Spring Break

So, none of us in our family officially have a spring break (yet! I can't believe we're almost there), but we couldn't pass up an excuse to vacay with my parents while Gregg was off adventuring with his brother and parents in Charlotte and at The Masters.  The kids and I spent a few days during my mom's spring break sleeping over (I think that was the favorite part for Cal and Sam - a three night sleepover!!), playing with aunties and cousins, visiting great grandparents, and road tripping to see some fun Box Elder County sites (that's where most of my pictures come from, below).

Wednesday, April 4th: We met my friend Marcy and her two girls, Greta and Tabitha, and Heather and Grace (and their little friend Beau) at the Bounce 'n' Slide in Logan on Wednesday morning.  We played and visited and bounced and lunched and bounced some more until it was nap time.  Then we parted ways with Marcy and girls and headed to my parents' house for Sam and Grace to have naps.  Cal and Heather and I played Guess Who? and Scrabble Junior and Uno until my mom got home from USU where she was attending the awards ceremony for Megan's Undergraduate Researcher of the Year.  We spent the afternoon and evening playing in the play room and playing outside on the driveway.  And then it was time for night one of The Three Day Sleepoveeeeeerrr!

The only photo I took at the bounce house place
didn't even include any bounce houses - this is
Cal and Greta playing house in the little kid
area.

Sam showing of his mad bikin' skillz.

Trucks at sunset.  Boy heaven.

Thursday, April 5th: My Elwood grandparents met us at my parents' house after breakfast and we caravanned to the see the Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake.  We stopped for a quick potty break and look around at Promontory Point, where we also got to check in on Jupiter and 119 replica engines in the Engine House (definitely the highlight of that stop, especially for Sam - "Big, big trains!" said with big, big eyes).  Then it was back on the dusty road for 16 more miles to our final destination.  We picnicked in the back of our car with a lovely view of the jetty, and after eating made our way down the hill to see the big rock formation, doodle in the sand, touch the lake, and find some salt.

At the Promontory Point monument.

Engine 119

Big wheels!

The Jupiter - fun to see a "real life" version
after climbing all over the Treehouse Museum
version last week.  Also, I have no idea what is going
on with their legs, but Cal was posing this way, and
Sam consciously made an effort to copy her positioning.
Too funny!

Group shot!

And another taken by a kind stranger.  Minus the fact that you
can't see my dad's face in the first one, I actually like that one better.

They were making funny faces in the shiny gold
tank on the side of the Jupiter, giggling at
their contorted expressions in the curved metal
reflections.

That's a lot of wood!  (It's used to make steam
to power the Jupiter in the summer months
when it goes out on the tracks by the visitor's
center for demos.)

The interesting thing is the pile of coal on the left (that is used
to power the 119 Engine when it is running during the summer),
but Cal and Sam posed and requested a pic by the giant propane(?)
tank, so I tried to get both in the photo.  Ha.

Waiting for lunch.

Lunching on lunch.

Meg climbed the hill to the sign to give us the low down.

The water was much higher this visit, than the first time we
came back in 2016.

Walking down the hill from the parking lot
to the jetty.

It's big!

Callie saw other people scribbling their
names in the packed sand in the center of the
spiral, so she decided she wanted to leave her
mark, too.

... and one for Sam.

At least a couple versions of her name showed up, and I think
she also wrote Grandma (which I didn't take a picture of).
My girl likes to write.  Ha.

In the center of the cinnamon roll!

Meg took these salty sandy pics and I love them
so I stole them.  My favorite part, though, is
the blurry Cal (in this one) and Sam (in the next
one) in the background exploring.

At the water's edge.  It was actually a lot warmer than I expected,
probably because it was so shallow right there.

Skipping rocks and removing socks.

Meg was the bravest to stand out in the water.
(Actually, Cal would have been out there in a heartbeat,
but her mean old mom said she had to leave her socks and shoes
on.)

This is looking back past the jetty to the parking lot.

Salt crystals!

We walked up the hill from the parking lot
to check out the sign, too.  (And to practice
giving talks at the podium.)

The hill was covered in these cute little purple
flowers.

Friday, April 6th: We played and read (I was reading Educated: A Memoir and I read a LOT during this week and it was marvelous) and made cookies Friday morning.  After lunch and naps we visited my Thornley Grandparents.  Uno was played, ice cream was eaten, and I got my grandma set up with an instagram account so she can follow her family on social media via her tablet.  Afterwards, Nate, Shelly, Evy and Bradley came to Providence for pizza (Papa Murph's) and a movie (Coco) and cousin time (dress up central) for the evening.

Uno for all generations.
This scene made me smile.

The highlight of any visit to G&G T's is a trek
to the dining room for a self-serve soft-serve
ice cream cone.  Today's mystery flavor was
dole whip and it was mighty yummy!

Yee-haw cowgirls (?)

Saturday, April 7th: Saturday morning was rainy and cold, and all Cal wanted to do was play dress-up with Evy again.  So, we made it happen.  Ev came over and the kids played, and made forts, and ate popsicles (inside, with paper towels to hold on to the cold parts, remember how it was too rainy and cold to play outside?), and read stories with Grandma.  The sun sort of came out for a bit, so we played at Ryan's Place Park after Sam's nap. And then we headed home (via Maddox for dinner) while Mom, Dad, and Mugs drove to Salt Lake (via Crown Burgers for dinner) for the RSL game.

Me, trying to capture a cute candid moment.
Sam, cheesing it up to the max, of course.

Waiting for our grub in the drive in portion of Maddox - I
think sitting in the front seat might have been the highlight of
the meal for these two kids.

Well, at least until the food came.  Cal told me
multiple times that her cheeseburger was the
best cheeseburger she's ever had.

I would have to agree wholeheartedly with her
on that one!

It's always fun to visit and sleep over at grandma's house, but it was extra fun to have her out of school and my dad off work for a few days so we could party it up to the fullest with them.  Thanks for letting us play on your vacation!