Ensign Peak

Exploring Salt Lake City and did a short hike to the top of Ensign Peak. It's a short, easy hike with a great view of the city. Apparently this is where Brigham Young went, saw the great view of the valley, and declared "this is the place" (which you see all over SLC), and established Salt Lake City as a new place for the LDS to settle. 

Snowbird in June

Mom is in town for a visit and to watch the kids while I go to San Diego for work. Before I head out, we went and had some fun playing in the mountains. We went up to Snowbird and enjoyed their summer mountain fun. They have a great mountain coaster, swing zipline thing, vertical drop (bungee jump without the bungee but rather a rock climbing belay), and a gondola up to the top of the mountain. It was great day up in the mountains together. 

Summer pool fun

The day after arriving in Salt Lake City, we joined a pool for some summer fun. The pool has a great diving board and the kids have loved perfecting their cannonballs and dives.

Aaron diving

Kyle flip dive

Emily diving

Snowbird

Today we went up to Snowbird for a beer festival in the mountains. We took up what we call "Euro picnic" which harkens back to when Jeff and I studied abroad and during our travels with friends, we would buy a picnic of bread, cheese, and fruit to have for a meal in a park. This seemed the thing to do. Especially since we had tried to do this in DC to no avail (no grocery nearby when we were trying to do so and then a massive rain storm soaked us). We certainly enjoyed this iteration. And it was crazy to see snow in June. 

Donut Falls

We set out to hike Donut Falls for our first hike here all together. The scenery did not disappoint. 

Utah living

As we get settled into Utah life, we have found some fun outlets. 

Aaron playing basketball. But note his outfit. He really wants to go to work with Jeff one of these days. He said he chose a "collared shirt and collared socks" (dress socks) so he could. And as Mom pointed out, he has on collard green shorts. :-) 

Some pool side dinner

Perhaps one of my best timed pictures of Aaron jumping off the diving board but it sure looks like he's walking on water. The kids have become little fish this summer with all their swimming. And Aaron has decided that he doesn't need his flippers any longer. Last summer he ditched his life vest, this summer it's the flippers. Having a brother and sister 5 years older than you sure motivates you to learn fast. 

And the mountains are just beautiful. 

Day 1 in SLC

We dove straight into SLC on our first day. The kids were up early despite being up late the evening before with our flight and everything so I got them moving. Jeff went to work and we hit the hills. I think this route is called The Living Room. It's up by the Natural History Museum. We went on this trail when we visited back in December, but it was super muddy then. Now it was parched and dry and we were able to have a nice walk. 

At the top. 

Salt Lake City, here we come

From Chicago, we were Salt Lake City bound. We ditch the van there and put it on a truck for shipping because I couldn't bear the idea of 20 hours driving through Iowa, Nebraska & Wyoming solo with the kids and without any family, friend stops along the way to look forward to. So Jeff met us in Chicago to fly with us to our new hometown, Salt Lake City. 

In a first for us, we showed up at the airport early. An entire day early... We had marked our calendars that Sunday was when our tickets out to SLC were for. We get to the airport to check our bags only to find out our reservation was for Monday. Oops. What likely happened was that when Jeff booked, he defaulted to his normal fly to SLC Monday mode as he had been doing for the past 7 months when we had intended to fly and arrive on Sunday. Oops. Thankfully Delta was understanding and able to accommodate us on a later flight that day. We had about 6 hours to fill in the airport. After trying all the lounges we had some free passes for (all but Delta), but they insisted that the kids needed a pass as well to the tune of some crazy amount (noted after they realized we weren't flying their airline that day). So we found a nice, quiet hallway to chill in, play some iPad, do wall sits, and play Simon Says. 

On our way to SLC! 

And we have arrived. 

Road trip out of Raleigh to visit with family

First leg of our moving road trip out of Raleigh was to DC. There we saw loads of Jeff's family and had a great time at his cousin's wedding. 

After DC, Jeff flew back to SLC and the kids and I began our road trip west. Next stop after DC was Ohio where we met up with my grandpa who is 92 years old.

Some interesting storm clouds. Really only experienced some rain. (Kyle took the pics, I was driving.)

My Aunt Theresa arranged for us to meet up with her and Grandpa for lunch together at Cracker Barrel. It was nice to catch up with them in a small setting since we so rarely get that opportunity and when we do, it's in a much larger group. 

After lunch, we spent the afternoon in Toledo at the Children's Museum which was pretty amazing. And our museum pass got us free entrance. Really a great, unique museum. 

Late afternoon, we headed toward Indy to see Kristin and her family. We had a wonderful day there together playing, walking through some woods, eating ice cream, grilling and just chilling. 

From Indy, we headed toward Chicago. We arrived in time to have lunch with Jeff's Grandma Edith. We had a nice afternoon together by the pool while the kids swam and we got to talk and catch up in person. 

From Grandma Edith's, we headed to Tommy's place to catch up with my family there. Jeff flew in that evening and met up with us for the final leg of our trip (flying to SLC). We had a great time chilling with my sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews and my mom came down from Wisconsin as well.
Emily and some of her girl cousins packed in a jeep. 

Trevor and Kyle were BFFs and always together. Trevor is the same age as Aaron, only a few weeks younger, so it was sweet to see Kyle and so sweetly brotherly with Trevor. 

Kyle's selfie at the pool

Cousin chili and ice cream dinner courtesy of Grandma

Baby Mia. This was our first time meeting our sweet little niece.