Utah-Summer-2015

It's only been a month or two that my husband's dear mom has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  So far, she is battling hard and doing OK but please feel free to read her story on our Go Fund Me page by clicking here.

With this news, my husband knew it was important to get to Utah as soon as he could to support her and her husband and what better time than when he could get some extra work off for the Independence day holiday!  So beginning our journey while I was 35 weeks pregnant and returning at 36 weeks, off we went a road trippin'!

We made the drive in two days driving 10-12 hours a day.  Sure, it should have been 9-10 hours a day but with a pregnant lady who needs to walk for circulation every few hours, a husband that loves stopping for coke and an occasional diaper change for the two year old (who did amazingly awesome), it all just took time!  But we made it.

On our way there, we went through South Dakota which surprisingly has lot of little tourist stops!  We stopped at the Oasis to see the buffalo statues and at Mt. Rushmore where we stayed the night.  We drove through Wyoming the next day and drove through nothing but beautiful planes and mountains (still boring but beautiful).  Although we did see lots of Mormon Pioneer stops but didn't work them into our schedule because we didn't realize we'd be passing them. We caught a little history about them at one of the rest stops which was cool.

You know who took our photo here?  Another family on the road that lives 15 minutes away from us in Minnesota....weird!

A Wyoming sunset

In Utah, we stayed at one of the Canyons Resorts in Park City and boy do I recommend it!  Do you ever go to different places and think to yourself "I could live here!"?  Well I've never felt that when visiting Utah until Park City.  It's so beautiful there way up in the mountains!  Our resort had a lovely cabriolet to take people part way up the mountain that we could ride for free.  It also had lovely pools from the adults only serenity pool to the outdoor pool hopping with kids like Joaquin.  It was so relaxing to be there.

Olympic Park 

Riding the Cabriolet

Downtown Park City for a sushi date with Jesus's best friend from college!

Each day we drove down to Salt Lake City to be with Jesus' mom.  She was only in the hospital one day while we were there and the rest of the time we were at home.  We invited her and her husband out to our resort for a weekend overnight.  We visited together, took photos at Temple Square and ate at Tucanos Brazilian steakhouse to name a few highlights.  Minnesota friends: if you like Fogo De Chao, you'd love Tucanos because it's just as, if not more, delicious and way cheaper!  We also ate at Cafe Rio which everyone and their mom loves in Utah but it took me a while to jump on the bandwagon.  This time I finally figured out how to order.  I had to get a salad so I could really taste the fresh made tortilla bowl and I had to add the dressing that everyone raves about.  Now I'm on the bandwagon and told Jesus we should buy a franchise and bring it to MN!  Think Chipotle but with handmade tortillas, way more salsas, yummier meat and a bigger menu.

Holding grandma's hand-adorable!

Salt Lake LDS Temple

On our way home, we decided to drive the Nebraska/Iowa route which was a half hour longer but seemed more populated than Wyoming (although less beautiful).  It was a long hard trip with lots of back pain but it was so worth it.  It was such a nice time to spend with Jesus's family.  His niece was even able to be there at the same time as us which was even more fun. I'm glad we're all back and resting before the new baby comes but so glad we had this adventure!