Molecules of Eternity: Our Summer Vacation to Utah

Summer Vacation 2019

We did it. We road tripped from Austin, TX to Salt Lake City, Utah! Our kids were road trip champs! We spent two fun filled weeks in Utah and Idaho enjoying family and fresh air.

We left Austin very early in the morning. Everyone was happy, awake, and excited to go! We drove all day Saturday, stopping a few times in the middle of nowhere because that is what is between Austin and Utah. We spent the night in Farmington, NM.

On Sunday we stopped in Monticello, Utah for church. We also saw the temple.

After church we took a Sunday walk to Wilson's arch. Taft climbed it like a mountain goat! I was pretty much having a heart attack. It was sandy and slippery, but Erik made it with the 3 olders like a champ!

Our first family stop was in Provo to see Taylor, Krystalee, Fife, Vera, Isak, Doug, and Amanda. The kids had a 5 minute sleep over, we took an official golf cart tour of BYU, had ice cream, and a cook out at the Archibald's house. The kids had a blast with their cousins playing outside from dawn (literally) until dusk. Taft particularly remembers making paper rockets and blasting them off of the pneumatic launcher Taylor made.

The BYU Bookstore has this new slide set-up! Hike the Y with littles!

Joel was a good helper, feeding kent a bottle while we traveled.

We were happy to get to Salt Lake and see the Nelsens!

Porter returned home from his mission to Colombia only a couple of weeks prior. It was fun to see him! Alyssa and I realized we didn't really remember a lot about Porter before his mission except that he taught Alyssa how to swim...(?? That's what she always says anyway, though that may have been one time swimming together in a hotel swimming pools??). It was fun to be with him. He taught Alyssa a few things about Rubik's cubes and Alyssa has been working on our 3 X 3 ever since. Once she masters it she has big plans to do some of the other crazy ones like Porter.

While in Utah, we did as the Utahns do! We hiked around Silver Lake. I was really hoping to see a moose. We really only saw dead fish. Bad year for the water apparently. Claire and Porter went with us.

We also went to Kennecott Copper Mine. I really wanted to see the big dump trucks and thought Joel and Taft would enjoy them too. They are so far away that they don't look very big! We got to see how big their beds are, though, and we stood inside the big scoop of a giant bulldozer! The mine is so big! It's amazing how much of the mountain they have carved away, slowly, over time.

The Days of '47 Parade was going to happen while we were there so we went the float preview party. We were there without Grandpa, or were we...

Don't be fooled. Though that looks just like Dad, it was not. Total doppelganger, but maybe Dad should make sure someone isn't stealing his clothes at night. Or maybe he should start an Instagram Influencer Style account!

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was the much anticipated half marathon/marathon/5k. Now, why no one told me that I probably wasn't really starting this training with a prepregnancy fitness level and that a "couch to half marathon" in 3.5 months was kind of ambitious, I will never know. (Or maybe they did but I didn't listen.) However, after many days of early morning Texas runs, Erik, Jacob, Katie, and I ran 13.1 miles down Emigration Canyon and into the Salt Lake Valley! Ben ran a full marathon, bless his soul. And everyone else ran or walked in a 5k. It was hard. So hard. And I am still recovering over a month later, but I am glad that I did it! My favorite part was crossing the finish line with Erik. I had anticipated beating him at some point during my training because I felt that I was a little more diligent in my training. But blisters and my hip slowed me down a little bit and in the end we ran the entire thing together! We crossed the finish line hand in hand. I could not have done it without Erik both during training and during the marathon. He kept me going and supported me. It was a bit metaphorical of our life together. We need each other and we have to do it side by side the whole way!

One afternoon we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Scarlet's. Grandpa had a birthday! He's just a few years over 30. All of the Nelsen clan was present, so we snapped a few photos for posterity's sake.

A few more photos for posterity's sake...

Taft LOVES Chance and Begheera. Here he is, pictured with Begheera. Don't know what she's doing...

Let's see. We also went up to Idaho and played at Hot Lava Springs and did many fun runs down a river up there. Alyssa overcame her fear of the waterslides and the platforms, jumping of the first platform once! The house we stayed at was very close to the train tracks and a railroad crossing. Taft and Joel were in love with seeing the train every time it came through. It did not get old! We shot bb guns and ate nice hot shmoes around the campfire. The trip was a time of growth for us as we came to know each other better and strengthen our trust and relationships.

This was Ben and Porter's first hammock arrangement. It was a lil' cozy.

Erik slept in the tent with the kids the first night. The train was a little too much for everyone, so they slept inside the second night. This what the sleeping arrangements were like...

In the midst of Utah Erik went to China for a research conference. He saw the Forbidden City and the Great Wall among a few other things.

Erik at the Great Wall. He's in his research group to add diversity...

Claire was amazing and played game after game after game with Alyssa, along with hours of Barbies. We had fun at Grandma's eating popsicles and playing in the kiddie pool. The kids loved the raspberries and Alyssa was bound and determined to find a ripe blackberry, which she did! Two, in fact! The kids also enjoyed going on a walk with Grandma and Chance and the neighbor ladies every morning. The simple things of every day with Grandma was a major highlight of their trip.

I enjoyed going to Butlerville Days and listening to Peter Breinholt and watching the fireworks. I reflected on how much my life has changed since the last time I did that a senior in high school. The fireworks were pretty similar, and I still enjoyed them. But instead of being surrounded by high school friends, who I thought were so important, I was with Ben, Claire and James, Jacob and Katie, Porter, and Alyssa. Once a young women's leader told me I wouldn't be friends with my friends later on. I told her I couldn't imagine it. We'd be friends forever! But she was right (she seemed to always be right, though I loathed her for it at the time). I was surrounded with all of my siblings and my daughter though. These are the friends I will have for life. And there we were, sitting on the lawn of our middle school, all a little older and wiser, and so much closer than we were 12 years ago.

There are a lot of places we can travel. We haven't been to very many of them, but my travel dreams come true every time we go to Utah, spend a few days, and live life with the people we love the most.

Some more pictures...

Preparing to Road Trip home

Erik took the boys to Macey's to get snacks for the road trip. They ate ice cream and bought snacks that helped our road trip feel like nursery on wheels. It made having home church in the car quite natural.

Road Trippin' Home