so rock hunting was so exciting to them. Daniel had even brought in a few of his favorite rocks to give to Grandpa. Grandpa took us to a tiny place called Ophir. The rock slide just outside the little town (one street) had lots of pyrite (fools gold). It also had some other green rocks (I forget what they're called). Everyone had fun climbing on the rock slide hunting out the best rocks. It's a lot more fun when you're with people who know something so you can ask them about what you're looking at.

We stopped at McDonald's, in Lehi, on the way home. The play area was so much fun. They had a section for the younger kids that was all musical. When the boys went down the piano slide, it sounded like sliding down the keys on a piano. There were also drums to whack and a giant guitar that you could strum. The big play structure also had musical areas with swings that made sounds and bell that you stepped on the chime etc. Pretty fun.

We always have fun blowing bubbles with grandma! Caleb still puts the wand right up to his lips so I don't think he blew as many bubbles as he ate! Yuck. Daniel tend to do more alone. Liam tried to karate chop all of the bubbles that Grandma blew. I think she was covered in bubble soap before long, but she was so sweet, she just let Liam keep karate chopping.

The next day (Nathan's and my 12th anniversary) we took the boys to BYU and tried to get a happy picture on the cougar. (This time it was Daniel's turn to be a grump. I was nearly ready to feed the cougar!) Once we gave up on that, we crossed the street to the BYU paleontology museum. It's small but pretty cool (and the right price--free!). Daniel still refused to be in most pictures, so I tried to take some of him on the sneak, when he was taking pictures with his camera or looking a things. (The crazy things we do as parents to document that we WERE having fun together.) After some lunch on campus and BYU Creamery ice cream, we headed back to pick up Grandpa.

All of us drove up through the canyon to Heber to ride on the Heber Creeper (a train of course)! It was a fun ride, especially for my train fanatics! On the hour and a half ride we saw deer, osprey, and an eagle. The boys had fun waving at the cars and people waiting for the train's crossing and watching boats on Strawberry Reservoir. They also loved the refreshment car! On the return ride there was a train robbery!

On our way back down the canyon we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls. It is so gorgeous. Daniel took it upon himself to restructure the waterfall's path (he moved lots of rocks and would have moved more had we let him stay longer). Liam liked throwing rocks back into the water. Caleb threw rocks, and sat down in the water a bit. (I tried to get him to sit on dry rocks, but he was too busy to notice which were wet and which were dry.) Caleb is such a funny guy. He is always putting his head down on the floor with his bottom up in the air. (He's done it since he was just a little baby.) So I guess we shouldn't have been surprised when we found him with his head in cold water! He's done it at the pool before, but I would have guessed the cold water would have talked him out of it. The boys loved the waterfall and never wanted to leave. Finally, we promised to spend a whole day there next time we go in the summer. On our way out Grandpa spotted a beaver in the river. It was fun to watch him so close in the wild.

Once again I wonder how we fit all of that into 2 days. Not nearly long enough, but what a great trip. We have the best grandparents ever. We can't wait to go back.