Camping at the Spruces with the Smith Family

We spent the last weekend up with the Smiths camping at the Spruces in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  We couldn't have asked for better weather either.  We ate well, mostly because the Smiths are master camp chefs, and we slept pretty well also, mostly because we drugged the kids.  We took a hike up to Donut Falls, the girls rode the scooters around the campsites, we played paint tag, and we even had a huge water fight from the chilly stream.  Good times!  Enjoy the pics.

Our Re-elected Student Body Officer

Ashley was once again victorious in running for Student Body Officer at North Star Academy.  This was her second year running for SBO.  This year she had five students run with only three positions.  Her slogan was, "Make a Splash, Vote for Ash!"  She loved doing it last year, planning activities, meeting every Monday, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance over the intercom system.  She says she will retire for a year in 7th grade.  We'll see!!!

Memorial Day 2012

We got back from Vernal on Sunday and the next day was Memorial Day.  We had a great day.  The weather was awesome, we did the yard (which needed a lot of work), we prepared the basement to be ready to get finished, and we taught little Britney how to ride her bike without training wheels (she's not even 4 years old yet).  She is our youngest to learn how to ride a bike and she did it without tears which was pleasant, but boring; I usually like a little drama for motivational purposes.  The crazy part about Britney learning that day is that we let her practice for five minutes then we went on a 1/2 mile bike ride.  Needless to say she slept well that night.  Great job Brits!!!

Later in the day we went down to Tara's parents' house and had a BBQ with the cousins.  We played soccer and kickball, and baked in the backyard.  Fun day.

Dinosaur National Monument

We took the family up to Dinosaur National Monument on Memorial Day weekend.  The Monument (or park) is located in Northeastern Utah near Vernal and actually crosses over into Colorado.  We stayed up there for two nights, though we were only in the park for a day.  The DNM is pretty cool.  The Utah side has the Dinosaur Quarry, which is indoors, is where there is a wall of actual dinosaur fossils that were left as they were discovered, over 1,500 different fossils are there. There were also 350 tons that were removed from the same area.  Anyway, the park lets you touch these dinosaur fossils that are 150 million years old.  We hiked down from the quarry outside on a mile long trail.  Along the trail were a few more dinosaur fossils that are sticking out of the rocks.  It was cool.  That was the best part of the park and the main reason to visit there.  

Later in the day we drove around and saw some Freemont indian petroglyphs and we hiked around Echo Canyon.  The weather was warmer than expected, but we had 30 mph winds that kicked up dust for most of the day.  We had a good time.  The girls were tired, but not tired enough to pass up swimming at the hotel later that evening.

Hiking back from the quarry.

Megan points out a femur from a dinosaur along the trail.

The girls standing in front of a group of petroglyphs.

An indian petroglyph of a man. Can you tell why they think it's a man from the picture?

Ashley in front of the quarry wall.

These are the most popular petroglyphs in the park: the lizards.

 Megan sitting by the cliff overlooking the Green river and Echo Canyon.

 

Echo Canyon

Ashley catching a break from all the hiking.

The Exotic Fruit Breakfast Mothers' Day Extravaganza!

I went shopping with the girls yesterday for some last minute Mothers' Day items and we saw some exotic fruit.  If you're not familiar with these items, we have passion fruit on the left from New Zealand, dragon fruit from Vietnam, and kumkuats from somewhere else on Earth.  Ashley saw the dragon fruit and said, "Dad, that's the rare fruit on Fruit Ninja (an iPhone game).  Needless to say, we had to get it.  So this morning we surprised mom with some rare delicacies.  The dragon fruit was the best and the girls (and Tara) ate all of that.  They all tried the kumquats, but none except dad finished them.  They all tried the passion fruit, but didn't finish because it looked like dozens of fish eyeballs when you crack them open, they taste good though.  I liked them all personally.  Kumquats are interesting because they are a citrus fruit, like very small oranges, the size of grapes, and you don't peel them.  You eat the peel and all, sort of sweet and sour, but mostly sour; a grapefruity taste.  I ended up making scrambled eggs to so the girls didn't go hungry.  Next time you're in the grocery store and see exotic fruit, try it, it's fun.  Be prepared to drop some cash though, dragon fruit was $5.99 each and $1.99 each for the kumquats.

After our exotic breakfast we opened mothers' day gifts for Tara.  Happy Mothers' Day Tara!!!

Tara's new fedora, but I think she's going to return it.