You see...Claire had never been to Utah. I've lived here now for 5 years and she's never come to visit--sad day. It took having a baby to get her out here. Had I known that that is what it would take, I would have considered having a baby sooner! I warned her that this adventure would be rather uneventful considering we are rather boring people...but we tried to keep her busy with some vicious games of Uno, Racko, and Monopoly.
We also went on a hike one evening with Diana and Jeff...
I think the trail was called Twin Falls, (Diana, you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong.) and it was absolutely gorgeous. On the way down we picked a flower for Derek since he was generous enough to let me steal his wife for 5 days.
We also discovered on Claire's visit that Michael does much better on long car rides when he has someone in the back seat to keep him company. (This knowledge definitely came in handy on our road trip to and from Oregon...)
On the Thursday she was in town we decided to be touristy and go to Temple Square. We watched the Joseph Smith film and walked around the grounds.
While we were there I also got my first parking ticket....grrr. I figured free parking was the best route to take so I parked behind the Conference Center. It was only 2 hour parking so after we watched the Joseph Smith film we moved it to the other side of the street which was also 2 hour parking. An hour later we went back to the car so that we could pick Diana up so we could all go swim and visit Grandma Peggy. As we approached the car though we saw a not so nice envelope under my windshield wipers...not a happy moment. About 10 minutes prior a ticket was written because it was first chalked and recorded on the other side of the street and then chalked and recorded on this side of the street more than 2 hours later. I was very frustrated and being the pansy I am I was just going to pay the $15 ticket (It was $55 if paid after 10 days). Anyway, Claire gave me the courage to drive the four blocks to the courthouse to dispute it. When we arrived we spoke to someone and found out there was no way to argue it because the person writing the ticket has no way of knowing we moved it to the other side of the road. We also learned that there are 2 ways parking enforcement does their job. One way is to chalk tires, and the other way is to record the car electronically. If it is chalked you have to drive enough for it to come off (or wipe it off) if you are going to park in the same vicinity. If it is recorded electronically, you shouldn't park in the same vicinity for at least 2 1/2 hours after you move it because if they record you at the end of the 2 hour period you were there and you go home or drive to the airport and come back in less than 2 hours you can technically get a ticket. The annoying thing is that you have no way of knowing which they are doing that day or in that area...RIDICULOUS... Anyway the lady we spoke to reduced the ticket to $5 since I had never had a parking violation in the area...Claire and I rationalized that had we parked in any of the lots in the area it would have been a minimum of $6, so the ticket was the better deal :(Well after taking care of that we picked Diana up and went swimming in Riverton at Grandma Peggy's complex. The water was a little more pleasant this time for Michael, but it didn"t take long for him to start shivering...so we got out and had a nice visit with grandma.
The following day we had to drive Claire to the airport and say goodbye :( It was a really fun visit...and I hope it doesn't take me having another baby for her to come back! ;)
