Jurassic Adventure

There is a dirt road about 30 minutes from our house, that if you drive down, leads to some dinosaur tracks. It is called the Warner Valley Dinosaur Track Site. We had been there years ago when Chloe was about Bryce's age. I thought it would be a fun thing to do. We invited Sandi to come along. We loaded the kids up and headed out. Things seemed to be going pretty good. The dirt road was bumpy and you could tell it hadn't really been maintained but it wasn't horrible. As we got closer to where we thought we should be it got a little worse and then things started to get really bad. The ruts and holes in the road were so bad at times we didn't know if we would make it. We found a spot to turn around after some scary four wheeling in the old explorer and got out our gps and that's when we discovered that we had somehow missed the turn. We went back and got on the correct road and we finally made it.

The kids were happy to get out and explore. The few tracks we were able to see were pretty neat, but you could tell the site hadn't really been kept up over the past few years and you couldn't see as many tracks as you once could and the ones that were there were really weathered down and not preserved well at all. I was a little disappointed but the kids were happy so I guess that's all that mattered. After exploring for a bit we loaded up and headed back home. 

Red Reef Trail

The two younger kids and I hiked the Red Reef Trail located in the Red Cliffs Recreation Area. This is a short scenic hike perfect for anyone. The trail head for this hike is located in the Red Cliffs Recreation campground. However, it was an extremely busy weekend and the campground and parking in the campground was full, so we had to park in the overflow parking which is quite a hike into the campground. Unfortunately Bryce had new hiking shoes on and one of them was rubbing his foot funny, so by the time we got to the trail head his heel was bleeding and he wasn't very happy. I just had him take his shoes off and he was able to do the actual hike without shoes on. At a few points along the way you could jump into the water, it didn't take much to convince Chloe to take the plunge. Bryce was having nothing to do with it-he does not like dirty water. 

Bryce's poor heel

We decided it would be best if he went without a shoe

We had fun and luckily a quick call to Landon and Tanner got us a ride back from the trail head to the overflow parking when we were finished. I know this picture of myself isn't the most flattering, but I'm trying to really focus on making memories with my kids and not worry so much about how I might look. 

Tubing at Brian Head

We usually let the kids choose something fun to do for their birthday. Bryce had talked about having his party at House of Jump or maybe going to the zoo, but then one day he was like for my birthday I want to go sledding. I decided since none of us had ever been tubing at Brian Head this would be the perfect excuse and booked our spots.

Saturday finally came and we headed out. Tanner's girlfriend Ariel came along.

After checking in and getting our tubes it was time to hit the slopes. 

You sit on your tube and it pulls you and the tube up the hill, so there is no hiking up to go down, which is super awesome.

We got to the top and got in our lanes and they counted down and that 

was it. They just pushed Bryce right down the hill. It goes super fast. I was so worried about him. We got to the bottom and I looked at him and he just had tears streaming down his face from the wind and cold and I thought "oh no". but he jumped out of his tube and said "can I please go again?" LOL

We all went time and time again until about the last 15 minutes of our session, when Bryce declared he had had enough and was ready to go back to the truck and the rest of us decided that sounded like a good idea as well.

We drove down into Parowan and got some lunch. Then Tanner and Ariel head back to St. George while the rest of us went on up to Fillmore for the weekend to visit some of our family. It was a fun little adventure. Hopefully we will be able to do it again one day. 

Park City

A few weeks ago we Chloe had a soccer tournament in Park City. We decided to kind of make a mini vacation out of it. We told Chloe she could bring her cousin Saydee along with us. For weeks before hand those two planned out all the fun things they wanted to do while we were there. They even held a couple of bake sales to earn money. Of course the main reason we went was to play soccer, but between games we planned to pack as much fun is as we could.

The tournament began Thursday with a soccer game in the afternoon. We got to Park City early and spent most of the morning shopping at the Outlet Malls. Then we had lunch and checked into Condo. Then off to the soccer fields. Unfortunately Chloe's team lost the first game. After a trip to Wal-Mart for some groceries it was time for dinner and swimming in the condo's pool.

Friday morning started out early with French toast-made by Landon, and then a soccer game. Chloe's team won. YEAH!!! Then we hit the alpine slide and coaster. We had a hard time finding them, but we finally did, and everyone had a great time. After that we grabbed some lunch and onto another soccer game. In a close game-Chloe's team lost again. That loss took us out of the competition for Saturday. Which was sad for the team, but would mean we would have a whole day of free time the next day.

Saturday morning after breakfast we packed everything into the car and headed over to UTAH OLYMPIC PARK. This was really what the girls had been waiting for. A day full of extreme adventure. Chloe and Saydee wanted to do everything so they both got a gold pass, so that they could do everything as many times as they could. Landon ended up getting the gold pass as well-I mean after all someone needed to keep track of the girls. Bryce was only tall enough to ride the alpine slide so we got him two tickets for that. I got one ticket for the alpine slide. I'm not much into extreme thrills, plus someone needed to keep track of Bryce and take pictures. Bryce loved the alpine slide!!! The second time he went down the line was getting pretty long, so we were glad we did it twice first thing. I think by the end of the day the line for that was around a two hour wait-that is the thing people wait the longest for. Here is what the other adventurers did-they did the extreme zip line (I think the girls did it a least three times if not four and Landon did it once.) The girls also did the smaller zip line. Landon did the extreme tubing and the girls did they other tubing hill (much to their dismay they weren't old enough to go on the extreme tubing hill). They all did the drop tower. (a 50 foot straight drop down that you have to zipline over to. We all did the scenic chair lift and the alpine slides. We also got to see a fun freestyle show, where the skiers do flips and stuff into a pool, as well as walk through the museum, and see some people practicing the skeleton and riding the Bobsled. When Bryce saw the people doing the skeleton he said "when I grow up I want to do that".

We finally left around three or four. The girls could have stayed even longer, but the weather was turning bad and some rides were getting shut down, plus Bryce was about done for the day, so we headed on down the road back to Fillmore.

 

 

 

 

 

On the way we stopped in Provo at the Mall to let Bryce go to Build a Bear-that was his souvenir/reward for being such a trooper the whole time. I also bought each of the girls and Bryce a shirt at the Olympic Park as well as a magnet for myself. Unfortunately due to some mis-communication Landon accidently threw away Bryce's shirt and my magnet :(

We were really glad to make it back to Flowell and spend the night. We went to church with Landon's family the next day and joined them for Sunday dinner before continuing on home. We had a really fun time, but it's always nice to be back home.