End of July

Because we were busy with our staycation and didn't get things planned in time, we had Sarah with her kids and Joy with her kids over for a Pioneer Day Party on July 26th. Ann was invited, as well, but didn't show up. She is on my "you-know-what" list ;)

We started off the day by squishing up some farm-stand-fresh blackberries and making blackberry freezer jam.

Faith created this cute covered wagon out of our old wagon, some giant candy cane decorations, an old fitted sheet, and hot glue. Skittles got the first ride!

Next, I had everyone knead a ball of wheat bread dough and put it into individual little loaf pans to rise. Faith had made all the dough the day before in our bread maker, using our favorite roll recipe, but substituting one of the cups of bread flour for stone ground whole wheat flour.

After that, we pulled some old-fashioned salt water taffy.

Some of it got wrapped, but most of it was eaten right off the fingers :)

Next, we colored some handcart racer guys. I just printed these on white card stock and after the kids were done coloring, folded them in half, stapled them on the side, and punched a hole in the top. They took turns racing each other by attaching two at a time onto their respective strings with a loose-leaf ring and then letting them slide down from the loft to the edge of the family room. If you look closely, you can see the strings in front of the t.v.

This activity is redemption for an epic fail that occurred a few years ago at my preschool. I had gotten the idea for bird racers at this blog, but then did them with the yarn tied to the railing like the string this time. Because the yarn was too fuzzy and the pieces of straw too skinny with snaggy edges, they didn't sail down like I imagined. Instead, they just sat there, at the top, mocking us! It felt good to make it right, finally :)

To give the kids the experience of dipping candles, I melted some of our old jar candles (we use a fake Sentsy-style warmer we got at WalMart now) in some water in our crock pot. I just gave them lengths of regular string I got at the dollar store. The key was to dip it quickly into the melted wax, then get it immediately into the ice water bath. The soy wax, full of scented oil, stayed a bit soft even when cool, and the candles ended up looking like Shrek's ear wax candles (according to Faith), but it was a lot of fun and the candles got all drippy and looked even more awesome when they were lit!

The one activity that didn't go so well was the tin punching. Joy brought some nice foil pans from the dollar store which I cut into strips, but that didn't interest most of the kids (although Joy did some beautiful work!). I had also frozen water in some old soup cans so they wouldn't crush when the kids were hammering nails into them, but it was too hard to keep the cans steady while working on them so the big hit was emptying the can-shaped ice cube out of them and then pulverizing the ice with the hammers. At least it was entertaining!

Earlier, we shook mason jars (well, technically they were old spaghetti sauce jars) full of cream and a pinch of salt to make butter. Brendon and Sarah were the main muscle behind accomplishing this :) So at the end of the party we enjoyed our fresh baked bread with homemade butter and jam ❤

Sarah had to whisk her girls off to dance class, but Joy's girls and my kids did some writing with quill pens. I just cut the base of large feathers at an angle and cut a small slit up the point. I didn't have any ink (and would be concerned about the stain factor if I did) so I just mixed a little black acrylic craft paint with water and put it in little sauce cups. It was really a lot of fun!

Oh! I forgot to mention our craft. We made covered wagons out of skill sticks (notched popsicle sticks), a rectangle of corrugated cardboard for the base inside, four circles of the same cardboard with a slit cut into them, and a half piece of "parchment" marbled copy paper. We just built up the sticks sliding one corner notch into another and gave them two on the front and back sandwiched between three on the sides. A little hot glue to secure everything, and voila!

Here is a close up:

We had such a fun time, we will have to get together for another holiday themed party again soon!

On the 27th the kids wanted to make special pancakes. Faith had seen some cute pig ones on Pinterest and Christian wanted to make raindrop ones.

I let the kids mix the batter and make their own creations and they came out so cute!

On the 30th dad made his specialty dinner--"super heart attack delight". Just kidding, I just now named it that. It's actually, hot wings, onion rings and deep fried mushrooms. The kids go crazy for his wings (recipe courtesy of Pioneer Woman)! Good thing he doesn't make this for us very often :)

Through end of staycation

On July 21st we met up, bright and early, at This Is The Place Heritage Park.

Lots of fun doing some pioneer laundry :)

And the petting zoo was a huge hit.

We got to see this tiny baby pony have a bub.

Here it is in perspective to show how itty-bitty it really was.

Loved the piglets and goats, too.

We visited the blacksmith shop,

and found some horsey friends over by the cabins.

Pictures can do no justice to the absolutely uncomfortable, hunched over, hanging on for dear life riding stance that my Buddy has.

Faith is the absolute opposite, she rides like she was born to the saddle.

Instead of lunch, we ate brunch at the restaurant. They were having a special and we enjoyed french toast, breakfast casserole, crepes, fruit, and lots of bacon and sausage.

It was hot on the train, but we enjoyed it anyway.

Then on to the kids' favorite activity there--panning for gold!

Right afterward, Buddy found something even cooler: a ladybug.

We rode the little train, too, and then headed for the crafts.

Christian made a punched leather necklace,

and all the kids made handkerchief dolls.

