4th of July Trip to Utah

Tuesday morning Tom called me at work to say that his contract had ended (at least for now) and what did I think about going out to Utah for the 4th of July holiday?  I wasn’t happy to get this call – I wanted this contract to last longer and I didn’t think I wanted to make such a short trip (the kids started school the next Tuesday).  I said “no” and we hung up.  But I got to thinking and called Tom back and told him if he really wanted to go, then we should go.  Then, instead of just working a couple of hours, I worked the rest of the day to try and get things squared away for the week.  My kids weren’t all that happy to have to hang around the office so long, but I kept telling them that it was so we could go out of town, which helped.  Once we got home, I put them to work packing their stuff while I got dinner ready.  As luck would have it, we had signed up to feed the missionaries dinner.  So, we fed them (about 5pm) and then finished packing, and hit the road about 8pm.  I don’t know how my parents did it (there’s one infamous trip where we drove straight through from Topsham, ME to somewhere in Wyoming without stopping except for food and bathroom breaks) but Tom and I can barely survive a drive through the night.  We even got pulled over in some little Utah town because Tom was “weaving” (though truth be told, he was weaving because he was trying to get some chips out of the bag – not because he was sleepy!).  Anyway – two days into the vacation I think we finally felt like we were recovered!

We had a really good time.  Tom got to go golfing with his brothers.  I got to spend some time with a favorite college roommate (we took our kids to the Provo Park) which was so much fun.

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I love having friends that I can just start up a conversation with, like we haven’t been apart for years!  We got to see my sister and her family and eat some yummy Cafe Rio.  And of course, there was the whole “Freedom Festival” festivities to enjoy.  Provo really does the 4th of July up right.

It’s a Wood Family tradition to camp out along the parade route the night before.  This used to be Tom’s job, as the youngest sibling in the family.  Fortunately it has passed along to the nephews and nieces.  In the morning we walked the couple of blocks to center street and sat down right on the street thanks to those awesome family members!  The kids all had a great time throwing poppers at each other and all the people in the parade.  We had so many poppers, Tom was handing them out to all the kids around us (which was kindof fun!).

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We had a traditional family BBQ with lots of food, volleyball, and water balloons.  In the evening we went to the annual “Stadium of Fire” held in the BYU football stadium.  The program was waaaay too long, and kindof boring (we’re not Jonas Brothers fans in our family) but the fireworks were outstanding!  Too bad it was so late when they finally started them.  The next morning we got up, got packed, and headed home.  But that’s a story for another post …  Thanks to all the family who made us feel welcome as last minute guests – opened their homes, fed us, (even cut my hair!).  You guys are the best!

3 thoughts on “4th of July Trip to Utah

    • Author gravatar

      Sounds like you guys had a great trip, although I know what you mean about driving. At least you didnt have to tack on about 4 more hours to Idaho! I still need to thank Tom for the great tickets. We had a lot of fun.

    • Author gravatar

      Looks like the trip was a blast! Your kids are soo stinking cute!!! Haley looks so big and her face is changing. What a pretty little girl!

    • Author gravatar

      Your version of the Utah trip was much more interesting than Spencers. We did enjoy having him here with us and hope that Hayley will get a visit in sometime. Hope Tom hears something about work soon! We are praying for you. Love Mom

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