Surprise Trip & Dad's 70th Birthday

My dad turned 70 this August!  To surprise him Emma and I flew out to celebrate with him.  Everyone had to keep it a secret for a month, which mostly entailed not telling any of the kids until just a day or two before.  Emma of course knew, but then she wasn't going to be seeing my dad and be able to spill the beans.  My mom and sister each told me they each almost said something, and I almost said something about doing something while we were in town, but luckily we all caught ourselves.  Emma survived her birthday phone call from my parents without saying anything either.  We were so excited!

We arrived in the evening, and my sister picked us up from the airport.  We hung out with her family that evening and stayed with them that night.  We went to a classic car show where the kids also got to sit in a medical helicopter and do various other activities.

Making fish faces before bedtime.

The next day I had lunch with some of my awesome friends who I don't get to see very often.  It was so great catching up with them.  Emma went with my sister and her oldest daughter up to Snowbird.  They rode the tram up and then hiked down.  Part of the hike down was a ride on the ski lift.  I was so happy Emma had a chance to go up into the mountains on this trip.  I didn't, and am always sad when I can't, but she got to go and had a great time.  Thanks Jilly!

Late that afternoon we went out to my brother's house where the party for my dad was being held.  We set up a bunch of balloons in the front yard and put up a poster the kids had decorated.  Emma added her note the night before.  Some of the youngest got a little crazy and drew over all of it - which I think makes it all the better!  Then Emma and I went inside to wait until my dad arrived.  After he arrived and greeted everyone else, they went around to the backyard.  That's when Emma and I ran out to see him.  Emma ran right up to him and gave him a hug and it was mid hug that my dad realized which grandchild it was, and the surprise of our visit really started to sink in.  There were tears, of course.  I can't believe we all actually kept it a secret!  The rest of the evening was spent eating and playing, with presents, a song from the grandkids, and a slideshow celebrating my dad's life thus far.  And all the grandkids were so cute in their matching shirts.  My dad likes to be called Papa, so we made him a shirt that says "Papa Snow" on it, and all the grandkids had shirts that said "Papa's Snowflakes" (Snow being my maiden name, if you didn't know that).  He really was overwhelmed - it was awesome!

I love the expression on my dad's face.  He's just realized it's Emma.

A few of us kids went in together and gave this book to my dad.  My sister put it together and ordered it.  It's full of pictures from his entire life so far.  It's a good size too - 11x14.  My dad loved it!

On Sunday we went to church with my sister and ate dinner at my brother's house.  It was fun to spend some time with his kids.  Emma has really missed her cousins.  She and her cousin Timothy are practically the same person based on their interests and likes.  They like the same toys, books, subjects, activities, etc.

The next day we went to the zoo with my mom and sister.  I've always loved Hogle Zoo.  It was fun to visit again.  We rode the train, carrousel, saw all the dinosaurs they have right now, and enjoyed some lunch.  Then my sister had to leave, but my sister-in-law Heather took her kids out of school after lunch and brought them up.  So we went around the zoo again with them.  Double the fun!

Had to take this one.  This is now, at 10 years old.

And just for fun, this is from 7 years ago when Emma was 3 years old.
I can't believe how big she is now!

That night my sister came over for dinner.  Emma just adores her girls (I do too).  And they love Emma.  They can't get enough of each other.  Whether they were drawing each other in chalk, eating popsicles, or watching a movie, they were right by each other.

Eliza posing next to the chalk drawing Emma did of her.  Not too shabby!

And Abby was too cute!  I think I could watch her eat a popsicle all day long.
She has the best cold faces and smily faces.

Tuesday we hung out with my sister again.  Can't get enough of that.  That night the entire family met at a park for dinner and to let all the grandkids play.  They had so much fun.  Late that night, about 10:00, I went over to my brother's house where I played games with my two brothers until 2:00am.  Because that's how we do. =)

Wednesday my dad spent the entire day with us.  We went to the U on the mountain (Go Utes!), Temple Square, had some lunch with my brother downtown, then went to the Capitol Building, the Daughter's of the Utah Pioneers Museum, the UofU campus, and the This is the Place Heritage Park to see the monument.

Suddenly she had her "game face" on.  Not sure why.

This wagon was used by Brigham Young when he entered the Salt Lake Valley.

On the west side of the This is the Place Monument, the two figures are Orson Pratt and
Erastus Snow, Erastus is the one standing (they were in a scouting party that entered the Salt
Lake Valley on July 21st, 3 days ahead of the main party of pioneers).  
Erastus Snow is my 3rd Great and Emma's 4th Great Grandfather.  

Our last day mostly entailed packing and having lunch with my parents and sister.  It always stinks saying goodbye.  Hopefully it won't be too long before we're able to visit again!

