Utah Visit 2026 Part IV

July 1

I slept pretty well and woke up around eight and went for a 3 mile run on the trail. I came back and took my time bathing and getting ready and took my mom to go pick up Elisa and Aaliyah from Lisa‘s house because Elisa wanted to go to Cupbop. The kids all ordered what they wanted, and almost $50 later, they were fed and happy. I wanted to go someplace a little nicer with my mom. We would have invited Lisa, but she had to take Aaliyah to an appointment and also had a lot of things to do at her house. 

I took this picture of the kids, and my mom took this other picture of me taking a picture of the kids!

My mom chose Tsunami. She wanted to try the curry, and we picked out a few appetizers which were salmon Rangoon and calamari. They are pretty good, but when we got the curry, it was icky. Neither one of us liked it, so my mom told the waitress. The waitress had the manager come out and ask why we didn’t like it. That was a tad awkward. We were able to get Vegas sushi roll in place of it. 

We were thinking about going to DI and having Lisa meet us there, but we decided to just go back home and rest for a bit.  I followed my mom when she took her van and to the mechanics. We picked it up 30 minutes later after laying down. Then we decided to go to Smith’s to pick up some food for Fourth of July and a couple other things. We decided to have ribs, and we got a couple fun things in the clearance section. Then we went to Lisa‘s to pick up Ian; we stayed for maybe 20 minutes. Lisa was stressed out with all the cleaning and laundry she had to do, but we had groceries in the car so we couldn’t stay too long. I came back with Ian and had some dinner and some cherries that were unfortunately not good. But, the ice cream sandwiches we had after were good at least! We watched a little bit of the Phantom of the opera from 1925 and then went to bed.

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July 2

This day was spent mostly with Tootsie. I didn't write a log for this day, so I'll try to remember the best I can through the pictures I took. Tootsie actually reached out to me, which was a nice surprise. She wanted to go to The Bean Yard with us. Ian was sleeping over, so he came along too. I ordered him some avocado toast to share with me. He seemed to like it. My mom had a lavender scone that was good. The Bean Yard is right by the DI, but Tootsie and Ian vetoed going in. After breakfast, we went back to Lisa's house for a little bit (mostly to drop off Ian) and then to my parent's house, and she hung around both houses for a little bit to chat.  

 

A few pictures I took at the Bean Yard. 

My mom likes to take random videos of people without their knowledge. Here is Tootsie and me discussing how to make the perfect avocado toast, haha.

Me and Tootsie

Erik sent me this. We have some smart boys!

Later that evening, Elisa and Isabelle wanted to hang out at mall. I dropped Elisa off at the food court so she could meet up with Isabelle. My mom came with, and more than likely we went to Marshall's around the corner from the mall to have a look around. I'm not sure that I even bought anything.  

A picture together after a fun time at the mall!

After the mall, we swung by Lisa's house to drop off Elisa. There was this little lost dog in her driveway. It was cute until it tried to bite. It ended up belonging to a neighbor down the street.

We were glad to have found this bite-y little pup's home.

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Lisa wanted the boys to go swimming but took practically all morning to get around to dropping her boys off. Ian and I waited and waited at the South Jordan rec center for them. I was tired of waiting (Lisa rarely communicates her plans to me), so I just let Ian get in the water. Luckily, his cousins came shortly after he got in the water. I had to drive waaay out to Magna to pick up race packets for my dad and me. My mom came with, and on the way back from Magna we stopped at her favorite Mexican restaurant in West Jordan, Taqueria El Rey De Oros. I think the food at that restaurant it just okay, but she goes there quite a bit. The restaurant is right by a DI, so we stopped in very briefly just to have a look around. By the time we got back to my parent's house, it was already time to go to the airport to pick up Erik. My mom had to take a cat in to the vet, so she couldn't come along for the drive, she usually likes to come. Erik was coming into town for 4th of July but mostly for our upcoming family trip to Bear Lake. Later that evening, we watched the rest of the 1920's Phantom of the Opera, and we thought it was funny that the Phantom's "real" name was Erik. Not Eric, but Erik.   

