utah trip!

in april we took a quick trip to utah to go to general conference and to visit richard and my best friend ashley and brett visited his best friends too. it was so fun!

after flying to hawaii i was very happy with a short flight to utah, though even that tested my patience! but we made it. we flew in on thursday and stayed in salt lake at the grand america.

 just as we pulled up to the hotel, we spotted the great jimmer walking out of the lobby! so exciting! the kings were in town playing the jazz and they were staying at the hotel. later trevor and i saw some very tall basketball players have to duck their heads down far to get out of the elevators. too funny.

 tiny girl. BIG flowers!

after we got settled, mom and dad ordered up some room service and took the girls so that trevor and i could go to...

cafe rio! made every minute of packing and traveling worth it. can you believe it was only trevor's second time eating there? it is more of a girl place. but he really liked it. the other time was a terrible blind date, so maybe that's why he never went back!

the next day we headed south to provo, but first we stopped at thanksgiving point!

it was dino museum time!!!

they also had a little exploratorium style room at the start.

but we were really there for the dinos.

excited doesn't cover it.

grandpa rich watched this cool rescue movie and had the huge imax theater completely to himself! he said it was awesome. it was the true story of how help got to the people in haiti after the earthquake.

i wish the pictures conveyed how big these dinasour bones were!

i just couldn't get over how kid friendly and cool the place was. i didn't even take pictures of the huge water/sand river play area or the sand box where you searched for dino bones.

now usually shelby would love a shark, but this prehistoric model was too much for her!

next time we are in utah we are totally going back!

after the museum, we headed down to thanksgiving point's farm.

the baby chicks were a big hit!

luckily the goat didn't bite her! what a cute farm, and we didn't even see it all! they had more animals and there were hay rides and you can help milk a cow. but we had places to be! like provo! with uncle richard!

yay! we met him at burger supreme, where he was having lunch with a few coworkers. it was great to meet them and to get our favorite gyros. trevor and is used to eat there after his intramural games. :)

cora was so happy to see her uncle.

mmmm.

springtime in provo is just beautiful. though i love provo anytime of year! richard gave us a quick tour of the byu broadcasting building and we got to meet more of the people that he works with over at byutv. i saw that his cubicle definitely needs pictures of his nieces since the cute gals who work with him were just dying over how my little girls love their uncle! it was like catnip. then we went over to see the house he bought-gorgeous! so happy for him!

after the house tour, trevor and richard drove on their own back to slc to meet up with brett and his buddies at a gocarting place. boy stuff.

dad stayed with us and relaxed (slept) in the car while mom and i took the girls to the sweet tooth fairy bake shop! finally! we had read about it so many times on nie nie's blog!!

it totally lived up to our expectations.

we got a big sampling of them, like a samoa, chocolate strawberry, vanilla, pink fairfetti, but by far my favorite ended up being the rasberry lemonade. amazing. the cake bites were really good too, just ask cora. as was the cupcake cookie that shelby scarfed.

then we enjoyed some quality time at deseret books, got some new yw and primary things and nie nie's book, and then we let ourselves be sad for a little while that we don't live in a town with a deseret book. sigh. i know that we can just order stuff online, but it's not the same! okay, we're better now.

we headed back to slc where we all met up at the super busy rodizio-it was prom night! and there were a whole lotta NEON colors. wow! my bestie ashley met us there too and we had fun looking at all the girls in their dresses not eating. who would want to go to an all you can eat brazilian restaurant before dancing at prom? should have thought that one through girls!

on saturday we finally got to try bruges, a recommendation from scott means who served in france and belgium. he said it tastes just like his mission and has been trying to get us to got there for years! we were so lame to have missed it all this time. it looks like just a waffle right? wrong. it has crystalized sugar on it! seriously you can eat it plain. but i got it with strawberries, stuffed with belgium chocolate, and topped with creme fraiche. and then there are the fries-the best i have ever tasted. there are a bunch of dips that they have for them too. oh boy.

