The County Fair

We were given some free tickets to go to the county fair. Our kids have never been to a fair so we figured it was time to share the experience. 

 Molly really wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel. She was exactly 42 inches which was the required height to be able to ride. She was a little scared at first but I think everyone enjoyed the ride.

 They had a lot of different rides but they wanted a whole lot of tickets inorder to ride. So we mostly just walked through the midway and looked at tall the rides.

 They boys did get to do the bumper cars too.

 We headed to the exhibit halls and wandered through them.

 We all enjoyed looking at the artwork, quilts, preserves and handicrafts and looked for all the blue ribbons. The kids particularly liked the table settings exhibit. People would design elaborate table setting, usually with a theme. There were a lot of Downton Abby themed settings. The boys like the Hobbit themed settting. Molly liked the Frozen setting.

We then headed out to the barns to see the livestock. Evidently it was pig day because the barn was full of pigs and not much else. We were told the Sheep were being brought in the next day. We also went to the small animal barns and say the rabbits and chickens. I had no idea there were so many different types of bunnies and chickens.  It was fun to see and even talk to a few of the owners.

We only spent about 3 hours touring the fair.  We were happy that our tickets to get in were Free. We wouldn't have gone otherwise.  But it was fun for the kids to experience what a county fair is like.  This was quite a big one.  A whole lot bigger than the ones I remember going to in my county growning up.

We went to cubalot

Last week was Cub Scout day camp. It was held at our church building but was for all the cub scout troops in the area.  I signed up to help so ended up being a Den Leader and got to hang out with Henry and a group of about 7 other Wolf scouts.

 BB gun shooting was, of course, one of the favorite activities.

 Sophie was a Youth Volunteer and was assigned to be a "den chief" of a Bear group. She got to have some of the same fun that the scouts did. We happened to be at the BB gun range when her bear group was at the Archery range.

 I was busy wrangling my scouts that I kept forgetting to pull out the camera. Here is Henry learning how to play vollyball.  They also played chess, marbles, did some wood working, they made wooden step stools and also a wooden sword (since the theme was Knights of the Roundtable), they stormed the castle with catapults and made little ones to take home. They cooked a pizza with a solar oven and even went swimming one of the days we were there.

 There were about 130 scouts with another 44 youth leaders and then a bunch of adults. It certainly filled the gym. Here is the group all watching skits. Each den practiced and performed a skit and a song before the audience.

 I didn't get to see much of Ian. His Webelos group was off doing other things. He got to do a lot of the same things my wolf den did but at this camp the activities are planned around each ranks achievements or requirements. He was off doing Webelos things and completed a number of different requirements to get several more of his Webelos pins.

Do you see all those things stuck to the scout's hat. They were given a little hat pin after completing each of the different classes so by the end of the week their hats were covered. It was very fun. That bulls eye one was awarded only if you actually got a bulls eye. I don't know if Ian got it on the BB gun or the Archery. I know Sophie got a bulls eye at the BB gun range. I think Ian's was from Archery. Henry came really close with both but didn't quite get a bulls eye.

 Molly was at cub camp too. She was with a group called the "tot lot". Many of the leaders had young children that needed watching so there were about 30 kids all doing crafts and watching movies and doing different games and activities while the cub scouts were all working hard and having fun.  The tots also came to flag each day and watched the skit performance too.

Here is Sophie leading her group in their Yell. She loved being a den chief and is already looking forward to going to scout camp again next year.

Me? I think I could use about a year to recover from non stop scouts for days on end. It was fun but boy am I worn out!

Firsts from the Garden

We are not gardeners and don't really know what we are doing but we have a nice big backyard to grow things in now and decided to plant a number of things this spring in hopes of a good turn out later.

In March I let each of the kids pick out a packet of seeds we planted them in little cups to get them started before putting them into the ground. Sophie picked Morning Glories a lovely flower that I urged her toward because I really like them. Ian picked Sunflowers, Molly really wanted pumpkins and Henry picked cucumbers. I decided we would need some tomatoes. I didn't get seeds I got starter plants of a few different varieties. The 8 fruit trees are my husband's experiment.

The birds and bugs are pretty relentless so despite starting them in cups many of our plants didn't end up surviving. None of the pumpkin plants made it. Poor Molly is disappointed. But everything else seems to be taking root and growing pretty well. 

Here is my tomato patch. 

 The first pickings. Molly quickly claimed the largest one and ate it like an apple.

 There are many more to come!

 Here are the Morning Glories. These two plants are doing pretty well. The one on the left especially seems healthy.

 There are two more late planted morning glory plants that we hope will take off soon. These are great climbers so we are going to need a lattice or something soon to help support them or else they may take over the fence they are near.

 Henry's cucumbers are still a mystery. They seem to be growing very slowly. We still hope they will produce some nice vegitables but for now we are just happy they aren't dead.  Molly's pumpkin plants would get about this big and then suddenly shrivel up and die. We still haven't figured out exactly why.

 The Sunflowers are tall!

 And the flowers are starting to bud. We have high hopes of some nice big sunflowers.

 I went out this morning and noticed a lovely blue Morning Glory greeting the early sunshine.

 And I noticed a lot of other buds just about to bloom.

Our garden is flurrishing in some ways and struggling in others. I keep reminding the kids this is all an experiment as we learn how to tend our garden. But having done little to prepare the soil for our plants I guess we have done pretty well to get anything to grow.

Hightlights From Our Quick Trip to Utah

We just returned from a very quick trip to Utah. Here are the highlights.

 We were graciously hosted for a few days by this lovely lady.

We went to BYU to get some Ice Cream.

We decided to check out the BYU Broadcasting building and snuck into Studio C just to look around. They were having a meeting in there so we couldn't stay long.

 We wandered through the updated Bean Museum.

 And then just walked around campus a bit enjoying the scenery.

 Walking back to our car (okay.... so we may have been purposely hanging out nearby because we heard they had a meeting) we spied some of our favorite people. I am sure they thought we were a little crazy but they were willing to pose for the camera with us anyway.

Most of our week was spent with family up in a large cabin near Heber City.

A very beautiful setting to hang out.

 Play a little vollyball.

 Take a swim.

 Play some games with cousins.

 This cabin had it all.  Foose ball, air hockey, pool, ping pong.

And a whole room full of Lincoln Logs.

 The family played a number of different board games.

 The kids watched movies and played a lot of Mario Kart.

Mostly we just ate a lot of great food and enjoyed time to relax and hang out together.


When we returned from the cabin rather then skipping immediately home we took a day to visit Thanksgiving Point and see the newish Museum of Curiosity. Evidently a lot of other people decided this was the day to visit as well because it was very well attended and so loud!

 The kids had a great time climbing around through the jungle area.

 Played some bubble music

 Made a stop motion movie.

 Got lost and then found again in the Maze.

 Splashed around a bit in the Noah's Ark.

 And just enjoyed the gardens of Thanksgiving point.

The next day we took the long drive home again and back to the real world again.

It was a nice change of pace for a few days but I admit it is wonderful to be home.

I only wish we had had more time to see all the friends we know who call Utah home. There is never enough time to fit in everything and everyone we wanted to see.