Westward Migration Summer 2012--Part 1

The Brown's went west for summer vacation 2012. It was a long journey, but we had lots of fun!! We left on Monday, July 30 after getting the girls registered for school. We got as far as Kearney, NE. the first night. The second day we drove towards Denver. We made a few stops along the way.

Maryn and Avery at the Lincoln statue Visitor Center in NE.

Mark and Parker...she was a little apprehensive of the grizzly bear. She said it reminded her of Brave...lol!!

We stopped in Denver our 2nd night and stayed with the Pierson's!! I am kicking myself because we didn't take any pictures while we were there!! It was fun to catch up with Shauna and Daren and the (grown up) kids. We did so much in a short amount of time too! We went to the park with Daren, Maddi, and Buddy (whom Avery took quite a liking to!), and of course the infamous long board! (It's like another member of their family!) LOL!! After that, Shauna made us a delicious dinner! After dinner, Shauna and Maddi and the girls and I hit up their local rec center pool for a quick dip in the pool. After that Daren, Shauna, Collin, Kristen, Paige, and Mark and I got to see a late night movie! After that we pretty much crashed until we could smell a yummy breakfast cookin' upstairs. We ate breakfast and got to talk to Andrew for a little while before we hit the road again!!

We drove over to Evanston, WY for our 3rd night. We wanted to stay in SLC but all the hotels were booked up. Evanston was close enough. Although our hotel pretty much sucked. Oh well.

The next day we drove into SLC and hit up Temple Square. We hadn't been in quite a few years. It was nice to see all the new construction and have some open time available to walk through the visitor centers and take some of the tours. We got to see the Joseph Smith movie and that was a real treat for the girls and I!! Mark and Parker napped in the car at that point.

The Christus

This is a ballroom in the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. Parker exclaimed, "It's Belle's Ballroom!!" when we entered. She and Avery did some dancing while the rest of us sand "tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme...Beauty and the Beast!!" It was pretty cute!!

The pretty floral display in the lobby at the JSMB

Atop the Conference Center After finishing up at Temple Square, we headed north to Logan.

I haven't been back to Logan in ages...probably since I graduated! It was so fun to go back with some time to just wander around and reminisce. We stayed there for two nights, it was so great!!

We walked around campus and this is in front of the Old A in the background. I just love USU campus!

We took a drive through the Logan canyon. Mark freaked me out taking this pic. Maryn actually took this because I refused to even get out and look down the steep drop off.

And of course no trip through Logan is complete without some Aggie Ice Cream at the USU Creamery. It was soooooo good!! Just like I remembered it!

We also had a chance to visit Mark's cousin, Kristen. Sad that we missed her hubby, it would've been fun to get to know him better!! Thanks Kristen!!

After our time in Logan, we headed north again towards Idaho. I'll save that part for another post.