Pre-Wedding Fun

Stan, Amy, Hailey, Makayla, and I headed south on Thursday, December 13. I must thank Hailey and Makayla for reminding Stan and I how fun it is to strap little people into car seats and drive and drive.  I'm thinking it was fun enough we don't need to do it again for quite awhile.

After we got to Salt Lake on Friday, we checked in to a Howard Johnsons just a few blocks from Temple Square that looked just like this, only with cold wind blowing and sloppy snow in the parking lot that made wading through to and from our cars a barrel of fun.

We got a fabulous deal on rooms--do you think it was because we rented most of the motel for the weekend to house all of our family? We even managed to clean out their breakfast bar for them every morning.

Megan took out her endowments on Saturday. 

Salt Lake temple is still my favorite temple.

On Sunday morning Stan, Ken, Kailyn, Jordan, Scott, and Kelsey managed to get in to the Tom Brokaw/Morman Tabernacle Choir special broadcast. They thought it was pretty spectacular.

 

Afterwards we wondered around the Church's interactive Children's Museum.

Clearly Grandma needs better toys at her house.

Cute Ava, feeding the missionaries

and dressing up.

Hispanic Hailey and her chicken.

The museum had "native" costume the kids could dress up in and dance along with computerized dancers.

A busload of kids.

Hailey, Brinlee, and Kailyn strolling outside the museum.  Poor Brinlee got enough cousin attention to last 3 lifetimes.  She's just so dang cute and agreeable!

Traveling around with such a large group is not without its challenges. We had a hard time finding places to eat that could seat us all in a timely fashion. We tried ordering pizza, and it arrived 1 1/2 hours late because "they didn't have enough ovens for such a large order". With the Backmans still in Idaho for their family wedding and Megan and David mysteriously MIA, we still were a group of 17.  It was good that we could walk everywhere we needed to go.

I love to watch the cousins enjoying each other's company.

On Sunday evening we returned to Temple Square to enjoy the Christmas lights and other things.

You can tell by the rosy cheeks it was a bit nippy, even for us cold-hardy Northerners.

I think we walked ten miles on Sunday. The kids were wonderfully tough, and never complained. That was me doing the whining.

Brinlee, delighted to be in Ashley's arms, momentarily away from her entourage.

 Of course, after all that walking we worked up quite an appetite and had to find another place to eat.

We managed to spill only 20 gallons of chocolate milk/milk/water this time, once again necessitating an enormous tip for our poor waiters.

We ended the day walking through the outdoor mall where Kailyn found the name of a famous Olympic helper

named "Ken Bassett".  Kailyn acted like she knew him or something.

By the end of the day, we were all clearly frozen, exhausted, and more than a little crazy.  Proof positive: the grandkids had a fabulous time running through the randomly spouting fountain trying to avoid getting wet in the 33 degree weather, and all of the parents just let them.