First Week in Utah

Here is a little glimpse of our first full week in Utah (Sunday-Saturday). We were able to do lots of fun things while out spending time with the family. Scott, Simone, Tom and I went to a play that reminded me of the playhouse we went to in Yellowstone on our honeymoon. We went to dinner, Lindsey's birthday party, lunch with my dad and Julie, movies with Tom's siblings, a temple trip , and FINALLY got some good Mexican food. Ummmmmmm.. I wish I had thought to bring my camera more often. Ella and Audrey really loved their cousins, especially Chloe and Lindsey.

The girls also loved spending time in Grandma and Gramps' Garden. Ella is infatuated with watering plants and Audrey does everything Ella does so when would couldn't find them we would go look for them watering plants. Tom got some great pictures of Audrey while Ella was napping (one of the few she has taken anymore). Audrey is playing in the fountain, petting animal statues in the garden, getting mulch off her feet (she hated the mulch on her toes, but wouldn't leave the garden to get shoes on), and just having a great time exploring.

We also met the neighbor's new kittens and the girls spent a little time there almost every day tormenting those poor cats. I should have gotten THAT on camera!

The second weekend we were there, we had a Hill Family Reunion with my siblings. On Friday everyone got together at my dad's for a BBQ. It was fun having all the siblings together. Ella loved getting to know more of her cousins. She is so social that she just loved being around everyone. My dad and Julie have really made their basement kid friendly. They have this little room under the stairs with a cut out window in the wall and a half door. The girls used this room to escape from the "loud" boys!

On Saturday we went to Lagoon with all the Hill siblings. My dad and Julie weren't able to make it due to some health issues. Tom and I decided that it would be better to leave Audrey with Grandma and Gramps for this adventure. She loves to play hide and seek and Lagoon is way too hard to try to keep track of that silly monkey. When we first got to Lagoon, India took a "shortcut" through the water fountain at the entrance. Ella decided to follow along. I was trying to get her to put her hand in the water when we got surprised by an extra set of water sprouts that drenched us. Ella was NOT happy and I was worried it would ruin her trip to Lagoon. I was certainly wrong. We got to the first ride and she was hooked. She loved all the roller coasters.
The first few pictures are of kiddie rides. Ella rode this whale ride at least 20 times. (There weren't lines at the kiddie rides so we pretty much rode everything as much as they wanted.) The last picture in the row is Erik (in black) scrunched into the boat ride with Garrett. (You may have to click to enlarge some of the pictures to see Ella's pure happiness.)

Ella with her Dad on the Boat ride, then driving her own bumper car.

India and Ella on the swing ride. Then with Emily on the cars then boats.

On the Carousel. It is 100 years old!

This was my favorite ride. It was actually quite fast, especially for Ella's age. All the other cousins her age hated it. Only the big cousins liked it. Tom took Ella on first and as they got off she turned and said "Daddy, that was scary. Let's go again." I love that she had such a great time on all the rides and enjoyed the day with all her Hill cousins.