October 2020 Utah Trip

When our Covid numbers started rising early in October, our school district announced we would not be returning to in person school anytime soon. We'd already been thinking about taking a road trip to Utah in October, so that news just clinched it. On top of that Oscar's parents called to let us know they'd be heading out of town from the 16th - 24th and could house sit for them if we wanted to. I returned from Mississippi late on Monday the 12th, and we planned to set off for Utah mid-day on Friday. Everything looked good until Oscar started feeling very sick on Tuesday evening. We have no idea how he managed to pick up anything since he was almost always at home. He'd gone to the pharmacy once to pick up Tyler's medicine and otherwise just dropped and picked up the kids from camp. Though it was an unpleasant few days for him, he didn't pass it on to any of the rest of us, and it didn't end up being anything too serious. He was tested for both strep throat and Covid and both were negative. The Covid test took until Friday morning to get results, so we had to just keep packing and planning on leaving in the hope that it would be negative.  

The forecast said we were going to trade poor weather at home for good weather in Utah. This was true up through Wednesday. The weather was nice and sunny reaching as high as 73 degrees on Wednesday. On Saturday we drove through clouds for a couple hours, but the sun cleared them out before too long. We ended up stopping at a view lookout so Allison could go potty since we were at least 30 minutes away from anywhere that would have a toilet. 

Oscar still worked a 1/2 day and the kids still had their Zoom meetings that morning, so we knew we'd never make it all the way in one day. We booked a night at the Bridge Street Inn in Bakers City, Oregon and managed to make it there by around 9pm. The kids were fascinated by how the beds were set up across from each other. This was a really nice hotel for the price. It gave me hope in booking budget hotels again. 

The next day we finished up our drive then met up with my family at Lagoon. It was already extremely crowded, but a lot more people were wearing masks than I'd ever seen. They got rid of their social distancing on rides policy and replaced it with a more stringent mask policy. It was definitely a good swap. The lines moved much faster than they had in the summer.

After a few rides we took the kids to the Trick or Treat areas. I'd remembered them being festively decorated when we'd last come in 2016, and they didn't disappoint this year. In previous years the kids would get a small treat or toy at each station, but this year they were prepackaged in small bags they picked up at the end. 

There was an additional trick or treat area that hadn't been available 4 years early. This one used the space in the back of Lagoon-a-beach. Each station was themed liked one of the rides, and each had a task for the kids to perform (for example, in the Colossus station they had to look for golden plates and then flap their dragon wings to the next area). 

The kids finished off trick or treating in the hay maze at Pioneer Village, then mom and dad stayed with Allison while the rest of us went off to ride Wicked.

Mom and dad took Allison on the train, then we met back up and decided not to do too much more since the crowds were getting really big. They did squeeze in a little Puff the Magic Dragon, Bambora, and Jumping Dragon before we left. They were also thrilled to see a male and female peacock together near the train. We decided to come back the next day when the crowds weren't so nuts.

The next day we arrived around 2pm. We got there before Mom, dad, and cousins. I took the kids on the Bat since the line for that one is always pretty slow and only gets worse throughout the day.

Once everyone else arrived Mom and dad took Allison while the other kids and I went on the 46+ inch rides. We got to ride Cannibal this time, but Tyler really wanted to do it again that evening in the dark. 

Allison made a new friend on the cars. 

Here are 48+ inch kids on the swings. Tyler rode tandem with Ethan. All the kids got to ride Tidal Wave too.

Tyler joined Allison for a little trick or treating then took one last ride on the Carousel after mom, dad, and cousins had left. They had to be home by 7. I had Oscar come pick Allison up so she could play her tablet in the car while Tyler and I got in line for Cannibal.

We timed it perfectly. Tyler pointed out the glowing, rotating toilet and the masks on the lions while we were waiting in line. It was a great ride too! It was everything I wanted it to be for him. It was nice and dark by the time we were seated, we got to be in the front seats, and the wind was just right. He loved it!

