Cousin Adventure #11 The Clark Planetarium!!!

The County Fair!! Cousin Adventure #10

Well, I love going to the County Fair. It's such a fun part of our summer! The kids love the animals, ESPECIALLY the horses!! And the best thing about the Fair this year is that Mike won 3 blue ribbons!! Yep, that's my wonderfully talented hubby! On all 3 entries he earned 100 points (out of 100!). WAHOO GO MIKE!

CUTE huh?

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

John Schmidt

Last week Mary called me and said that she had a voucher that would get us into the John Schmidt concert at Wolf Mountain for FREE. Well, I am never one to pass up a free concert!!!!! So Saturday night we gathered snacks, water and blankets and headed up to the Valley! I love John Schmidt but hadn't ever been to one of his concerts and I love him even more now! It was SO much fun! The kids had a blast (ok so in reality it's kinda hard to watch a concert with 8 boys while sitting on a hill. They just kept sliding into the people in front of us hehehehe :) ) I had a blast. Mike had a blast. All in all it was a perfect Saturday evening! A funny side note: Kyle is VERY attached to his blue blanket. It's name is "Blank". When Mary got home on Saturday night (11:00 or so) she realized that Blank was missing. CRUD. Kyle really needs Blank. So she put the kids in bed (Mike was home from Filming Ice Skating) and drove back up to Wolf Mountain! UGH. Poor Mary. Anyway, I can't believe it but SHE FOUND BLANK!!!! I can't believe it! PHEW!






Here's one of my FAV's!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXtVBJDPs6k

Empty Twizzlers bags make for great hats!

Cousin Adventure #9 Video Games, Pudding Painting AND the Archery World Cup!

PHEW just writing the title makes my tired! The boys really wanted a video game day, and it had been a nutty week so Mary and I decided that was "just fine". BUT we wanted to make it a little more fun so we added pudding finger/foot painting. After painting Mary told me that she had seen signs up at Weber for the "Archery World Cup". So we looked up the info and headed up to Weber! Matt bought a compound bow this last week and all of the boys had been taking turns shooting it so everyone was excited to see "good archers". Well, it was hot and there wasn't any shade and after a few minutes Matt said "Well, archery is really a lot of fun.....to do". Mary and I were laughing so hard. What can I say, we tried! We bought some water, looked at the really cool EXPENSIVE bow's and headed home with some tired ornery boys. Kinda "normal" cousin adventure but the kids had a blast which is really that matters

HAFB Museum AGAIN!

If my boys could they would go to the Aerospace Museum at Hill at least once a week. They love it there and I promised them that we would go this week. We went yesterday but it didn't work out very well (big boys wanted to go inside, little boys wanted to stay outside, AND we realized Ty has soccer practice so we only had an hour UGH). So we went back today. I didn't take the camera because, well, I have a lot of pictures from our last trip. Once we got there though I wished I had. The back gallery with the fighter jets was closed to the public and we were bummed UNTIL the manager of the museum said he would take us on a tour! Ok so I admit, the boys were excited. At first I thought "I don't really need a tour. I've been here a million times". But I was wrong. It was amazing. Not only did he show us the planes but he told us the personal stories of the planes. Their own histories. The chopper there was the first ANYTHING on the ground at the beginning of Desert Storm. And LBJ and Kennedy used the Air Force One that's there. In addition to all of the cool stories he also showed us the new Vietnam exhibit. It's not finished yet, but the part that is finished was wonderful. They have done such a great job of telling the story through the exhibit. The part that is finished is dedicated to those that were held prisoners by the North Vietnamese. They have reconstructed a cell. Our guide had 2 men get in the cell (made for 4 men) to show how tiny they were. The part that really touched me and the boys though was when he pointed out that being alone in that cell for 5 years would have been worse than being crammed in there with 3 other people. There are so many people that have given so much for not only our freedoms in this country but for the freedoms of others. People that they don't know. People who don't have anything in common with us. But just simply PEOPLE. People who are loved by their Heavenly Father and who deserve to be safe and free. Now I know that Vietnam was not a success. I know that things didn't go "well", but the Men and Women who went there and gave their all, deserve out love and appreciation. I couldn't do what they did. I'm not that strong. But I am sure thankful that they did!

Anyway, THAT is our latest and greatest trip to HAFB!

