Summer Nights are for Ice Cream

Is there a better way to end the day(s)?

Plush Trophies

We had to make a Target run yesterday and cracked up at the room decor options.  You can now put stuffed animal heads on your kids' walls to match any wild game trophies one might have mounted elsewhere! 

(We did not actually purchase them, though they were awfully cute!)  :-)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Scenes from Hollywood

No, not celebs!  (Although we did fly home with this guy and also are pretty sure we saw this guy filming something at Universal.) 

One of the wonderful parts of the back-half of the trip was that, since Grammie was staying with us, the BG and I could slip out early in the morning and go walking. I love exploring an area, feeling like a local, checking out everything around...oh, and getting to talk with the big guy uninterrupted.  (The doughnuts and/or warm bevvies we picked up each of the four (!!!) mornings we got to do this were nice treats, too!)

We saw a couple of sights on our walks that made me giggle, mostly because inanimate objects being anthropomorphized is always fun!

And then this was the tissue box in our room-- never have been truer words been spoken re: me and my disposable-paper-buying habits!

Wordless Wednesday

Western Adventure, Part VI

I didn't take a ton of pics in LA, largely because we were often on the move!  There was lots of this:

And sometimes a doll would even hitch a ride!

On Friday, we hit up another castle since the Harry Potter one was just ho hum :-).  No, actually, the B-man wanted nothing more than to play ("play") some putt-putt:

Seemed like a festive place to celebrate a 16th anniversary, right?  I mean, there was even an arcade!

Then we drove on to Malibu to eat some fresh fish.  So yummy!  (And yes, someone has found her dramatic side):

 After so much activity, it was always nice to look forward to the "rain shower" by the window....aaaah!

We also enjoyed monitoring the video feed of the outdoor cameras:

Such fun times in LA!  Thank you, Grammie, for all that you did to make it possible and thank you, Bro. & Co., for letting us crash your life!

Western Adventure, Part V

While this is the 5th installment in the blog recap, it's actually the beginning of PART TWO of the trip itself...hope you're still hanging in!

We once again hit the road early to make the 5-hour drive back to Salt Lake City on Wednesday morning.  We hopped a plane to Burbank and Brother picked us up with ease, taking us back to his apartment to see...

GRAMMIE!

We owe Grammie many thanks for this portion of the trip since it was really at her encouragement that we all gather on the left coast.  The BG and I haven't been to LA since 2002 (!!!!) and life has changed quite a bit for Brother since then!

The four of us plus Grammie stayed at an Airbnb just a few blocks from where the fam lives. The rental was a really cute house (full of both celeb photos and 64 pairs of sneakers, as the owner is a trainer-to-the-stars).  This is but one of the two sitting areas on the outdoor patio:

Thursday morning, the four of us plus Brother (aka commenter Lyman Green) hit the road to Universal Studios. I had asked the kids when we first made our trip plans which one amusement park they'd like to do.  I expected the response to be Disneyland or LegoLand but, since B-man has recently read all the Harry Potter books, he immediately decreed that we should go to Universal-- and sister was just fine with that.

I did a LOT of advance reading and research in an attempt to mitigate long lines.  Visiting an amusement park in July is already violating several of my rules (Avoid heat!  Avoid crowds!) and I was hoping not to lose my mind waiting in lines to boot.  I'm happy to report that it was a successful day (er, long morning).  We got in and out in about 4.5 hours and felt really good about the experiences we were able to have in that time!

We went straight to the Harry Potter "ride" (really more of a simulation) and, when we got there, it was a 25-minute wait.  It passed really quickly because there was a lot of space to cover--the line paths themselves are soooo long and winding since there can be quite a wait.  Speaking of, by the time we got off the ride, the wait was 70 minutes and, the next time we walked by, it was up to 2 hours.  WHAT THE WHAT?  (Side note: this ride was the fave of most of the group.)

We then hit the other big attractions (Harry Potter roller coaster, which literally took 30 seconds, Jurassic Park log ride, Mummy ride--which was my fave--and the Transformers 3D experience) and then did the Studio Tram Tour as a finale.  The B-man actually liked the Tram Tour the best and, while there might be some recency bias there, we all admitted they've really made it cool with some updated features.  Before we left the park, we ran back into the Harry Potter section for some butter beer:

Oh, and in case you're wondering, these two cool cats were also in town for our visit!  :-)   You can even see "Crazy Uncle Dave" (Brother's writing partner) in the background because he's basically part of the family at this point!

