Late Summer Adventures

We have been keeping it close to home for the past couple of weeks, but still trying to squeeze some fun in where we can.   A couple of weeks ago we went up to the dinosaur park in Ogden.  You can guess who liked this little outing best. 

Dax loved looking around at the skeletons (this is an Allosaurus skeleton, which Dax loves because of his "Big Al" show). 

He also loved the dinosaur statues outside, especially the statues of a T-Rex standing over a recently-killed Parasaurolophus, complete with a bite mark, which seems a little graphic for a kids' park, but nobody asked me)  This is a statue of a much-less graphic Triceratops, although Dax appears to be trying to feed it his arm:

 



But most of all, Dax (and Cora) especially loved the animatronic dinosaurs they have upstairs in the museum.  These have been around for a while and are looking a little worse for wear if you asked me, but Cora and Dax were both transfixed and kept asking me if they were really real dinosaurs.  They could have stayed there all day long.

We took the kids down to City Creek last weekend (no pictures) to have dinner at Blue Lemon (yum!) and look around.  They loved the fish in the stream.  Cora was so impressed by all the big buildings, and told her teachers at nursery how she had gone to the "Big City." 

The next day we went to the Weber County Fair as well (no pictures, I am such a slacker), and Cora got to see her very first demolition derby!  She was suitably impressed, but a little bit disappointed that we didn't catch any of the dozens of t-shirts that were thrown into the crowd. 

Last week we stopped by the Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolate factory that we have driven by hundreds of times.  We heard they did a tour (with free samples at the end), so we decided to check it out:

Here are the kids watching the hand-dipper cover some chocolates:

The rest of the tour was interesting, but a lot of it was done via videos.  There was a short video about how chocolate gets made, starting with the Cocoa tree all the way through to the finished product.  Then there was a short video about the company.  The kids were pretty bored of videos by the end, but they very much enjoyed the free samples.  We also got some caramel apples since they were 2 for 1 and we got coupons from the tour.  I call it time well spent.

Our next adventure was another trip to the zoo.  This time it was my work party, and they had free face painting AND we could ride the zoo train as many times as we wanted!  Whoo-hoo!  Even though we were at the zoo and most kids got their faces painted like animals, Cora and Arden had their own ideas and asked for flowers and butterflies instead:

After we ate dinner and rode on the train a few times, we headed over to new Rocky Shores since Preston hadn't seen it yet.  We got to stay at the zoo after it was closed, and the animals were waking up as it started to cool off.  The grizzlies were all awake.  I am not sure what Arden is doing here, but she kind of looks like one of those Price-Is-Right models showing off the merchandise.  "And heeere, Bob, we have three brown furry grizzly bears that can knock your head clean off with one swipe of their paws!  What are my bids?"

Even the polar bear was awake and putting on a show.  She kept doing circles.  She would swim up under the water:

And then POP her head up right in front of the kids!

 She would swim on her back for a while, then dive down and repeat the process.  It was so much fun because we practically had the place to ourselves.

A few days ago we went to the Gateway and had lunch with a friend I have known since junior high.  I told the kids if they were good during lunch, i would let them run through the fountains.  They didn't break anything or throw any major tantrums during the meal, so I called it a success and we wandered down and let the kids play while we grown-up girls talked some more.  Here are Arden and Cora, milliseconds before Arden caught a stream of water straight to the face from that hole she is looking into:

 The same thing happened to Dax, and he screamed like a little girl for a minute before he calmed down.  I guess the water is cold because the kids decided to warm themselves up by laying down on the nice, warm, filthy pavement:

Yes, we took baths.

We had been planning to go camping out by Dinosaur National Monument this weekend, but then discovered the campfires are still not allowed out there.  Since most of our camping revolves around the camp fire, we decided to bag it and just camp in our backyard instead.  Dax saw me on the deck and shined (shone?) the flashlight at my camera right as i was taking a picture.  

 Last night was our Stake Fair.  It is an annual tradition with a BBQ and fun stuff for the kids.  They had a band this year which is always fun for me.  The kids especially liked the clowns that made balloon creations:

Unfortunately, every one of these balloons popped within 20 minutes.  Oh well, we had other things to cheer us up.  Like Cotton Candy!

 And snow cones!

 There was also bouncy houses, a (very) small petting zoo, and popcorn.  And for the finale of the evening, we stood in a now MUCH longer line to get replacement balloons.  Arden got the fanciest balloon thingie I have ever seen:

We have only 2 more weeks until school starts, so we are going to try and enjoy our lazy morning and warm evenings as much as we can before the craziness starts!