trevor and alisha + three little girls: UTAH!

In the middle of October we took a fun, family trip to Utah to celebrate Uncle Richard's birthday and also to participate in the BYU Family Reunion that they hold for members of the President's Leadership Council.

We were all SO excited!!!

Cora had a special seat to baggage claim. Every person who saw her smiled, sometimes she waved to them too. It was her own little parade! I was still recovering after the lady sitting next to me on the plane tried to tell me why our church was terrible (even though she didn't know any Mormons or anything about us) with silent prayers for help, I was able to turn the conversation around and we ended the flight on a good note-mostly. She was pretty offensive, and who does that on a plane when you have no where to go? Not the ideal place to start a fight with someone. Ugh. A very eventful start to our vacation!

Back to family time!

Our brand new coats we got for our trip didn't get much use during the day.

There was fantastic weather the entire week!

First stop, Cafe Rio. As good as I remembered it for sure.

Then we met Uncle Richard at his office in Bountiful and then he showed us his new apartment in North Salt Lake, which before that day, I didn't know it was an actual city.I brought Halloween decorations in my suitcase for his place. He was very honest and showed zero excitement. At least Shelby liked them!

Cora loved his balcony best of all. I loved the cool wood floors!

They are brand new places and he's the first one to live in that apartment. It was really nice!

Next we parked at City Creek and went for a quick visit to Temple Square.

We had the place to ourselves and had fun with the big echo this room makes!

We are at a nice Italian place called Brio in City Creek.

How do you know when you're in Utah? When they have an awesome kid's menu and bring out dough for the kids to either play with or make into pizzas!

We chose to just play with it of course!

After a quick visit to the Disney store for some cute scarves, we finally made our way to Provo!

The next morning we woke up to a view of Nancy Grace out on the Marriot's parking garage roof, covering the trial of that dr. guy who killed his wife. When a white woman is in trouble, Nancy Grace is there!

Our first stop was the family picnic and games. We skipped the early morning hike up the Y!

Time for family games! The people who run the BYU Family Retreats in Aspen Grove were running things here and they were awesome!

Unofficial game #1 Make Cora touch the goal post!

The games were simple and fun. We had an awesome time and didn't take it seriously until Dad joined in because he is super competitive!

That is the biggest parachute circle thing I've seen!

Our little family wasn't big enough to do it, but it sure looked fun!

Craft time. We all did it for Shelby, she was SO happy. They also had a pin trading thing going on too. You got pins at all the different activities. The older kids who had been to the reunion last year were super into getting all of them. They thought of everything there!

Business doesn't stop just because we are on a trip!

After the games, Mom signed us up for the Cougar Crunch and Cougar Tails at the stadium. We had no idea what either of those things were! Our last home game was in 2006, and we found out on our tour that these two items debuted after we left. So, we had unknowingly signed up for the coolest things we've ever done in Utah, to quote Shelby...

First Stop...making Cougar Crunch, aka Caramel Corn!

Our group only had one other family in it, they had 4 little boys, just like our neighbors!

Shelby got to help make the second batch!

"This looks SO GOOD AND DELICIOUS!"

Then we got to go on the field and play!!!!!

See you in Helaman Halls in 16 years, unless you go on a mission right away.

Ok! Good luck on your ACT's!

While Trevor and Richard kicked field goals and tried to wipe the silly grins off their faces,

Shelby decided, all on her own, that she wanted to run around the whole stadium!
She didn't stop the entire time! That girl loves her cardio!

Still running! She's right by the D.

Richard made it!

Don't mess with my man!

Now say it with Shelby...

COUGARS!!!!

Getting ready to help Daddy with a big field goal attempt!

Our tour guide had a hard time getting everyone to leave...but luckily they saved the best for last!

We got to make COUGAR TAILS!

Which, as we learned, are 16 inch long maple bars which happen to be my dad's favorite donut/sweet/food so making gigantic ones fresh ourselves was a dream come true. This moment made every dollar he's donated to BYU worth it!

They gave us as many as we wanted, I'm not going to say how many we took!

"These donuts are almost as big as me! I'm scared! Someone hold me! Then give me a bite!"

YUMMMMMMMMMMM. The men in my family sure love maple bars!

After waiting a very long time before we were hungry again, we headed over to our favorite college spot, Burger Supreme, home of our favorite fry sauce.

Cora loved it!

I'd like to now introduce you to my little alarm clock.

It was only an hour difference, but somehow we all got hammered by it!

On Fridays we wear polka dots!

Time for fun and games at the BYUtv studios!

First they had 4 of the Studio C comedians come and lead the audience in some super fun games. Lots of audience participation! They are really good at what they do! Then they had the American Ride guy come out and talk to us. He was so powerful! I was worried about the girls lasting through it since most of the kids seemed to be 8 and up, but they loved it! And some snacks helped too.

That afternoon we got dressed up for family pictures! We were going to go up in the canyon, but it was too windy, so we just took them at the Riverwoods.

It was perfect, plenty of beautiful fall leaves. Luckily we got there early, because by the time we left there were, no joke, 5 other photographers there too! Maternity, engagement, young family, older family, they were all there!

Afterwards we played at the Provo Beach Resort. haha! Oh provo. It was fun!

Games, jungle gyms, and watching people surf inside was great!

Then it was time for our traditional family meal at Tucano's.

Amazing as always, I'd like to be a cow with a few extra stomachs.

Night time fun!
Too bad Trevor got SO sick in the middle of the night and had to stay in bed for the rest of the trip. We almost had to move our flights back so he could recover! Poor guy! We had wanted to get together with friends but whatever food poisoning or virus or whatever that was made it impossible. Next time friends!

So, we had to leave Daddy at the hotel in his room the next day and a half. Before we left for Thanksgiving Point, Shelby had to decorate Grandma and Grandpa's room for Richard's birthday party!

They sure loved being on the top floor and riding the elevator. A thrill every time. They need to get out more!

Breakfast buffet and a little warmth from the fireplace and we are ready to go!

ROAR! We were so excited to go back the Dino museum and the Barn! This time it was all decorated for Halloween, with all the workers dressed up and there were games and activities all around Thanksgiving Point. We skipped the pumpkin patch because that place was INSANELY busy.