Our camera above the garage captured Erik leaving for the airport via Lyft/Uber.

Utah Visit 2026 Part III--The Rest of June (Having More Fun!)

June 27

After packing up the campsite, I headed to Tootsie's house. My mom met us there. We went out to dinner at a Thai Restaurant near Tootsie's house. It was pretty yummy. Then we went back to her house and watched a Netflix documentary, Maternal Instinct. I took this picture of my mom in her car at the stoplight, as we were driving back to her house.

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June 29

Our annual visit to Leatherby's! Lisa doesn't like Leatherby's, so we just took Aaliyah. My parents came and of course so did Elisa and Ian. We enjoyed the food and especially the ice cream. Here, I found out that Aaliyah (with Elisa's help) gave herself a second piercing. I guess she had done it last week, and so far Lisa didn't even notice. Aaliyah couldn't leave the piercing alone, so it got infected not to long after and closed up. Eric didn't approve of the second piercing anyway, so no matter.  The waitress must have been distracted by the rude customer in the booth next to us, because she forgot to include the ice cream on our bill! 

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June 30--a fun day! I spent most of the day with Lisa. Disclaimer: I'm relying on a hazy memory here and the few pictures I took!  We went shopping at TJMaxx. I can't quite remember what I got, but if Elisa was with me (which I think she was?) then I probably bought stuff! I think my mom was with us too, but I can't quite remember. I spotted this rug and told Lisa about it, and she immediately bought it and put it in her living room. We gathered the boys and dropped them off at the rec center to swim. Then Lisa, the girls, and I all went to Walmart because the girls wanted to buy some treats before going to see The Backrooms at the movie theater. In the hour or so that we were kid-free, Lisa and I went out for a late lunch/early dinner to Taco Mania. It was actually pretty good; I'd go back if given the chance. The we went to pick up the boys, and I bought everyone an ice cream cone at Arctic Circle. After dropping the boys off at Lisa's, we went to get the girls since they were finished with the movie. Then I hung out at Lisa's until about 8pm, we probably watched a movie in her room, but like I said--hazy memory!  

 

The rug fit in Lisa's living room perfectly!

On the other side of the nice rug is the kitchen, which we can plainly see was being used by five kids and zero adults.

Lisa at Taco Mania!

I took this picture of the boys after they finished swimming at the Rec center.

Ian enjoying his ice cream cone from Arctic Circle

Utah Visit 2026 Part II-Camping

June 26-27. Lisa excitedly planned a campout for me, my dad, and all the kids (minus Gabe, he stayed in St. George while we were in South Jordan). Lisa took on too much of the planning and organizing herself and failed to delegate any tasks beyond yelling at someone to do something as soon as she thought of it. The campsite was just off the Provo River in Wallsburg, Utah, accessed by the Provo Canyon. It was a little tricky to find because MapQuest is lame. I also did not enjoy driving through that canyon at all; I thought the speed limit was way too high and that is from someone who likes to drive fast! We packed both vans up with camping stuff and the paddleboards, and I drove my dad and Ian down to the campsite. Lisa planned to go to the beach at the Deer Creek Reservoir not too far from the campground. Unfortunately, it was so SO windy that it was impossible to do anything at that beach. We had the paddleboards ready to go (I had just bought a new paddleboard off Amazon) when I realized that we would more than likely be blown to the other side of the lake and not able to get back, so I packed the paddleboard back up. We packed everything up; there wasn't much to be done in that wind. The sand blowing in our face was the worst. Aiden and Calvin might have swam for a bit, but ultimately, we had to leave because the wind was just too bad to do anything in despite our best efforts. 

Packing up after a failed attempt at playing in the reservoir. You can't tell from the picture, but it was so windy.

We packed Lisa's car really tight!

