Cave Falls

We had a Saturday open this weekend so I thought it would be fun to take the kids to Cave Falls. I had heard a lot about it but never been there; I thought it would be an adventure. That it was......that it was.

We started out just fine, driving along with our mp3 players and toys. I turned off the highway and onto a secondary road. Amelia asked how much longer (We had been driving for 25 minutes). I told her another half hour. The secondary road soon turned in a dirt road....except due to all the rain we'd been getting it was closer to a mud road. Just so you know, our little red car can do just fine in deep mud if you push the gas pedal to the floor and traverse the road in a serpentine pattern. A looooong 15 miles later we arrived at Cave Falls. We were the only ones there, which was nice with a bit of creepy thrown in.

We made our way to the rivers edge carefully. (I had to drag Amelia down and every few feet she'd let out short screams while I tried to hold onto Cooper's jacket because he was fearless and literally running down the steep bank).

At the viewing area.



Cave Falls

 

Down by the river. The cave part of Cave Falls had collapsed.

 After we explored around the rivers' edge we trekked back up to the parking area to have some lunch.


A lovely picnic with the roar of the falls nearby.

When lunch was finished we decided to go hiking. We packed up a backpack, locked our car and headed out on a lovely trail along the river. I made the mistake of walking past the bulletin board and Amelia saw the warnings for bears. We made it 100 yards into our hike before Amelia became too scared to go any further. With her pulling on my arm to stop and Cooper pulling on my arm to go, I opted to head back down to the riverbank.

Playing on the rocks further down the river at much-smaller, bear-less Benchley Falls.



Cooper "superhero" pose. As you might have noticed, he was wearing a Superman t-shirt. He tried out different poses throughout the day.

 

One of my favorite pictures.

After we'd played at the river a bit we decided to head out. We'd still only seen one other car in the few hours we'd been there. We loaded in the car and started the drive. As we passed the "woods" Amelia mentioned the trees looked cool.  



I agreed with her, and she asked me to stop the car so she could get a picture of her standing in front of the woods. I was a bit confused on why she would want a picture in front of the woods but wouldn't go hiking. She raised her eyebrows, stuck her thumb toward the trees and said, "Do you see any bears in there? If one shows up I can run to the car." Good point. And what Amelia does, Cooper must as well:

After a brief discussion we decided we didn't want to go home yet, so when we hit the highway we turned north toward Island Park. I was surprised the kids were so willing to go....until ten miles out I realized they thought Island Park was a huge playground with toys. I corrected them and assured them there was still fun things to see.  They begrudgingly decided to give Island no-playground-Park a try.



Amelia at Big Springs. It was much colder than Cave Falls.

 

The fish at Big Springs. They were hiding under the bridge from the kids (not mine) throwing the food hard in the water trying to hit them, and the drunk lady who was leaning so far over the rail she was almost IN the river.

The viewing platform for Johnny Sack cabin. 

We decided to cross the river and walk to the cabin.  Amelia nervously looked for bears until I told her they didn't come around here.  Cooper noticed some frequent animal droppings on the path, and I told him they were deer or moose. After that Amelia looked nervously for deer and moose while Cooper skipped along the path singing, "I'm following the trail of poop! Following the trail of poop! Poopy, poopy, everywhere!"

 



Did we have an adventure? I'd have to say "mission accomplished".

Alice in Wonderland

Last night Amelia had her "Alice in Wonderland" recital for ballet. She was a flower in the Garden of Living Flowers and did a beautiful job. She not only performed her routine well, but "directed" those around her as well. What a multi-tasker! Here are some pictures:

Amelia getting make-up on. Amelia: (in a complaining tone) "Mom, my eyelashes are so long they touch my eyebrows when I open my eyes." She received no symphathy from me.

I was a little nervous about taking Cooper and how he would handle the 2+ hour show. It started off well:

Amelia's dance. You will hear Cooper yelling her name, and me shushing him. Also, toward the end the video will bob up and down violently, because sweet, patient Cooper began pulling on my arm.

