Utah Vacation

In June we headed to Utah to attend the Wimmer Reunion in Nine Mile Canyon, a place my Dad loved and I visited often with him growing up. My grandparents were homesteaders out there.
This was my first look at a rock my Dad liked and had placed in front of his friend, Ben Mead's Bunk & Breakfast in Nine Mile Canyon. Ben spoke at my Dad's funeral in 2007 and told the story about the rock, which I'd never heard. So this was my motivation to definitely make it to the reunion this year when I learned it was to be held at Ben's Bunk & Breakfast. We also had a great visit many cousins and other relatives we don't see very often and had a delicious barbeque.

Here are some of Jack's descendants in front of what they call "Jack's Rock"...
Uncle Steve H. took us out to Huntington Reservoir for an evening of boat rides and the kids loved that but I didn't get any pictures. Bruce's part in our Utah vacation was cut drastically short as we had to drop him off at the SLC airport to fly to a conference in Massachusetts. But that didn't stop the rest of us from finding some fun. We stayed in Aunt Denette's fabulous guest suite. Dang it, if they didn't treat their guests so well we wouldn't bug them so much, hee hee. They have the most beautiful hiking trails right in their neighborhood. Denette took us on a relaxing hike where Teagan gathered a wildflower bouquet...
We did a cousin swap, we left Trent in Price and had Karli with us until we all met up at Lagoon.
The next day we went to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. They've had the stingers removed from some of their stingrays and they actually have a petting tank. This was fascinating for the kids and one of the highlights.
There were all kind of engaging displays at this place...
We hit Panda Express for lunch then it was on to Cowabunga Bay in Draper and was it ever a good day for it with temperatures in the mid-ninety's!
This is a new place that's great for young kids as it has a small pool, a nice lazy river, and about 8-10 different slides.
The next day when we got to Lagoon we found a nice shady spot for our lunch and the "big" kids disappeared immediately. They were headed for the cool big kid rides. No little kid rides for them, they were outta there! We hardly saw them the whole day. Karra and I hung out with Teagan, Brilee, Benjamin, and Karli.
Our theory was that it was so hot everyone would probably go to Lagoon-A-Beach so maybe the lines wouldn't be so long. At the end of the day I think we were right because lines really weren't that bad.
We had to cool off at the Log Flume. Karli, Brilee, Teagan, Ben, & me.
Aunt Karra, Karli, and Brilee in the back of the Tidal Wave. Karli decided she didn't like that ride.
We discovered that Teagan is definitely her father's daughter. She was a little queasy about some of the rides especially roller coasters. On the other hand Benjamin is definitely his mother's son. He was game to go on everything and anything and was too short for most things he wanted to go on. He did, however, convince me to take him on the Jett Star 2, and this is his first time on the Sky Ride...
Benjamin teasing Trent with the air baseball Derek had won for him...
By the end of the day we were pooped!