July

We had yet another busy month!!

4th of July
The 4th of July came right on the heels of our European adventure. The Mangums offered to host a family meal.  It was fun to spend time hanging with family.

We were too tired to stay for fireworks down in Provo so we headed back home and did some of our own.  Tyler and Nathan had fun putting on a show for us and the neighbors.  They even attached fireworks to Nathan's RC for fireworks that flew down the street. It was actually pretty cool.

Heber Valley
After a week of sleeping, doing laundry, getting over jet lag, and in general, just trying to catch back up on life it was time for our next adventures to begin.  We were able to go to our annual Heber Valley family campout.  Matt, Tyler, and I did not stay the night, but Nathan was able to stay and hang out with cousins. We were thankful that even with all the crazy busy stuff we had this summer we were still able to make it to Heber Valley--even if we didn't stay the night.  This is such a fun Hatch Family tradition.

 On the lake

 Hanging out at the pavilion

 Singing happy Birthday to Grandpa

 Food!  And lots of it! 

 Cara braided Nathan and Jaxon's hair--lookin' manly!

Heber Valley would not be complete without some card games! 

Visitors from Chile!!

For the past several years Matt and I have been talking about having our friends Ana Maria and Alejandro that live in Santiago Chile come to America.  Alejandro was Matt's first companion on his mission in Vina Del Mar Chile.  We have kept in contact through the years.  In 2005 Matt and I visited them in Chile. They helped welcome Miranda when she arrived for her mission there and then Matt saw them again when he went to Chile to pick Miranda up from her mission. We felt it was time for them to come visit us here in America.  So, after years of thinking about it and months of planning they finally had their first trip to America and, for Alejandro, his first flight on an airplane! They were here for just two weeks...two weeks to show them the best of the west. Not nearly enough time, but we did the best that we could.

Saturday July 13th-They arrived at about 10:30am.  After getting home, getting settled, and receiving SO MANY gifts from them we headed out on our first adventure...Leatherby's ice cream.

After filling up at Leatherby's we drove around Draper showing them Summit Academy, the school I teach at, and the Draper temple. They were amazed by all the large houses by the temple.  We then drove through Sandy by our old house and then walked around the temple quarry.  From there we visited with the Ruppers and stopped in at Matt's office.  It was a simple afternoon/evening, but just right after they had spent the previous 26 hours traveling here.

That night Nathan came home from work with this GIANT bag of popcorn! 
Good thing we were going to Grandpa's the next day!

 Sunday July 14- Ana Maria and Alejandro joined us for church in the morning.  After church we walked up to the temple. It's so nice to have it so close. Miranda joined us for an early dinner and then we headed to Provo to overwhelm Ana Maria and Alejandro with family.  I think they enjoyed the chaos with lots of food, family, kids, and happiness. We got home in time for Ana Maria to join in on my weekly chick chat with Anne, Dina, and Ellen.  It was a great first full day.

Ana Maria with Paula

Monday July 15th- Downtown Salt Lake City

Today we did the obvious Salt Lake City tourist thing and spent the day downtown. We visited Temple Square, had a tour of the conference center, walked through City Creek, and even had lunch with Miranda. It was hot, but I do believe they enjoyed seeing our beautiful downtown.

Tuesday July 16th- This is the Place, Park City, art class, and Bees Baseball
Today was jam packed.  We headed out to This is the Place early before it got too hot.  Alejandro and Ana Maria had a great time pretending to be pioneers. They even got themselves some cowboy hats.

 After This is the Place we drove up the canyon to have lunch in Park City. We also got to walk around Olympic Park and watch some skiers practice jumps and land in the swimming pool. That was pretty cool for all of us.  After Park City Ana Maria got to come to art class with me. She even completed a water color.   From art we went home and got ready for the game.  To give them a different experience, this time we rode TRAX to downtown.  It's always nice to not worry about parking.  By the time we got to the game the sun was setting so it was't too hot and our seats were in the shade.  Surprisingly, there was hardly anyone there.  It was kind of weird to have the stands so empty.  It was still a fun game though.

Wednesday July 17th- Picnic and Silver Lake
Sadly I woke up Wednesday with a bad head cold.  I didn't feel like a very good host.  We had a slow morning while Matt was at work for a bit and then he came home and packed up a picnic for us.  We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Ledgemere--our favorite picnic site--complete with a creek and a cave to explore.

 After having a nice lunch we drove to the top of the canyon and walked around Silver Lake--it was as beautiful as ever.

When we got home I crashed while Ana Maria made us a lovely and yummy Chilean dinner. Ron came up to enjoy the food with us too.She made juicy chicken, rice, and ripped underwear--a type of fried bread.  She was so happy to cook for us and we were more than happy to eat it.

