Monkey Tour Brought to You by Casual Blogger Conference 2010

My Monkeys and I had the chance to tour SLC and Provo for two days while Scoonie attended the 2010 Casual Blogger Conference held in Sandy, Utah. Below is a pictorial recap of the Monkey Tour. I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. I encountered two problems (a) Me and (b) My Camera Phone. Also, these are only part of the pictures that were taken of the Tour; many more can be found on my Facebook page (for those of you who haven't befriended me on Facebook, this is my evil plot to finally reach 200 friends).

Yep, first stop after dropping Scoonie off at her bloggers' conference - Target. The Monkeys and I picked up some ice for the cooler and took a potty break.

After target, we made our way to Temple Square. We parked around 200 N 200 W and hiked the rest of the way. Here are the Monkeys with the SLC Temple in the background (I'm sure I didn't need to point that out, but whatever...) No, you aren't seeing double, George is just very photogenic.

They loved climbing the steps at the front of the Temple and...

putting their hands in this fountain in front of the Temple (sorry Scoonie, it happened so fast there was nothing I could do...honest!)

We also saw the inside of the Tabernacle and the Visitors' Center. A bearded dad by himself with three daughters must have been a novelty for the sister missionaries as I was approached by at least three different sets of them. One of the sister missionaries was shocked that I had attended BYU and hadn't gone through a live session at the SLC Temple - after all, I had lived so close. Oops, I guess one day Scoonie and I ought to do a session at the SLC Temple.

Here they are in front of the Conference Center. When we entered the CC the greeters asked if we wanted a tour, I asked how long the tour was and they told me "45 minutes". Since it was lunch time and the Monkeys were running low on patience, I negotiated a "15 minute" tour. Yes, we missed the gardens on the roof and the busts of the prophets, but we did get to see the 20,000 seat interior, a fountain, and the original BOM paintings that hang inside. I'll have to negotiate the remaining tour next time we're in town.

After Temple Square and lunch at Mc-ee-d's, we headed over to the Clark Planetarium (formerly Hansen Planetarium) and watched the movie "Attack of the Space Pirates". The Monkeys loved the movie and its goofy plot, and we learned about space and quantum physics or something like that.

We stopped next at my sister M and her husband - Legal Man - 's house. M made a wonderful dinner and The Monkeys played with their cousin on M's playground out back.

After visiting with M and Legal Man we turned around and headed back to SLC to visit my cousin The Artist. The Artist happily had milk shakes with us and entertained my Monkeys. They loved every moment and even spent some time swinging on The Artist's front porch. Just after 10pm we picked up Scoonie at her conference.

The second day saw us visiting BYU. We visited the Bean Museum and...

saw Brigham Young himself; surprisingly enough, he had found his way back in front of the Administration Building; though he no longer does the funky chicken since there is now a hedge between him and the court yard that sits on top of the biggest library in the world (or at least the biggest library my Monkeys have ever seen. Jr pointed out that the biggest library is in Washington DC thank you very much - I'll take her word for it.)

I went over budget at the bookstore, but it wasn't my fault - George couldn't find a $5 book that had cool pictures; besides have you seen those "eyes"?

After splurging at the bookstore, we headed out to see Scoonie's friend from college and his family.

Scoonie caught up with us and then we all head to Chuck-A-Rama for some good food and laughs.

We ended day 2 by going to the Provo temple and taking pictures out by what I'm pretty sure is a fountain that wasn't in existence when I lived in Provo.

Many thanks to all who helped us have so much fun on the Monkey Tour especially Zanne and her husband for letting us stay with them while we were there!