we recovered from the sugar coma back at the hotel and watched conference. richard had been nice enough to go to target and buy the girls a bunch of toys to play with in the hotel room. he said he felt very weird buying a cart full of toys, but he handled it fine. he picked out perfect ones too! pink legos for shelby, cars for cora, and much more! he's keeping them at his apartment for next time. awwww. 

brett went to every session on saturday, the morning with my parents and the afternoon with his friends-lucky! he got to see david archuleta live! :) on our way out to drop off the boys for priesthood, we got to stop at the evening gelato stand they set up in the lobby! shelby was obviously thrilled. also, dad and trevor are hilarious. :) they met up with brett, richard, and brett's friends for the session while we braved the new, gorgeous downtown slc mall!

during priesthood, the mall would have been busy anyway, but it was the grand opening weekend of city creek mall! you should have seen the lines that there were for most stores, not to mention the food court. crazy! so we retreated to our happy place, nordstrom.

naturally, the kids department had an amazing play area which entertained shelby while we waited for almost two hours to get help in the children's shoe department! worth it. we got super cute shoes.

after we could shop no more we went back to see if stephanie nielson was really there signing her books. she was! and the line wasn't too long! oh my goodness, mom and i were totally freaking out. it was her! and her cute girls! 

she was obviously SO nice. cora shares her birthday with jane, so i had to mention that. they were politely excited, and i also had to mention that shelby was born the day of their accident. i always think of her on shelby's birthday because it's been that many years since. she booed me, which was actually way funnier than it sounds. :) she told me that i have beautiful children (true!) and wished me luck on having a boy someday! can you believe she gave birth just about a week later?

mom and i were positively giddy afterwards! it was way better than meeting any celebrity!!!

can you see all the white shirts in this picture? 

it was so fun to see all the men and boys walking together. powerful! 

after talking up the waffles and fries so much, everyone else just had to try it, so we joined the rest of the post priesthood revelers and got some to-go. two meals of waffles in one day! i'm still full.

the next morning we were up bright and early for the morning session, which includes music and the spoken word with the tabernacle choir. also-it was crazy freezing and raining and windy and we were all dressed like the californians that we are! don't let brett fool you, he took notes the whole time. 

my kiddos stayed with mom and dad, THANK YOU!!! so trevor, brett, richard, ashley and her brother kyle and i got to all go together and enjoy general conference! it was so awesome. 

don't judge. in between sessions we went to the buffet at the hotel. it was very spiritual.

then we had to see the toy store in the hotel. it was amazing!

then we listened the the last session in the car while we took shelby, cora, brett, and his two buddies up to snowbird to see the snow! trevor was determined to get shelby up there.

there was plenty of it!

daddy made her the happiest girl on earth. 

he just knew that she would love it.

we know we looked like tourists in our jeans, throwing snow balls in the parking lot, but we did not care. shelby was so happy and the snow was so gorgeous!

shelby, don't even try to get all that snow off your shoes!

brett stayed with cora in the car, while mike and nate made shelby a tiny snowman that she promptly kicked over. :) 

brett has the nicest friends! brett's bishop is mike's dad and our bishop is nate's dad! 

cora woke up while we were out there, but uncle brett had it handled.

look! cora's first snow! sweet little snowflakes on her sweet little head.

i'm nothing if not practical. 

sooo, she was a little bit sad about leaving the snow. apparently we need to get this girl up to the mountains next winter!

then it was back the hotel to spend time as a whole family (yay!)

say goodbye to uncle richard (boo)

and pack (ugh) to go home where there are baby gates (yay!)

traveling home was smooth sailing, other than that the self flushing sensors on the airport's toilets  scare shelby to tears, poor thing! as our plane was taking off, shelby looked out the window, waved and said "goodbye uncle richard! i love you!" and i seriously almost cried. it was so cute. what an awesome trip! thanks mom and dad! food, fun, conference, family, it was perfect.