Summer Fun & Random Pictures

We've done lots of fun things this summer.  Rather than put them in several posts, I'll just put lots of them here together.  

We went to a little zoo not too far from us.  It's the perfect little size to have fun.  The weather was great for it too. 

Emma took a couple different archery classes this summer.  She loved it!  And she was quite good too.  What can't she do?

Do you see her bullseye shot?

Emma's are the blue arrows.  She got 4 in the yellow and only one in the red.

Some great friends of ours came to town over the 4th of July, among them Emma's best friend.  She had a blast hanging out for a couple days.

Hanging out and barbequing all day can really wear a guy out!

Meanwhile, Emma had to say goodbye to another of her best friends who was moving.  So we squeezed in some fun right before they left, including going to the Jelly Belly Factory and enjoying some beach time.

After one of her tennis classes I decided a frozen treat was a must!

We headed to Milwaukee to attend Germanfest.  Es gab viel zum essen, trinken, kaufen, und anschauen; und macht viel Spass.  (translation: There was lots to eat, drink, buy, and watch; and was a lot of fun.)

The live Glockenspiel.  These guys did such a cute job.

Some more beach fun at North Beach with friends.  

We took Emma shooting for the first time.  She shot a .22 rifle.  She did remarkably well, and can't wait to go again!

Since Emma already had her birthday party in June (so her friend who was moving could come), she didn't have another party in August, but we did go out to dinner to celebrate.  We took her to Medieval Times.  The show was great and she thought it was a riot eating everything with just her hands. 

Our knight really was the best.  He was heckling the "French" knight, and was hilarious.  He only lost due to another knight's cheating, which Emma made sure he knew about by shouting "Cheater" over and over. 

I can't get over how beautiful she is.  I've included this picture I snapped of her one day, just because.

Indianapolis

In early August we went to Indianapolis to go through the new Indianapolis Temple during its open house.  It turned out to be such a fun weekend.

There was some monster traffic on our way which delayed us quite a bit, but when we arrived, discovering that the pool in the hotel was open 24 hours, we decided to go swimming.  It was great after being in the car for so long.

The next morning we went to the temple.  It's a beautiful temple.  And I'm always impressed with the incredible attention to detail the Church puts into these buildings.  No corner or railing or frame or anything was too small or insignificant to have escaped their attention.  Truly magnificent.  There was a temporary tent set up next to the temple for visitors to come in and ask questions if they had them (since many visitors are not members of the church) and they had a small replica of the Christus statue.

We then headed to see the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where the Indy 500 takes place.  They have a museum and gift shop.

Then it was off to walk around downtown Indianapolis.  It's a great downtown.  They have several very interesting buildings and war monuments.  It's a "great for walking around" kind of city.  In the middle of downtown, at the center of Monument Circle sits the Indiana State Soldiers and Sailors Monument.  It's almost 285 feet tall, and you can go up to the top and look out over the city.  You can climb the stairs (all 35 flights), or you can ride an elevator up to the 32nd floor, and climb the remaining 3 flights to the top.  I opted to take the elevator up, but Eric and Emma decided to climb.  Emma was really gung-ho about it too.  Whatever.  Turns out there is absolutely NO air circulation or flow in this thing, and this was a really warm day.  Everyone up there was just dripping with sweat, whether they climbed up or not.  It was like being in a sauna.  I think Eric and Emma wished they had taken the elevator up.  No matter how you get up there, you must take the elevator down.  The stairs are really narrow and wouldn't allow traffic going up and down.  It did offer some great views of the city though.

I liked this building because it sort of reminded me of the building in Ghostbusters.

This is the monument you could climb to the top of.

Looking up at the stairs and elevator shaft.

They made it!  This is how they wanted to feel. 

This is how they actually felt.  I'm tellin ya, 3 flights of stairs was way better than 35.

The capitol building was just down one of the side streets from the monument.

Enjoying some water on the steps of the monument.  Even though it was a warm day, the fresh air and relatively cooler temperature than inside the top of that tower felt amazing!

A few blocks of walking and these two decided they were still exhausted from their climb.

We had an early dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.  I was just excited to see one.  We don't have them here, so to get to enjoy some of their mizithra cheese spaghetti again was fantastic!

There was a  balloon guy wandering around the restaurant.  Emma got a sword, pirate hat, and a parrot.  I love the look on her face in this picture.  She's thinking, "Mom, why must you take my picture?"

After dinner, we went back to our hotel for some more swimming.  Then it was time for sleep.  It was short, but a truly fantastic weekend.

Emma enjoyed sleeping on the pull out sofa.  It was huge for just her!