About: Salt Lake City

We made a rather last-minute decision to get out of town over Memorial Day weekend. Todd booked the hotel Saturday and left Sunday. We decided on Salt Lake City - at 5 1/2 hours, it's not that far - and it has a bunch of great stuff to do, see, and eat - emphasis on the eat! It was a 3-day weekend for both of us, and until mid-July we're pretty much stuck here. It turned out to be really fun, with a few lessons learned, and we're so glad we decided to head out on this little adventure with our family of 4.We left about 8:30am Sunday morning, as soon as the kids were up. Not a fuss out of either one of them. Lina took a good 2 hour nap and Liam looked out the window, read books, and then got the iPhone/iPad about 3 hours in. We pulled into our first stop, In-N-Out Burger, about 2pm. We were hungry and soooo excited for our favorite animal-style hamburgers and fries (grilled cheese for Liam) - oh man, it was GOOD!!! Todd had to get himself a new shirt, I think this is the fifth? one now.Then we made a quick detour at the SuperTarget right there for a bib and some fruit. I LOVE SuperTarget. Would it be bad to move somewhere based on whether or not there is a SuperTarget? Anyways, moving beyond the awesomeness that is SuperTarget... We went next to IKEA. I needed some more matching picture frames for my picture wall (which needs a serious upgrade this summer), and got a cute toy for Lina, and a light comforter for Liam's duvet. Gotta love those prices!

Liam was antsy to get to "Sawt Wake City - there's a WOT of sawt!" So next we headed for the Sheraton which was right in downtown - and super nice. Good work Todd! I do love Utah - it's so beautiful - blue skies, white clouds, green grass, and majestic mountains.

Here are the kiddos playing with said IKEA toy - it's Lina's toy... but Liam wanted in on the action. I love this picture of Liam frenetically grabbing every toy he can, and Lina looking at me like "Hey mom, get a load of this guy, ha!". They are sitting on a sheet I brought from home. I realized Lina would be crawling on that hotel floor and it grossed me out, so this worked out pretty well since it covered a big space and she mostly stayed on it.

We then went to drive around downtown a bit to see what looked interesting and stopped to check out an outdoor mall. The problem we found was that, oh yeh, it was Sunday so everything closed at 6 - so we "settled" for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (carnitas pizza: pesto, mozzarella, carnitas, cilantro, and habanero salsa - super-spicy-amazingness), then because our mouths were hot we went for dessert at YogurtLand. I almost hate to say it, because we have such good memories of YogurtLand in Maui, but it didn't hold a candle to YogurtCourt. *You were my first love, YogurtLand, but I've found my soul mate.* Then it was back to the room to see how bedtime would go. This little girl decided to hold her own bottle. She's getting so independent. 

The night went pretty well, for me anyway. Liam heard me mention something about him sleeping with Todd and latched onto that idea. Todd basically got pummeled all night long. He could've come over to my bed when Liam was asleep, but apparently that never crossed his mind. We put Carolina in her pack n' play in the bathroom. She hated it at first, but went to sleep after about 15 minutes. However, she woke up about 4 times during the night and would fuss a bit, then I think the echo of the bathroom would freak her out and make her more upset. Once when she woke up about 4am it woke Liam up too and he decided he wanted to stay up, "Let's watch movies daddy." Thankfully he did go back to sleep until about 8.

Our thought had been that we'd be up early, get a  breakfast, walk around and then hit up the zoo or aquarium. Thing 1 - we didn't get up and out until about 9:45. Thing 2 - we didn't bring a stroller for Liam. This was our biggest flaw with the trip. The night before we noticed Liam walking funny and by the time we were headed back to the hotel he was asking to be carried. I'm not sure what it was, but something about his shoes was rubbing him wrong and that was the only pair we brought - plus only the snap n'go stroller for Lina's carseat. Dumb dumb dumb. 

So when he was still complaining at breakfast (at Bruges Waffles & Frites - a cinnamon dark choc. waffle, a vanilla waffle with raspberries and creme fraiche, and a vanilla waffle with strawberries and speculoos - ohhhh man) we decided to visit the other brand new mall in downtown first, since we wanted to go there anyway, and get Liam some new shoes. If he perked up we'd try another activity.

Flip flops were purchased (his problem was his heel so we thought this would help), but then the problem was that he wasn't used to walking in flips without an elastic around the back so he shuffled the whole way and kept losing them or tripping and falling. So the situation did not improve and there were no strollers for rent. We checked things out long enough to get Liam a little toy (car, of course) at the Disney Store and for me to find some fun things at Nordstroms, check out the Koi pond, grab lunch at Chick-fil-A, and then it was time to head back home.

Proof that I was on this trip!

This little girl wanted DOWN, but she was happy though. 

He certainly enjoyed all the water fountains :)

Both kids took good naps on the way home and although Lina was about to lose it by the time we pulled in, they were pretty great travelers overall - we are sothankful for that! Liam really is in a stage where he loves going out and doing things, and he has plenty of energy to. So I learned to bring more than one pair of shoes for him, and a stroller - even if I don't think I'll need it. 

It certainly was a quick trip - we were in SLC for only 23 hours - but it was totally worth it. We ate our way through that city and did a bit of shopping too - something we all like to do. Next time we'll go back better equipped to enjoy it, and we'll do some different things we'd like to see with more time. Definitely including the SuperTarget.

Hey, look at this awesome road!