Take a trip Tuesday: Salt Lake City by Frontrunner

 At the beginning of summer, my mom invited us to go to Salt Lake on the Frontrunner with her.  Well, a teenager has a busy life, and it took until the week before school started before we found time to go.  We met at the station in Provo to board the 10:40 train.  Someone (I won't use any names to protect the guilty) couldn't find her shoes, and we were barrelling down the freeway trying to make it in time.  Somehow, by the grace of God, we made it.  We had to sprint across the tracks and run for it, but I was able to buy tickets, and we got to the platform before the train left.  As we got up to the train, the door opened, and Waverly stepped inside.  Just then the door closed behind her, before the rest of us was able to board, sealing her away from us.  Savannah had a panic attack, and started yelling "no! No No!"  The attendant there opened the door for us, and allowed a very scared Waverly to exit.  It was only a moment, but it scared the two of them.  We laughed about it after the fright wore off.

We took a trip on the Frontrunner in December to Temple Square, not long after the train started running.  It was CRAZY!  I was a little nervous going again with all 6 kids, with just my mom to help me, but it was not busy at all, and was not too hard.  Savannah is such a good surrogate mother; I could not do it without her help.  I am grateful to have such a good kid as my first.

 When we went in December, it was dark outside, so it was fun to actually see where we were going this time around.  Though, the kids were not as mesmerized by the experience as they were before.  They were anxious to get there.  Boston was so good on the trip.  He just chills and is so easy-going.

 When we got off in Salt Lake, we took Trax over to the City Creek Center, since we hadn't seen it yet.  We stopped at JB's to eat lunch first, courtesy of my mom.  Keaton ordered a cheeseburger and a plate of spaghetti and meatballs.  He is a little guy, but can really eat a lot sometimes!

City Creek is so pretty!  I wanted to go inside of Tiffany's, just to say I have, but decided against it, with my 6 kids.  That would be too scary!  Savannah and I did some shopping at H&M and Forever 21, getting some school clothes for her.  We walked around a bit, and the kids loved the big fountain in the center.

 I'm not sure what's got Irelynd upset here, but I love her expression.  I imagine Brighton has probably splashed her.

 Waverly made friends with this cute little girl while we were here.  She makes friends everywhere we go; I love how open she is to other kids, and how she is so friendly.  Wouldn't it be great if adults all did the same thing, and just opened up to each other, calling each other "friend"?

 After the mall, we walked through Temple Square to get to the Beehive House.  We had intended on seeing it earlier in the summer when we came up to see Tracy Aviary and the Capitol, but parking is a nightmare.  I was surprised by how much the kids wanted to see Brigham Young's house.  While walking through Temple Square, we passed by this old fashioned fountain.  It was the kind that you pump with your foot to make it go.  The kids were amazed by it.  Everyone had to have a drink from it.

 I thought this was a cool shot of the Assembly Hall reflected in the building.

 I can't believe I didn't get any shots of the Beehive House, seeing as how everyone was so looking forward to it.  Probably because of the million and one stairs to carry Boston up, and rooms to keep pulling Brighton out of.  We enjoyed the tour; it was conducted by a sister missionary from New Zealand.  I think I listened more to her accent than to what she was actually saying.  The other sisters there oohed and ahhed over Boston.  One of them thought  he looked like Jack-Jack from The Incredibles.  I guess he does.

Next we walked back through City Creek looking for ice cream.  We went through the food court (didn't find any ice cream, but found a fun play place!)  We stopped to let everyone have some free time, and to let Boston out of the stroller and crawl around.  It was themed after dinosaurs.  It's a just-hatched Bostonasaurus!

 Yikes!  This one will be scary!  It's a Tyrannasaurus Brighton!

 Boston was ecstatic to be let out of captivity, and crawled around squealing for joy.

 Savannah is just a very tall 6-year-old.

 Yahoo!  We finally found ice cream!  We had to walk to Harmon's Grocery store, which was reached by going under the street, in a tunnel, which by all appearances, the city tried its hardest to keep strictly hidden.  But we found it, and were richly rewarded with the best gelato I have ever had in my life!  I had orange something-or-other, and cinnamon roll.  They served them in these cute little plastic cupcake liner-looking cups with little spatulas.  So cute!  I had to keep them, of course.  Since it was approaching dinnertime, Savannah and I grabbed some sandwich stuff from downstairs in the grocery store, and we headed back to the train station.

 This was supposed to be reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe's train shot, but she turned her head right at the wrong time, and the light turned green so we had to run after this.  Stupid us, we were having so much fun in Salt Lake that we forgot we came on a train, and trains run on schedules.  We realized when we missed the trax back to the Frontrunner station, that we'd also miss the 7:00 Frontrunner back to Provo, and would have to wait another hour, or try to walk to the next station.  We chose option 2, and realized we should have just waited the hour at the first station, because there was no way I was going to be able to drag 6 tired kids, and a tired grandma 6 very LARGE city blocks in a matter of 15 minutes.  Also adding in a pit stop for a child that has a very tiny bladder, and it was another miss.  Oh well, Scott just earned another quiet hour at home before we arrived back, lucky him!

We finally made it to the station and boarded the train home.  We had a great time, and I am so grateful to have my mom close enough to be able to do things like this with her.  I know she won't be around forever, as she is near 80, and I hope my kids will remember having fun times with her like this.  We love you Grandma!