Thursday July 18th- The road trip begins!
Today I was still feeling a bit under the weather, but I pushed through it. We began the day touring around Brigham Young University.  It was fun showing them that beautiful campus. After lunch we drove to Goblin Valley. We love this place.  It was HOT so we didn't stay long, but they got a taste of what the surface of Mars must be like.

We arrived in Moab in time to watch the sunset from the Colorado River and make a simple dinner at our condo.

Firday July 19th- Arches!
I was still not feeling well so I stayed behind today to have a day of rest and recovery while Matt took our visitors to Arches National Park.  They were impressed, as we knew they would be because Arches is AMAZING!!  It was pretty hot though so no hike up to Delicate Arch.  Ana Maria started to get a bit of heat exhaustion as well so they didn't last all day.

We went to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Moab--Antica Forma. Delicious Italian food! Then we had a great time going through the stores down main street.  They enjoyed the chance to souvenir shop.

Saturday July 20th-Grand Canyon!
My day of rest paid off and I was feeling much better for our drive down to the Grand Canyon on Saturday. On our way we took some quick breaks to visit Hole in the Rock and Wilson Arch--always great places to stop.  We entered the Grand Canyon (South Rim) from the East entrance this time instead of the South entrance where Matt and I had been to previously.  It was cool that all of us were seeing new places.  We were able to see the Desert View Watchtower and Grandview point before making it to the visitor's center.

The Grand Canyon really is breathtakingly beautiful! We stayed in a Best Western in Tusayan. It was a really nice place. Wish we would have stayed there more than one night.  They had several restaurants and pools and they even had a bowling alley and arcade.

Sunday July 21st- 
The breakfast buffet at this place was totally yummy too. Great way to start the day.  Our first stop in the Grand Canyon today was the Shrine of Ages.  Dina's mother in law's grave is there in the cemetery and there is also a plaque for Perry's brother Scott.  It was the coolest place to see!  They have just kept it all natural. No one was there except for some momma elks and their babies!

After the Shrine of Ages we headed to the Grand Canyon Village and spent some time walking along the rim tail.  It was so fun being there with people who had not seen the Grand Canyon before. They were amazed. I guess they don't have squirrels in Chile so Ana Maria was excited every time we saw one.

I wish we could have stayed at the Grand Canyon longer, but Jacob and LA were waiting so we hit the road again.  See our Chilean friends were getting a true taste of what a road trip is here in the west...miles and miles of nothing or beautiful unbroken vistas...however you want to look at it. We arrived at our airbnb at about 8pm and Jacob walked over and met us. We had picked a place that was pretty close to his.  It was great seeing him!  Lucky for us one of his favorite taco trucks was just a block away so we had that for our late dinner. YUM!

Monday July 22nd-
First up today was driving to the Santa Monica Pier. Jacob drove us through West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica to get there.  We were even able to see the Los Angeles Temple. The beach is nothing new to our friends, but the pier is pretty famous so they had fun exploring it.

 After walking the pier and spending time playing in the ocean we headed to the Westfield Century City mall for late lunch.  This is a pretty huge mall with a very impressive food court. Jacob was excited to take us there. After eating, walking around the mall, and having rest time at the aribnb we took in the scenic route of Mulholland drive. It was pretty cool to see the sunset and all the city lights turn on.

We called in a bit early and just had dinner at the apartment....tomorrow was going to begin early!

Tuesday July 23rd- DISNEYLAND!!!

We started the day early and ended it late!  It was hot, it was crowded, but still just such a fun day at Disneyland.  Even better when you're with people who have never been.  Jacob decided to do other things this day so it was just the four of us pretending to be kids all day.

We ate Dole Whips, beignets, and even mouse shape chocolate chip cookies.  We went into the Tiki Room and did Star Tours. It was all so fun and new to them.

The new Star Wars Galaxy's Edge land was new to us all and it blew us away!  It was so cool!  The line for the ride was 75 minutes so that was a no go for us, but it was still fun checking out all the displays and stores. We were very impressed.

The heat of the day did take it's toll and we were more than ready for things to cool down once the sun was gone.

We spent time on main street and watched the AMAZING fireworks show and then we were all done, beat by the heat and Disney.  So glad we decided to only do one park. There's no way we would have had energy to do California Adventure as well. But now Ana Maria and Alejandro can say they have been to Disneyland.

