Salt Lake City: I have the world's cutest nephews

I've been in Salt Lake City for the past week. I arrived on Sam's 7th birthday and we went out for Ethiopian food that night.

Charlie helping make jam.

Some of the food.

Birthday boy with Auntie Lala and Grammy.

The birthday boy.

Charlie was out before we got to the restaurant.

The next day was Sam's first day of second grade. I got to walk Sam into his first class. Then, Charlie and I went on a hike around Silver Lake. Keith and I also met up with the local OpenStreetMap guy for some beer.

 Magic apple.

   

I love my little buddy.

Looking at bugs.

Littlest munchkin.

He's such a weird one.

Mooooose.

Quacking at the duck.

MEESE!

Utah has some decent local brews.

The next day I took Banjo on a hike up Mt. Aire in Mill Creek Canyon. We had a lot of fun doing that. Then BE and I met for some afternoon drinks and then she took me around the Mormon Temple Square.

At the top.

Happy Banjo.

 

View from the end of the Mt. Aire trail.

I'm such a dog person.

Running back down the trail.

Playing in the creek.

Sweet bike rack.

Midday tequila, pre-temple square.

Ground zero for Mormons.

The Beehive House.

Their conference building.

The temple.

My thoughts on religion.

On Friday, I (somehow) volunteered to make the cakes that were to be used in Sam's Lego cake. 6 cakes (technically 8, but the first 2 didn't come out of the pans). That night BE and I went up to Park City to go to the High West Distillery for drinks, dinner, and more drinks. DELICIOUS.

Vodka, white whiskey, strawberry, and lemonade. YUM.

Tri tip with whiskey sauce. YUM.

DESSERT! A flight of whiskey with butterscotch pudding as a chaser.

BE was happy to have whiskey and dessert.

In front of the distillery.

Took me back to my crew days.

The High West building is pretty dang cool. Park City is really neat.

On Saturday, I took Sam and his friend Teague to the Leonardo (science museum in downtown Salt Lake). 

The boys spent quite a while working on this roller coaster.

I'm such a cool aunt. I painted Charlie's nails for him. Now he sparkles!

Charlie's hobo house.

The beginnings of the Lego cake.

We were sort of making petit fours, but they turned into mega fours. This was a little over half of the cakes.

Yay Legos!

The wind picked up just in time for Sam to blow out the candles.

I no longer have the desire to help BE with any of her elaborate birthday cakes ever again.

I went to yoga two days in a row and now I know why I only ever went to the night classes. My brain and body completely shut down afterwards. I made the mistake of going before the 4 or 5 cake decorating process began. I went again this morning before BE met me at Sugar House Park with Charlie. When she showed up, I could barely communicate. BE & I are taking the boys to gymnastics tonight. 

I'm off to Seattle tomorrow. I'll be breaking it up in to a two day drive. I'll stop in Richland, WA tomorrow night. Then,  I'm hiking at Mt. Ranier on Wednesday and continuing on to Seattle.

Trip dates have changed a little bit so check the side if I haven't stopped in your city yet!