Summer Trip! Beware of the long Post:)

This year we decided not to go too far for a our trip. We spent time at both of our families and in Salt Lake. We left on June 11 and headed to my parents. It worked out great because my brother and sister in law were in town. We had a great time just spending the day with them. Ellie loves climbing in, over, under and around everything. She spent a lot of time under the kitchen table crawling all over the chairs.

June 11, 2011 My parents have a hammock on there back deck and Ellie thought it was pretty relaxing. June 12, 2011 It was so nice to just have a yard to play in. Our grass has lots of prickly's in it, so if we want to play outside, we have to go somewhere. Here is Patrick and Ellie pulling a Blue Steal face. Monday we decided to head up to Salt Lake and see downtown for a bit. We walked around the temple grounds. June 13, 2011 Ellie really liked the reflecting pool. She just kept wanting to touch it...with only one finger! We did a tour of the conference center. It was really cool to be able to learn about it and go to the top and see the awesome rooftop garden. Patrick actually helped plant this! After the temple, we when to eat at Waffles and Frites. I heard about this from a friends blog and have wanted to try it for a long time. It was soooo yummy. I had a torpedo waffle. All I can say is you can't go wrong with anything filled with chocolate! Patrick had a lamb sausage thing...it was just okay, but I wouldn't recommend it. And of course we had to get frites. They were really good too! We thought it was strange that there were pigs on the street we parked on, so we had to get a picture. Ellie was fascinated by them.

Tuesday we headed up to Layton to spend a few days. We hung out outside most of the day. Seriously wish we had a nice yard.... June 14, 2011 Looks like she is singing, but I am sure she is screaming.....one of her favorite things to do these days.

Ellie loves water and had a fun time playing in the water from the hose.

That night Patrick and I went to The Melting Pot for dinner. We had plans of going on our anniversary and were snowed in, so we decided to make up for it tonight. It was really yummy. This is the Fiesta Cheese Fondue and was really good! We tried the Pacific Rim and French Quarter main dishes. It was okay, but I don't think I would ever get the meat again. It just wasn't worth it and we were so full with salads, cheese fondue and dessert. But it was fun to try. The dessert fondue was soooo yummy! We tried the Flaming Turtle and I would definitely get it again. We had to do Valet parking since we didn't have any change for meters....we thought it was hilarious because when we came out our car was parked literally 10 steps from the door. Valet parking....yeah right! It was a really fun night out, without Ellie:) Here are Ellie and Eric watching cartoons in the morning. She looks pretty pumped about whatever they are watching. She always does this face while saying ooooooaaaa! June 15, 2011 Wednesday we went to the Hogle Zoo. I loved the zoo when I was younger and went a lot with my dad. It was lots of fun to be able to take Ellie. She loves animals and would get so excited with each one. We had to get a picture with the lion drinking fountain. That was a favorite when we were little. And of course with the gorilla. I love that Eric and Patrick are both crazy! I really like this picture with the Elephants. Ellie just looks so innocent and sweet:) We rode on the Carousel, I don't think she really cared about this much... They have a bunch of dinosaurs that move, make sounds and spray water. I thought Ellie might get a little scared of these, but she really liked them. The kept pointing and saying ooooaaa. We had to have an ice cream to break up the day.....she loves her some ice cream! They have a really cool bird show right now that we went to. It was seriously so cool! The birds fly so close over the top of you that you can feel there wings. They had a pretty funny chicken that danced in the show also. Along with chickens roaming around the zoo, I think this was Ellie's favorite. She even started to say a chicken noise today. Here is how Ellie measures up to a gorilla...just a little baby:) We rode the train right before we left. Ellie was having a fun time with Uncle Eric while waiting in line. He was even lucky enough to get a kiss;) We had a great day at the zoo. Can you tell by Ellie's face that she was ready to go home? Thursday we headed down to go to the Aquatic Center with my parents. It was pretty cool, but kind of a lot of money for what you get. Ellie enjoyed looking at all the animals, especially the penguins. It was really cool to see them close up and watch them as the jumped in to the water and swam around. June 16, 2011 Here is how Ellie measures up with a penguin. Grandpa and Ellie with the HUGE fish! They had a bunch of toads and this pretty cool toad! Here is Ellie looking at the sting rays with grandma. We didn't didn't take near as many pictures because it was darker in there. But some of the cool things we saw were sea horses....really tiny ones too, jelly fish and I pet a sting ray. That was a lot cooler than I thought it would be. They feel really velvety and soft. I also touched a bunch of star fish and sea urchins. They were really hard. We stopped by Olive Garden for lunch with my parents....so yummy! Thanks for meeting us as the aquarium mom and dad! Friday our main event was to go swimming with Aunt Katie. It was a little colder than we expected, so we went to an indoor pool instead. This was Ellie's first time swimming and she did really well. I think she was still a little cold and didn't last as long as she does now, but we had a fun time. June 17, 2011They had a really fun playground for the kids to play in with lots of toys.Ellie had fun with Patrick kicking around in circles. Saturday we met my mom at the Gateway for the chalk festival. A while ago we went to a chalk festival in Bountiful that was pretty cool and thought we would try this one out too. I am amazed every time at how talented people are with this. There are some really young people that do this also. Crazy cool! June 18, 2011 Ellie tried cotton candy for the first time here. She wasn't quite sure what to think, but dove right in:) I had to get a picture of Ellie in the suitcase while I was unpacking. I don't know why, but she loves to climb into them. She really likes to climb on everything, but especially suitcases. June 19, 2011 We were going to stay until Sunday, but we were all pretty beat and decided to head home Saturday night. We had a nice vacation away from Logan and lots of fun spending time with family.