Fall Break

My family lived in Kansas until I was 16 years old. Before that we would come to Utah to visit family for a couple of weeks during our summer vacations, most years. It was THE most fun! We all had cousins around our ages. My best pal was John. We had so much fun hanging out together. When we went to Lagoon, John and I rode all the rides together. Our families all went to the zoo together and Liberty Park and Rose Park. And we would play football at the school playground that was close to our Grandma Irvine's house. We'd walk to 7-eleven. We'd pick cherries from the huge cherry tree. We'd swim at Deseret Gym. We would go to movies. I'll never forget how embarrassed I was when we went to see Ghostbusters and Grandma went too. Every time there was anything said or done that was inapproriate I about died!

We packed a whole lot of fun into just 2 weeks!

One of my favorite memories has to be going to Temple Square. We loved to see the Christus statue. Who remembers the cute little Family Home Evening show that had the little boy sitting in the tree in front of a his house? I LOVED that! I miss it! We'd tour the Beehive Home. The coolest was riding the elevator to the top of the Church Office Building and being able to look down and see the whole Salt Lake Valley.
Living in Utah now and having things like Temple Square close by has made it so that we don't go there very often. Like, we haven't been there in years. We've been to look at the lights a few times. Once we just drove by and said, "Hey kids, look at all the pretty lights on Temple Square", because we were just too wimpy to brave the cold.
Well, the kids had their "Fall Break" a couple of weeks ago and I really wanted them to feel like they had a fun break so I started trying to think of things we could do that would be fun and *free* or REALLY cheap. We were able to have our nephew, Josh, spend part of the first day with us, which is the coolest for the kids! They LOVE Josh, his sister Emily, and their new baby Jacob! So, first, we went to Macey's (the grocery store not the department store haha) and everyone got an ice cream cone. The ice cream cones there are HUGE and yummy, but best of all...they are cheap!  They LOVE that! We went to the cheap theater in town and saw Brave. We all loved it! They have drinks for a buck, bags of popcorn the size of brown paper lunch sacks for a buck, and candy for a buck, so everyone got their own of each. We ate Papa Murphy's Jack-O'-Lantern pepperoni pizza and Chicken Garlic pizza and drank root beer, for dinner . After all of that we had to take a walk/run around the block to help work off some of that sugar. LOL!  Didn't think that one through too well! :) On Friday, we made a trip to the $1 store and everyone got to get something. Then, we visited Josh's new brother and his mommy at the hospital, where everyone got to "hold" the baby. (I hold him on their lap but they still feel like they got to hold him so it works. Zack got to hold him by himself since he's 12 now and everything :) ) Then we made a trip to Krispy Kreme donuts. Once again, it had been years since we'd gone there, so the kids had a great time for like $10 bucks. Then we met Brian for lunch in South Jordan. Then, we went to Temple Square. I was so excited!
Now, let me just tell you some very helpful information. If you are like me, and have lived under a rock for quite some time now, you need to be aware that if you want to park on the street or in parking lots in Salt Lake City, you still have to pay for parking, but, now you have to pay with your debit card, credit card, or some how with one of those new fandangled "smart phones". The parking spots on the street have the debit card reader on the back of them, you can't see that from your car, but they are indeed there. In the parking lots you just look at your parking spot number and type that in to the machine when you are paying for your spot.
Anyhoo, first, we walked up to see the Christus Statue, where we took a few pictures. Then, we walked all through the North Visitor's Center, which was really cool! Next, we looked in the old Tabernacle building and the Assembly Hall, before walking through the South Visitor's Center. After that, we went to the top of The Church Office Building. The kids loved looking across the valley. When we left the building and stood outside of it, I showed them where we had just been. They were so surprised at how high they had been! We finished our little visit by going on a tour of the Beehive House. As we walked back through the Square, we stopped for a few pictures along our way. We saw several brides and grooms having their pictures taken in some of the traditional places. I couldn't get over how BEAUTIFUL the grounds were. It's been so many years since I've been there when it wasn't wintertime or early spring. I have to say, October at Temple Square it my most favorite time, as far as the beauty of the grounds goes. I took lots of pictures. Of course, it's hard to capture the beauty with a camera but oh it was just beautiful! I plan to go this time of year, every year from now on!
It was not a super fancy break but it was fun to spend time together and to see some things that the kids hadn't seen before. And, I enjoyed sharing one of my favorite places, with my cute kids! :)

 By the way.....taking pictures of 4 kids at the same is just crazy...