Staycation Days 3 & 4

We spent day three in Salt Lake. We drove up and parked in the UTA ride free zone. We took Trax down to the gateway and watched a 3D movie about two women who spent their lives rescuing elephants and monkeys. Very enjoyable.

We wandered through temple square, enjoyed lunch at the Lion House restaurant, talked with a few missionaries.

We hopped back on Trax and rode down to the Leonardo. The Leonardo is anew museum that focuses on hands on arts and sciences. Well, it turned out it is too new, as in, not yet open.

So, we went home to prepare for Day 5.

I did take a couple pictures, but my camera was on the wrong setting, so they are very dark.

Staycation Day 2

Being the budget-oriented staycationers that we are, we left the house about 9 with a packed lunch, intending to spend a couple hours at the zoo, and then eat lunch at Red Butte Gardens.
But, we ended up tailgating at the zoo before we went in.
Yes, we are those people.

From the moment we entered the zoo, Eleanor only wanted to see the giraffes. Perhaps it is because the giraffes are the face of the zoo- literally as they are on all of the signs and advertisements we saw. They never put the cockroaches in the brochures...

In route to the giraffes we saw all kinds of things, notably the oldest elephant in North America.

There e also several model dinosaurs placed around the zoo, many of which randomly made noises. Henry thought this was the best part of the zoo. I felt like it made up for not going to the dinosaur museum. Eleanor thought they were scary.

But honestly, the giraffes were my favorite. Regal and noble, were my first thoughts.

That quickly turned to a mixture of awe and disgust when I caught sight of this:

Did you have any idea that a giraffe's tongue was so incredibly long? I stared, transfixed, for at least five minutes. Everyone else had gone up to talk at eye level with another of its kind, apparently unaware of the wonder before them, but not me. I was completely mesmerized.

We eventually left the giraffes behind, and headed to Red Butte Garden for our lunch, or what remained of it, anyway. This garden was so expansive, and the kids were already so fried that I am sorry to say we missed it. Jared and I have added it to the ever growing list of things we would like to do for a date.

We left the garden and headed up the canyon for a tram ride at the Snowbird ski resort. A perfect way to end the day.

Quite A Weekend

I am all ready to finish my summer posts and more, but I am having some technical difficulties with images. Please be patient as I try to work them out here.

Staycation- Day One

Over the last several months we have found that anytime we want to go anywhere or do anything, we must first consult some form of online deal forum to check for coupons. Want to go out to eat? Bowling? To a play? Going to be in Provo around lunchtime? Then first we must scour the internet for a coupon. Our dependency is so complete that we cannot, in fact, go anywhere if we do not have a coupon.

Therefore, when faced with vacation options (which were, essentially, weather to have one or not) we consulted the crystal ball that is the Internet, and found our answer: Groupon.

There was a deal on a fairly good discount for a Salt Lake City three day pass. This pass, once activated, was good for three days and allowed you into 13 Salt Lake attractions.

Due to the way Jared's work turned out the kids and I spent the first day on our own. We had planned to go to the Dinosaur museum, but pulling into the parking lot reminded me that it was the first Tuesday in August, which meant you could get in to all the attractions at Thanksgiving point for cheap. Cheap attractions= kajillions of people= we got ice cream and got out.

We headed to downtown and spent a couple of hours at the Discovery Children's Museum. The boys have both been there, but this was Eleanor's first time.
She loved it.
Absolutely loved it.
She and her loaded down shopping cart could have played there for hours. And hours.

Then we went across the street to the Clark Planetarium to watch a movie about the stars of Egypt in a dome theatre. It was...boring. But, ok.

We then met Jared for pizza and a headed home.

Slip and Slide

Nona and Papa came to visit, and sadly, these are the only pictures I took. But, as with most things my children are wearing or doing, they have Nona and Papa written all over them.

This slip and slide was a gift, and even though it had a hole after only 10 minutes, we worked around that and used it for the rest of the summer.

Rockets Are Fun

We Utahans celebrate the 24th of July. Some may say it is just another chance for them to make money off of us as we buy more fireworks and BBQ stuff, but others actually commemorate the arrival of the Pioneers in to the Salt Lake valley by having parades, visiting important Pioneer landmarks, or (if you have Uncle Clint coming over) shooting home-made rockets in the backyard.

This year for us, after carefully weighing all options, it was the rockets.

It is a simple apparatus made from sprinkler pipe with a simple valve hooked up to the air compressor. After you fill the pipe with compressed air, you fill an empty 2 liter bottle about half way with water.

Get ready.

Then flip the switch and ...poosh! (yes, that is the sound it makes.)

You get wet and the rocket flies into the air.

Sometimes over the fence.

Then you do it again.

And again.

And again.

Then you remember you are a boy and you like guns, so we should hold the thing like a gun and shoot it into the yard, trying to hit the strategically placed garbage can.

It was hours of entertainment for children of all ages.

Take Me Out

There are few sports I enjoy watching more in person than baseball. Perhaps it is a nod to my childhood as I think I spent the better part of 18 summers at the baseball park. But whatever it is, as soon as we arrived for Jack's first game, I was giddy.

We tried baseball when he was in Kindergarten. They played on a make-shift field that also hosts football in the fall and soccer in the spring. It was only tee ball, where everyone bats and the most exciting thing that happens is when one of the kids runs backwards around the bases.

But this...this was much more like the real thing.

There was, after all, real dirt. This was the machine pitch league. There were three outs. His coach had them running home on over-thrown balls. It was great.

Jack had a good time, he got several great hits, enjoyed playing first base and pitcher the most.

All that l love of baseball, and this is still my favorite picture of the season:

A Real Vacation

In July the kids and I headed down to Las Vegas for the perfect vacation. My dear friend Sarah and her boys hosted us at their home. After stopping overnight in St. George, we arrived on Thursday at about 11 AM. We had the drag the kids out of the pool at 8 PM. By 7 the next morning, Eleanor was in her swimsuit begging to get in the pool. Needless to say, we lived in the pool for four days.

Occasionally we would drag the kids out of the pool and make them watch TV, on the off chance that we could get them to eat and rest for a minute.

There really is nothing like an old friend, someone who knew you as a child. Someone who still sees you that way in some ways, and is just as amazed as you are that you are a grown-up with a mortgage and kids of your own.

We stayed a bit after Sarah and her boys went home, even ventured out to the park near her house.

Hopefully, this will be the first year of many that we have this rendezvous (right, Sarah?!).

Traditions

The fourth of July brought our annual trek to Provo to see the hot air balloons lift off, hike Y mountain, then regain all calories burned at the BYU Creamery.

We were up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

We had our cameras ready for the great balloon lift off.

But we waited in vain.

The wind picked up at the wrong moment, nearly flattening the crowd with a balloon shaped like Darth Vader. Ominous.

So, it was off to the Y. Were no pictures were taken, if you can believe that. But everyone made it, even Josh who met us there.

The conversation on the way down is always the same with the youngest hiker. A entire 40 minutes based on a single question, "what kind of ice cream are you going to get?" Any sign of fatigue or melt-down brings back this question. Any slack in the pace are unnecessary stumbling, we m mention chocolate goodness, covered in sprinkles and gummy bears and it is like infusing a second (or eleventh) wind into those young legs and they just keep going.

Cul-de-sac fireworks capped off the evening, which was unusually stormy.

Jack was able to light his own fireworks.

Henry allowed to throw smoke bombs.

Eleanor, just happy to be with her friend.