The next couple days were spent getting back into our usual distance learning routine but doing it from Marcus and Martha's house. I loved that the kids could go outside whenever they wanted to. They got far more outside time in Utah than they ever get here in Washington on school days. 

On Monday evening we went to Mike's house to celebrate Ethan's first song release. On Tuesday evening Julia invited us over for dinner and cousin fun.

Wednesday is always a heavy homework day for Tyler, but we finished as quickly as possible so I could take the kids out to Cornbelly's Farm. They didn't open until 4pm, which was astonishing to me for a weekday. Here our farms close around 6 on weekdays, but Cornbelly's was open until 9pm. I wish I'd known the parking and line to get in would be so crazy. I would have left 30 minutes earlier. I've never seen a farm so full on a weekday. They could easily justify opening earlier. 

I have to say that this really is the farm of all farms - the farm to rule them all. There was so much stuff to do! Everywhere you looked you found something new. We were absolutely delighted to see jumping pillows. All the jumping pillows at our local farms were shut down due to the pandemic.  

They had some great areas for playing pretend. Allison liked pretending to rescue me from the dragons. Mike's family arrived, and they played with the kids for a good long time. 

They could have stayed there all day, but eventually I dragged them over to the other side of the farm where they went down the super slides. Both Ethan and Tyler got stuck going down the slide, but at different times.

Next to the slide was the Cow Train. I'd never seen a double cow train before. They also had some fun decorated haystacks to see as we passed by. I later found out we could buy a bounce back pass to come back another day, which I wish I'd know before we waited in the long line for the train. This line was far shorter when we came back on Friday morning. 

There were so many play structures. I think there must have been at least 20. The kids spent a good long time at Ropes Course Ranch too. That's when I walked back to the car and got us our coats. It'd been a really warm day until the sun went down.

Here are Tyler, Allison, and Sophie on the Corn Flyer. I waited in a tremendously long line to get donuts just to have them run out of apple cider donuts when I got to the front. We had to content ourselves with pumpkin and blueberry donuts. We made sure to get some apple cider ones when we came again on Friday.

My friend Rebecca met up with us there too. I let the kids get one last jump in on the jumping pillows before driving back to Marcus and Martha's house. The kids were so exhausted we didn't even stop for dinner. Allison slept on the drive then went right to bed once we got home. 

 

The next morning I woke up far too early and went on a walk. I passed this house impressively decorated for Halloween. After we finished up their school work we went out to mom and dad's apartment to sit in the hot tub before going to Leatherby's. Allison climbed up into the high chair and sat herself down in it. She got so stuck, though, that mom had to gently lay the chair down on the ground so she could climb out.

The kids had Friday off school, and Cornbelly's was open much earlier, so we spent most of the day there doing all the little things they'd missed on Wednesday. The only detriment is that it was much colder. It'd been 73 degrees on Wednesday, on Thursday the high was 53, and on Friday the high was only 47. It was in the 20's when we woke up that morning. Brr! As you can see from the forecast at the top of this page, we did not come prepared for this kind of weather. Fortunately I had brought a few winter things the kids had outgrown to hand down to cousins, and mom had purchased a few warm clothes to give to the kids. She also let me borrow some sweats. The temperature remained low, but the sun did come out a couple hours into our visit, which helped a lot.

The kids had fun on the ziplines. There were barely any lines for anything, so they were able to play as long as they wanted to on nearly everything.

If we had a farm like this near us I would totally get a season pass. Even with a second day I still don't think we got around to playing on everything.

Both kids really liked the pumpkin Plinko game. Tyler picked the "Oscar" Jack-o-lantern when we played "Who's Your Pumpkin?." I picked "Vinnie."

Since we'd done the cow train the previous Wednesday we decided to try out the tractor ride this time. When Tyler bundles up and wears a mask I can barely find his eyes.

We liked the Halloween themed mini golf.

