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.