Jake and Dan's Salt Lake Adventure

Jake and Dan
Obviously not in Salt Lake in the winter.

As usual, I forgot my camera, so I'll have to try to draw word pictures.  Today was Jake's "routine" heart check-up.  His appointment was at nine this morning and we had to leave before Dan would leave for the bus, so he came with us.  I decided that, after Jake's appointment, we would skip out on school and see the sites.

The appointment was a little stressful.  I am always worried about being late -- which usually gets me everywhere early.  Today we were checking in right at nine.  It was mainly stressful because I worry.  I'm really good at coming up with what ifs.  Luckily my worries were all unfounded.  Jake's heart repair when he was a baby was excellent and continues to grow with my growing boy.

They did an echocardiogram.  I've never seen one before today.  They hook up three electrodes, and then do a heart ultrasound.  It took about a half hour (I'm guessing, I forgot to watch the clock).  They were very thorough.  When it was done we waited some more and then Jake had his blood pressure taken in his arms and legs.  The numbers were all great.  Then Dr. Cowley came and listened, and was all smiles.  He said that Dr. Hawkins would be proud.  Everything is "perfect".  He was impressed that the little baby he still remembers has done so well and grown so much.  I am still thankful every day for these heart doctors and their impressive skills.  Our appointment was over and we don't need to go back for three years.  Feeling great relief, we headed down the hill to the city.

We parked, called grandparents, and then ran through the cold wind to try to get a peak into the LDS Conference Center.  We went in, but not the right doors.  We finally skipped that and went across the street to the Visitors Center on Temple Square.  We went up to see the Christus first and then we went down to the bottom floor to see all of those displays.  The boys were great and even enjoyed watching a few of the videos about Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and Joseph Smith. 

We were all hungry and so we hurried through the cold wind (It really was cold -- even Jake and Dan said so) to the food court at the new mall.  We got McDonalds food because I know what Dan can safely eat there.  That went well except Dan wanted more food.  His hamburger apparently wasn't big enough.  He wanted chicken nuggets too.  I wasn't that nice though and he did fine until we got to the car for some crackers.

It turns out that Jake thought the visitors center was the museum we had been going to see and so he was ready to go home -- but he was a good sport about going into the Church History Museum too.  They enjoyed building with huge soft blocks, and "fishing" from Nephi's boat.  We saw all of the rest of the exhibits too, at lightning speeds.  Actually, we were there for an hour which isn't bad.  I was rather proud of how well the boys did.  They enjoyed their time and were agreeable companions.  They never complained once about missing school.  Shocking!  It was a good adventure.