Memorial Day

We have had sooooo much rain this spring! For some reason I thought the rain would let up for Memorial Day. Nope. I thought it would be fun to stay overnight and hang out in Salt Lake over the Memorial Day weekend. I could lay out on a lawn chair, the kids could swim…nope. It was cold and rainy. I was able to get a good deal on a hotel room through Hotwire. Little did I know that the hotel I ended up reserving (the Sheraton) was one of the main sponsors of Pride Week in SLC! And Pride Week was starting that weekend! Augh! Gay people everywhere. My friend at work always says, "They're gay, it's okay, and they're here to stay." However, my response from now on is going to be "I don't mind gay, just don't display, I don't like the PDA." Clever, eh!? Anyway, we did stay in Salt Lake, but the kids just took a dip in the hot tub and that was it. I thought for sure Chance was going to question me about the large number of men speaking intimately with one another around the pool, but he didn't. ha! We decided to get out of downtown and take the kids to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. That was fun. And yummy. Chance ordered chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake and was pretty much in heaven. We walked around the mall, and Hannah earned a Build-A-Bear for doing a good job on the potty. (Yes, it's really sad that I am still pushing potty incentives on a six-year-old.)

The next day, we decided to eat at The Original Pancake House, a breakfast place in Salt Lake that got awesome reviews online. As we walked through the door of the restaurant, the first person I saw seated was John Stockton. Shawn was surprised I even recognized him; he looked just like a normal dad having breakfast with his family. We happened to be seated right across from the Stockton family, and I whispered to Chance, "Don't look now, but John Stockton is staring right at you!" Chance's face got bright red and he was completely speechless. Not something that happens very frequently with Chance. After the Stocktons left the restaurant, they jumped into a silver Honda Pilot. Granted, it was about 10 years newer than ours, but it gave us a renewed love of our vehicle! After breakfast, we went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. It was a cool place! I think my favorite thing there were the manta rays. They were just freely swimming around in a large pool, so you could reach your hand down and pet them when they swam by! They also had jellyfish that changed colors and glowed, an octopus, sharks – you name it. The Aquarium also offered the opportunity to go in to where they keep the penguins and hang out with them for a few hours, but it was sold out for the day. We were able to see the penguins, though. It is a neat place, a nice change from a regular zoo. It's hard to believe that there is an entire world in the ocean that we rarely see. My pictures are kind of fuzzy because I couldn't use flash and my ISO isn't the greatest on my point-and-shoot.

This gigantic, freaky looking fish was staring at me when I turned around!

See the penguins up above?

Touching the manta rays! Hannah let out a little squeal when one got close to her and everyone started laughing! She was embarrassed the rest of the time and didn't want to walk near the manta rays again.

On Memorial Day, we woke up to SNOW. Yes, snow. It was sort of melting, so Chance, West, Rags and I went on a little walk up to the cemetery. We saw my great-grandma and great-grandpa's graves, and then it started to HAIL. I thought Memorial Day was the official first day of summer?? Oh well. We pulled our hoods up over our heads and walked home.