Wednesday July 24th- Hollywood

Today began slow...very slow...after our early/late day yesterday we needed to start slow.  In the early afternoon we went and did some shopping..just Wal Mart and Best Buy.  Our friends wanted to purchase some computers that are cheaper in the US.  Jacob also drove us around the different movie studios. For dinner we went to a yummy Korean BBQ place in Korean Town.  After dinner we headed to Hollywood.  Jacob was excited to show us around "his neighborhood" .  The Chinese Theater is only a 15 minute walk from his apartment. We however did not walk form there.  I had not been to Hollywood since I was a teenager so this was fun for me too. It was fun looking at the stars as we walked down the street.I found a few of my favorites:

We went into the Dolby Theater mall and saw the Chinese Theater.  

Once the lights all came on our guests were amazed at it all. Matt and I kind of laughed knowing this was nothing compared to what they would see in Vegas.  The streets were crowded and the homeless were busy smoking weed, but I guess that was all part of the experience.  My favorite part was the Amoeba Records store--LOVED that place!! I could have really spent quite a bit of money there.

Thursday July 25th- driving to Vegas

Sadly it was time to say goodbye to Jacob and start making our way back.  We drove to Vegas and got to Dennis's home in the early afternoon. It was fun to introduce our friends to more family.  Dennis had made reservations for us all to go out to dinner together at a new restaurant in town.  Sadly Mary was not feeling up to joining us.  The restaurant was Capo's Speakeasy.  It was EXCELLENT and so fun! They have it set up as a 20's speakeasy..all the mobster Italian you would want.  you had to have a code word to even get into the restaurant.  The food was delicious and the ambiance was perfect. 

Friday July 26th-
We had a lazy day. Our guest had a full night's sleep for the first time in years--they slept for about 7 hours! A total record for them. Most nights they were sleeping only 2 to 4 hours. They told us this was normal...not sure how they do it, but I am glad Dennis's large bed worked well for them. Matt took our guest to a pet store while I hung out with Dennis. I was able to help Mary with a few things and then we all played cards.  No one wanted to go out into the 105 degree heat and lucky for us the Vegas strip is better seen at night anyhow. We went to dinner at Smash Burger--one of my favorites and then began our Vegas adventure.  We started at the Welcome to Vegas sign..the place all the newbies want to go. They were underwhelmed by it..it is so much smaller than anything else in Vegas, but it is an original. From there we parked at my usual spot behind Excalibur and began our trek down the strip. Ana Maria and Alejandro were, as expected, amazed with the hugeness, brightness, smuttyness of it all.  With it being a Friday night, Las Vegas was in full glory with scantly clad showgirls and topless buff men around every bend.  We walked from Excalibur to the Bellagio and back up the other side seeing the fountain show, the Bellagio atrium, the Hershey, M&M's, and Coke stores.  At 10pm it was still 100 degrees...we thought waiting until evening would pay off, but it really didn't.  Walking the strip in that heat wore us down. We never made it to the top of the stratosphere, but we did take the hour to drive the full length of the strip so they could see how little we actually walked.  We got back to Dennis's well after midnight...not so great when we needed to leave at 6 the next morning. Matt headed to bed quickly, but the rest of us stayed up until past 2.

Since I've been to Vegas SO many times I never took photos--except this one of the atrium in the Bellagio

Saturday July 27th-
Time to say goodbye to Dennis and head home.  Time for us to get back to our 16 year old that we left at home. Luckily we had Greg and Miranda there to watch out for him.

Our guest really enjoyed their time with Dennis.  He was a great host. As always, it was hard to say goodbye. The trip home went smoothly. Matt drove a lot of it--once we got on the freeway I crashed until St George and snoozed until past Cedar City. We had a mellow evening with them packing and us taking one more trip to stores here and there for them to get things to take back with them.  Ellen and her sister Theresa brought over some items for them to take back to Santiago for Theresa's son that is serving there right now. While we were getting them all packed and ready to go Tyler was having a friend get together in our basement. Tayio Walters is home from his mission!  So Tyler's gang of college/high school/elementary friends were here...it just added to the fun!

Sunday July 28th-
Our friends had an early fight out this morning.  Sad to see this fun adventure end.  They enjoyed their time"living as an American family".  I'd like to say we crashed after all this, but not quite yet.  As soon as Matt got home form the airport we drove up to Fruit Heights for Brooklyn's homecoming. So fun to see Mike, Jen, and their family even if it was for a short time. Then we went from there to helping Miranda move home for a few weeks while she waits for her apartment in Lehi to be ready.

By the time Monday came I was ready for a crash--I spent the day on the couch watching season 4 of Veronica Mars.  Matt was brave enough to head to work and face the damage taking 5 weeks off this summer created. Not fun for sure. Goodness it was a crazy summer!