Salt Lake and Olympic Villiage

I took this slightly crooked picture of the Salt Lake Temple on Tuesday. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed walking around Temple Square in the morning, although we felt a little gouged at the Conference Center parking garage ($10!). Still, it was a good visit.

I explained the mirror effect of this reflecting pool to the kids and Jonah and Isaac immediately wanted their pictures taken with their reflections. 

I usually had to take a few pictures to get one good one due to the punching, kicking, and shoving that went on as part of the boys having to stand next to each other for more than five seconds. In the tabernacle, Jonah leaned so far into Ethan when I asked him to scoot a little closer that Robert and Isaac nearly fell over. Isaac had to express his displeasure in this shot. 

Meanwhile, some delightful sister missionaries were teaching a group of women about the Tabernacle's history a few rows away. I almost felt their silent prayer for "those unruly children" to leave so they wouldn't ruin the reverent spirit of the building. We left.

Moments before this picture was taken, Isaac sucker-punched Ethan in the gut. One dad in the room thought it was pretty funny. 

I recalled the first time I saw this statue when I was ten years old. My dad told me that Jesus was at the top of the spiral walkway and my family reverently ascended. I knew Salt Lake was a special place and if Jesus was going to live anywhere, it would probably be at temple square. I walked with trepidation: was I ready to face my Savior? Had I lived the kind of life He would want me to live? I was overwhelmed but continued upwards. I supposed that if I hadn't done everything as I should have, it was too late to worry about it now.

And then I saw the statue and not the real Jesus. I was quite relieved. 

Guess what? Salt Lake has Rubio's so we went there for lunch. But you know what? It just wasn't the same. It was just as tasty, but I think the fact that Rubio's was such a San Diego specialty gave the food an extra special flavor. Now that I know they've got restaurants all over Utah, Rubio's is kind of "meh."

After lunch we drove towards Park City and the Olympic Village. We watched as freestyle ski jumpers took jumps and did flips into a pool as part of their summer training. There was a fun museum about the history of skiing in Utah and then each of the boys wen downhill skiing. Kind of.

I thought these pictures were hilarious!

Robert had to hold up Isaac for this one, so I didn't make him do a second shot.

I told Robert to look like he was serious about his downhill skiing. 

Finally, we took the boys over to the zip line and alpine slide. They had a blast and I remembered midway through the video that I can't tape in "portrait." Oops!

Back at Rick and Betsy's house, we had delicious pulled pork sandwiches for dinner and I got glitter toes  from her sister Stephanie later that night. I can't stop looking at them. Maybe because they are so amazingly sparkly and beautiful. Pictures of the tootsies tomorrow!