Okay, I know I've been teasing a big life change in the past couple of posts. And I really really want to tell you about it. But I'm waiting to make sure everything is lined up before I announce what exactly Brandon and I are doing with our lives this year. So hang tight. I should be ready to tell you about it by this time next week.
In the meantime I get to tell you all about our President's Day weekend adventures. This weekend was so nice. We took the kids out exploring and made some really fun memories together. A lot of these places will be appearing on the travel blog eventually.
On Saturday afternoon we did some exploring in Davis and Weber Counties. First up checking out Waterfall canyon behind Weber State University. The first part of the trail was on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
Veronica immediately picked up two rocks and announced that she was going to throw them in the water. She carried them up the trail the whole way.
The kids loved walking on the trail. Brandon had taken them on a little hike while I was at work the previous Saturday and they'd done really well. They were all excited to show me what good hikers they were. I was like, "why haven't we done this every weekend since we came back to Utah? Oh year that whole snow thing."
They all wanted to climb this big rock.
They were pretty proud when they made it to the top.
We all thought this "S" rock was pretty cool.
We made it to the water that was flowing out of the canyon. After that the trail got very steep, narrow, and ICY.
We did okay for a while. Veronica was very proud of herself and asked for me to take her picture.
But then she started to have a lot of trouble on the ice. She kept slipping and I would fall as I tried to help her. So that was the end of going up the trail. The girls all had fun sliding down the trail. Derrick was super sad that we didn't get to see the waterfall and he cried for a while.
We made it back to the bridge and had a snack.
Derrick enjoyed throwing rocks in the water.
Here's the view back down the trail.
The view on the Shoreline Trail was so pretty.
The kids all liked this little rock chair.
Veronica was so happy this whole time.
Isn't that view amazing. I'll admit, it's nice to live near mountains again.
Here's proof that I was on the trip.
Later I got hot and took off my coat and shoved it in my totally awesome new back pack.
The girls climbed the rock again.
I love how adventurous my kids are.
There was still plenty of afternoon left so we headed down to Layton to visit one of my favorite places in Northern Utah - the Great Salt Lake Shoreline Preserve.
This is a migratory bird sanctuary, but it's so peaceful that I find its a people sanctuary too.
Veronica had fallen asleep in the car so she was super grumpy at first, but she perked right up when she saw the pictures of birds.
We've been here several times over the years, but I'm not sure I've ever seen the marsh grass so flat before. There must have been a lot of snow out here.
I love these displays about the birds that come here and where they are traveling from.
This place makes you forget that you are only a few miles from big cities.
The kids were super excited to go up the observation tower.
The view from the top was pretty cool
We were near Kaysville which is where my Uncle John lives. I texted him to see if we could stop by to say hi. So when we were done with the Preserve we went to his house. Some of my cousins are only a few years older than Charlotte and Lydia and they all had fun playing with Lego dragons. Derrick liked petting the family's cat. Veronica sorted out all the square legos and carried them around in bag. And Brandon and I had a good time visiting with Johnny and Cheryl. It's good to be near family again.
On Sunday we had Stake Conference. And someone from the ward actually said hi to me in the hall so I'm on my way to having real life friends again.
Brandon's sister lives in our same stake so we all went to her house for lunch after conference. It's nice to be able to do that instead of going home and wondering what we are going to do all afternoon.
On Monday we went out for more sight seeing. Our first destination for the day was in Park city. We went the back way and saw the Devils Slide rock formation on the way there.
In park city we went to the Utah Olympic Park to see the museum. Brandon and I brought the girls here when they were like 9 months old. It was fun to come back now that they are actually able to do stuff.
My sister Hillary and her husband Joe met up with us. But somehow they didn't make it into any of the pictures I took. The bottom floor of the museum is all about skiing. Which is a fitting place for me to visit since I work for a ski resort right now.
Here I am pointing to Snow basin on a map of Utah's ski resorts.
They kids liked this little pinball style game.
And they liked triggering fake avalanches.
Everyone wanted to pose with this picture. Here's Lydia.
And Charlotte.
Veronica
And Derrick.
Up stairs they have a bunch of Olympic memorabilia. I love this display of the medals.
Here's Lydia with a torch.
And Charlotte took a turn.
Outside we took a quick walk to look at some of the event areas.
They kids love posing with statues.
And here is what ski jump area by the park.
We were all hungry so it was time to go to the second stop for the day - the Dairy Keen restaurant in Heber City. Derrick just thought we were going to a regular restaurant to get fries. He had no idea that this restaurant had a model trail that went around the ceiling. When we walked in, he was just in shock. Veronica was the one who jumped up and down yelling "Train! It's a Train!" I took this picture after we'd been there for about 10 minutes. She was still so excited.
Here's Derrick watching the train from the booth. He did his share of jumping and yelling too. His fries arrived and he alternated eating them and staring at the train. He was so happy. Afterward he called it the "French Fry Train."
After we finished eating we went outside so the kids could sit at the train shaped tables and chairs.
Charlotte and Lydia kept yelling All Aboard and pretending to take our tickets. Derrick liked spotting the different trains on display.
Then it was time to get going again. Hillary and Joe had other things to do that afternoon so we said goodbye to them. We drove down Provo Canyon. Derrick was still upset about missing out on the waterfall on Saturday and kept asking to "go see waterfall." So I figured we could stop at Bridal Veil Falls on our way down the canyon. Well unfortunately it was closed for the season. We took this picture, but Derrick was not happy.
We arrived in Provo and drove to the Bean Wildlife Museum on the BYU campus. Whenever anyone asks for suggestions for free things to do in Utah I always recommend this museum. So I figured I needed to take the kids there. Charlotte and Lydia were about 3 1/2 last time we were here. They loved it, but they've forgotten all about it.
I'd been telling Derrick that we'd go see an elephant this weekend. He'd been talking about "waterfall elephants" all weekend. So we went into the elephant room right away. He was so excited.
The kids liked looking at everything.
Charlotte still loves buffalo.
This picture is a hint about some of our plans for this year. Have fun puzzling that out.
I've always liked this butterfly made out of butterflies.
One thing I like about this museum is that it doesn't shy away from showing animals as predators and prey.
And check out that bear.
Outside the museum, the kids wanted to pose with this moose statue. While they were up there I commented to Brandon that it looked a lot like the moose statue at my work. Right then the girls yell, "Mom! This statue has the same poop on the ground as the one at your work!" So we are pretty sure it's the same one.
We were done with the museum, but that wasn't everything we were going to see in Provo. We drove over to Center street and found this totally cool tree.
I found this tree years ago and I've always thought it was amazing.
Then we started driving back north. This time we were on I-15. While we were driving we decided to go check out the Flight Park on Travers mountains. Of all the places we'd visited this day, this was the first place that neither Brandon and I had visited before.
It was pretty up there, but oh so windy!
Veronica stayed in the car with me while Brandon took the kids on a short walk.
Then we got back in the car and found a real park with a play ground in Draper so the kids could run around and play. Then we drove back home.
When we got back home Veronica spent about 5 minutes crying. After she calmed down a bit she managed to stammer out "I don't want houuuuse. I-I-I waaaannntt tent. I-I-I want sleeeeep in tent." She'd been asking for days to go camping and somehow she thought we were going camping that night. She was so disappointed.
I'll admit that I was a little disappointed to. It's hard to come back from a fun weekend and go back to reality of school and work.
The good news is that we aren't settling completely down yet. But of course that's another post.