Take a Trip Tuesday: Art city days Art Festival

We have done the Art City Festival for the past 2 years, so of course we had to make it part of our summer trips.  We invited our cousins to come with us, so no one was bored with just siblings.

 Brighton, and the "other" twins: Cami and Cadi

 It's funny; out of these 6 kids, only 2 are singletons.

 Wrigley, Keaton and Waverly

 One of the activities that everyone loves to do is the facepainting.  Waverly got some ballet shoes for hers.

 Even Keaton sprouted a fish on his face.

 Brighton became a lion.  Boston is just chillin.

And Irelynd and Maddie got double face-painting.  They enjoyed the freedom of roaming around just the two of them, without their moms tagging along behind them.  They are both growing up fast!

Savannah and Chloe roamed Main Street while the littler ones did the Festival.  They are too cool for this.

Take a trip Tuesday: Mrs. Cavanaugh's

 We drove to North Salt Lake to Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolate Factory to watch how chocolate is produced.  Well, that's what we thought we were going to see.  What we actually saw is a video about the history of the company and the origin of chocolate.  Then a quick glimpse inside the factory, and ended in the train room and factory store.  Not as entertaining as the Sweet's factory tour a few years ago, but we ended with some yummy ice cream cones and a chocolate sample.  Plus we had cousins along with us, so anything is fun in that case!

Summer fun

 Reading is not Brighton's favorite thing to do.  Not even close.  He's such an active, physical kid, so we tried playing a game I found on Pinterest to practice some of his sight words from school.  I wrote some words in chalk on the driveway, and as I called them out, he had to throw a water balloon at them.  It made reading much more fun for him, so we did a letter recognition version for Keaton.

My mom bought the kids a snow cone maker at the beginning of summer that they have LOVED!  It's messy, so we usually try to do it outside.  Boston also loves them.

 It's cold!

Summer shelf

 Here she is decked out in Summer glory.  I decided I needed a summer shelf this year.  I copied the wreath from a Pinterest post using a pool noodle, and dollar store flip flops and flowers.  Most of the rest of everything came from Dollar Tree.  I made the pinwheel garland copying instructions from a blog I found.

 I bought this cute frame from a Taipan sale for $1.  I made the flip flop to go in it and threw it up there too.  The gumballs had been sitting on my hall table, but I had to move them up here to protect them.  Too many little hands in the jar!

Science 101

 As part of our Summer Fun Box, we had vinegar and baking soda science experiments.  The balloons had baking soda inside.  We filled our water bottles with vinegar, and put the mouth of the balloon over the top.  At "go", everyone pulled their balloons up and emptied the contents into the bottles and watched the balloons fill with air.  They thought this was pretty cool.  We all were leery of the first one because we weren't sure if it would stop before it popped.  Luckily, it did.

We repeated it several more times and they were mesmerized each time.  We'll have to include this one again next year!

Bubbles

 We had a lot of fun trying out our big bubble solution.  Never tried it before, and it didn't work well, but occasionally we were successful in making a complete bubble.  The twins were really excited every time that happened.

First (hopefully) Annual Henry Cousins Camp

 In a goal to give Savannah something to structure her days around, pass off a YW Personal Progress Value Project, and entertain my little ones for a few hours every day, I helped Savannah organize a Henry Cousins Camp.  We decided on themes every day for a week, Monday through Friday, and she and older cousins, Chloe and Baker, gathered up their siblings and entertained them for 2 hours each day.  We rotated between the 3 houses, and, for the most part, it worked well.  It was supposed to be a test run for a summer camp for paying customers, but we were never able to find a week that worked to run it, so we'll save it for next summer.  I hope it taught her organization, planning, and leadership skills.

 Monday, the first day, was Jungle Safari Day.  They played elephant tag,

 did an elephant walk,

 and had frozen, chocolate-covered bananas for snack.

 Tuesday was American Day.  It was held at Chloe's house, so I didn't get any photos, other than of these tri-colored cookies Savannah made for snack time.  They had multiple activities planned, but spent all their time on decorating their bikes and scooters for their parade around the block.  This day was not great, but I think she learned to plan better.

 Day 3, Wednesday, was Circus Day.  They played several circus-type games, and we did a photo shoot with the kids.  Irelynd

 Brighton

 Cami

 Piper

 Wrigley

 Cadi

 Waverly

 Maddie

 Baker, looking so debonnair

 Chloe

 Savannah

 The 3 Ringmasters

 Donut on a string game.  I loved seeing all the tongues come out to corral the donut.

 These 3 little ones cracked me up in their attempts to eat it.

 "I give up!"

 Ok, maybe some help was neccessary.

 Baker brought over this extremely cool cotton candy maker.  It made a full spool (is that the correct term?) of cotton candy from 3 hard candies.  I was dying to try it with Starlight mints but we had none, darn it!

This was the back up, in case it didn't work.

Day 4, Thursday, was again at Chloe's and was a water day, so no photos.

Day 5, Friday, was at Baker's and was Under the Sea theme, which they did some fun games, but again, no photos.  All in all, I think everyone enjoyed it and she'll be ready to do it again next summer!  If nothing else, I very much enjoyed my quiet time at home those 3 days, and it passed off a value project.  Whew!