Fun in Utah (Except for a Broken Leg)

It's August, and I'm still catching up on July, but be patient...I'm almost done!

After my niece's wedding, Chris flew back to KS and the girls and I spent another week in Salt Lake City visiting my sister and her son (my bro-in-law was in CA). Hmmm, this always seems to be the way we work vacations, Chris flying back on a nice, comfortable airplane, reading his kindle all the way, I get to drive for 2 days, chugging diet coke and listening to my ipod trying to stay awake...I guess someone needs to work, haha! Truthfully, it doesn't bother me, I've been driving cross-country by myself since Abs was 2, and it always means I get to stay and play longer!

We started off the week at Lagoon.

You have to know that I went to Utah thousands of times growing up (I had relatives there), and even went to school in Utah but in all that time I never went to Lagoon. I figured it was time to go!!!

What I liked about Lagoon is it had a great variety of older kid and younger kid rides. Abs and Lisi were content on the tamer rides. Boy, does this picture capture their personalities!

Kierst and Kendon couldn't wait to get on the rollercoasters.
This was Kierst's favorite, I'm not sure how many times she and Kendon rode it, but it was a lot!
The great thing was that my sister could take Kierst and Kendon to the older rides and I could take Abs and Lisi on the younger ones, it worked out really well.

Little info about me: Growing up in Boise, the Idaho Fair in the summertime was a BIG deal. There were always tons of rides and of course I always went to the fair (who didn't?) but the rides were not my favorite. Give me some speed in a car or on the back of a motorcycle and I thoroughly enjoy myself. Rides at Disneyland? Love them. Rollercoasters that turn upside down? Not so much.

On the other hand, my sister, if memory serves me correctly, was always the one to go on all of the rides, the scarier and more stomach-churning the better. She says that's changed as she's gotten older, but she was still willing to go on a few.

The day we went to Lagoon turned out to be the hottest day of the year in Utah to date. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to find overpriced icees to slurp...

Or water to jump in...

The next day we met my sis-in-law and nieces at Jump on It, for a couple of hours of trampoline jumping fun. I think they should rename it Injuries on It.

Ten minutes after we arrived (and I'm not exaggerating), Lisi broke her leg.

We've never been injured on a trampoline, I keep asking Chris for one and he always refuses, claiming that he's seen too many broken bones in the ER. After our little trip, he now says, "Guess I'm right."

Guess he is.

Anyway, Lisi's leg-breaking ordeal changed all of the exciting things my sister and I had planned to do while we were in Utah. We had even planned to drive to Idaho, but realized that it would be hard on Lisi.

So my sister took the other kids to the pool for a couple of days while Lisi and I hung out in the air conditioning. Lisi didn't mind, my sister has some pretty cool toys at her house!

We did go to the aquarium which is close to my sister's house.

Abs spent her time petting the sting rays.

My cousin was in town from California and she joined us for the afternoon and dinner in the evening.

Kendon's favorite was the boat.

My sister, my cousin, and my kids.

We measured how tall Abs was against a penguin. They're a lot taller than you might think they are!

The day before we left, we went downtown to Liberty Park.

They have a really neat sculpture that recreates the canyons surrounding Salt Lake City, with water falls, etc., that end up in a pool.

All of the Nielson cousins: Lisi, Kierst, Abs, and Kendon.

We cut out trip short by a couple of days because we had to get Lisi's leg cast. Next time we hope to stay longer! Thanks to my sister for all the fun!!