We took a break for Cheetos, apple cider, hot chocolate, and apple cider donuts. Tyler insisted on getting an apple cider slushy, even though it was in the 40's and they'd given us painful brain freeze headaches when we had them on Wednesday. The slush had also kept clogging up, and I didn't want to have to carry around an ice cold drink all day when it was already so cold. Fortunately I figured out a solution to prevent both. I bought a regular cold apple cider to dilute the slushy when it became too icy, and occasional sips of hot chocolate kept us from getting the headaches (they had hot apple cider too, but I'd tried it the other evening and it tasted like the yucky powdered stuff. I can do powdered for hot chocolate, but not for hot cider). 

The kids had a lot of fun in the upside down barn. There was also a car you could draw on with chalk. Tyler was very proud of how he wrote "Cornbelly's" on it (you have to look close. He wrote it over the "Trump 2020.")

We also had fun in the corn maze. I'm glad we did it in the daytime. We probably would have gotten pretty lost in the dark. 

The kids also enjoyed the pigs' race and dog show. I only wish we hadn't waited around 12 minutes for a horrible spot. We thought we were in a good spot on the bleachers, but the best views were on the ground. We were totally blocked on the bleachers.

More fun on the jumping pillows!

Tyler could have played with these magnetic Mr Potato Heads all day. Allison insisted on sitting on the purple tractor before we headed back north. We swung by mom and dad's apartment on the way back to drop off the warm outfit I'd borrowed. 

The next day we had our final day at Lagoon. The kids and I went on The Bat first.

Mom, dad, Ethan, and Sophie came later, so I took the kids on kids' rides until they arrived.

I like this panorama Google made on the cars. Apparently I have three sets of kids! 

We also did all the trick or treating areas before the family joined us on the last one. Tyler was bummed he never got a fidget snake. He'd gotten one when we came the previous weekend, but he broke it during the week. He was really hoping he'd get another one.

The Bulgy the Whale ride was damaged during a big September windstorm Utah had. They turned it into a memorial with a skeleton riding it.

Everyone except I rode the teacups, then Ethan, Sophie, Tyler and I went on Cannibal. After that the lines were starting to get really long, and we were all getting pretty worn out. We took the Skyride over to the other side of the park to try a few more 48+ inch rides, but before we got off we could tell the lines were far too big to be worth waiting in. We decided to meet back up with mom, dad, and Allison and call it a day. She'd wanted to go trick-or-treating again, so we found them in Pioneer Village and let Tyler join them just as they were walking into the last area. To his great delight, he and Allison both collected a fidget snake at the end.

Since this is Utah, it snowed and the temperature plummeted. After our first 5 days in the high 60's and low 70's, Sunday and Monday only reached the mid 30's with lows in the low 20's. Marcus and Martha returned late Saturday. We stayed a couple of days so the kids could have a little quality time with them too.

Ms Allie enjoyed getting a bath with dinosaurs in granny's jetted tub.

I hadn't come prepared for temperatures this cold (see the forecast at the top of this post), so we didn't have much in the way of winter clothing. We had, however, brought their costumes, which are plenty warm (I'd assumed they could wear them at Lagoon only to find out they couldn't). They spent hours outside in those near freezing temperatures playing with water! 

Tyler's costume had several holes and Allison's tail was losing it's stuffing. Granny was nice enough to stitch them up for us. 

Tyler stuffed his costume full of all the toys he could find in the shed. Afterwards he "puked" them out. 

For Allison's belated birthday present granny gave her a dress up unicorn with handmade dragon, dinosaur, mermaid, and fairy costumes. 

The next morning we woke up early and drove back home. We decided to make the whole drive in one day. Granny had us write on rocks that would one day become part of the Layton temple foundation. It's being built within walking distance of their home. 

The kids managed to do most of their Zoom meeting and homework on the drive since we had pretty good data service going through Idaho. We also checked our home cameras and were happy to see Nibbler sitting on Allison's bed. He often hides while we're gone. It was good to see him out in the open, and seeing the video helped motivate the kids to get back home. 

In northeastern Oregon we stopped for gas at a Sinclair where the kids had fun riding the dinosaur. After those two days in the 30's it felt so nice to be outside in the sunlight and low 60's. If we hadn't had 6 hours of driving left I would have taken them to a park.