Ancestry Summer Party

Last Saturday was the annual Ancestry summer party.  Usually they have it at Seven Peaks, but they chose to do something different this year and have it at Thanksgiving Point.  Throughout the day, the different venues were open to us and then they had a big gathering later that evening with food, fun, and games.  We decided to hop back and forth throughout the day so that Leila could still get in her naps in her crib.

To begin, we started by exploring the Farm Country and Leila LOVED it!  She loved seeing all of the animals, especially the baby goats.  She would get all excited, point, and then sit in front of the fence and just watch them.  She would even pick up bits of straw and feed it to them through the fence.

Hanging onto the fence for dear life.  She didn't want to leave! 

Baby goats are ADORABLE!

Locked up for making trouble :p

Then we made our way to the Museum of Ancient Life.  Leila had a little bit more trouble being fascinated by the old dinosaur bones, but they had a little exhibit called Thinkering and she thoroughly enjoyed running around and playing with everything they had in there.

She'd put bits of paper in the tube and they would fly up and she would laugh SO hard!

Later, we went to Electric Park--where they had set up an inflatable slide and games, calf roping (machinated), a couple of kiddie trains, and face painting.  They also had volleyball courts and a soccer field.  It was pretty sweet!  Unfortunately, Leila was getting cranky and feeling sick (runny nose) so we only stayed for dinner and one quick ride on one of the trains.  It was enough for my little one though, so we were all happy.

State Parks Scavenger Hunt-Double Point Weekend

Have no fear, I haven't given up on the State Parks scavenger hunt yet!  This last week, they posted an update on the leaderboard and I was surprised to see that I was in fourth place!  They also announced that they were going to do a double-point weekend and all tasks were worth two points from Thursday-Sunday.  That lit the fire under me again and we planned to take full advantage.

Thursday night, we drove up Provo Canyon and went to Jordanelle, Wasatch Mountain, and Deer Creek.  It had been raining pretty hard back home, so we were glad that it wasn't pouring on us up the canyon.  When we got home we had a package waiting for us and discovered our prizes for being in fourth place after the first month.

The Huber cabin and me showing that they had 10 kids here

Our prizes!  Water bottles and a blanket!

After Jason got off work Friday, we went to Utah Lake on our way down south where we would hit NINE other state parks Saturday and Sunday!

We got a hotel in Cedar City for both nights and just spent the days driving and enjoying the parks.  First up was Frontier Homestead, a museum just a couple blocks from our hotel.  The museum is centered on the pioneer era of the area and they had a lot of really neat artifacts and replicas.

Once a teacher, always a teacher?

From here, we drove towards Gunlock park near St. George.  This is another smallish park around a reservoir.  Leila fell asleep right before we got there, so we didn't stay long.

Look closely, I'm going into the water

Then we drove through Snow Canyon, the one park in the area I was most familiar with.

Next up were two more reservoirs/parks: Quail Creek and Sand Hollow.  Both of these were beautiful parks.  Sand Hollow was my favorite because it was like we were next to the ocean.  Only the sand was red.  Leila loved playing in the sand and helping me build our sand castle.

The last park for the day was a little bit more of a drive.  But we eventually made our way to Coral Pink Sand Dunes.  What a neat little park!  Leila once again had a blast in the sand and we both rolled down one of the dunes before calling it quits.

We made our way back to Cedar City only to discover that they were having some sort of festival just a block away from our hotel.  So we checked it out and grabbed some grub.

July Jamboree

The next day we got up and going (thankfully Leila slept MUCH better this time around) and made our way to Kodachrome Basin (near Bryce Canyon).  This was a beautiful park, but be forewarned that there are some dirt roads you have to drive on.

Then we slowly started making our way home via Escalante Petrified Forest and the Anasazi museum.

A doozy of a weekend, but we completed 25 different tasks, adding 50 points to our total!