Ockey Family Adventures: Heber City Day 2

We were excited to try these restaurant.

We slept in quite a bit today, but we had a breakfast restaurant on our agenda. This particular place specialized in kolaches, which are like buns with food in them. Some were sweet with berries or fruit filling, and some were savory with breakfast food inside. Our favorite was the sausage with egg kolache. Seth went a much safer route and had a cinnamon roll. It was a really good restaurant, and not very expensive.

Mark and Dad were huge fans of these kolaches.

Seth did not finish this enormous cinnamon roll!

After breakfast we had a little time so we went for a short hike along the Provo River. This walk started at the bridge between Heber and Midway and went south along the river. Even though the first hundred yards ran along the sewer ponds, we had a nice walk. The trail opened up to the river several times. The boys were throwing rocks and looking for animals the entire way. Finally, we ended up at a wide rocky curve in the river and we could go no farther. We stayed and splashed a lot of rocks in the river until it was time for our next adventure.

Dad wanted to see the old west village, so we stopped on the way to the hike.

They even have a pretend gallows. Eek!

The trail along the Provo River was beautiful.

We enjoyed this gorgeous hike.

Mark is getting so grown up in these pictures.

We saw two snakes.

We also threw a lot of rocks!

The next adventure was our favorite from the entire trip. We stopped at a new cheese factory and dairy farm. This farm was so cool because it was a hundred percent automated. We started with a short wagon ride to see the calves. They were so small, and the boys (and Mom) squealed as they sucked on their fingers and licked their palms. We thought that would easily be the best part of the trip, but we were wrong.

There were 130 cows in a big barn, and this is where the automation came in. First, we saw this slow moving scraper come around. It moved very slowly, pulled along by a groove in the floor, scraping all the manure away from the cows area. The cows just stepped over it as it slid slowly by. Then we watched the cows stick their heads through the gate and eat their feed. Every hour, another machine started up and, guided by sensors in the floor, scooched the feed back into piles for the cows to reach. But we were even more surprised when we found out about the milking. When cows are ready to be milked, anytime, as much as they want, they are trained to walk into the milking robot. It hooks up using tiny cameras and milks the cows. Meanwhile, it keeps track of which cow comes in, how much milk is given, and does an udder wash. The dairy farmer merely monitors this information and makes sure everything is going as expected. The cows even had an automatic back scratcher that they'd walk over to for a back rub. It was so cool to see this process!

We had fun waiting for the wagon ride!

We also got some ice cream while we waited. It was Aggie Ice Cream!

The little shop was super cute and had lots of things for sale.

The boys liked the wagon ride around the farm.

We even went on the road for a while and drove past the sheriff. He just waved.

The calves loved sucking on everyone's fingers.

Mark was the bravest with the cows.

Seth would pet them, but not stick his finger in their mouth.

Seth liked petting the big cows, too.

The whole robotics dairy was amazing!

After the farm, we were slated to go to a fancy pizza place. It was getting hard to eat big restaurant meals every five hours, but we made the best of it. Mom wasn't hungry at all and got a salad, and the boys barely touched their expensive meals, but we couldn't worry about the cost because it was all part of the itinerary.

We were excited for another new restaurant even though we weren't hungry.

Seth loved their cute little car in the front.

We got pretty crazy at lunch!

Seth was having none of it.

Dad did enjoy his pizza.

The boys liked our afternoon adventure. We took two of our kayaks and drove to the beachhouse at Jordanelle. We picked up some paddleboards and a double kayak that were reserved for us, too. Then we spent the hot part of the day paddling around the swimming area. Seth was such a great paddler, and Mom liked going out on the double kayak with the boys. Only Dad got a little too cocky on the paddleboard and fell head over heels. He did manage to keep his hat and sunglasses, but a little girl had to rescue the board before it got too far away.

Dax is the only one who can use the green kayak.

Seth is so brave out on the water.

Mom was brave and tried the paddle board, but she would only kneel down.

Dad was brave and stood up. This picture was taken about 10 seconds before he fell into the lake.

Mark has become a fish and just swam all over.

The double kayak was very popular, and Seth took Mom out to the "island."

Dad got to go out to the island, too!

Dax finally got a turn in the blue kayak.

Mark kept tipping the small green kayak.

So he just used it like a boogie board.

Soon Mark and Dax were racing on the kayaks, but with no paddles.

You do not want to get a sunburn on your head.

This day was so much fun. Everyone was all smiles!

Mark was the only one who could master the standing up and paddling.

We spent along time at the lake and then picked up Wendy's for the boys. We wanted them to actually eat something, and besides, if they ate early, we could drop them off at the hotel and go out on a date. We had a barbecue place on the itinerary, and the boys wouldn't have eaten a bite there. The food was really good, but it was spicy hot barbecue. Dad had the ribs and Mom tried the pork and brisket combo plate. Afterward we had pie, knowing that the kids were five minutes away in the hotel watching a movie. It was Mom and Dad's favorite part of the trip, except for maybe the dairy farm.

We got back to the bunkhouse where we were staying and found the boys doing fine, even though it was almost nine o'clock. They got ready for bed quickly. This was the best day of the trip.