Friday, October 24, 2008

Antelope island

Our kids have been asking about the Great Salt Lake - a prominent feature on the Utah map, but something they've never seen before. We decided to drive out to Antelope Island and show them the sights. Lori and I hadn't been there in 20 years, so we were a bit curious as well.

We loaded Pepper in the back of the truck and made the 80-mile drive up I-15 and across the causeway to the island. The first snowstorm of the year had hit the mountains the day before our little trip, and the views of the mountains from Antelope Island were awesome!

The kids enjoyed skipping rocks in the GSL (there were millions of perfectly flat skipping rocks on the beach, as you see in the picture above). The kids tasted the water and Annika said it tasted "saltier than the kind of salt you put on your eggs". Pepper was absolutely disgusting. There were piles of dead brine flies/brine shrimp on the shore (darker looking spots in the photo above) and the stupid dog thought they smelled so good that she rolled around in them. I had to load her into the truck at the end of our little jaunt and she smelled like the Denny's dumpster on a hot August afternoon in Houston.

There was plenty of wildlife out there too. We saw a buffalo, and we saw some idiots walking up to the buffalo to take its photo. We waited around hoping to catch Mr. Sideways Hat do his best rodeo clown-in-distress act, but the buffalo was patient and wandered off.

We also saw a coyote, some chukars (birds), and some live, non-stinky brine shrimp at the visitors center. On the way out of the visitors center, we caught some European tourists taking a picture of Pepper in the back of our truck. Couldn't figure that one out. . .maybe Black Labs in pickup trucks represent something uniquely American in Slovenia. I felt like pestering them to buy some folk crafts (we had legos in the back of the truck).

Anyway, nice to get out and get some fresh air after the cold, snowy weekend!


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Fall Break





The kids were out of school part of last week, so we decided to go to Lagoon. My kids love amusement parks. They did not get this genetic trait from me, I avoid roller coasters as much as possible. Earl has tried to get me on one for 13 years and has yet to succeed. I think he's given up. He has moved on to persuading Annika and Stockton to ride all things scary. Stockton is an old pro, he'll ride just about anything. Annika rode 2 roller coasters at Lagoon, including the old white rickety one, that I won't go near. It was a fun day with perfect weather. I had a good time taking Sawyer and Sophie on the baby rides, while Earl turned Annika and Stockton into little daredevils.