Summer Staycation, part 2

The next adventures for our staycation was doing the Salt Lake Connect Pass again with Joy's family. We had been waiting for them to go on sale again (they did buy a three day pass at the two day price last spring) and were disappointed that they hadn't when we saw the amazing Groupon deal. They had the passes for 40% off! It really is a good deal at regular price, but I love getting a steal! On the 20th we first met up at This is the Place Heritage Park.

The kids got to do some pioneer chores like washing

and drying,

seeing how wool is spun,

and making beeswax candles.

They enjoyed some wooden swings,

and panned for gold.

In the Indian village they made arrowhead necklaces

and checked out some very cool hogans.

We rode the train

and toured historical homes. The kids got to try a stereoscope.

We had to stop by the salloon for a sarsaparilla and Farr's play dough ice cream cones.

Then on to the petting zoo

and pony rides.

We had brought our lunches for a picnic, but decided that it was too hot and just ate in the car. Our next stop was the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Tony worried that this would be a boring waste, but we found lots of amazing things there!

Tony was even having fun--here he's pretending to cop a feel on this headless, armless statue's boob.

Faith wanted her picture taken with "art from Shakespeare's time."

For our final destination of day one, we went to Hogle Zoo. The kids loved getting squirted again by the animatronic dino.

A clear beehive, fascinating!

We loved seeing the rhino up close, it's so cool when you hit this area at feeding time.

It was a bit warm, so we were glad to have a squirt bottle of water handy. Christian wielded that thing like a weapon :)

And of course he had to have his picture taken with EVERYTHING. I'll spare you the other 8,394.

Soooo big!

I can't believe this is the first picture with any of Joy's family, I promise we were with them all day! Love the great acting here.

For the 21st, we started off by taking Frontrunner,

and then Trax to the Clark Planetarium. Cue Buddy's usual gift shop meltdown.

We saw the 3D movie "Born to be Wild" about two baby animal orphanages. One for orangutans of Borneo and one for elephants in Kenya. Very moving and a "10" on the adorable-ness scale! The kids absolutely loved the 3D effects and the cute baby animals. Joy remarked that although the theme of the documentary is how we need to be more careful with their habitat and stop poaching so that babies like these can be raised by their parents and without human interference, you come away with an overwhelming desire to hug one! 

Next, we walked over to Discovery Gateway. We spent several hours doing LOTS of the activities:

Here are the dominoes in action:

We took Trax to the Temple Square area

and ate our dinner (included in our Connect Pass tickets!) at the Lion House Pantry.

We then took a tour of the Beehive House,

and walked back to the Trax station.

(Such pretty flowers and lovin' that bulge of Brandt in Joy's belly! Christian just told me that in this pic he's showing off a potato bug he found)

When we got back to the Gateway we cooled off in the fountains.

Sierra was told not to get too wet because she didn't have a change of clothes. I saw her a couple of times actually sitting on the geyser-like fountains, but later cried to her mom, in her defense, that she tried really hard to stay dry!

Our last activity of the day was back at the Planetarium. We went to "Night Vision" in the dome theater which is a live narrated show about what is currently going on in the night sky. The narrator was very entertaining and taught us about many constellations and about billions more galaxies that were recently discovered. Even our kids loved it! Another excellent day of adventure.   

Summer Staycation, part 1

When we got home from Shakespeare, there were just two little birds in the nest. I like to think that two just developed earlier because they hatched first and had already flown away, but we're not very certain of that. At least these little cuties were doing well! Here they are on the 15th,

and the 17th.

Here is how they freak out when we're in the back yard:

On the morning of the 17th we hooked up our rented tent trailer and headed up to the Uinta mountains. Because of the very cool, wet spring, our favorite campground at Butterfly Lake was still closed due to snow :(  We stayed lower down the mountain at Washington.

The kids couldn't wait to get into the giant Jet-Puffed marshmallows!

We got our beds set up and Crumpet immediately snuggled in and took a nap.

As soon as we could (which was NOT soon enough for two whiny kids) we packed up our fishing stuff and walked down to Washington Lake. We hiked around to the opposite side and the kids did really well crossing the rocky part.

It was a beautiful afternoon!

We didn't have any luck, but we did have a lot of fun.

The temperature was on the cool side, so I kept Crumpy Dump toasty in my now-too-big jacket.

Look at that sunset!

We went back to camp and it got a little sprinkly, but our hobo dinners cooked well and were delicious.

The morning of the 18th I made a blueberry pancake breakfast and then we drove over to try some fishing at Butterfly Lake. Still no luck.

Crumpet loved being with us and found comfortable spots to rest.

I wonder if she remembered all the camping trips of her youth with her mom, Dutchess, and our German Shepherd, Smokey? We told the kids all about how Crumpet so looked up to her big "brother" that when we tossed sticks into the lake for Smokey to fetch (his favorite thing on earth) she would follow him into the water just to be like him. You could just tell that she hated swimming, and Dutchess would stand on the shore looking at her like she was an idiot! :) Fun times back then. Once we even took our CRX camping, with Smokey crammed in that little hatchback!

For our next adventure, we stopped at the lookout by Bald Mountain Pass.

Then back to our trailer for a puppet show

and a nap.

For our last try at fishing, we drove up to Trial Lake, hiked up the dike, and still didn't catch anything there either!

At least it wasn't rainy that evening and we had a lot of fun with the campfire.

FIREBUGS!!

We roasted hot dogs and had chili cheese dogs with homemade coleslaw.

Then on to the reason for camping, the treats!

And games!

The next day it sprinkled or full out rained all morning. I made a big bacon and egg breakfast, then we packed up and came home. A bit of a wet trip and no fish to show for it, but we still had a great time! The kids had a ball and we really enjoyed the great outdoors and the cooler temperatures. We loved staying in a tent trailer and will probably rent one again. Tony and I are way too old to sleep on the ground again like the two years before.

Unfortunately, we came home to find out that Faith and Christian's best friend, Spencer, was immediately moving to Texas and we didn't have a chance to say goodbye. We had a tough time the rest of the summer missing him and his family :(  Luckily I got to talk to his mom, Christy, on the phone a few weeks later. The kids still talk about him all the time, Faith sends little messages through my facebook account, and Christian is constantly asking when summer will come so that Spencer will visit ❤

Here are our chicks on the 20th. Getting so big!