Snow Goose Festival

We had a day off for President's Day and everyone agreed that we should spend it at the Snow Goose Festival in Delta. Unfortunately, the actual festival wasn't until the following weekend, but the geese don't go by the calendar. We left early, and even though there was a skiff of snow during the night, the roads were clear. It's almost two hours to Delta so we arrived around 10:30, which was just about the right time for the kids to start asking about lunch. We drove directly out to the reservoir, but there were only half a dozen snow geese sitting way out on the ice. It was pretty underwhelming.

Luckily, we also wanted to see the new Topaz Museum that opened a few years ago. We went back into town and found it on Main Street. It was really cool to visit, especially since Mark and Dax have been learning about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II for Knowledge Bowl. We were surprised at how emotional the museum was, telling stories of Americans who were imprisoned for the crime of being an ethnic minority. The boys really seemed to understand the unfairness of that portion of American History.

We were amazed at how large Topaz Camp was.

This museum was a great stop.

We asked the lady running the museum if she knew where we could find the snow geese, and since it's Delta, she called her son, DeLoy, who drives the UPS truck. He'd just passed over 3,000 birds at cousin Delvin's farm, so she drew us a map and sent us on our way. We found the snow geese and took some great pictures there at Delvin's. Then we settled in and Mom made sandwiches. As we munched on carrots and peanut butter and jelly, the geese decided to take off. It is an amazing site seeing thousands of snow-white, screeching waterfowl escaping into the clouds. We barely got the sandwiches down and the cameras up before they wheeled around and came back to land on the next farm over.

This is our friend, Farty, the snow goose.
We named him Farty because the others made him sit by himself.

Mom was excited to be so close to the geese.

There are so many of them!! 

It is really amazing when they fly. 

They swoop up like a huge cloud.

Then they fly overhead for a minute. 

And finally settle back down.

After enjoying the geese, we drove out to the actual site of the Topaz Internment Camp. We stopped at a small memorial and then drove through the camp. There isn't much to see but wide open desert, a few lone bricks, and some crumbling foundations. Still, Mark declared it the best part of the day, and that's saying something when birds are involved! On the drive home we spotted three bald eagles on the west side of Utah Lake, and we still made it home by 4 o'clock.

One of the bald eagles we spotted.

The barbed wire Topaz sign is cool.

We loved driving through and talking about this part of history.

We also spotted this herd of Pronghorn along the way home.

Dripping Rock Trail

The Dripping Icicles were awesome. 

Someone posted a picture of some really cool icicles along Dripping Rock Trail, so the first decent day we had in January, we drove down to check it out. The trail was icy and the climb down to the river was really slick, but the icicles were still dripping.

We crossed the river several times to check out the ice in different places. Amazingly, no one fell in the little stream or even got a toe wet. There are so many cute pictures from the day, too. Everyone was happy to be outside and on the trail.

Unsurprisingly, we found that the climb back up to the trail was a little more difficult. Dad climbed to a rock and then acted as an anchor for everyone. Still, the boys were slipping and sliding. Finally, Dad just tossed Seth up to the trail where he landed in the snow with a dull thump, giggling and laughing. It was a fun afternoon.

We were so excited when we saw the first icicle. 

It was nice to see everyone smiling on the trail.

The water was still dripping even though most of it was frozen.

It was so pretty!

Going down to the river was easy, climbing up was not! 

Dripping Rock was way better this winter than last. 

Seth was a great little rock hopper. 

Even Mom braved the river crossing. 

We loved examining the icicles up close. 

Dad does everything with a BANG!

January Fun

Every year when Mom goes through the pictures and loads them onto discs and external hard drives, she notices all the funny pictures that missed out on being on the blog. We always share about our adventures, but I don't always share the funny moments that happen. So this year I am going to remedy that situation, each month I'm going to share some of our fun moments at the end of the month. This was our January!

We love when we have a free Saturday morning and can go to the Home Depot workshops. This month was building an easel, and we have already used the easels for many projects, so it was well worth it. 

Mom and Dad love when they get to go to the Hale together.  

Do you think they love their cousin, Ty, or what?

We went to a BYU Basketball game and Mark shared his CougarTail with Seth. Now Seth is hooked.

Dax is so creative. He created this whole basketball game one wintry day that has been played lots of times.
He also pulled out the Chutes & Ladders kids for players. 

Mom sure loves hanging out with these boys. They make her life so happy and bright!

We had a fun game night with the Alders. Seth snapped this photo. 

We have had a few great snowstorms. This snowman lasted quite awhile. 

We took the boys to a movie on our day off from school. They definitely loved relaxing in these seats.  

Seth made it into the 100s Club on the first day. He is such a smarty pants!

Mom and Dax went on a field trip together to see the BYU gymnastics team compete. They made it on the big screen! It was a great field trip. 

Butterfly Biosphere

Mark spotted this butterfly hidden in a corner. We loved how colorful it is.

We got a free insiders peek at the Butterfly Biosphere before it even opened. We felt lucky, because the exclusive look was only for teachers, and Dad managed to get tickets. We had a blast checking out this new exhibit. It is amazing with all the butterflies flying around and there were so many different kinds to see. Dax was lucky enough to have our favorite blue butterfly land on him just as we were heading out. The boys also had a ton of fun dressing up as butterflies and spiders. It was so cool!

Seth loved spotting butterflies. 

Dax really wasn't too sure about having this butterfly land on him. The rest of us thought it was amazing!

All of the boys loved dressing up. 

Dax had fun being a butterfly. 

We all loved the chrysalis corner, but look how sweaty Seth is! It is so hot in there!

Then, after the Grand Opening in January, our Thanksgiving Point pass was about to expire. We decided to go one more time and check it out. Our second trip to the Butterfly Biosphere was even more exciting than the first. Though there were a lot more people, they also had more exhibits open. We'd missed the playground, which had been under construction, and not all the displays were operating when we went the first time. We had a great time in the play area, and Mark and Dad enjoyed the microscope eyes. Best of all it was just as exciting to see butterflies as it had been the month before. Though Seth was the only one to have a butterfly land on him, and he never saw it because it was on his back, we still had a great time!

Seth was the lucky one to have a butterfly on him this time. 

Mark and Dad loved this microscope. 

That is Mark's hair close up. 

It's a bumpy ride down this slide. 

Seth found the spider costume AGAIN!

This display makes you feel like you are a bug peeking through the grass. 

We really enjoyed our visit and took some fun pics. 

Help! We are stuck in a bug jar!

Let us out!!