The handcarts were chained together, but that didn't stop the kids from having fun with them.

They even got to knead some bread dough.

We were hot and in need of refreshment by that time, so we stopped back to the restaurant for ice cream and/or slushies. I love this candid pic of Faith and Buddy playing peek-a-boo with Brandt :)

We decided to keep our Pioneer Day theme going with our next stop, The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum. It was so interesting that it even kept the kids' attention!

We got some cute pencil sharpeners for souvenirs and a few pioneer story books.

We couldn't think of where to go out for dinner in Salt Lake, so we drove all the way back to Riverdale to eat at our favorite Chinese buffet, Lucky Buffet. We hadn't been there in quite a while, and it was even more delicious than we remembered!

Our staycation vacations are so much fun, we're already looking forward to next years'!

More staycation fun

On July 18th we did some more staycation activities. First off, we met up with Joy and the kids at the Hill Aerospace Museum in Roy. We checked out the planes outside,

and then inside for more planes and exhibits.

Uncle Tony had a fun time toting baby Brandt around!

The kids had a lot of fun with the hands-on activities and Tony played on the flight simulator.

After a quick detour to Chick-fil-A to pick up some lunch, we met up again at Kangaroo Zoo in Ogden.

The kids got sufficiently worn out and had a great time.

Since we were already in Ogden, I thought it would be fun to continue the journey north and visit the Cold Springs Trout Farm. Each of the kids and Tony caught fish.

The kids also loved throwing handfuls of fish food pellets into the ponds and watching the fish swarm over it.

Sierra and Christian were fascinated by the guy gutting and filleting our fish for us. Yuck!

The weather was beautiful and the grounds are so scenic and serene, we just had to get some photos.

It was a super fun day, but we sure missed our stinkery little cripple ❤

On the 19th skittles got her splint removed and just had a soft bandage put back on.

Just before we left town for the Uintahs, we stopped for gas at the Maverick station and couldn't pass up the Bahama Mama hot dogs being grilled out front. Buddy loved this Batman garbage can there!

We stopped at Upper Provo River Falls on the way to Butterfly Lake since the kids hadn't seen them before.

We actually had a good fishing day! Faith caught two and Tony caught two. I had a ton of nibbles and at least four that I lost while reeling in. They started stocking a new kind of fish called Tiger Trout up there, and boy are they a fighting fish! You would think they are huge by the pull on the line, but they are just modest sized little guys. Faith's both were Tiger Trout like this:

and one of Tony's was regular Rainbow Trout.

It was a really pretty day, a little overcast and not too breezy.

I finally remembered to bring a chair and a book this time, so when I gave up fishing, Skittles and I snuggled up with Insurgent (the second book in the Divergent trilogy. Excellent read!!)

Christian got really good at casting, but still never caught a fish. Luckily he still had an amazing time thanks to playing with fire.

And Faith made a beautiful nature centerpiece for the table :)

When we started for home, we passed by a deer grazing right on the side of the road. The kids loved seeing it, but we made sure to slow way down and keep our eye out for more. A little ways farther down, we saw another. Christian tried to get a picture with his ipod, but it didn't turn out and he was very upset. We said that since we'd seen two, we might just see another and we were all watching out for more. After that, we passed lone deer and groups of deer nearly every mile. We counted more than 30!! It was a little nerve racking for the adults that know how dangerous it is to have that many large animals by the road, but the kids had a blast spotting all the wildlife :)

On the 20th we went to the Ogden Eccles Dinosaur Park with Joy, Jordan and their kids. We read lots of informaion about the different dinos,

and the kids took note in the field journals the kids got there.

Tony got some fun baby time with Brandt,

and the other kids had fun being crazy, as always!

All the other kids

Because of the proximity to Pioneer Day and because we were in Ogden, I thought it would be fun to take the families to Prairie Schooner.

It had been many, many years since any of the adults had been there and it was the kids' first time. We joked around and had some fun,

and the ambience (the reason I picked it) was very fun, but the food was just okay and the prices fairly high. I think it was worth it, though, to sit in covered wagons and check out the campfire and animals in the middle of the room.

Next, we checked out the trains at Ogden Union Station. We didn't pay to go into the museums there, but we watched the model train go around,

got some squished pennies,

and checked out the old trains outside. Look how huge this one is!!

Christian's fear of heights held him back from exploring some of the higher up decks and such, but he was brave and let his dad lift him up for this shot :)

Next, it was on to Farr's for some play dough ice cream.

And then on to the Treehouse Museum. The kids love this giant map with the geography quiz.

Here are some very presidential looking young people.

We even got to go inside a giant inflatable globe. The thing was huge--it fit about 25 people!

My kids loved watching Brandt explore all the hands-on exhibits.

We even made coiled pots out of Crayola Model Magic.

Even though this pic didn't come out very well with the window back lighting, I love seeing Sierra and Christian playing "chess" while Tony and Jordan are playing a smaller set in the background :)

With a little help from dad, these bucking bulls and broncos sure were a lot of fun!

Another super full, super fun day.