A sweet trip to Utah

We finally got a new camera!! We are so excited about it. It is nothing too fancy, but it definitely captures our little babe better than our cell phones.

Anyway, we went to Utah this past week and here is a little glimpse into the week. We stayed at my parents timeshare in Park City with the whole fam and it was DE-lightful! I really love Utah. I lived there for 6 years and every time I go back, I am so amazed by the beautiful mountains AND the delicious food. Going from the desert of Palmdale to Utah makes me appreciate it even more. Utah really is such a fun place. I would never move there BUT, I really like to visit. At the same time, it is a difficult place to visit. Mike's whole fam is there, ALL of my relatives are there and at the same time we want to see all the fun things from our past and see all the new things Utah is building. It is almost like jamming 3 trips into 1. It all came together and it really was so much fun. 

The original reason we went there was to celebrate my great uncle's 90th birthday. He is an accomplished pianist and was the personal secretary to Howard Hughes. Because he was so busy with Howie, he never got married and all of his nieces and nephews became his closest fam. He has had the most interesting life full of pro golf tournaments, snorkeling around the world, elaborate vacations, going to the academy awards. He has been so kind and supportive to everyone in the family so it was so nice to get together to celebrate this amazing guy! I didn't take any pics there!

Our first day after the party was spent going to music and the spoken word. We were right up front and the camera guy invited my niece to come over and the camera after the show. The rest of our day was spent visiting Mike's family. Sadly, I didn't take any pics.

Monday morning was our Salt Lake day. We started off the day taking a tour of the Conference center by my brother-in-laws dad. I would have never thought to take a tour of this building but it was really interesting and I am so glad we did. We saw parts of that building that I didn't even know existed. 

The rest of the day was spent touring Temple square and then heading back to the hotel to RELAX and swim. 

Beckham had been a little more cranky than normal and it was getting a little old. Then I saw the culprit. His dang first tooth! Seriously is so cute but it also made me so sad! Not only does he bite now, it means he is getting older!

I got to go out to lunch with some of my favorite people. These were some of the teachers and secretaries from Spanish Oaks Elementary. These ladies were so kind to me during my first year teaching. 

That evening we went and took some family pictures by one of my friends from high school Kimmy Ashworth (Pearl Pixels). She did a fabulous job and we can't wait to see more. 

We also went to Amano Artisan Chocolate. This place is so cool! It has been voted the world's best chocolate and it is in Orem, Utah. They have 9 different types of chocolate that are named for where they get the cocoa beans. This is DARK chocolate and does not taste like normal dark chocolate at all but it is so fun to go and test it. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for something fun to do. If you decide to buy one, be prepared to spend 7-10 bucks for a bar! Each bar comes with a story and this guy was so great to tell us them all. 

We went for a little walk through some of the parks in American Fork canyon and Beckham went for a little dip. He was not a big fan of the cold water. 

The first time me and Mike hung out we went long boarding down Provo Canyon. That continued to be a normal thing that we did while we dated. When we got engaged we decided to leave our mark in a tree by our favorite trail. I feel kind of bad for the tree, but it was like opening a mini time capsule  from 3.5 years ago.

Hiking Timp did not seem like a good idea with a baby so we went to the cave. Mike was such a trooper holding the baby the whole time and didn't seem to mind it one bit. The baby fell asleep in the 45 degree cave. I am so glad we did this. Sometimes I can't believe we didn't do this stuff while we lived here

The Park City Olympic Village was soo cool! The museum was really neat to see. Especially the 80's suits the American's wore. They really loved hot pink. My parents went through the hour tour which took them to the top of all the different jumps. I am sad I missed that. It looked really neat. There was a ton to see and do there too but ya know how it is with a little babe....they ruin all the fun ;)

On over to Park City Alpine Slide. They made a coaster too where you decide how fast you go. It was soo cool! We loved it! We didn't find out til later that you can go with someone and if there are 2 adults you go faster. Dang it! Next time!

Of course, we loved the Alpine Slide...how could you not??

We said goodbye to the fam. This picture makes it look like my little niece was maybe a little tired of Beckham. haha. Our cue to go!

On our way home, Mike convinced me we should go visit some national parks. I am so glad we did! We headed first to Bryce Canyon. It was such perfect weather and SO gorgeous! While we were there we even met some Poles. I know this is naive, but I had no idea these places would be so full of people from all over the world.  It makes me wonder why I want to travel the world when we have such amazing places right next to us. 

Beck decided to take a little nap on the way. He just put his head down and slept. It really reminded me of what I used to do in Spanish class. 

We had some time near Bryce and decided we weren't done partying. We went to a BBQ dinner and cowboy show. It was so random. The food wasn't all that great but when in Rome right??

Next day, it was off to Zion National Park. It was a lot warmer here but luckily, the narrows cool water and shaded path, made it perfect. The water went up to our knees at the highest point (which didn't last long). Beckham slept 2 separate times in his Bjorn. There came a point I noticed we hadn't seen any little kids or babies in a long time. We started to wonder if we were stupid or just awesome for making it this far carrying a baby. We decided we were awesome and kept on walking. You are walking on rocks the entire time but with so many people walking on them, they weren't too slippery. We climbed up a little waterfall and got to the really narrow part. It look about 3 hours round trip. I am so glad we did it with one little babe and no more. I really don't think this would have been a fun hike with little kids slipping in the water. We did see some 5 and 8 year olds but they turned around a lot earlier than we were willing to. The further back you go, the cooler the Narrows look.  . There were some parts of the river that you could just play in with all age of kids. There were also some other hikes that we really want to try next time. It was a great use of $25 and we will so do this again.