Vacation Favorites

There are so many places in Utah that we love to EAT! One of our favorites was the Provo Krispy Kreme, so of course, we stopped there at least twice. The boys loved watching the hot, fresh donuts go steadily along on the conveyer belt and under the "waterfall of glaze." Oh, how the thought of it makes my mouth water!

We also ate at some of our other traditional favorites--the Pizza Factory, Cafe Rio, In-n-Out Burger, and Aggie Icecream.

We spent a day in Salt Lake, and here we are in front of the temple:

That excursion wasn't as "productive" as we'd hoped because for all the cool things we wanted to show the boys (like the pioneer exhibits in the museum, the trees on the Conference Center), they were most fascinated by the many fountains and ledges to balance on. We didn't get anywhere very fast and cut our trip a bit short because of the pure exhaustion of walking so slowly.

One day we went to Thanksgiving Point with cousins and aunts. The boys got to make some new animal friends:

They also loved the "jailhouse" (Tommy now aspires to stay in one someday), and even better, the "dance hall" (see their crazy moves below)!

The grand finale at Thanksgiving Point:

While in Provo, we drove by our first home. Can you believe how cute it is? (We lived in the basement.)

We spent a few days with Margaret, Jason, Sophia, and Gabriella, and were so happy to attend Gabby's official court adoption and temple sealing. Isn't she darling?

The boys also loved Bella, the sweet dog, and presented us with THE QUESTION for the first time ever: "Mom, can we get a real dog?" Oh no! We're not ready for that!!!!!! In the past, whenever anyone has talked about their pets, Tommy has always responded, "I have a quiet dog" (meaning his large stuffed labrador retriever). It seems that he's finally ready to move on...but Jon and I are not!

We also spent a couple of nights with Julianne, Nathan, Evan, and Perry. Here we are on a BEAUTIFUL Sunday afternoon, first playing in their backyard, and then standing on top of a mountain from which we could see four temples! The view was seriously awesome! (So gorgeous, in fact, that I would have done it again even if I'd known in advance that I'd end up carrying Joey halfway back down the mountain! The boys were troopers on the way up, but on the way back down, Joey got so tired that he bawled unless I carried him. He eventually fell asleep in my arms and I could finally hand him over to Jon.)

Another day we went to a Halloween village with cousins:

Last but not least, we spent a day in Pingree, Idaho with my Grandma Atwood, Aunt Sally, and Aunt Debbie. The boys got a real farm experience (they even got to see the potato harvest up close and loved watching the potatoes rolling along the conveyer belts on the tractors)! We got up close and personal with some cool farm animals, like these turkeys, some miniature horses, cows, a horse, pigs, chickens, and baby chicks.

We got to enjoy the traditional Atwood family weiner roast!

Sally and Debbie were there their usual fun selves! They put on an egg hunt just for the boys and gave them a million pushes and "underdogs" in the tire swing. The boys also loved riding trikes in the driveway and hearing Grandma play her accordian.

Jon fell in love with the cats (especially the gray one, Stripes), and they fell in love with him.

We had a great vacation! Thanks to everyone who made it so wonderful!!!