Fun and Games in Salt Lake City

We arrived in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 20th and hit the ground running! We haven't seen the kids in nearly a year and we had to make up for lost time!  It was fun surprising Josh and Eva when we picked them up after school.  Having them running into our arms and greeting us with their warm hugs certainly made our day! 

Picking up Josh and Eva after school!

Violin practice - what a treat for Nana and Papa!

Ice cream for an after school treat!

Behind Brandon and Anne's home is the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  Salt Lake City is where Bonneville Lake existed eighteen thousand years ago!  Bonneville Lake was 1000 feet deep and covered 20,000 square miles.  Hiking even a small section of the trail marking the shoreline of this ancient lake offers spectacular views of the city as well as the Wasatch Mountains!  The spring flowers were still blooming.  Reveling in the beauty of God's creation was continuous on these hikes.  Every turn the trail took offered a new, jaw dropping view!

Hiking the trails behind Brandon and Anne's home.

Salt Lake City and the Capitol in the background.

Eva made her First Holy Communion and Confirmation while we were visiting.  Witnessing Eva make these sacraments was the motivation for the timing of this visit.  It was wonderful to be able to be there for her big day.  Anne's parents also made the trip to Salt Lake City, traveling from Marion, Iowa to be there for her special day.  With the restrictions of Covid slowly being lifted, it was joyous to be able to gather together!  

Eva's First Holy Communion and Confirmation

Eva sketches the "Communion Angel"!

The kids have Fridays off from school (yet another Covid thing) which gave us a delightful 3-day weekend together.  Taking full advantage of the opportunity, we found pickleball courts only a mile from their home at 11th Ave. Park!  We made a trip to yet another park for a game of hide and seek.  I have to admit, it took a while for me to remember the rules!  "Ready or not, here I come!" and making it to home base before you get tagged is all you need to know!  One evening, we went back to 11th Ave. Park for a game of Kubb.  Kubb is a Nordic lawn game that involves throwing a wooden baton to try to knock over your opponents' wooden blocks.  It's a simple game that is super fun once you catch on to how to play it!  Brandon and Anne's back yard was a perfect spot for some time with the kids while Brandon and Anne were getting things done.  We found plenty of time for a game of Goodmitten (the new Badminton!), tossing the football around and learning how to do backbends!

11th Ave. Park offers stunning mountain views.

The trick was to hide close to home base!

Goodmitten - the new Badmitten!

Papa and Josh tossing the football around.

Young and limber!

 
Playing Kubb (the mountains were a huge distraction!)

Liberty Park has so many wonderful features including the Tracy Aviary.  After going to mass on Sunday morning, we spent a few hours enjoying the wide selection of birds that call this place home.  The roseate spoonbill was my favorite, but it was certainly hard to pick!  The Macaw put on a pretty nice show for us!

One night after school, Josh had a baseball game.  This wasn't just any baseball game!  This was the game against High West, the best team in the league.  Not only that, it was being played at Rose Park, which is the field the game from the movie "Sandlot" was played on!  It must have been a good omen, as Josh's team (the Sharks) won!

Josh swings away!

Evenings around the house included filling hummingbird feeders, enjoying a beer while grilling brats, doing a little sewing, feeling kicks from this new granddaughter (due in late July), and watching wrestling matches between Frankie and Domer.  Although Domer is 3x Frankie's size,  Domer was so patient and gentle in his play!

While Josh and Eva were in school was a good time to help Brandon and Anne with a few maintenance items and some yard work.  Anne's father is extremely handy with home maintenance and with his know-how and several pairs of helping hands, we were able to replace a very worn out dishwasher, and give the deck and small facelift.  I'm a bit more help behind a lawnmower than I am behind a skill saw, so I stuck to the yard work end of things!

Helping Josh and Eva with their homework was a lot of fun.  Josh had researched and written a paper on Mary Edwards Walker.  I had never heard of her, but Mary was an amazing woman!  She is the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor, which she was awarded for her service during the Civil War.  My small part in his project was to help Josh summarize his paper into a 30-60 second paragraph and help him memorize it.  All of this led to a class project called the Wax Museum.  Each of his classmates dressed up as the character they researched and were "wax figures".  Parents and grandparents were invited to the Wax Museum.  We wandered from one wax figure to the other, pushing each figure's start button.  When you pushed their start button, they would come to life and recite their summary.  We learned about Amelia Earhart, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, Sacagawea, Jonas Salk, Sandra Day O'Connor, Albert Einstein, Jackie Robinson, among others!  What a super cool class project!

Josh as Mary Edwards Walker

Josh and Eva both attend Madeleine Choir School located only 2 miles from their home.  Fifth grade is the first year students are eligible to audition for the choir and Josh made it into the choir as a fifth grader! We were so blessed to be there for the choir's spring concert, which was the first concert to be held since Covid hit.  The concert was held in the Cathedral of the Madeleine.  We all wore masks, but it's great to see things starting to open up and become a little bit closer to what we remember as "normal".  

I can't believe we packed all of this into a week.  Maybe that helps explain why I am so tired!  Saying goodbye to Brandon, Anne, Josh and Eva is always difficult; however, knowing we will be back when Baby Peterson is born made this departure a little easier.  On to Colorado Springs for a nephew's high school graduation and then off to Idaho!