Summer Vacation in October

Here's what happened during the days leading up to the St. George marathon:

Do you recognize this place? The first stop of our trip was at Red Robin, where the kids were delighted that they could stand (and jump) on the TV's.

We made it to our hotel in Sandy, UT, and the kids didn't think we needed to leave. But of course we had other plans. On to the aquarium!

Zach was the most interested in the marine life. Here he's watching a caiman (just like on Diego!) that you can see above and below the water. It's eyes and mouth are just above his head. (Hands off the glass!) He was also mesmerized by the jellyfish - we finally had to drag him away. The sharks were pretty exciting too. The kids crawled around in the coral reef caves and I was jealous that I couldn't go inside.
Nicole discovered Nemo in there!

Ben helped the kids touch the stingrays. Nicole couldn't quite reach because the water was too deep, but Zach touched them - and soaked the right half of his shirt. Jonathan was too nervous at first, but the second time back he got brave enough and kept bugging the stingray until it swam away.

On to Chuck E. Cheese's. The kids were in heaven. Greg had a good nap (what color is his hair?!?) and Ben and I took turns playing games with the boys. They earned plenty of tickets to get a small prize for each of them.

Nicole spent most of her tokens on the pretty little pony. Around and around and around. For an hour. Other kids came and went - there was room for three and never a line. She never got tired of it. I just noticed that Jonathan was riding on it with her in the photo. Haha! The kids loved Chuck E.Cheese's and we'll definitely have to return someday.

After that fun, we swam at the hotel and finally called it a night. Next day: the Hogle Zoo!

It was a cool day so we bundled up. Greg was happy in the stroller...for about 10 minutes. We carried him the rest of the time. But he was happy. Instead the other kids took turns in the double stroller.

Jonathan has a very nice little sister!
My favorite part of the zoo was the babies. I had to iclude these pictures. The baby giraffe didn't look small - until we saw its mom!

These babies were pretty silly to watch too.

The baby elephant was adorable. We watched while it played on a log, nursed its mom, and ran all around the pen. It definitely acted like an energetic little kid!

There was a lot to see and toward the end Zach was really tired. He saw this black swan and refused to walk any more. He kept saying "Wait I'm still watching!" Luckily there were other animals nearby for Jonathan and Nicole to look at. Watching, watching, watching. Finally Zach said, "Okay, that's enough. We can go now." Whew.

Our last event was the train ride. It was quick and fun and completed the zoo experience for us.After the zoo we had a pizza party in our old neighborhood. It was fun to see old friends - thanks guys! On Friday we ate lunch with Grandma Hardy and drove to St. George. Ah, St.George. I already covered that event. The car ride home was long but the kids did really well, with many pit stops along the way.

We had a great family vacation - with lots of pictures and priceless memories. Utah was the perfect destination for us this year. And as always, we're happy to be home!