FAMILY VACATION

We took a FAMILY trip to UTAH!

We've been to Utah many times over the years, but never with the whole family

so this was a BIG DEAL!

Here is our first Family Photo in Utah!

On the campus of BYU!

(really this should be our Christmas Card Photo of 2012!)

We spent a day touring BYU and WEBER STATE!

The kids were actually a lot more interested than I thought they would be. . .

Maybe because they each got to choose something from the bookstores!

(I still crack up every time Kris drinks from his Brigham Young water bottle. . .

"Mom this was Brigham Young's water bottle when he crossed the plains. Well, not his real water bottle but one that looks just like it. See it has his name on it!)

We took the kids to LAGOON one day.

I know. What is a family who lives an hour away from Six Flags doing going to Lagoon?

This day was more for ME!

This was a family memory for me growing up.

I looked forward to the Lagoon Day all Summer!

And now I got to bring MY kids. . .

And I think the kids had a good time too!

Karalyn went on her "first" real ROLLERCOASTER!

She was so proud of herself!

I think the kids liked the water rides the best!

My kiddo's drenched after the RATTLESNAKE RAPIDS ride!

And just as they dried off I took them on the LOG RIDE!

We rode Rollercoasters All Day!

Even Mom and Dad got to ride a few rides together!

We of course rode all the classic rides I remembered from my childhood!

And the TREES got a lot taller these last 14 years. . .

But my favorite part of the whole day. . .

was riding my favorite ride at night with my favorite girl!

We also spent a Day at

THIS IS THE PLACE. . .

It sure had changed from how I remember it growing up.

It was so hot this day, and the kids made me promise no pictures.

That's a promise I knew I couldn't keep so I made a deal that I would only choose 2 spots for a picture.

Of course at the MONUMENT marking where Brigham Young stood as he looked over the valley!

And I picked this spot because I love how the family who had made it across the plains through all their trials knelt in prayer and were thankful for their blessings.

It was a reminder to me of how I wanted to teach my children that we will have trials in our lives and the importance of sticking together as a family!

It was a GREAT day discovering all there was to do in the park, and learning about our Pioneer Heritage!

 So by about this time in our trip we had already stayed in 4 separate hotels!

All this stuff for our little family. . .

One night I took the kids to the Hotel Pool, and Kyle went and worked out in the gym.

Kara was relaxing in the "hot tub" and the boys were practicing their Michael Phelps moves in the Big Pool (the Olympics were in their first week and we would watch the highlights in the hotel room each night before going to bed) Kody was sleeping in my arms, and I just remember thinking. . .

We are not in some exotic vacation spot, we are not spending a ton of money each day to have fun, but we are having fun and making memories and I was happy.

And the best part about vacation was all the "eating out"! The kids loved it!

We took the kids to see my mom's grave.

Again, I've been able to visit my mom's grave a few times over the years, but I've never had my entire family with me.

It was so special to get this picture.

This may be my favorite picture of the day.

Karalyn is talking to Grandma and telling her all about the flowers we picked out for her,

and Kale is in the background with Kody in his arms showing him where his Great Grandma and Grandpa Schlappi are buried.

Kale was the last to leave the cemetery.

That boy is an old soul and I love him.

We spent a lot of time in cemeteries this day!

We finally got to meet up with Kyle's brother and his family and after dinner they took us to the Salt Lake Cemetery.

We found President Hinkley's grave and spent hours looking at all the pioneer headstones.

Finally it started to get dark.

My husband: "OK guys, I think it's time to go."

Me: "Why? The kids are having a great time and this is so interesting, come look at this one."

My husband: "Um, it's getting really dark and we are in a cemetery."

Me: "Whimp. Don't look now but there's a full moon."

We left.

We took the kids to Park City one day!

We went through the Olympic Museum and the kids had a great time.

It was so fun because the Summer Olympics were on while we were there so it really got us in the Olympic Spirit!

Kale is missing from this day.

He was sick.

Really sick.

Throwing up sick.

And he was the biggest trooper to let the rest of us still have fun.

He spent a lot of the day in the car sleeping in the back seat.

The Olympic Medals!

These boys were trying to convince us that one day they would have one!

We headed outside to watch the skiers perform their aerial tricks into a swimming pool!

It was fascinating. We could have stayed there all day, but we had more fun to have!

Aunt Sheena and Lucy met us just in time to ride the Alpine Slides!

 Later that night I had my Mangelson Family Reunion.

It was wonderful to be able to see so many of Aunts, Uncles and cousins that I haven't seen for so long.

I'm bummed that I didn't even think to take pictures.

Kale was still pretty sick and so between trying to take care of him and visit with everyone the camera stayed in the bag.

Thank you to everyone who had a hand in putting it together!

It was a wonderful way to end our little family vacation!

TEMPLE SQUARE

So we visited Temple Square near the end of our trip, but I wanted to talk about it last, because this was what my kids were looking forward to the most!

A few weeks before our trip I overheard Kris talking very quietly to Kara and this is what he told her.

"Karalyn, in a few weeks you are going to get to see the biggest most beautiful temple in the whole world!"

And he was right!

And for some reason this little boy was so excited to see the Conference Center.

It's all he talked about.

So we went there first!

It was fun to watch him as we watched Conference this past week as he reminded us that he had been there!

I had never taken the tour of the Conference Center before, and we didn't think we had time this this trip either, but I'm so glad we were pressured by a little 8 year old to take the tour!

It was fascinating!

 We headed over the Beehive House and had a tour of that and then we ate Lunch at the Lion House!

We took some slow walks around Temple Square and got some pictures.

We went to the Church Office Building and went up to the lookout floor!

On our way back we noticed this at the temple.

See the temple was closed for cleaning and repairs,

and in all my years, I have never seen an open window in the temple.

So fun!

Kale captured this picture of the temple as we were leaving Temple Square.

It was a spectacular day!

 And the way home from our trip gave us an incredible lightning storm and we saw a fire start in the mountains behind us!

It was quite the show to end quite the vacation!