Saturday, May 17, 2008

After Rachel walked around and said hi to all the kids, she and Hopkins went to a shaded area so that the kids could line up and have their pictures taken with them.  The thing that I found so wonderful about Rachel is she really took her time with each child. She could have easily posed for a picture and then moved on to the next child but instead she made each child feel special during their time with her.  I also noticed that she called each child by their name, Rachel seems to have a great memory for names which is really important to kids.  We thoroughly enjoyed meeting her.

Once it was our turn Fireese ran up and gave Hopkins a nice big hug.  Rachel then asked Fireese if she wanted a postcard of her, Leah and Alex and of course Fireese said yes!  Rachel then signed the card with Fireese looking on to see what she was doing.

A little while later Leah and Alex came by the park and the kids lined up again to meet them.  Fireese was excited to meet both Alex and Leah and was amazed at how big they were.  (I guess on TV they seem much smaller to kids.)  Fireese got both their autographs and they posed for another picture.  As the party was wrapping up Rachel came over to us and asked what we had planed for the rest of the weekend.  She gave us some great suggestions of things to do and said that she’d see us at the studio on Monday.

After the party we drove to the hotel for a little nap and later, went downtown to the Gateway Mall.  If anyone visits Salt Lake City, I highly recommend going to the Gateway.  We didn’t even get a chance to experience it in its entirety-it is a huge outdoor shopping area.  Right in the middle of this shopping mall is a fountain that sprays up water. It’s more like a splash pad than a fountain and kids were in their bathing suits running through the spraying water.  Fireese was amazed at the whole thing.  We didn’t bring her suit but it was so hot that we didn’t care if she got her clothes wet.  How could we not allow her to go in and have fun?  Every half hour there is a water show set to music.  The music comes on and the water starts spraying up to the beat of the song.  Everyone dances and has a great time. 

Afterwards, we went and bought Fireese some dry clothes to go to dinner in.  We found a nice restaurant with an outdoor patio in the Gateway called McGrath’s Fish House.  They had a great menu for kids-we got Fireese shrimp and rice-which was a nice change from the regular chicken fingers and fries option on most kids’ menus.  After dinner we made our way back to the hotel for a swim and lights out.  One of the highlights for Fireese, aside from meeting ‘her friend Rachel’ was the pool in the hotel.