Packing Up

Staying out of trouble.  They were playing "house" with the boxes.

"Mommy, take a picture!" After falling headfirst into an empty box.

Dalton helped clean up his letters. "It's a C! Put it in the box," he said with each one.

Snowbird Summer

After our movers finally finished loading up this morning, we went up to Snowbird resort and got all-day passes so we could do whatever we wanted.  We got a discount because the tram was closed, and the kids loved all the activities.

Alpine Slide

 

Chairlift and tunnel to Mineral Basin.

Very, very high up. 

Tunnel through the mountain.

Playing in the snow.

One of the jumpers. Maggie got some serious air on this thing and kept yelling for the guy to make it higher.

Maggie did the bungee tramp three times, and Dalton twice. The second time, they didn't even turn the bungees on for Dalton.  He barely met the weight requirement, and couldn't even touch his toes otherwise.  They both loved going upside down!

We had a great time and recommend this for summer fun!  We paid about $100 (remember, it was discounted because the tram was closed) and it was definitely worth it.  I calculated we did about $400 of activities if we'd paid for each separately. Kids under 48" were lower-priced, and Dalton was under 42" and even less.

Salt Lake City Staycation with Dalton

This week, while Maggie attended Space Camp at the Natural History Museum of Utah, Dalton and I did various staycation things near and around downtown Salt Lake City.  I figured since Space Camp was so expensive, and it'd cost $8 in gas to drive home and back, we could spend some money doing stuff just the two of us.  He loved not having to share the stroller, though we only used it two days.

Space Camp: $130

Discovery Gateway: $17 + $1 parking

Zoo: $12.75

NHMU: $9

Aviary: $7

Temple Square/Church History Museum: Free

Leonard paid for half of Maggie's Space Camp, so it works out to be about equal.

Monday: Discovery Gateway.  Dalton turned this water wheel for 20 minutes straight.

Tuesday: Hogle Zoo with cousins Jill and Sarah.

Love the new Rocky Shores exhibit with playful seals!

Wednesday: We were lazy (spent 3 1/2 hours walking around instead of 1 hour driving and 2 1/2 hours walking around) and stayed at the NHMU.  Putting together a cell.

My favorite exhibit of ceratopsian cousins.

Thursday: Tracy Aviary. And the park. Because birds are limited in their excitingness.  

Dalton really loved the tall flowers in this exhibit.  He is copying the crane and trying to fly.

Baby Quail! soooooo cute.

Sad boy wouldn't imitate a flamingo again for the camera.  He really liked the "mangos" though.

But his favorite was the toucan, after I sang that line from the Tiki Room song to him.  He also really liked the bird show with birds flying right over us, and watching a little boy hold a bowl of snacks for the emu.

Friday: Church History Museum with Tasha and her kids.  Afterwards, Tasha picked up Tyler from work and John drove up and we all went to dinner and walked around the new City Creek center together.

Dalton got really into the mariachi music.

May Misc

Happy Maggie girl in the morning.

Happy Boy in the afternoon.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens with Kyli.

Baby pony at the farm.

Maggie is "a magic lady do gives a towel to people to dry them off after their bath."

John took this picture on his iphone.  We hiked along the Bonneville Shoreline trail at the Coyote Hollow trail head.  Maggie hiked on her own two feet.

Dentist appointments.  Both kids did terrific.


Draper Temple with most of John's family.

Baby boy sleeping in... before we realized he was sick.

"Driving to California"

A story by Maggie.  She's hilarious, and so creative! I think coming up with these stories is what she does when she "talks to herself" at night.  The story begins with us crashing into a cactus and Maggie getting an idea...

UPDATE: Apparently this story is based on a story John told Maggie. I should have known!

Part 1

Part 2

3rd Sort Of Annual Great Salt Lake Trip

Maggie and I went to the Great Salt Lake with my cousins Jill and Kristan today.

Kennecott Copper Mine

The Kennecott Copper Mine was kind of on our to-see list, so when a free admission coupon popped up, we took advantage.  It's about 1/2 hour to drive all the way to the east side of the valley.  We went with my cousins Jill and Sarah.  The very impressive mine uses 80 trucks the size of a house to carry loads filled using electric shovels that can lift the equivalent of 50 cars.  Another really interesting fact we learned is that the material being mined is only 1% copper! Somehow they've managed to make that profitable.

This place is pretty far out of the way, and doesn't have much to entertain young kids. Mine were pretty restless.  It was interesting though.  Admission is regularly $5, and all proceeds go to charity.

I wasn't kidding about the trucks being the size of a house.