July 2 - Drive to Provo

We left our house at around 5 a.m. and it was already 95 degrees outside.  No kidding.  The kids were so excited to be leaving that when we woke them up it took them only a few minutes to get dressed and teeth brushed.   They're not usually up at 4:30 a.m., but these guys didn't fall asleep again until after we got to Flagstaff.

The sun was just rising from behind the mountains north of Phoenix on our way out of town:

I thought it was so beautiful, and Kevin told me that I miss so many sunrises because I never wake up early enough to see them.  Kevin sees them every day, since he goes to work before the sun is even up.

Kevin is so into the scenery when driving so once in a while he would nudge me to take a picture.  We crossed the UT state line around 10:40, and then got to Provo around 3 p.m.  We made it in just over 10 hours and since it was early enough and we needed to print our Stadium of Fire tickets, our first stop was the BYU Wilkinson Center.  The weather was so nice and cool to us right away, even though my sister Andrea kept saying it was so hot.   We told her it was hotter when we left Phoenix early that same morning than it was at the moment.  Then of course it cooled down even more as soon as the sun set!

Kevin and Collin got haircuts at the BYU Barber Shop (tradition!!) while us, the girls, shopped at the BYU Bookstore where we found this cute Folkmanis puppet for my preschool - Allie appropriately named him "Phonog-RAM". Mr. Ram is going to be helping with phonograms.  :) Of course we stopped at the BYU Creamery on 9th for burgers and ice cream, just like old times, told the kids all about our college life and how Deseret Towers (where I lived) doesn't exist anymore, etc. then stopped by our house and hung out with Aireen, Danny, Andrea, and Archie for a while before we checked in our hotel.

Allie's one backpack is full of the stuffed animals she can't part with, even on trips.  And they all had to bring their special blankets.