We just got back from our big annual Utah summer trip yesterday. Like, yesterday morning at 3:00 after driving for 17 hours and 45 minutes straight. We made it door-to-door with only three stops, which was awesome in terms of getting from place to place, but absolutely brutal in terms of our recovering-from-travel hangover. The kids were amazing in the car-- no unplanned stops, very little whining/fighting/complaining. They were absolute champs. It was actually really fun to travel with them.
We got home yesterday morning and stepped into the house for the first time since July 03. Our rough trip itinerary looked something like this:
July 03 (2:30 PM) Leave for Utah
July 04 (7:30 AM) Arrive in Utah
July 04 (PM) Allred BBQ and fireworks at the Infangers. I was exhausted from our all-night drive, but it was great to see Grandma and Grandpa Allred. We got to catch up with the Allreds and the Olsens, and Uncle Matt was there, but Aunt Jenn was not feeling up to it. We got everything set up and had to move under the carport
July 05 - Sleep in, hang out, go to movies with the Lambs, roast hot dogs in the Lamb's back yard
July 06 - Morning brunch with Lambs, Allens, Jake Lamb family, Lindon Pool, dinner at Firebird. I stayed up very late doing contract negotiations with Will for his new job.
July 07 - Church at our old BC 8 ward and the Lamb's BC 2 ward, family dinner with all of the Lambily. I went to the Perry's house and talked contracts for a couple of hours with Val and Will. I gave Will a blessing before coming home about 2:00.
July 08 - Drop Ian off for EFY (he rode with the McFayden's up to the U of U. Cooper and I hiked to the waterfall. AJ and Jenny went shopping for scriptures and baptism dresses with Grammie. I put a new fan in the Lamb's bathroom with Brad's help and we made a huge mess with the insulation. Lambs, Infangers, and Allens all went to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium for the afternoon, then we went to Chuck-A-Rama on 123rd South for dinner.
July 09 - Ian at EFY. Cooper, AJ, and Chris went fishing at Strawberry with Granddad. Jenny went to the temple and had lunch with her mom. Car was in the shop due to a check engine light that came on in Evanston. Dinner (Shrimp and Crawfish Etouffe) with Grammie and Granddad. We moved over from the Lambs to the Perry's house.
July 10 - I worked remotely and had a bunch of conference calls. I had lunch with Scott Miller at the Cannon Center at BYU. It was so great to see him and still feel so closely connected with him. Cooper stayed with the Lambs and had a long video game marathon with Isaac. Jenny took our van and went to a dinner at Thanksgiving Point. I went with my Dad and helped move a CNC machine for a family in his ward. We went up to Silver Lake Flat on the Buggy, then came back and did a blessing for the wife of his Quorum Secretary. We got the van back from Advanced.
July 11 - My Mom's birthday. Jenny and I got up early to take Cooper to the Provo City Center temple for baptisms and then got smoothies at Jamba Juice. That afternoon I helped Val repair and re-stain her walkway in the back yard, we did some laundry, and we helped her hang some stuff in Z an Sebs' room. I don't honestly remember what else we did that night. I'm sure it was something fun, but I am totally blanking.
July 12- lots of errands. Dad and I did a big Costco run for us, Robyn, and Mom & Dad, then took all the boys to Mom and Dad's house while the girls went for pedicures. We packed all of the dry goods and cold storage for Snowbird, then baked 7lbs of bacon and made about 180 meatballs from scratch. We had a great time just cooking and hanging out together. I brought the truck and trailer back from Mom & Dad's and went to pick up kayaks from Tai Thornock before getting back to Val's. Oh, and we did dinner with the Bucks, Millers, and (surprise!) Billy Rodriguez at the Buck's house. It was really fun to see our old friends and it meant a lot that they would take the time to get together with us.
July 13- I got up early and was in SLC by 7:00 AM to pick up Ian and Trevor from EFY. Ian talked my ear off on the way home, telling me about the things he learned and the people he met. It was awesome to see all the notes he had made and the things he was excited about. He told me that next time he wants to go alone so that he doesn't have to babysit a friend who is on a phone all the time. We got back and immediately started packing up the kayaks and changing into swimsuits so that we could go float the Provo River together as a family. We had a GREAT time. Not everyone was super enthusiastic about going, but everyone loaded up and got going nonetheless. AJ was worried about it, Cooper was kind of ornery, and Ian was not sure he wanted to go, but everyone got in the water. Ian and Cooper and ultimately Jenny all did great on their various rotations through the single-person closed-cockpit kayaks, and we all liked the inflatables. AJ asked for a turn riding on the front of the stand-up paddleboard, and she didn't want to get off. At the end, all of the kids wanted to jump off of the rock; Jenny declined, but everyone else did it and had fun. AJ was crying on the way in to shore because she was so cold, but then wanted to go again. We got packed up for Snowbird, picked up some dinner on the way up, and got settled in for the week. We even made it down to the pool for a few minutes that night (except AJ-- she was busy playing with Abbie, who she was delighted to see.)