Cousin Adventure #8 Antelope Island

The Great Salt Lake draws people from all over the world. It's AMAZING and yet I have never taken my kids there. Tyler went with 4th grade and has been begging to go for cousin adventure ever since. So this week Mary and I decided to "just do it". It's not that we didnt' want to it's just that we knew it would be hot. And since neither she or I really enjoy the heat (we call ourselves "Fall/Spring girls") it was a bit of a deterrent. BUT we met early and headed out. We decided to start at the visitors center. We parked and what do you know, there was a Buffalo! It was the perfect way to start the day. The boys were thrilled! That and the fact that there were Orb weaver spiders EVERYWHERE meant that we probably could have called it quits right then and it would have been a success! However there was A LOT more to see and do.The visitor center was small be full of a lot of fun information. The kids loved the little buffalo statue. Nick loved holding onto it's horns and when I couldn't find him and Kyle I looked around the corned and saw Nick showing Ky to hold onto one horn while he held onto the other. SO cute! And as usual Isaac found someone to talk to. I walked closer so I could listen in and about busted out laughing. He was telling her all about Minotaurs. How they were like buffalo but stood on their hid legs and ran like a man. Can you tell we're reading "Percy Jackson"?
We asked the ranger at the Visitor Center what we should do with the kids and she sent us to the Buffalo Peak Hike. She said that the little kids could do it AND it was close to the beach. Which we knew would be nice since they would be HOT and TIRED and the water would fix that. The hike was a good one and if it hadn't been so hot I would even say pretty easy! LOL. Anyway Mary and I hiked at "2 year old pace" while the rest of the kids ran ahead of us. Up on top of the mountain there are a lot big boulders and it was a PERFECT boys playground. They kept saying that they were like mountain goats and they hopped and jumped from rock to rock Nick and Kyle OF COURSE had to try to keep up with the big boys. It was so fun! Isaac was hilarious on the way down. He thought he was going to die. BUT he made it and when he got to the bottom he collapsed by Mary and said "Water. I need Water. AAARRRGGGGHHHH". Such a little Drama man! As we were finishing the hike I looked out over the road that come up to the trail head and saw Mike riding up to us on his bike. Now, I thought it was hot. BUT after seeing Mike climb that hill on his bike I didn't feel nearly so hot! He ran out of water about half way up the hill and was VERY sweaty and tired once he made it to us.Then we headed to the beach. When you are sitting in your car in the parking lot it doesn't look like it's that far to the water. HOWEVER, once you start walking it gets longer and longer. I didn't think we would ever get there! BUT we did eventually get there and then we had to get the kids "ok" with the bugs. That was a hoot. Zach had run ahead of us and came running back quickly. He was disturbed by the bugs. But then Uncle Mike showed him that if he ran at them they looked like black waves rolling away from him! As anyone who's been to the Great Salt Lake knows once you get into the water the Brine Flies go away. So we jumped in and had a BLAST! All of the "BIG kids" went out deep with Mike so that they could float while Ky and Nick stayed back with Mary and I where they could reach. I think that everyone got a little more salt water in their mouths and eyes than they wanted but they learned how to get over it! Nick cracked me up though because he would get salt water in his mouth and would just start spitting it out and move on. While his big brothers would cry and run for the water bottles! So funny. NONE of the kids (except for maybe Kyle who eventually needed a nap) wanted to get out of the water. The big kids and Mike were too busy holding science class out in the "deep". Mike is full of all sorts of information and the boys all just eat it up. And speaking of "eating it up" Mike said he would pay the boys $1 to eat brine shrimp. Matt of course was the only one to do it. In fact he ate 2 and is very happy to tell everyone he ran into that they were mating. OH BOY. Anyway eventually we called it good and started the LONG trek back up to the showers. Everyone showered off and started to get dressed when Ty and Matt realized that their shirts were missing. After searching all of our stuff we figured that the only place they could be was BACK DOWN ON THE BEACH!!!!UGH. So they started back down..... Matt ran the whole way and thankfully found them. We loaded up and Mary headed home while we drove around the Island looking for the Buffalo herd. We finally found them and the kids LOVED it. We so need to go back to Yellowstone! Anyway, then we started looking for Antelope.....no luck. Oh well. Maybe next time! All in All it was another successful cousin adventure!!