Who knew there was so much to do in Ogden.

We tried to take a few day trips while we were living in Salt Lake because we had a long list of things we'd been meaning to see and do and never seemed to get around to.  First on our list was spending a day playing on Ogden.  We started out at the Treehouse Museum.  My sister-in-law Janelle met us there with our nephew William and our one and only adorable niece, Lucy.  Creed had fun pretending to be president in the replica of the oval office.

 It was funny to see that Ollie and Lucy are about the same size, but Ollie is a year older.

And this is the only picture that I caught of William because the kids were all on the move exploring.

 After lunch, we visited Odgen Eccles Dinosaur Park, which we loved even more than the Treehouse Museum.

 There are dinosaur statues all over the park and Ollie thought the dinosaur sounds were hilarious.

 Creed and Larry had a blast pretending the dinosaurs were real.

 This photo of Creed might be one of my favorite pictures of him ever.

 There was a really kitchy playground there and since it was a cloudy day, we were the only family there so we played the day away.

 They have a museum inside with the typical dinosaur bones that you would expect. Then upstairs they had some animatronic dinosaurs.

 Creed had a hard time believing they were not real.  He didn't want to be anywhere near them, but he would have watched them for hours.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend a visit.  I have to say, Ogden is sort of little boy heaven.  You can see a lot of cool old trains downtown at Union Station and next time we're up there, we're hoping to visit the Hill Aerospace Museum just outside of Ogden.  Good thing we have cousins up there to visit!

Creed takes a Trip to Zions National Park

So the second weekend in October we had no plans and I IM'd Lisa at work to ask her what she was doing that night. The answer, nothing. So I asked if she and Tyler were up for a spontaneous trip to Zions National Park and a few hours later, we were off.

We spent the night at Lisa's sister April's (thanks April!!!!!) and spent the next day roaming Zions. Mind you, Lisa and I are very pregnant and Creed is only two so we only made it through a few hikes, but it was such a beautiful way to spend the day.

Creed was so good about hiking a lot of the way by himself.
The only part I regret is that we forgot to bring along Creed's National Park passport to be stamped. At least Lisa took these pictures so we can remember the trip well.
The weather was perfect!




That's Larry and Tyler under that giant tree. Don't these pictures make you want to abandon your computer and head outside?

Sampling Utah

Since we don't know if we will always be living in Utah, we've been doing our best to explore while we're here (plus it's just a fun way to live. I really think the more you explore the place you live, the more chance you have to find things to fall in love with). Now that we've been here a little over a year, here are a few of the things we've done:

Ate lavender ice cream and sipped lavender lemonade at Lavender Days

Watched the grand champions at the Sheep Dog Festival

Shopped at Swiss Days in Midway

Hiked to Stewart Falls

Raced down the Alpine Slide

Stayed with the Randalls at their cabin in Kamas

Went on a moonlit tramride at Sundance

Hiked to Delicate Arch and spent a weekend in Moab

Admired Christmas Lights and Temple Square

Sledding at Gorgoza Park Sledding Resort in Park City

Saw a touring broadway production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Took a road trip to Las Vegas and stayed in a posh hotel

Covered ourselves with Paint at the Holi Festival

Took two trips to the family cabin at Lake Tahoe (without Larry both times)

Took Creed to the Dinosaur Museum and Children's Park at Thanksgiving Point

Roasted Hot Dogs in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Kite and Balloon Stampede on Antelope Island

Dipped our toes in the Great Salt Lake

Payson Onion Days Festival

Had Ice Cream at The Big Red Barn in Santaquin (and apple cider slush that makes my heart pitter-patter)

9th and 9th Street Festival

Spent many an afternoon using our memberships at the Hogle Zoo and Gateway Children's Museum so we could ride the train and visit the baby giraffe

Toured Red Butte Gardens (and we really recommend their Halloween event for little kids)

Ate fried food at the Utah State Fair (which is nothing like the Ohio State Fair)

Sampled all the raspberry shakes we could while spending the weekend at Bear Lake

Hiked at Zion's National Park

Sampled tons of new restaurants (new to us anyway)

Mazza

Koko Kitchen

Kyoto

Five Guys

Smash Burger

Crown Burger

Rumbi's

Emigration Market

Trio

Pat's Barbecue

Ruth's Diner

Moochie's

Lonestar Taqueria

Rooster

The Soup Kitchen

The Beehive Tea Room

Big City Soup

Tulie Bakery

Mini's Cupcakes

Les Madeleines Bakery

Vinto

Bruges Waffles and Frites

There are still a lot of things I want to see and do so we'll see what we can fit into the next year while we have a newborn. Here are a few things on my list:

Spiral Jetty

Fossil hunting

Homestead Crater

This is the place

Wheeler Farm

Treehouse Museum

Dinner on the Heber Creeper

Weekend at Zions

Camping in Goblin Valley

Shakespeare festival in Cedar City

Trip to yellowstone

Restaurants

Sawadee

Pizzeria 712 in Orem

Communal in Provo

What am I missing? What's on your list?

Creed Takes a Trip to Antelope Island

We decided to live it up over Labor Day weekend and spent Friday night at Swiss Days in Midway visiting my mom and Grandma at their jewelry booth. Saturday afternoon we went to the Balloon and Kite Stampede on Antelope Island. Then Monday we went to Onion Days in Payson and got ice cream at the Big Red Barn in Santaquin. Too bad my camera only made the trip to Antelope Island so that's all that I have to show you. It actually ended up being too windy for Balloons, but not windy enough for kites so the festival wasn't much, but we did have fun exploring the island. I made Larry stop on the drive out to take a picture of me feeling like I was walking on water (the water is shallow for a really long way out from the road)

After we visited the festival and had our fill on cotton candy, we explored the island.
I read that there was a beach with showers there so I wanted to investigate the beach. It was a bit of a hike down to the water and I have never seen so many sandflies or smelled such a stinky lake so I was glad that we were not there to swim, but what little boy can resist a big beautiful pool of water, especially one that will make you float so easily?
I had swimming in the Great Salt Lake on my list of things to do while we are in Utah and I think I'm going to count this. The stinky smell was worth the beautiful view.
And Creed got a lesson in skipping stones to boot.