My dad was waiting for us back at the campground. The campsite that Lisa rented was a teeny tiny "island" connected by a small bridge. The kids enjoyed playing in the water, which was just a branch off from the river. The water was freezing cold. Elisa lost one of my sandals she was wearing in the water. It just disappeared.  Lisa had previously made some hobo dinners, and my dad cooked them over the fire. Once they were finally finished cooking (we took them out several times to check), the kids gobbled them up happily. After eating the hobo dinners, we made s'mores (a camping requirement!). My dad set up a hammock just outside the tents in between the trees. He was actually okay with sleeping in it that night. Needless to say, he did not sleep well. The boys slept in one teepee tent and the girls and Lisa slept in another. I was not interested in getting a terrible night's sleep, so I left just before it got dark. Ian tried to skip out on the camping, but I insisted he stay. During this time, there were lots of fires in Utah. It made my mom nervous, but most of the fires stuck to the mountain areas. Still, the sky turned a strange hue for a bit due to all the smoke of the fire.

We stayed in the teepees on the bottom right.

Playing in the freezing cold river water. This was just one little branch of the river and it wasn't very deep.

Aaliyah in the girl's tent

Cool teepees, however filled with spider and bugs they may be.

The sky turned a strange hue of grayish brown from the smoke. It was a bit eerie, to be honest

Cooking up some yummy hobo dinners

Ian and Calvin having fun.

Lisa...trying to smile?

S'more time!

Trying out the hammock.

My dad loves being outside!

These girls didn't stray very far from each other the whole trip!

Ian and Calvin are the best of buds!

Due to poor planning and poor supervision, the kid ate ALL the food from the cooler. Therefore, there wasn't much for them to eat for breakfast, let alone lunch. I had planned on going back that day, so it wasn't too much hassle for me to swing by the closest Taco bell and buy 8 $5 meal boxes for everyone to eat for lunch. While we ate, we watched the loads of people tube down the river. Calvin enjoyed waving at all the people. Lisa had brought the paddleboards in order to paddle down the river. So, after we finished eating and watching the "river show", we inflated our 3 paddle boards. There was free ice-cream for anyone at the campground, so we went and had some.

Text convo between my dad and I. My rule for life is always buy, order, and bring more food than you think you might eat. Better to have leftover food than to be hungry! 

Ian enjoying his Taco Bell lunch

I thought I had gotten a video of all the people floating down the river, but I guess this is all I got...

Setting up the paddleboards

Enjoying the free ice cream!

Elisa and Aaliyah used my paddle board, Lisa and Aiden used one of Lisa's boards, and my dad, Calvin, and Ian used the other board that belonged to Lisa. Elisa and Aaliyah glided smoothly through the water and had no issues. Lisa and Aiden struggled to get going, and my dad and the boys had an even harder time getting going. We found out that the struggle to get going was because Lisa's paddleboards had a huge fin at the bottom, which unfortunately broke off in the water. I can't remember if it was one or the other, or both. My dad and the boys eventually got going (probably made possible by losing the big fin?). Everyone was supposed to get out at Vivian Park. Elisa and Aaliyah made it with no problems. Lisa and Aiden made it with problems (a spill which included a nasty leg gash). My dad however, got confused and got off too early. Then called me to come pick him and the boys up, but he wasn't quite sure exactly where he was. Short story even shorter, I found them. I wasn't thrilled that he left the boys by themselves while he ran down to meet me and pick up the paddleboards, but I guess Ian isn't the baby I want him to be at 11 years old, haha. After retrieving the paddleboards and picking the boys up, we drove to Vivian Park to meet Lisa, Aiden, and the girls. Then we drove back to the campsite to pack up. 

Elisa and Aaliyah on their way down the river

Bye-bye, Lisa and Aiden

I thought they were well on their way...until they got stuck!

Trying to get going again. It took some maneuvering and I guess a fin to break off!

My dad sent me this picture of Calvin and this video in order to tell me where exactly they were so I could rescue them.

Lisa telling my dad all about her paddleboarding adventures/mishaps on the Provo River, just before packing up.