                      

After Amelia's dance we had to go outside and run a bit.

Then we tested out the bathroom with faucets that turned on automatically twelve times. Cooper jumped when the water came on every single time.

We made it back for the curtain call (Amelia is the fourth ballerina in). The picture was taken from the very top of the auditorium because that's where the least amount of witnesses to my very tired little boy's behavior were.

Overall, Cooper did well. We got home and in bed by 9:30pm, and called the evening a success. Cooper was "so happy to be home sweet home and not at Amelia's flower dance."

Wild Weekend!

We had a wild, fun weekend. Friday we drove to Salt Lake City to meet up with Katie and David. They are moving to Oregon this summer so we wanted to spend some time with them before they go. The kids did okay with the driving, but four hours was pushing it. We arrived, checked into the hotel and headed to a park to have a picnic.

"This Is The Place" park. It was across the street from Hogle Zoo, which was our next stop, so we thought it'd be a good place to eat. Amelia and Cooper loved it and ran off four hours of sitting. Amelia asked over and over "THIS is the place? Right here? Or where the statue is? Or on top of that mountain? Why didn't they build the park in the place Brigham Young said was the place?"

After lunch and some running we crossed the street to Hogle Zoo. Cooper loved the giraffes, elephants and crocodiles, and Amelia loved the snakes, elephants and giraffes.

This is Amelia by the "monkey skunk". It was a monkey with black and white fur, just like a skunk.

This elephant statue would snore, trumpet and blow air out its trunk. Cooper was fascinated by it.

We passed some ravens and Katie mentioned how creepy they were. I told Cooper to go whisper, "nevermore" in a scary voice to Katie. He did, and she was scared. He does a really good scary voice.

The zoo had a little train that went past some of the exhibits, over a creek and through a tunnel. The kids really liked it. Here's Katie and Amelia on the train.

We had dinner that night at Red Robin. The waitress brought Amelia and Cooper children's menus, but Amelia picked up a regular one and said, "I'm more of an adult."

After a nice night in the hotel the kids went swimming for a bit Saturday morning.

It was a beautiful day, so we headed back to "This Is The Place" park and went to the adjacent Heritage Park. It was a really fun place and I wish we had more time to look through all the houses and buildings. BUT, with a 4 hour drive ahead of us, we had to do a quick walk-through.

Cooper was getting a little antsy during the tour of Brigham Young's home. He had already loudly announced to our guide and everyone in our group his name, how to spell it and he that liked the treasure chests (trunks) stacked in the hall, could he open one? This is a picture of him looking out a keyhole to the  freedom of outside.

So I took him out to walk around the complete wrap-around porch. This is him peeking around the corner at me.

Amelia wearing the dunce cap in a school house.

Then to Amelia's absolute delight, we went to ride the ponies. Four rides later I dragged her to the petting zoo.

This little piggy would walk around grunting and squealing, with his little tail just whipping back and forth. He finally took shelter under a trough.

Cooper loved this baby goat. He pet it for a long time saying, "He likes me. He's a boy, and I'm a boy. He likes me because I am scratching his back."

Afterward we piled in the car and sped home. It was a fantastic weekend and thanks for Katie and David for making it so much fun. We will miss you when you move, but we'll be sure to visit next year! Until then, Cooper will just have to scare Katie over the phone and Amelia will have to remind David not everything is food via email.

The Next David Garrett

Cooper has moved on from MacGyver. He is now obsessed with "the best violing player in the world"!

For those of you saying "Who?" Here is a clip:

Not only is David Garrett very, very talented; he's very, very nice to look at. 

So what do you do for a 5 year old who asks daily for his very own Stradivarius?

You make one!

Random pictures

Amelia in her new ballet skirt.

How Cooper walks around our home.

Feathers!

Loves his puppy.