Moultrie Family Fun Week

It used to be that every summer we would take a "Boring Family Trip" with all of Bob's family. We would go someplace "boring" and just swim in the pool and enjoy each other's company. The last couple of years we have decided that was too expensive and decided to stay home and see the local sights together. So we started on Wednesday with boating at Pineview. Bob had to work so we were not able to participate. Thursday we all headed up to Logan and started the day with a trip to the temple grounds there. We had lunch together, played at the park and the little zoo they have and then split up to go swimming or to the cheese factory. Grace thought she was hot stuff in Nathan's goggles!We started Friday with a breakfast at Dee's house and then we all got out our Salt Lake City Connect Passes that we had purchased and started out on a whirlwind adventure. First we went to the Dinosaur museum (not the official name but I can never remember what it really is) and showed off our fancy hats.

Maddie and Jeni had a good time running away from the dinosaurs!

Next we stopped at the Aquarium in Sandy where the brave could touch a stingray. Stingray's do not feel like I think they should! They are soft, squishy and slimy -yuck!

More stuff you could touch if you wanted too.

After the aquarium we went to the Lion House for a quick lunch (also included in the pass) and then we went to Clark Planetarium where we walked on Mars...

and then on the moon! Nothing boring about this trip!

After the Planetarium we decided to end the day with a movie so after we ran Nathan and Grace to my parents house we watched Harry Potter 6.

Saturday morning we had early tickets to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was beautiful and not nearly so crowded as the Draper Temple Open House was. Afterwards we decided to head out to the Kennecott Copper Mine since we were right there. It was so interesting! The trucks they use are huge! You can kind of see it when you compare the trucks to the school bus (for moving employees around I suppose) in the picture below. Someone with sharper eyes than mine also saw a goat wandering around down there...

The kids got a kick out of seeing how big the tires on the haulers are. They are over 12 feet tall!

After Kennecott we split up for a while. The connect passes were still good so after lunch we took the kids to the Children's museum where they got to ride horses,

sort vegetables,

and use construction equipment - Jeni, where's your hard hat?!?

Then we went up to Snowbird and rode the tram to the top of the Mountain.

Somewhere in the background you can see Heber. It was a beautiful view but as you can tell the kids were not impressed!

So we rode the tram back down, put our whiny, worn out, cranky kids in the car and ended the day/fun week with a barbecue at Sherry's house. All in all it was a very fun week and we look forward to it again next year!

Souvenirs

On our way out of Salmon on Saturday we stopped at King's to let the kids pick out a souvenir. They loved it! Maddie picked out this little baby doll that came with a bottle you could fill with water and squirt into the dolls mouth and, well, let's just say that I wish she was so excited to change Graces diaper!Jeni got a knitting kit that makes a purse and a belt.
Since I have never learned how to knit it was a learning experience for us both. And can I just say that instructions printed in China really leave a lot to be desired sometimes! They left out a whole step that made it impossible to learn just from the instructions! Thank goodness for YouTube and three little words: "learn to knit". There were some great videos on there that helped us on our way to a beautiful green purse. Jeni got a kick out of the little rhyme to remind you of the proper steps:

Under the fence,
Catch the sheep,
Back we go
and off we leap.

I was worried when she picked out the kit that she wouldn't have the fine motor skills or patience for it but she has done really well with it. I have to help her "catch the sheep" but I'm sure she'll figure out how to do that too. Maybe I'll have to get my own set of needles and we'll have a knitting party together!
Nathan found a "Papa truck" (my Dad drove a truck for Swift for a while, hence the name) for his souvenir. He has loaded it full of all sorts of stuff and made many deliveries with "Fred Moultrie Papa Truck"! I love how he is into naming his toys lately. As a side note he has a Raggedy Andy doll that he has named Billy. What a cute little guy.

Moultrie Family Reunion

On Thursday we headed up to Salmon, ID for the Moultrie Family Reunion. Even though Maddie and I were not feeling well it was a fun trip. This was the view that greeted us when we walked into our motel room. It was right on the river and across from a picnic area. It was beautiful. I loved leaving the sliding door open so we could listen to the river going by.The kids had a great time. They quickly made friends with their cousins and each one of them had one that was just their age. One of their favorite things to do together was climbing up into the tree house.
Jeni got to ride a horse after the parade but for one reason or another she was the only one that did.
This is Caden, a cousin just Nathan's age.
Maddie and Kendall had a great time playing together and hunting for strawberries.
Grace just had fun toddling around. Look out world, here comes Grace!
Nathan had fun playing lawn darts with his new idol - Caleb. He was looking for Caleb the whole last day and tagging along with him whenever he could.
We ended our trip by going up the mountain and into a campground around this little lake. We had fun watching some of the older cousins wade out into the frigid water and catching a fish in a T-shirt!
It was raining a little bit. Jeni was in heaven because I let her play with the umbrella, but it did made it a little tough to gather and hold rocks to throw in the lake.
Getting ready to go. Goodbye everyone and goodbye Salmon! We had a great time.