Hardware Ranch: Valentine's Day Weekend Trip

Last week while riding around the backyard on the horses, Snack J said:"Dad I don't want to ride in the backyard, I want to go see the elk!" Of course nate and I smiled big, as Snack J always amazes us with how much he takes in at such a young age and Nate said, "Well, I don't know about taking the horses, but we can take you to go see the elk" And as I type this, I realize that is how we ended up at Dinosaur Park last month: Snack J's idea. This kid's got an amazing power of suggestion. I need to tell him more about Hawaii! :o)

We just bought a Dogde Intrepid 2000 which i'm so excited about not having a car payment,getting better gas mileage and fitting all 3 car seats in without slamming the doors closed.

So anyway: last Sunday we drove the Trapper's Loop, North Ogden Canyon Loop to try it out. We saw 2 moose up by Snow basin and on this trip we saw a bald eagle and 3 white tail deer on the drive, and the lodge where you buy the tickets for the elk wagon ride had a small museum....another museum and my kids loved it! I've got several animal encyclopedia styled books for the kids and they pour over them everyday, so the kids were very excited to get up close and personal with the pictures they look at daily.

Baby C needs to be signed on by Baby Gap Modeling agency, IMHO, but I'm just the mom.


I love the sign below this bobcat: Please do not touch, I BITE!

I was so excited I caught these facial expressions on the kids as they trepidiciously (is that a word?) came face to face with the skins of animals they talk about (and smell) all the time.

When we saw the moose at Snowbasin last week, Snack J couldn't quite see them at his angle in the car, despite Nate turning around the car trying several times to try and help him, so desperately he wanted to see them, so we made a big deal about Snack J being able to get face to face with this moose.

Look Mom, There's Elk Poop!!!!

Gotta love 3 year old enthusiasm.

And gotta love 3 year old obstinance: "No I don't want to look at the camera!"

Well I thought I cropped clipped and zoomed, but apparently it didn't work. Here are the 3 deer we saw on the way home. What, you can't see them? Come on...Look harder!

On the way home Nate asked if we wanted to go out to dinner in Logan, Of Course! So on the Friday before Valentine's we walked right into Copper Mill right before 5 pm with all 3 kids. We lucked out with our waiter who looked about our age, he let us order off the lunch menu and he brought out the kids meals FAST. The kids were so well behaved, we actually were able to enjoy ourselves. We ate at the copper mill for 25 Dollars for the whole family! We can hardly do that at Arby's anymore, well, since they introduced their dollar menu it' s a little easier... And as we walked out the line had begun to form to get into the restaurant. Good timing.

P.S. Nate got me a gift card to Deseret Book and a beautiful bouqet of flowers on Sunday. Okay, so maybe I did give him a suggestion, but I'm so excited to go pick out whatever I want. Many a pleasant thought this past week has been spent deciding what I should get with my gift card. I got Nate another remote for the Wii. So we can now play Wii tennis together, on the same team of course, we don't want to be throwing the remotes at each other :o)