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.