Western Adventure, Part IV

After our National Parks adventure on Monday, we decided to spend Tuesday closer to "home" by exploring the mountain right behind our hotel.  What we needed first, however, was obviously some morning fuel--so we set off to find a market that sold donuts from a particular Jackson bakery that Christy had learned about from a food show on TV!

A delightful brekkie al fresco:

The donuts were not diminutive:

We then met up with the crew to head up the mountain, but not before buying Miss C a pink hat...and having it snatched/swapped by her cousin!

Waiting for the aerial tram to go up, up, up:

No, seriously: it was super high (10, 450 feet):

We all made it!

And then....the coming down began...

So, yeah-- I went hiking with these three yahoos and they were crazy. (Seriously: I'm very thankful they let me crash their brother time.) BUT-- they aren't really into following directions, it turns out.

First of all, take in the beauty.  Second, look at that lovely path that winds leisurely down the mountain...

...and know that the trail did NOT look like that all the way.  We tromped through terrain that was supposed to be CLOSED to hikers because of "snow cover."  Um, yeah, I'd say so.  Some other family members happened to see us from the aerial tram on their way down and snapped this shot.  See that pink spot in the back, way behind the other three figures??!  ;-)

There was SO much snow.  At one point, the BG laid down, crossed his arms over his chest, and slid (sledded?) down the hillside. It was actually awesome to behold-- but some of us were taking it far more slowly!

We all survived, and even had enough energy left to go back in time for an "Old West" family photo of all 16 of us.  I heard the BG say something that night about "nobody will ever see this picture" so I'm not going to post it (at least now..)!  But here's a shot of the kids, who were very excited about their prop weaponry! [ha ha!  a "shot"!]

We spent some time walking around the town of Jackson-- and we finally found the elusive moose!

What an amazing trip!!!   Thanks again, Big D!

PS:  HAPPY FRIDAY!

Western Adventure, Part III

We made it to Wyoming and found some siblings:

We stayed at the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. There were all kinds of hotels and restaurants around a central area with lots of places to sit and hang out. You could carry around food and beverages-- it was delightful!  It was made even more delightful by the fact that the kids were happy to play right there for hours:

We couldn't stay up playing too late Sunday night, however, because Big Daddy had arranged an amazing private park tour for the 16 of us on Monday.  The van picked us up at 6:30am and we all piled on to do some sightseeing.

First, we drove into Grand Teton National Park and got a fab pic of the whole group:

Doesn't the background look fake?

The famous "mountain reflected in water" spot:

Then we drove into Yellowstone National Park and called the hotline (seriously!) to plan our time around Old Faithful's schedule.  There was still a little bit of waiting:

But thar she blows!

We also saw the Grand Prismatic Spring:

There were plenty of geothermal features to check out all over the place!

Made it to Artist Point!

 Beautiful!

At one point near the end of our journey, the guide noticed some people perched in an unusual position on the side of the road.  He had the driver pull over, went to investigate, and then came back to get us all off the van.

Where were we going?

Yep!  A grizzly sighting!

And then we got up close and personal with an elk!

I can't emphasize enough how neat it was to explore the parks in such a way-- our driver and guide took us right up to the edge of all the features and then were waiting to pick us up after we saw them.  They also knew all the good bathrooms, as well as a scenic lunch spot where we ate the sandwiches that they had us pick up from a deli on the way out of town.  Thank you, Big D, for a nature-iffic, once-in-a-lifetime day!

Western Adventure: Part II

Since we weren't meeting up with the family in Wyoming until later in the day, we decided to drive to the next town over (Lava Hot Springs, ID) and take advantage of the geothermal features that gave it its name!

The hot springs opened at 9am and we were there:

Reminder that we're not on flat land:

Getting in the first pool (105 degrees):

Another pool (108 degrees):

The only one crazy enough to get in the 112 degree pool:

I was there, too!

See us eating outside a bus?  (The B-man can't take his eyes off his cheese quesadilla, clearly!):

Well, the food was cooked ON the bus-- and there was indoor seating, too!  So fun!

After the hot springs and some bus food, we walked across town to the other big water feature:

But I already told you about that in this post!