Finally, someone decided to go to the Malad City Welsh Festival with Grandpa and tell me about it :) My Grandpa, Guy Elden Wilson, grew up in Malad City. There have been a few times that people have gone up with Grandpa to see where he lived and hear stories and whatnot. I have never been informed beforehand. This year, my Aunt Koreen told me she was planning on going up for the Welsh Festival, and she was taking Grandpa. I, of course, said we would go too. Granny, Grumpy, Koreen, Steven, Elisabeth, and Ryker woke up way too early to head up on Friday, June 27th. We actually slept in and had a lazy (sort of) morning before heading out on the road. Matt made pancakes and we finished packing while Matt took Mocha to his mom's house. (Thanks for watching her for us!) We left around 12:15pm, I think.
Matt made Henlie a Mickey Mouse pancake. :)
We had a pretty uneventful drive up, with rain off and on. Henlie took a nap and woke up pleasant. We weren't even sure she had woken up until I peeked in the back seat to check on her. We got to Malad sometime between 2:30pm and 3pm. We drove around a bit lost because we didn't know where we were supposed to go, and Elisabeth really wasn't that helpful in finding them :) We found the festival and met up with the family in the LDS church where they were holding various presentations about Wales and things Welsh. Henlie was fine until we tried to walk in the door, then she did not want to let go of her Daddy. I did eventually get her to come to me so I could go change her, and she warmed up a little bit.
Almost there!
The last 10 minutes or so, we had to placate Henlie with some peanut butter M&Ms.
This is the result after getting out of the car :)
Once everyone congregated, we headed back to the park and Henlie had a blast playing on the playground. Her first order of business? "Swings!" said with a point and an excited face. How could you not let her swing after that? :) But seriously, Malad has one of the best playgrounds I've seen. Things that most people would probably remove and replace in the name of "safety." However, they also had some of the best little kid slides I've seen, too. Henlie's first highlight of the trip was definitely the playground.
Seriously, this girl loves swings!
She takes after her mama :)
Great little kid slides - short, not steep, and ending pretty much on the ground.
Matt and I didn't really care much about the festival. It seemed pretty boring on paper, not gonna lie. Since everyone else had been there all day, we packed up and headed to the Ranch House at Downata Hot Springs after letting Henlie play and Matt and I getting some Navajo Tacos for lunch. (Fun side note - the Navajo tacos were part of the Malad High School Baseball team's fundraiser. A) They were out of Wild Cherry Pepsi cans. B) In digging through the cutlery box for knives for us, I got a #10 can full of chili landed on my foot. It HURT! And the chick who did it didn't even notice she'd knocked the can off the box, much less that it landed on me......)
Riding the dinosaur with Henlie.
She roars really well :)
That face :)
I love this one :)
Old fashioned merry-go-round. We didn't go very fast, but I was still dizzy!
It was also uneven, and we got on at the top...it was a little disconcerting that it started spinning before Matt even pushed us :)
We got everyone unloaded and had some down time. I should have taken a picture of the stairs to the basement - treacherous! And that is where they put the foozeball table and the kid toys... I made a smart move and grabbed the music toy and Curious George book to take upstairs and then we didn't go down again until it was time to put stuff away before we left :) Karen, Mike, and Kristine were also heading up, so Koreen texted them a shopping list for dinner and breakfast items. I'd like to point out that I totally was decisive and made a group decision for dinner, because decision making is apparently not a Wilson family trait. (Frozen lasagnas - totally a good call, I might add, considering the ease of baking, lack of dishes used, and the amount of people to feed. :))
Playing on the giant tires.
Also, check out the epic adult-sized monkey bars in the backrground.
Henlie loves cameras.
Also, don't be surprised if there is another post later showcasing the epic pictures Elisabeth took :)
No, she didn't actually crawl through the tires :(
Getting ready to go to the ranch house. She's a mess again.
(She stole my cookie...)
Lots of down time at the house. Koreen really wanted people to go swimming at the pools, so much so, that she offered to buy/rent us swimming suits and pay for our admittance to go. Yeah, they rent swimming suits and have some women's suits for sale. Plus side? I got a new swimming suit! Down side? It's a little snug at the under arms. It's a racing suit that they got a super good deal on, so they were able to sell an $82 suit for $22. We also rented Matt and Henlie swimming suits.
I had opted not to bring swimming things since I didn't want to pack extra stuff for showering or my straightening iron. However, they had a splash pad, and I knew Henlie would love that. When Koreen offered to pay the entrance fee (when did pools get expensive?), I consented. They didn't have a 24 month baby suit, but we found one that worked, thanks to a hair elastic of Koreen's :)
Checking out the splash pad.
Daddy is sitting in the water to stay warm.
Then he scooped her to get her extra wet :)
It was pretty chilly, so we didn't last too long at the splash pad, instead opting for submersion at the pool. We didn't pay the extra money for the hot pools, but the regular pool was nice and warm. I wish the condo pool was that warm! They also had some pool noodles and balls, along with basket balls and a hoop. They also have various water slides, which Elisabeth, Koreen, and Ryker took advantage of. Oh, and it rained. At one point, it rained really heavy drops that hurt if they hit you, but they made little bubbles in the pool when they hit :) Thanks to the rain and the balls splashing me, my bangs eventually got wet to the point I said, "Screw it," and submerged my head. I was able to somewhat rectify my bangs with the blow dryer in the Ranch House. I'm really glad we went swimming, even if we hadn't been planning on it. The warm pool made it comfy, and we had lots of fun. Oh, and I totally made a basket on my first shot. (Not on my second, but I did on my first! lol)
Henlie and Daddy in the kiddie pool.
After swimming, we eventually had some dinner and then it was long past Henlie's bed time. Fortunately, the master bedroom that we were sleeping in had a rocking chair. Not a very comfortable one, but a rocking chair, nonetheless. Henlie did relatively well for going to bed late and in a new place, especially with my loud family just outside. She practically fell asleep in my arms. Then I had to get out of the chair, haha. We rocked on the bed and sang some more songs, and I was finally able to put her in the pack and paly with her toys, and she stayed asleep! She did wake after we eventually were in bed, multiple times. She finally ended up in bed with us, and even then, she had a hard time calming down. I don't know what her issue was.
Me and my Grandpa :)
Watching some Toy Story 3, eating a roll to tide her over.
Grumpy, Me, and Henlie :)
It was a successful first day of our trip. Day two will be coming soon. :)
