Life as a Yowler

We woke up today to no running water in our little cabin. We thought maybe the campground turned it off at night so the pipes wouldn’t freeze or something. After 1.5 hours of it being off, we called the office because we thought it seemed strange. They sent someone to fix the problem. Brielle was so excited when they fixed it, she grabbed my phone and snapped a picture.

During the time of having no water, Brandon wasn’t able to get ready. I asked him if he would work with Joah on math. Joah’s math problems have gotten pretty advanced the last couple weeks. Brandon is an amazingly gifted teacher. He taught him about number families and the simplest ways to add and subtract. Brandon has the sharpest mind and remembers everything. I pray our kids get his intelligence.

After they fixed the water, we all got ready for the day. I decided to head out with Brandon while he worked, since the camp playground was covered in snow.

We ate lunch at Panda Express. We did some research during lunch. Brandon found there was a free planitarium just around the corner. We decided Brandon would take Caed with him to his store trainings(it was Caed’s turn). I took the other three kids to the planitarium.

I was pretty blown away. I wasn’t expected too much since it was free. It was incredible. It was huge with three different levels. There were several school classrooms there taking field trips.

This big pendulum was constantly moving by a magnet force.

This touch screen showed earth. You could zoom in and see different areas. Here the kids are trying to zoom in on Michigan.

Checking out the tornado funnel.

Learning more about tornados. Here they are making their own tornado funnel.

They had the coolest little play area. There were some teenagers playing and messing around here. I thought “oh boy I bet Brielle won’t want to play long. She will be scared away.” She walked right up to the older kids and was like “hey, want to play hide and seek with me?” Next thing I knew she had the teens playing hide and seek with her. 🤣

Joah made some friends. One of the things I love about Utah, is that we are not alone in our big family. There are so many kids running around and parents are so laid back. They just let their kids run and play and have fun. The kids are so sweet and help each other out, because they are used to helping younger siblings out. Joah was struggling to figure this game out. I was unable to help, because I was standing and keeping and eye on both him and Brielle(who was still playing hide and seek).  An older boy came over and said, “I’ll help you, buddy.” Then another couple boys joined in.

We thought it was funny how they marked their bathrooms, so we took a picture. This was right before Brielle leaned back too far on the door and fell in the bathroom on her butt.

Such a cool place! It was very worth going!

We walked around downtown for awhile and looked around. They had the coolest outdoor eating area for warmer months. The kids wanted to try the swing seats. We were going to walk to a children’s museum, but Brandon called and said he was on the way to pick us up. The children’s museum can wait for next time we travel here.

After Brandon picked us up, it was almost dark. We heard that the Christmas light display up at Temple Square was incredible. One of the sales associates told Brandon she just moved here from San Francisco. She said the entire city of San Francisco looks pitiful compared to the lights at Temple Square. She was not joking. It was absolutely amazing.

I’m such a sucker for Christmas lights. It was literally a dream come true. My kids did their best to suck the joy out me, by complaining of their hunger and the cold. I didn’t let them win.

They had the Christmas story playing over the loud speakers by the nativity display.

The wise men.

We walked around the visitor center and looked around.

I was extremely impressed with how high the Mormon church is functioning in evangelism. They really are growing and reaching a lot of people. It really made me think and evaluate my faith. It is very out of my comfort zone to evangelize. They literally had their faith laid out and accessible in several languages to reach several different crowds. I’ll tell you one area where the mennonites have them beat….four part harmony. We listened to the missionary girl choir tonight singing Christmas carols. Let me tell you, a pitch pipe was not present. Lol I really wanted to introduce them to Phyllis, Lori, or Lisa.

After our walk around Temple Square, we found a restaraunt for dinner.

Caed was in Heaven, here with his pizza and airplane, his two favorite things in the world.

It was a beautiful drive back to the campground looking at the city lights and decorations. It was a very fun day!