We just returned yesterday from a week long vacation to the Madsen's in Utah (Fruit Heights). They have a beautiful new house and it was a great trip. We don't have any of the pictures uploaded from the camera yet, but I wanted to get things written down before I forget what happened.
I was not there for the first part of the vacation, being in Indiana on a business trip. However, Mollie and the boys reportedly had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and their Bloomfield cousins. Harrison took an immediate liking to Rachel, and followed her everywhere.
I arrived Friday morning. Our first day, Grandpa took us minigolfing. Harrison and Noah loved it! They loved hitting the ball at houses, dragons and all the other mini-golf attractions. Harrison would sometimes putt from the start, and sometimes go up to the hole and tap-in. He played every hole at least twice. Noah really loved putting his ball down the diversion holes and watching where it would emerge. After finishing the course (Mollie won, followed by me and then Brent) we all sat down for ice cream. The boys got the biggest kiddie scoops I've seen in a while. I think that they are the same size as adult, just discounted price.
Saturday, we took the day to go to Provo and visit my brothers James and John. We played at their house for a while, visited the BYU bookstore, and did a short hike on the Y mountain. We were wholly unprepared for hiking (no water) but Harrison and Noah got a real kick out of climbing up the trail. There were lots of dragon flies that attracted the boys. Also, they both wanted to throw every rock down the mountain.
Saturday night Richard Mann and his family came over, as did Sarah Madsen and her boyfriend Spencer, and Grandma Miriam. The kids enjoyed playing with yet more new friends, and I really liked talking to Richard. It's always a fun time, talking politics, science, religion, or geeky computer stuff. It's too bad that we live far from family. I would like to have this type of gathering more than once a year.
Sunday morning we went to Temple Square. I really like how the church bought Main Street and joined Temple Square to church administration square. It is a beautiful two blocks set apart from downtown. The boys loved the multiple water fountains, and Noah tried to pick every flower on the grounds. We went inside the North Visitor's center where we looked at the Christus and the big paintings of Christ's life. I was hoping that Harrison would start retelling all the Bible stories that he knew. But my pride was not s
erved. Instead he said that since none of the pictures were about Littlefoot, he would not comment. After church, John, James and Regent joined us for dessert. Brent built another fire in the backyard pit for smores. It was light till after 9pm, so it was pleasant sitting on their back porch chatting.
Quickly the week was slipping away from us. Monday night Brent took Harrison and I golfing, putting really. After dinner we went over to the Davis public golf course and played around the putting and chipping green for an hour or so. Harrison loves being with grandpa, and golfing is really fun for him.
Tuesday we planned to visit Great-grandparents. The Madsens were sick, and the Haglunds were out of town. So we spent the day with Miriam Mann. After helping her with the flower garden, the boys had fun in her community's pool. Harrison has warmed up to swimming a lot, but Noah has unfortunately picked up his old hesitancy. Harrison and I walked around the large shallow end, did some jumps into the pool. Then I pretended to be Moe, the swimming dinosaur from Land Before Time 75, and he was Littlefoot. I gave him a ride around the pool, and sometimes dove down a bit till we were both under. (He did not like that very much). But it was really fun to play in the pool together.
Wednesday we said our goodbyes and flew home. I took Noah home with me early in the afternoon. Mollie and Harrison had a later flight. It was a bit crazy, but we all got back home.
kind of a tradition in this ward. I actually remember it being one of the first activities we came to when we moved here. That was a lot of fun - the boys
enjoyed eating copious amounts of pancakes, and it was fun to sing patriotic songs.
downtown, and I had reserved spots for us down on the B-Street pier. We weren't sure too much on the details of the event, so we packed some snacks and headed down. Luckily we had free parking right on the pier, so we didn't have to walk far. When we arrived we were very excited to see that there was a complete BBQ dinner being served, with all you can eat soda (a big hit with Harrison) burgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, ice cream and all the fixings you could imagine. They had a little photo op where they took your picture, printed it, and gave it to you (for free!) and a bounce house for the kids to play in. 
Harrison and Noah loved playing in the bounce house, and watching boats sail and zoom by. They gave away several iPod shuffles (which we were not fortunate enough to win :(), little battery operated fans, and as many glow sticks as you desired. Harrison showed us some dance moves as we waited for the fireworks to start. Check out the movie... and the night ended with a
fireworks show (of course.) The fireworks were launch from just a couple hundred yards away in the water, so it was pretty loud, but it was fun to watch. At the end of the day we were all pretty exhasted, but we felt it was worth it. And it was fun to see fireworks on the 4th again - it had been 4 years for us....
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