Provo, Blue Plate, & Park

This weekend we finally went to visit Britney and Anton to meet their new baby boy, James. It's been six weeks since he was born but we've been keeping our distance since we've all been having colds off and on this winter. It was fun to see them and get an update!

One of Anton's hobbies is origami and paper folding in general. Check out this awesome thing he did for their son:

I have got to try that sometime. Very cool!

The Blue Plate Diner

Location: 21st south and 21st East, Salt Lake City

Cost: We spent $30 with the tip
Kid friendly: Yeah. The floor is concrete and the chairs and tables already have plenty of "character", so that's pretty kid friendly for a restaurant.
Time Spent: 1 hour
Worth going back: Yes!

It was about 3:00 when we got there and we were all famished. 

We were overjoyed when our food came! Peter got a grilled cheese sandwich with waffle fries. He loved it of course and he was very nice to share some of his sandwich and fries with Max. He tried his pickle, and he usually really likes pickles, but this one had some unique spices or something and I got to finish the rest for him. It was really good. 

Andrea and Max got biscuits and gravy with home-fries. Unfortunately Andrea's tummy hasn't been feeling well this weekend. Feeling that way and trying to eat really heavy food on a warm afternoon was difficult, so she didn't finish much of it, but she said it was good. Though she did say that my Mom's biscuits are better. I told her my Mom's were just bisquick (nothing special) and she said "Well, they're better."

I got this country-style eggs benedict. It was FANTASTIC!!! I really loved it. The home fries, ham, sauce . . . it was a wonderful ensemble. I would have to agree with Andrea though, the biscuits weren't as good as they could've been, but that certainly didn't ruin anything at all. I was very pleased to scarf down my whole plate and some of hers, and the rest of hers when we got home ;). Needless to say, I didn't feel very good this morning.

Nicholls Park

After we left the Blue Plate, we went home. I felt so bad for the kids having had to ride in the car for so much of the day, so I took them to Nicholls Park! It's SUCH a fun park right off Highway 89 that has a Castle theme. 

Location: Nicholls road, off highway 89, in fruit heights or kaysville. 
Cost: Free
Kid friendly: Of course
Time Spent: 1.5 hours, but we could've spent more!
Worth going back: Yes!

If you ask Peter about our visit, he will insist that this place is not a park, it is a solar system! He wen't around "fixing" the solar system the whole time. What an imagination!

Peter and Max swung together for a while, but then Max wanted to get out and push his swing rather than sit in it. You who read last weeks post may see a pattern going with this kid (he was preferred to push his stroller at the Aerospace Museum rather than ride in it). He's a do-it-yourself type kid. Likes to be in control. 

There are lots of fun slides, stairs, tunnels and crawlspaces. 

The slides were a hit with Max. I'll bet in total he slid down at least 20 times while we were there.

He really loved saying "see-ya! see-ya!" as he went down.

So there you have it: another fun weekend.

Hill AFB Museum and More

This was SUCH a fun weekend with the family. I tell ya . . . since we moved into our house, life just feels so much different. I feel kind of like I felt when I got married, this extreme relief and contentment. I feel like a huge compartment of my brain has been cleared out and there is more room to enjoy life. I am so incredibly grateful for the blessings that we have been provided with. I feel especially happy these days. On to the weekend . . .

Friday night our good friends Amanda and Tim joined us for dinner. Andrea knocked that meal out of the ballpark. It was some kind of mediterranean chicken dish, and though she made a lot, I wish there had been much more, it was fantastic.

Saturday, for our weekly family exploration thing, we went to the Hill Aerospace Museum. It was a blast!

Hill Aerospace Museum

Location: 7961 Wardleigh Rd. Bldg. 1955 Hill AFB, UT 84056-5842
Cost: Free
Kid friendly: Very
Time Spent: 1-1.5 hours
Worth going back: Yes
Things to bring:

• water
• snack
• stroller 

Even the smaller airplanes had propellers that were as tall as Peter.

Peter saw this landing gear and was quick to explain to me that the wheels go up inside the plane when it flies.

I remembered seeing this huge distinctive airplane when I was younger, but the museum has really changed since the last time I saw it. It's probably been 15 years or so. There are a few new airplanes outside and even an additional hangar that I had never seen!

I don't know what's more amazing: how big the landing gear is, or how little our little person named Peter is.

One of the planes that I think must be newer is this B-1. B-1's are MY FAVORITE! They're sooo sleek!

It was such a beautiful day to be outside.

I don't know if we were supposed to touch the planes, but Max and Peter had fun trying to touch the wings.

This airplane's landing gears weren't touching the ground. The boys had fun spinning the wheel.

Andrea found her nickname on the underside of a tail fin.

I inadvertently changed my camera to black and white mode (it was so bright outside I couldn't see what I was doing. The photos turned out kind of cool I guess.

