Downata Hot Springs

One of our favorite days was spent at Downata Hot Springs in Downey, Idaho just 2 hours north of Salt Lake. We arrived at 9 o'clock since my Dad, brother and sister had to be there for a board meeting. So Nate and I volunteered to watch all their kids. We had 10 kids ranging in age from 1 to 11 that we were responsible for. We got to enjoy the big pool all to ourselves for an hour before it opened to the public at 10am. The kids enjoyed the waterslides, spray ground and the huge pool, all of which was filled with warm water.

Simeon who is scared of the deeper water was so happy at the spray ground. The spray groung was right near the end of the big water slide. So while some of the little kids were playing at the spray ground I would just count everyone going up and coming down. All the kids could not get enough of the place. At the end little Laruen and Molly were going down the big waterslide all by themselves with their brothers making sure they were okay. It was so cute seeing everyone look out for one another. I was quite pround of all my neices and nephews and my children as well for getting along so well and helping each other. We all had a fabulous time and didn't leave until 4pm with everyone pretty well exausted.

Night at East Canyon

We arrived in Salt Lake on Friday night, and Saturday night we met with all my side of the family (Thompson side) at East Canyon Reservoir to have dinner and enjoy boating. Luke and Izzy enjoyed the tube and I actually got a good run on one ski after not waterskiing for a whole year. It was a fun evening, unfortunately I had forgotten to download my pictures and only had room on my camera for one more picture. Here is Luke and his cousin Jack on the tube.

Des Moines stop

So the first night of our trip we had reserved a room at a Ramada just outside of Des Moines, Iowa. We arrived around 5:30pm and the place looked deserted. Nate and I had been excited about the price of the room and when we pulled up we understood why it wasn't very expensive. It had promised a pool and now we were really scared that our evening might not turn out so fun. Luckily it all turned out great. The hotel was under construction, our room was nice and when we arrived many of the people staying for the night were not there yet. The pool turned out to be just great and after dinner we played for almost 3 hours! It help make the travel days feel like it was a part of the vacation.

heart warming August

We have had a wonderful August! It all started with our vacation to Utah. Since Airplane tickets weren't getting any lower and our family keeps getting bigger we decided to make the drive as a family for the first time. I was expecting a bit of a nightmare however was pleasantly surprised to say the least. We didn't drive more than 10 hour days, started early each day took an hour break at lunch time and then finished around dinner time. It took us 3 days there and 2 and 1/2 days back. To be honest we had 3 DVD players going at once at some points of the drive. For the most part everyone stayed happy. I was worried about Sophie the most. During the first day she kept on saying to us, "all done?" I think she just got tired of waiting and would take long naps in the afternoon. When Simeon had enough he would just yell "I WANT TO GET OUT!" Luke and Izzy were pretty easy when they didn't fight over what movie to watch (hence the 3 DVD players everyone can watch their own movie and stay happy). Nate and I enjoyed reading The Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer while we were driving. (We got through the first three by the end of our trip and got back just in time to start the last book!)






Our lunch time stops were really quite fun. We packed tons of food for the trip so we didn't have to stop and eat fast food for 3 days. So we would find a rest stop and stay for an hour to enjoy the fresh air and some food. Mostly the kids just wanted to run around. All of the rest stops we visited were very nice and we got a little look at the state and community we were passing by.