Golden Spike and ATK

 

The kids and I have been on a wild and crazy stay-cation. Since Thursday night, we've eaten two meals at home (both of those were breakfast), driven about 500 miles, seen lots of friends and family, missed Todd, run out of patience with each other, skipped naps too many times, visited lots of cool places we've never been, and had a great time. Now we're glad it's over. The latest adventure was a trip to Golden Spike National Historic Site to marvel at the construction of the rail lines all by human power, ooo and ahh at the beautiful wood- and coal-burning steam engines, watch a Peanuts movie about the building of the railroad, and talk to real engineers. 

I snuck in a hike (my favorite part of an adventure) on the Big Fill Trail. It was hot,  windy, sunny and informative, which is just what I expected. I carried Jovie half the time and encouraged Ikey for about a fourth of the time, which is what I expected too. Jovie got mad at me for my constant nagging to wear her hat so she yelled, "Snakes are covering your butt!" The origin of that insult is a total mystery to me, but I'm sure she meant it.

We added some rockets to the adventure at the ATK Rocket Display.

All this time, TB has been in Coronado with friends at the beach, doing stand-up-paddleboard, riding bikes, making and eating good-tasting and healthful food, and talking to adults. These are things we didn't do in Utah this weekend, and we're all excited to get the whole Burrows family back together.

Kids are gross

The kids and I went with Grandma Rainey to her grandmother's family reunion. It was fun. We were the youngest ones there =). Jovie stepped in dog poo in the park and of course I picked her up a million times before I noticed the horrible smell. So I had dog poo smeared all over my (of course!) white shorts all day while Rainey was trying to introduce me to her aunts and other impressionable people. It was gross. Let me assure you that the last time I had dog poo on my clothes was when I was two years old. It was a good 33 year run, but now it's over.

Bees and Carbon County

Ikey went to a Bees baseball clinic. I think it was the first time he swung a bat, wore a mitt, or threw a ball. He needs a better coach than me because I've never done any of those things either. His favorite part of the day was the tour of the clubhouse.

Of course he was very friendly and he spent most of the time talking to his "team".

Uncle Clancy and Aunt Kathy partied with us on their way to Reno for a bowling tournament. We love family!

Jovie wore plasic cups for shoes at the end of TB's birthday party (more on that in another post). She is so silly!

We took Grandma Faucheux to the Helper Mining and Railroad Museum in Carbon County...

The Amtrak station in Helper...

 I promised Ikey some M&M's if he'd show me his face instead of hiding...

We had lunch on historic Helper Main Street at Balanced Rock Eatery.

We drove on a long dirt road to Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Emery County. It's a pretty cool place for an amateur geologist and museum-y kids, but the temperature gauge read 115 deg for a little while there. It didn't feel too hot, just windy! The kids and I hiked to Raptor Point to check out the view.

Ikey was under his own power the whole way. He's an especially great hiker this year, so let us know when you want to go hiking with us!

 

We finished up the day at the car wash and now we just have to get the dust out of our shoes and hair and we're ready to start a new adventure tomorrow.

Key West

 Todd is such a fantastic drug salesman that he earned us another big vacation. Did I say yet that he was promoted to EXECUTIVE SALES REP this spring? He was and he's awesome!

We went to Key West for five nights in May while the kids stayed with grandparents and Aunt Nikki. We rode bikes all over the island and ate good Cuban food and good seafood.

We rode on a huge catamaran to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

We trespassed (just a little) on private property on Sunset Key that probably is owned by Shaq or Oprah. We rode on kayaks through a mangrove forest.

We ate a lot of key lime pie. We went to every kind of musuem. We capped off our Ernest Hemingway book club with a visit to his home full of six-toed cats.

We visited the Little White House where President Truman spent 16 working vacations during his presidency. You know how I love a good Democratic President!

The kids had a great time without us, and we would still be there probably if we hadn't missed them just a little.

New York City

We all went to New York City in April and had the greatest time. We stayed with the super fun Layden family and the kids LOVED all the girls.

Hannah had an art show for her MFA, and it was really amazing.

Todd rowed us around the lake in Central Park. TB and I went to the David Letterman Show.

We saw a polar bear at Central Park Zoo.

We went to the Empire State Building and Grand Central Station and we saw the Statue of Liberty.

We saw the Space Shuttle Enterprise fly over while piggy-backed on a 747 and Ikey and TB were interviewed on the radio.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/04/27/space-shuttle-enterprise-on-its-way-to-new-york-city/

We rode the subway and taxis and we ate pizza.

We walked everywhere and ate at great restaurants.

The kids bonded with "Uncle" Mitch.

 We terrorized the Layden's home for FIVE DAYS, and Jovie even got into Grandma Jackie's makeup.



















We visited the 9/11 Memorial on the week that the Freedom Tower passed the Empire State Building as the tallest in New York City. When it's finished, it will be the tallest building in the country.

We visited the Air and Space Museum on the USS Intrepid air craft carrier.

Jovie was quite an attraction in New York: families asked to take pictures with her two times, someone asked us what nationality she is, and a group of school kids surrounded her at the zoo and asked me why her hair is so light.