Utah Trip 2017: Part III (July 22nd - July 25th)

On Saturday morning Oscar drove up north to play a game that his brother Phillip had created. He was there gaming for around 8 hours. The kids and I hung out at the house with dad while Ethan, Emma, and Sophie made Gummy bear slime. It was actually pretty tasty. Tyler then made his own concoction - water gummy bear taffy milk, which he even tasted (to his immense disatisfaction). He also spilled it and made a huge mess, which was a bit challenging to clean up since I could not find a mop and didn't want their floor to smell like rotten milk.

We were in our swimsuits ready to go over to swim at dad's apartment pool when the neighbor kids came to invite us over. They had rented a big inflatable for a family party, which had arrived 3 hours early. We opted for that instead. 

Allison didn't want to climb onto the inflatable at all, but she liked wandering around their yard and playing with their toys. They had fun a little roller coaster.

After naps we went swimming at the awesome pool at Mike's gym. It starts off at zero feet and gradually gets deeper like the beach, which is perfect for my kids. I also tried out the two waterslides which were both really fun. Allison was a bit challenging (she kept walking out of the pool and trying to step into the deeper parts), but luckily we had several adults to help out.

Oscar met up with us at the Draper Leatherby's for dinner and ice cream that evening. Tyler laid down on Ethan's lap for a nap, though he didn't actually sleep.

Tyler also fell asleep on me in Sacrament meeting at 11AM church the next day. Oscar and his dad swapped off staying with him while he slept for nearly two hours.

Allison and Bonnie cousin bonding over Bubble Guppies. 

That evening we had a big Hunt family get together with all of the Hunt siblings and their families. We celebrated William and Camille's birthdays and took some current family pictures.

Camille got the cake while William blew out candles over his favorite dessert - tapioca pudding. Camile had requested her favorite ice cream, birthday party ice cream (it has blue frosting ribbons throughout it), which Martha made sure to get for her. A couple days earlier Martha got a phone call from Smith's saying they'd gotten it in stock, and she rushed out to buy it as soon as possible.

 Ice Cream Cones!

Hunt Family Picture

Hunt grandchildren. Three more will join the family in September, November, and January

Baby James started crying during the pictures, so Tyler came over and hugged him to help him calm down. He's such a sweetie! I love this little video of Allison clapping when the picture taking was over. It's how she responded when everyone cheered "hooray. It's all done." Jane even started clapping too.

The next morning the kids played with water while we started packing up for our drive the next day. Oscar's uncle Dale and sons came up and went kayaking with Marcus and Oscar while I finished up our last loads of laundry. Tyler immediately took to Uncle Dale. We think it's because he looks like a combination of grandpa Hunt and Uncle Mike. 

That afternoon we went to a pool party with some of Oscar's extended family. Allison loved this sort of inflatable since the water comes through to where she's sitting and allows for more fun splashing.

Ty was actually willing to put on a life vest and had fun jumping off the diving board. Typically he's very anti-lifevest wearing at the YMCA pool.

Oscar went off to play Phillip's game again while I took Allison back to the Hunt house for nap. Ty wasn't sleepy since he'd slept on the car ride there and back. Then, of course, he crashed on the couch at 6:00pm, so I had to wake him up to see his cousins.

Mike and family drove up to meet us for some fun at Boondocks. Ty was still pretty grumpy at the beginning, so we kept both kids in the stroller while we mini-golfed. After about 6 holes he decided to play too and was happy to be with his cousins again.

Allison did way better than I expected just hanging out in the stroller the whole time. She had a few fussy moments but no big meltdowns. Mike did a good job of entertaining her.

And Shannon entertained the kids too by letting them play with Snapchat on her phone

Indoor fun at the arcade and play area.

Allison was not into the little carousel at first, but came around to it in the end.

That evening we went out to dinner at Olive Garden. There was a little wait for them to put our table together, so the kids hung out on the rocks. I let Allison walk around the restaurant for a bit, where she found our table and tried to climb up into her own high chair. She somehow knew it was for her.

Ty got sleepy in the middle of dinner and laid down on these three chairs nearby. We brought in his blanket for him. It was a yummy dinner and fun time with the family. It was also July 24th, so we drove back with lots of fireworks in the sky.

The next day we headed out around 9 and made our first stop at the Burger King in Jerome, ID. Allison slept most of the drive until then and Tyler was pretty well behaved in the car too.

A couple hours later we stopped at the Discovery Museum of Idaho that we'd missed on the drive down. They had a neat bubble window, which unfortunately I don't have a picture of (though you cab view it at this link). You pull up a huge bubble just as if you were pulling up a window shade and then blow to pop it. There was no way for me to hold the thing and get a picture before it popped with a line of kids behind us.

Allison, as usual, had fun finding doors to slide open and close.

They also had fun in the toddler play area. The train table is pretty much exactly like the one at Ty's occupational therapist's office but not set up and bolted down yet.

Ty enjoyed putting the balls into the tubes while they fall onto Allison and/or into the pit. 

Just outside the museum is a fun playground that was perfectly age appropriate for my kids. Allison happily ran across the bridge (she loves bridges) and learned some new climbing skills on the structure. She'd never done this sort of rounded ladder before.

Tyler joined her after using the bathroom and they burned some energy before getting back in the car. They slept fairly well and we were able to drive the remaining time to Cambria's house in Richland non-stop. We had a fun time visiting with her and her family, slept nicely, and got home about noon the next day.