Visit to SLC

My Grandma invited Brooklyn and I down to Salt Lake City to visit her one last time before she finished her mission at Temple Square Family History Center.
I was really nervous to make the five hour trip by myself with a baby but knew that at some point I just needed to get over my fear.  We left Sunday after church and I hoped Brooklyn would take her nap and that would take care of half of the trip.  She only slept for about an hour but did really well the rest of the trip, just got a bit fussy the last 45 minutes or so before we got to Ogden.
We stopped in Ogden to visit one of my favorite families from my mission, the Najera Family.  Oh my goodness I LOVE them! They were both ward missionaries in the branch that I served 9 months in.  They had the missionaries over to eat every other week or so and Hermana Najera is an AMAZING cook.  Of course when we got there she got food out for us to eat. We all sat around and talked and Brooklyn played with a little boy they babysit. I was worried I wouldn't be able to communicate in Spanish anymore but I actually found myself more at ease speaking because there wasn't any expectation for me to be good cause I haven't spoken in so long.  Love that family so much and I was so glad to get to see them again.

The Najera's

Merari

I was really surprised how at ease Brooklyn felt around her Great Grandma.  She would tickle her and they would laugh and laugh.

Reading to Great Grandma Larkin

One day we went to Brigham City where my Grandma took us out to eat and to walk around the temple grounds.  Afterwards we stopped at a fruit stand to get some local peaches and other fresh and local produce.  My Aunt Margaret had driven up from Texas to take my Grandma home after her mission so we got to spend time with her as well.  I loved being able to spend time chatting with these wonderful women in my life.

Grandma Larkin, Brooklyn, and Aunt Margaret outside the Brigham City Temple

Enjoying the temple grounds

Before I left I asked another mom from one of the Mom's groups I am a part of for any suggestions on good places to take kids in SLC, since they just moved from there.  She recommended the Children's Discovery Center.  I looked it up and found it was only a few blocks from my Grandma's apartment.  Brooklyn and I were walking there and I was thinking about my sister's SIL and wondering if she still lived in SLC only to look about a few minutes later and see her walking down the street on her way to school! We stopped to chat and took a quick picture.

Eunice and I

The Discovery Center was AMAZING!! We could have stayed all day.  

 On the roof of the building they have a helicopter pad with an old helicopter that the kids can get in. There is also a helicopter control area and different hospital rooms. Brooklyn loved acting as secretary at the emergency room.

Acting as copilot of the helicpoter

Hello?

Can I help you?

  As you first enter the Discovery Center there is an area with very tall ceilings with a bunch of tubes winding around. Kids can put balls through different holes and watch them be forced up and through the tubs by air pressure. We spent a lot of time in that area.

You can see the tubes in this picture that the balls go through.

There was a house area with kid size appliances and furniture to play with that Brooklyn was thrilled with.

Very excited about being able to pound away at a piano.

Just her size.

At the grocery store our latest struggle has been that Brooklyn doesn't want to be pushed in the cart she wants to push the cart.  At the Discovery Center they had kid sized carts and a grocery store that was super exciting for Brooklyn.

Loading up the cart.

She spent about five minutes with her hand under this feeling the water.

The water table was a hit too. Basically this place was a kids dream come true.