Sunday, July 08, 2007

What I did on my summer vacation

What I did on my summer vacation was go all the way to Salt Lake City. And stay in a hotel.






With a swimming pool downstairs.



The end.













No, just kidding. (About it being the end--not about going to Salt Lake City.)



Truly, we did. We took our three boys, stayed at the Shilo Inn (in spite of its sad history), and had a wonderful time. (I've been told, however, that when you take your children with you, it's not called a vacation but a trip.)



My favorite part was taking the boys to Lagoon and discovering my surprising love for roller coasters. I think I have scarred A-- for life by riding with him twice on the Wild Mouse and laughing hysterically both times while body slamming him every time the car turned a corner. S-- was terrified by three things: the huge swing that is Turn of the Century, the ferris wheel (seriously terrified), and the Sky Ride. T-- and S-- were both scared spitless after I forced them to go on the Terroride with me, but they both wanted to go back and do it again, so I guess there's hope yet for my cautious S--.



My least favorite part was taking the boys to Lagoon, a.k.a. the string bikini capital of Utah. Yuck. I haven't seen that much skin since who knows when. And it wasn't just the young teenage vixens--oh no. Trust me, ladies. Even if you have a body that looks that good, a bikini isn't the most flattering thing to wear at an amusement park. Then again, given the amount that we paid to get in, I guess we ought to have expected some type of show.

Hogle Zoo was also on the itinery for the Pottymouth family. The animals were, well, animals. What else did you expect?





(A--, above, looks uncannily like his mother. Poor kid.)






(A rare specimen of the Homo Sapien variety, sleeping soundly on a bench.)














(See those lovely cankles?)




The Hill Aerospace Museum was awesome. Some of those airplanes are ginormous! Of all the boys, however, Phil was the most enamoured of the steely birds. They have a hands-on room where kids can explore the physics of flight and sit in a real flight training cockpit. (I had wicked fun teasing T-- while he sat in there. I kept turning the lights on and off and he couldn't figure out how he was making it happen. I am so mean!)














The best part of the whole trip was coming home. It was lovely to not be too far away, and it was nice to have some time with the boys without any interruptions. But my bed was absolutely heavenly to fall into when we got back. There's no place like home.

12 comments:

Elizabeth-W said...

Looks like a great trip/vacation! We're planning a trip to Lagoon sometime this summer.
I'm laughing so hard at the Wild Mouse--that is the best ride. Glad to know it's still around. The last time I went to lagoon was probably when ET came out. Do you remember that fun house when they still had those HUGE slides? I LOVED those as a kid.
You weren't kidding about A. For half a sec I thought it was you!

Cari said...

That's our plan for August! (Minus the Aerospace museum and we are housesitting for my Mom so no hotel for us). We were going to go to California and do the Disney thing but decided to wait till after Christmas so we are taking a mini-vacation with the family in August.

NOBODY said...

You're a WAY cooler mom than I'll ever be. I hated the mouse ride. I rode it like 9 years ago when it was new, and I was young and I was miserable. All I could think was, "I could get a ride like this for free with my dad" Those sharps turns....

There really is no place like home, when it comes to your own bed.

p.s. what a good looking family!

QueenScarlett said...

how fun! I remember going to lagoon every year with my dad's company at the time...evans and sutherland... and we loved that rickety mouse ride. It's been...AGES... since hogle zoo... I think I was 5. Looks like you had fun...I especially like that pic of the little cutie pie hanging with you on the bed.

Melody said...

Perfect vacation! Your kids will remember it for a long time.

Smart mom (& dad) and no, I can't see any cankles...

elasticwaistbandlady said...

The last time we went to Splashtown, we saw several rotund ladies with the old "Split down the middle" Caesarean scars, prancing around in belly baring bikinis. The problem was that with the fat overlapping their scar line, it looked like they had two butts.

Don't people look in the mirror anymore or does blindness go along with the death of shame?

Great pictures! I haven't seen you around in so long, Julie, I thought you moved on and forgot all about little old Infidel me!

dalene said...

"Then again, given the amount that we paid to get in, I guess we ought to have expected some type of show."

Excellent!

And honey, in this weather everybody gets cankles!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Is cankles a new Mormon Mommy obsession? Until you and Carrot Jello, I didn't even know what that was.

Now I have another bodily imperfection to worry about that I blithely ignored before.

Lyle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lyle said...

Many, many, many moons ago, my family decided to take a weekend resort to the HomeStead...up by Midway. This was during a time period when the Homestead wasn't what it is today. The brochures we looked at were all nice and pretty...pool, hot tub, horse rides, tennis...the works. We pulled up to a pathetic looking Money Pit. My dad demanded his money back and off we went to stay the night in SLC [and the pool was nice].

Sarah said...

Lady, you and I need to have a cankle showdown. I wouldn't have even noticed yours unless you pointed them out and I went to enlarge the photo!

The picture of the turtle shell is my favorite! It's hard not to get some great shots at the zoo :)

Geo said...

Looks like your husband got a lot of rest! What a good idea to make a close-to-home trip like that. It doesn't decrease the fun level at all, sounds like.