In the excitement of describing the gory start to our longest stint away from home, we forgot to post about an equally exciting trip we had in July, which began with a flight to Salt Lake City for a few days, before proceeding on to the 2022 Yarnall Family Reunion in Island Park, Idaho (I know – where?), followed by West Yellowstone in Montana.
I hadn’t been to Salt Lake City since Jackson and Vanessa’s wedding at the beautiful SLC temple in April 2009. I recalled it being a fairly pleasant city, and a quick internet search revealed plenty of parks, outdoor activities and trails, as well as family-friendly options, so we booked our tickets.
The problem is, as lovely as SLC is in April, it’s apparently hot as fuck in July. The week before we departed, I looked up the weather and discovered to my horror that it was 99-100+ degrees until well after 8:00 p.m. every day we planned to be there. Gone were the plans to visit parks and go on hikes.
We flew out to Salt Lake City on July 7, Everest’s birthday. The flight wasn’t too long, and was largely uneventful.
We landed around lunch time, had a fiasco getting a rental car, and ended up eating at an acceptable Japanese restaurant with a nice ambiance, courtyard, and decor. The food certainly left something to be desired, but at least the restaurant layout was interesting.
After lunch, we took the kids to a children’s museum, which was filled with fun activities, play structures, and differently themed areas of make believe, e.g. an auto shop, a construction site, a small house, a grocery store, a farm, etc. Vale especially enjoyed pretending to be a grocery store cashier, where there was a semi-realistic checkout aisle with scanners and grocery bags and everything. She spent most of the time in this area of the museum. Everest had a great time too, and tried to eat the fake food at the grocery store (and the farm). We sent a picture to her nanny, and Judith said “Maybe she’s hungry.” (Feeding Everest is her specialty, and she doesn’t trust us to do it right.)
Later in the day, Everest had to take a nap, and Kyle and Vale got some ice cream at a local shop, which was a nice way to end a hot day.
The next day, we visited the Clark Planetarium and watched a short planetarium show about an alien family touring the Milky Way Galaxy. This was a fun place for the kids, and even Everest enjoyed the show. The planetarium had a bunch of activities, displays, and interactive learning experiences for the kids, besides the Imax and planetarium shows. It’s also free to visit (only the shows cost money). This is the type of place we’d likely visit very frequently if we lived in the area.
After the planetarium, we paid a visit to the public library. This was not merely out of desperation for air conditioning. Maybe slightly, but it ended up being a pretty fun time. I love libraries, and this one had a particularly neat children’s section, with themed reading rooms, one of which had a tree house and puppet theater. The ladies at the front desk also passed out treat bags for the kids.
Jenn and Kyle Fun Times 