Soap

August 19, 2013Leave a comment

It was soap and bubble time for school last week. Here are some of our projects.

If you are bored and randomly have a bar of ivory soap, microwave it. This was a big hit with Mr. C. PB was having after-nap-angst.

My brother in law talks about a slurry they use in his construction job. This is our version. It is soap, and I’m pretty such it looks and acts like nothing they are doing.

We also tried giant bubbles that only partway worked. (Dry climate? Hard water?) They only partway worked, so I don’t have pictures.

Everything Else

August 17, 2013Leave a comment

Picture time:

We went out to Willard Bay. It was fun. But we need some sort of boat to really enjoy it.

We went to Seven Peaks with my family, which was a blast. Mr. C loved about everything. PB loved the wave pool and lazy river. I convinced him to go down one slide. He wasn’t impressed. And it was too entertaining to take pictures.

Adams Canyon

August 6, 2013Leave a comment

We went hiking up Adams Canyon in Layton. This has been our third hike for the whole year, which is a pathetically low number. But we have to haul our kids, and they weigh a lot. PB complains, and then Mommy complains, and it turns out Mr. C would rather explore than take a ride so he complains as well. After a while, we figured it out. Mr. C moved from Dad to Mom, which he liked much better. PB was encourage to not say, “I’m too tired,” or “I can’t do it”, but instead ask for a rest. PB actually did a great job in hiking most of the trail by himself.

The hike was beautiful, dead ending in a big waterfall. There is a lot of scrambling over rocks, walking through sand, and pretty steep trails. More of a moderate level hike, but doable even with little kids. Leave early, because the first part of the trail is sunny and exposed in the later morning to afternoon. At 3.5 miles, we took just over four hours to hike it, and we were one of the slowest groups. See the link posted above for directions and a trail map.

This kid got very dirty on the hike. He liked to dig in the dirt and wipe sweat off of his face.

Camping

July 30, 20131 Comment

My Grandpa Claude is awesome. Not many octogenarians will go camping, but he took us up for a great night in paradise. We drove to this beautiful location on the Wolf Creek highway.
The kids had a great time. Mr. C was almost jumping up and down with excitement (he can’t leave the ground yet) when we put the tent up. We explored, and sat around and didn’t do much. It was wonderful.

I love camping fashion. It doesn’t matter what you wear as long as it’s comfortable.

Life in Photos

July 29, 2013Leave a comment

One evening, we went to the tabernacle to guide tours (or more appropriately, leave the door unlocked and let people wander around). I found a great spot to take a picture of my boys. This is the best it gets.

We ate lunch at Marble Park in Bothwell. It was a fun park, up until PB slipped in a pile of mud. And then Mr. C followed.

Here are some picture of playing outside. How did I ever live without a yard for the kids to play in? It is everyone’s favorite thing to do.

We took a train ride on Frontrunner down to visit Grandma. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it better than driving two kids by myself. Although I know at least one man moved because we were a little loud.

Hiking. I don’t know if this really counts, it is a 1/4 mile nature trail ing American Fork canyon. But just the right size for PB.

Art

July 25, 2013Leave a comment

I’m not afraid of a mess. I love kid art, but only when it is not stupid cutesy crafts that PB doesn’t want to do anyway and never turn out right. I prefer open-ended art. It usually doesn’t end up looking spectacular, but is such a better process. I get to see my kid experiment and be creative. It is much easier to involve him in these sort of projects too.

I mixed paint, water and glue in glue bottles. It started off on paper, but we quickly had to pull out the cardboard. And the picture looks messy, but it only took 10 minutes to clean up.

This is more glue paint. But now it is blood, and there are bandages for the ‘cuts’. We were talking about first aid, hence the project.

Freehand painting. We use tempura paint, and it cleans up nicely.

The Zoo

July 23, 20133 Comments

My mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I didn’t have a good answer for her, but later on I thought of a perfect present. I asked her to go to the zoo with me. On my birthday, we wandered the zoo with three very adorable children (Mr. C, PB and their cousin).

Lego photo op:

At the bird show:

The polar bear swam around and plunged at the window, again and again. This was the best part of the zoo, and PB still brings polar bears into his play.

These kids are tired after a long day at the zoo:

Brothers

July 12, 20131 Comment

You get in all my toys
It make me punch and yell
I like to wrestle you around
And knock you to the ground
But then late at night when you start to weep
I offer “I’m here, don’t cry”
It calms you down, mom doesn’t come
And we both drift off to sleep

Dinosaur Park

July 10, 20132 Comments

We went on a short bike ride down the Ogden River Parkway first (the trail starts right by the dino park). The weather was beautiful.

We met my parents and went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. There are lots of statues of dinosaurs outside, including photo ops like these:

PB was scared to get close, but I think he did finally understand that T-rex couldn’t eat him. He had another panic attack when we went inside and saw robotic dinosaurs. Those ones did move.

There was a sand pit to dig up dinosaur fossils: Mr. C wore the right shirt.

We also enjoyed the learning center, outside playground, and indoor museum. Great place to go visit.

Hot Summer

July 3, 2013Leave a comment

The last week has been hot. So here’s some ways to beat the summer heat.

First reaction: freak out. Glad I didn’t act on that one and instead went and joined the impromptu party the kids created. I was planning on vacuuming that day anyway.

Joe finally replaced his hand-me-down bike with a good commuter bike. (He bikes to work daily.) This one has a luggage rack, fenders, and best of all a bell. We promptly took a bike ride to the pool.