A Quick Trip Up to SLC

Last year, Jed and I took Leah up to SLC for some fun fall activities. We had such a great time, that we decided to make it an annual thing. So this year the plan was to drive up to SLC on Thursday, Go to the Hogle Zoo on Friday, the girls were going to Cornbelly's and the boys were going to the Utah football game on Saturday. Then we were having Ethan's newborn pics and family pics taken on Sunday afternoon. And we'd head home on Monday. That was the plan...and as the saying goes "nothing went according to plan." It all started on Thursday when before we had even left St. George. The weather in St. George was cold and raining, and I was hearing reports from friends that it was snowing up in SLC. Great! But we decided to head on up and make the best of it despite the cold weather.


(I just thought Leah's hair looked so cute that day, that I had to post a pic :)
The kids did great on the ride up. Leah just napped and watched her new favorite movie The Lion King. And Ethan made it all the way to Fillmore before he needed to eat. So I sat in the gas station parking lot and nursed him. And just as we were finishing up, he unloaded his pants, which wouldn't have been so bad except he hadn't pooped in 8 days! You cant even imagine the smell...and there we were, trapped in the car. But with a little time and a lot of wipes were got all cleaned up and on our way. It was a long ride and Leah started to get restless at the end, but overall they both did great. Once we got to the hotel, we took some time to get settled and then went to bed, we were going to have a busy day, the next day at the zoo, or so we thought...WRONG!
We woke up the next morning to frost and freezing temperatures, it was practically about to snow. There was no way we were going to the zoo. And when Leah woke up her left eye was, bright red, swollen, draining, and she kept rubbing it saying that it was itchy. Bonus - It looked like Leah had pink eye! I decided I would rather be safe than sorry especially with Ethan being around, so I called her doctor and asked him to get her on some antibiotics just in case. Based off of what I was telling him, he didn't think it was pink eye, but he prescribed some drops anyways since we were up north and wouldn't be able to bring her in. Anyways, I still hadn't found anything that I really loved for us to wear for family pictures, so we went to Fashion Place mall to do some shopping. Shopping isn't exactly Leah's favorite activity, so we tried to make it a little more fun by letting her build a bear at the Build-a-Bear Workshop.












Her eye looked terrible...



The next day the boys went to the Utah game and the girls; Me, Jeni, Leah, Lexy and Livi; and Ethan went to Cornbelly's. IT WAS FREEZING! I can't even begin to tell you how cold it was. And it was windy, which was a problem for Leah when we first got there. But once she saw all the fun stuff, she was able to ignore the wind.

Leah and Lexy in the giant rocking chair



My little pumpkin princess...



I don't know what this is called, but it was fun...



Leah's favorite part was the jumping pillow



There were lots of wooden toys and slides to play on...




And last we did the cow train




After nap we went to Discovery Gateway. It was very interactive and both Leah and Olivia found tons of fun stuff to play with.



She fell in love with that nasty basset hound stuffed dog and carried it with her through the whole place. Grandpa Ken would be so happy :)




Sunday morning Jed and I took the kids to the Hogle Zoo.

One of the main attractions is the Elephant Encounter. The was a big wooden elephant outside of the exhibit and of course Leah was terrified of it...



But she thought the real elephant was cool.




And she loved seeing the Momma and the baby together...



Next was the apes...



This is how Leah measures up to a gorilla



And how she measures up to an orangutan



Leah wanted to ride the carousel, but insisted on riding in the peacock...



But on her second ride, she wanted to ride the Lion King



Last we saw the giraffes...




Ethan really was there...



This is how he enjoyed the zoo :)



And that afternoon we had pictures taken. I never found any clothes for the whole family to wear so we opted for just some photos of the kids. Those pics will come on a separate post, so stay tuned. We really did have a good time despite all of the obstacles we faced and needless to say it is very hard to travel with two kids. I think it will be a while before we travel again :)