The Great Salt Lake...

I was born and raised in Salt Lake City. I was 15 before I ever remember going out to the Great Salt Lake and looking at it from the shore. My opinion of the lake was not high. There were these black flies EVERYWHERE!!!! They are brine flies and they feed the birds that migrate through these parts. So do the brine shrimp, feed the birds that is not migrate through. I never again had any desire to return to the Great Salt Lake, actually I thought it could have been better named as the NOT so Great Salt Lake. Having said that one morning I woke up and decided it was high time I took my kids out to see the NOT so Great Salt Lake. To my delight and surprise it actually was Great. We had a fun time, even the flies were a delight. Well, a delight to Tyler.

(I could not convince Carter that rubbing this mud all over his body would be great for his skin....Great Salt Lake mud, Dead Sea mud, what's the difference, right? He gave me a little swatch on his arm for my photo. So generous!)

I have never swam in the lake, lived in Utah nearly my entire life, minus 7 years in VA and 6 months in Dallas. You now know the attitude that I was coming to the lake with, not so impressed, also brought no swim suit. We drove out to Antelope Island, paid our $8.00 for the privilege of driving across their man made bridge thingy, not quite a bridge because it never leaves the earth, maybe a levy? Not sure what you call it, anyhow....I digress.

We got out to the "beach" which I was internally mocking that they actually call it a beach and to my surprise it looked a lot like an actual beach. It had white sand, not as fine as Cabo but fairly nice sand, there was a bathroom and an outdoor shower....things have been cleaned up a bit since I was there last. Maybe that $8 was worth it. We pumped up our boat and headed down to the shore. As we walked along there was a brief section of the black brine flies but they graciously swarmed out of our way....Ali walked in my wake so she wouldn't have to brake her own way through the flies. But after about twenty feet of flies they were gone.

There was a really shallow section of the lake which the kids played in for a while and then we carried the boat out to where it gets deeper and set off for a paddle. Once out there the kids decided they wanted to swim. The boys got all the way in and actually floated around, Ali got in most of the way and decided it was too cold. It was October by the time I decided we must have this adventure. They loved finding the brine shrimp, we even took some home with us. Carter had brought his specimen collector and we put the brinies into a water bottle filled with great salt lake water. Much to our surprise two weeks later we had baby brines in there. They actually reproduced. They are still alive almost a month later. Well, there are a few "lazy" ones on the bottom. We all call them lazy and then giggle like we are actually fooling anybody. Even Ali knows they are really dead.

We got some video of Carter floating out on the lake while we ran our scientific test as to whether you actually float easier out there or not. Carter's answer was yes you definitely do float easier than in a swimming pool.

Ancient form of sand painting going on here. If all conditions happened correctly a million years from now there could be a fossil of our sand drawings. Amazing... we had fun making our declarations of love.

Tyler drew this awesome guys. He is really quite the spectacular artist. He draws battle ships and Viking dudes, plus he has a killer arsenal or weapons he can create. Very impressive, not at all surprising that his subject matter is all boy and mostly war related. What is it with the testosterone?

So we took our "boat" out on the lake and paddled around. This is where the kids had the chance to jump out and swim.

Gymnastic practice out at the great salt lake. The kids had fun doing cartwheels, handstands and yes the splits in the water.

Showering off after our adventure. Man is this water ever salty. As it dries it leaves white rings on your skin. The boys really liked the outdoor shower.

So there are multiple ways you can write about the great salt lake, let's try the first....The GREAT Salt Lake....yes it is big...the second....the great SALT lake.....this one would work as well, because it is definitely salty and third, the great salt LAKE....it is a big lake, let's face it you can probably see it from the moon though I don't actually know if that is true or not, but it is on every map you will ever see when lots of other lakes are left off....so after our trip out there we would like to call it THE GREAT SALT LAKE!!! We will be returning next summer with my swim suit and I will finally check off swimming in the Great Salt Lake from my bucket list. I would add this to your summer activities for next summer if you are in the area or passing through. It was a fun trip.

Can't Keep UP....moving too fast!

Carter has been bugging me about taking down the trampoline. It only took two snowstorms to get our kids to agree that shoveling off the tramp was not a good idea for the winter. Carter does good work and now the trampoline is down for the season. It will be great in the spring when we put it back up again, brand new toy!

Byron was my hero and took all the kids AND all the dogs on a walk the other evening. Sometimes I am just done by the end of the day. They all had a fun walk and came home NEEDING hot chocolate which I was happy to oblige after my nice quiet brake.

Look who got a hold of the camera again! Boy does this little lady ever like to take pictures. Especially of herself and Chewy....lots of Chewy pictures on this "roll".

Poor chewy is a snow magnet. He does love a good walk, but the thaw after makes you wonder if it is worth it.

How much do we love it when the golf course closes for the year? Love it!!! This was a Sunday afternoon stroll through our "private" golf course. The dogs get to run wild, the kids get to run wild and the parents get a nice stroll. As long as nobody runs into a skunk that is.

I go in every week and help with Ali's art class. Can I tell you how much I love those cute kindergarteners. They come up with the best depictions of what the art teacher is demoing. Ali is way above average for a kindergarten artist. She is amazing. She also loves it when I come which is so endearing and sweet.

My Dad and I went to a sneak preview of the new Utah Museum of Natural History. It is an amazing building, more like a piece of artwork than a building to hold artifacts. It was fun to see some of my Dad's clients that I hadn't seen in years and get reacquainted.

Does it ever feel like you can't keep up because life is moving too fast? Somebody slow down this train we are on. Things are going well, we are having lots of fun and luckily there hasn't been too much snow so my "embrace winter" hasn't been tested fully yet. It may just crack though...it is going to be hard.

Halloween- Way too Much Fun!

Here a party, there a party, everywhere a party party!

Luke and Lisa trick or treating the neighbors house.

This was the year of the Halloween Party. We had parties nearly every day for an entire week, some days we even had two parties. Somehow we managed to squeeze in a little pumpkin carving and a trip to the hay maze. So much fun was had by all our little ghosts and goblins. Carter was a ghost, we made his awesome $4 costume from a sheet we picked up at DI, best costume ever! Tyler was a Viking and we turned a jacked inside out and cut out the sleeves to get his cool sheep skin vest. Also DI, that sheep vest is now my favorite coat. I love it, too bad I cut out the sleeves it is so warm! Ali was a singer and really played the part well. She had a home made microphone made out of a toilet paper roll and tinfoil. Seriously, I am loving the homemade costumes and props. We bought Ali's dress Target, or maybe Walmart. I can't remember. We looked all over for TY's costume. The Viking was really for his school play and he wanted to be something different for Halloween but by the time I got him all Vikinged up he wanted to be the Viking for Halloween and his school play. Ty made his battle ax all by himself. He was so proud! Nothing like a battleax made from PVC, duct tape and cardboard. So we took back the other costume.
We topped off all our partying with a party at our house. All the cousins who live in UT came over for a big Halloween bash. The trick-or-treating was fun, the Halloweenies were awesome, (hot dogs). Our neighbors hand out hot dogs and hot chocolate with a movie playing on their garage every year. So fun!! The glow sticks were the hit of the party though. Nine cousins running all around glowing away. Lots of fun.