July 14- We got up and going earlier than I was hoping for (this was a theme for a lot of the trip) and were over for 9:00 church at the Snowbird Center. It was really fun to be there with all of our family (Mom and Dad, Robyn and Caleb, Jenny and I, Val and Will, and all of the kids) as well as the Greens. We were one of the biggest family groups there. That afternoon, we had rented out the Wildflower Lounge and we had a massive crowd there. Joni and Henri were there-- it was really incredible to see and spend time with them. Aerwyn and her brood arrived. Carrie and her kids (no Darrin), Dale and Ralph, all the Greens, all of the Infangers, Mark and KyAnn (briefly) and then Thomas Keefer, Jr., his mom Sally, his wife Terri, and his son Spencer (his daughter Ragan showed up later on). This was the first I'd ever met them. They are marvelous people. I absolutely adored meeting them, especially after we got some time to hike together. We did a brunch and then stayed and played games and had a great time together all the way through dinner; I got to play Genealogy for the first time with Jo, Dale, Jenny, Amy, Ashleigh, Dwight, Hannah, and Natalie, and Madison. It was super fun. There was much cheating. Henri was the auctioneer and MC of our penny auction, and he was hilarious.
July 15- we got up and got going on our big hike. We didn't know how big a hike it was going to be. Jenny and the kids and I left from the Alta Wildcat parking lot with Joni and Henri. We saw a moose and met up with the larger group on the trail up to Cecret Lake. I went ahead because I wanted to be up near Sugarloaf Pass in time for a 10:00 conference call. That didn't happen. A small contingent (Ashleigh, Robyn, Spencer) peeled off to get Spencer to the airport on time. Another contingent (Jenny, Taft, Emma, AJ, Cooper) managed to get lost on the way to the lake and didn't get there for almost two hours after I arrived, shortly after 9:00. (A great time for me, BTW. I was feeling great!) Eventually, Jenny, AJ, Cooper, Taft, and Emma arrived and turned around to head back to the car. Tom, Terri, Ragan, Ian, Matt, Emily, Esther, Sally, Val, Will, and I all got headed for the top. We found out part of the way up that Terri had just had her Achilles tendon repaired in April, and that slowed her considerably. Val and I conferred on the way up to Sugarloaf Pass that I would stay back with the Keefers and she and the rest of the group would push on. When it became apparent that we were going to be a lot slower than we originally thought, she left Sally and Esther on top of Sugarloaf to help us out. The road was still snowed in for probably 30% of the way from Cecret to Hidden Peak. Some places still had 6 feet of snow. In one spot, Ragan fell about two feet into the snowmelt underneath the snow and tweaked her hip. Long story short, I had estimated about 3.5 hours to get from Wildcat to Cecret to the top of Sugarloaf, across the back of Mineral Basin, up to the top of Hidden Peak, down Gad Valley to the Snowbird Center, and back to the lodge. Ragan's hip got worse and worse as we wen on, and eventually Val (at the top) got ski patrol to come and get her and Sally at the Peruvian Gulch tunnel. Terri insisted that she was good to make the top, so Esther, Tom, Terri, and I pushed to the top. Terri and Esther took the tram back down after more than six hours of hiking. Tom and I walked down Gad Valley together; it was the only time that we got to just talk one-on-one and I loved it. I loved learning about his dad and his family and the realization that there was a LOT more family out there than they ever knew about while his dad was alive. It was awesome, and I can't wait to see Tom and his family again. Monday night, we had some Minute to Win It games going on down in the game room. I mostly spectated. I threw in a couple of loads of laundry and went to the hot tub until closing time-- I got to spend time talking to Kiley, Emma, Natalie, Hannah, and Ashleigh. Hannah paid me a huge compliment; she told me that outside of her dad and her brothers, my dad and I were the "most influential priesthood holders in her life."