Sometimes Max prefers to push the stroller rather than be pushed.

At Grandma CeCe and Poppy's house, there are several little plastic airplanes that the grandkids love to play with. One of them is an A-10 warthog. When we walked into the indoor portion of the museum, Peter was examining this image on the wall and said "Dad, there's an A-10!" I was pretty impressed that he recognized it, especially since the toy is pretty small and is just a solid yellow plastic thing.

Here the boys are inside. I was really happy that they enjoyed themselves! I was a little worried that they weren't quite old enough yet, but Peter and Max both loved looking at all of the planes.

This is the new hangar I had never been in. They have the SR-71 blackbird in here (not pictured) . . . cool stuff. It was instantly Peter's favorite, and he bought a little toy of it in the gift store. Max chose to buy "The Red Baron." For some reason, that made a lot of sense to me ;)

I was happy that I had a coin in my pocket for Peter to drop in this thing. I love these things!

So that ends the Museum. Here are a few pics from the rest of the weekend:

When we got home, we found max doing this. Funny little frog!

After church I went outside to play with Peter and he found his kite and he really wanted to fly it. Our yard isn't great for that though because we have a few tall trees that would make it difficult, so we decided to walk to the park down the street to give it a try.

Peter rode his bike and Max took the stroller. I haven't seen Peter riding his little strider much since we moved away from the University Village, and I forgot how happy it makes me! I think it's just because he looks like he's having so much fun when he's gliding around. Then when we got to the park, it made me even more happy to see him flying his kite! It almost brought me to tears. I don't know why. I don't know if it's cause I'm proud of him or because it's just such a purely joyful moment . . . it was just one of those things that fills you with awe for a minute or two. I love him so much.

Max giggled and screeched whenever the kite started to fly and he chased after it to get in on the fun.

With Peter's help I managed to hold Max up as he held the string and move fast enough to keep the line taut for a little while to keep the kite in the air. It was so much fun!

We all had turns flying the kite and we were all pretty pooped on the way home, so Max and Peter shared the stroller.

What a great weekend.

Discovery Center & Leatherby's

For family home evening we went to the FamilySearch Discovery center with the Wright side of the family, and then we went to Leatherby's!

Discovery Center

One of the things you can do in the discovery center is record as a family in a recording room. Here are two videos that Andrea, Ashton, and Kaden made:

Leatherby's

One thing that shouldn't go unremembered is that originally Andrea's Dad was going to come to the Discovery Center with us, but he had a troublesome day at work and needed to stay late. Ashton and Kaden both rode in our car, but then they realized that since I would be riding in the car on the way home there wouldn't be enough room for everyone. Andrea's Dad said he'd meet us for ice cream in that case, but we still had to get everyone from the Discovery Center to Leatherby's . . . so we put Kaden in the trunk. 

I asked for the smallest size of ice cream for Peter, and they came out with more Ice cream than he's had in front of him in his life! He was delighted.

Here's Ashton with his sampler.

I don't remember what Kaden got, but it looked fantastic.

I ALWAYS get the black and tan. It was scrumptious, as always. That's just how I am. If I order something at a restaurant, and it satisfies me, I never order anything else again. I'm too afraid that something new won't be as good. 

Andrea and Max shared this raspberry brownie sundae. Max was happily wiggling in his seat the whole time they were eating it. I tried to capture his wiggles in the video clip below.

True to form, Ron brought his A game. This is the Big Daddy Dave's or something like that. It's got to be over a 1/2 gallon of Ice cream . . . 

. . . and he finished it!

I absolutely LOVE my boys! They were cold after so much ice cream so they needed to cuddle.

And here they are, done in by the dessert. 

Exploration 1: The Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve

We don't get out enough and there are so many fun things that we aren't taking advantage of in Utah. We've decided to try and do a small outing each weekend. We may miss some weeks . . . we may go through a dead spell of a few months, but we're going to do this! And we'll post about each thing to help hold ourselves accountable. So, here goes #1.

The Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve

Location: 41 South 3200 West Layton, UT 84041
Cost: Free
Kid friendly: Very
Time Spent: 1-1.5 hours
Worth going back: Yes
Things to bring:

• water
• snack
• binoculars
• mittens
• stroller 

Our sister-in-law told us about this place out in west layton. It's really cool! There's a 1 mile boardwalk loop through the cat tails and wetlands on the edge of the salt lake. There are two cool structures out there: One is a pavilion sort of thing with information and stuff and the other is a tall observation tower. 

The kids loved walking on the boardwalk. It was fun for Peter to see the tower off in the distance and follow the boardwalk out to it. There are some informational things here and there where you can read a fact or two about the birds or the lake. 

The kids got tired of walking, so we had to carry them for the last 1/2 mile (should've brought a stroller). All in all it was a 1.5 hour thing and very fun and refreshing to get outside. We recommend it!