Saying good-bye to family is difficult when you live far away. The only family members I have seen in the last year were Jeana’s parents and one brother. Because of funerals in Jeana’s extended family she was able to see most of her side of the family. We loved this trip because we got to see so many of our siblings, and both of our parents.
Posted in Family, Vacation 2007
Farm country at Thanksgiving Point is one of our favorite attractions. The girls enjoy seeing the different animals and always look forward to riding the ponies. We walked into a small, little, opened shed to see the bunnies. They didn’t smell good at all, so I said to Kate, “Stinky bunnies!” Kate, trying to put words together in new phrases repeated, “tinkin bunnin!” over and over again. Grandma Baldwin came along with us. We were glad that her leg was going well enough to walk around so much. Amy and Abby met us too. It was fun having a girl cousin to play with.
I think it’s hard for the girls to pace themselves because the pony rides are just so tempting. Nevertheless, they did wait. Audrey got to ride the biggest pony there this time
Amy and Abby bought tickets for a wagon ride. This was new territory for us, we had never ventured beyond the animals and pony rides. The wagon was pulled by two huge horses and we went on a ride by the massive corn field that will be used for halloween corn mazes. Using the field for a maze seems like a huge waste to me, but the driver told us that the corn isn’t corn you would eat, and that more revenue comes from using it as a maze than selling the corn as produce.
There’s a life-size milk cow in the main building and Audrey was able to milk some water out of the pretend udder. What a fun day at farm country!
Posted in Family, Vacation 2007
Audrey has been really interested in US geography lately, which made the drive fun for us when we would drive into different states. We got to be in 7 states on our trip: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. We don’t have a picture of Arizona because we only stood in the corner of Arizona at Four Corners.
Okay, so we were stupid at the New Mexico state line. The first time we went into New Mexico (on the way to Utah) we didn’t see the “Welcome to New Mexico” sign and that left a bitter taste in my mouth, because I was positive New Mexico did not put up a sign. Well, my opinion was encouraged because it seemed that New Mexico has no signs up anywhere. Sorry Suzanne, I just didn’t have the best taste of New Mexico at first. Anyway, back to the state line sign. We were cruising down the road and I barely caught a glimpse of the sign and we pulled over quickly. The sign wasn’t all that big, and it was peppered with bullet holes. The sign didn’t improve my opinion of New Mexico (just kidding – at this point I was happy with New Mexico because of Carlsbad Caverns – blog post to come…). After we snapped the photo and drove off we saw the “real” sign welcoming us into the state. That sign was much larger are more welcoming.
Noone is in the sign at the Texas state line because we had been waiting for Audrey to fall asleep for so long, and after she finally fell asleep there was no chance we were going to open a car door. Jeana pulled the Jeep off the road and snapped the picture through the windshield.
I was surprised at how much I felt at home once we were back in Texas (and we were still hours from home). We had such a fun trip, but it is always nice to be back home.
Posted in Adventure, Family, Vacation 2007
I previously posted something about climbing in Utah with Audrey and Kate. We took them to the Dogwood Crag climbing area in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Earlier in the week, Jeana and I went climbing there by ourselves. It felt so good to be on the rock again, and by rock, I mean real rock. We each led a climb and then just climbed what the other person led.
Posted in Climbing, Vacation 2007
For family home evening we went over to Brad and Amy’s house. Brad cooked some yummy salmon on the barbie and served it with a balsamic vinegar sauce that was awesome. I can’t believe how grown up their kids are. I’m bummed that I didn’t get to ever hear Dallen play the guitar. I told him that when we come to Utah next year we’ll have to get together and play YYZ (by Rush). It’s been about 10 years since I had the chops to cover that bass line so it’s good that I have a year to relearn it.
Audrey and Kate had fun playing with Abby and the other kids. Dallen and Bridget taught a good lesson for home evening. I missed a lot of it because Kate needed a diaper change that minute.
Posted in Family, Vacation 2007
