Pineview Reservoir Nature Study

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August 8, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We got to experience nature up close and personal when we went camping!

Here was our little buddy. He wasn’t shy at all! He wasn’t even bothered when we made a fire in the pit. He sniffed around looking for scraps.

Just a little walk and we found ourselves at this glorious creek. The water was icy cold, but that didn’t stop the kids from playing in it! Several of the older kids caught some brook trout too!

Lovely wildflowers abounded all over the campground and trails.

Just look at that view! There was a great no wake reservoir with trout. I didn’t catch anything though. The kids loved trying to fish. You can also see the lovely storm coming in that drenched us for a few minutes.

I love how lush and green the mountains are. We saw deer too!

Here’s the road that led from the campground to the lake. Christmas trees!

I had great fun examining the thistles on the lakeshore, just buzzing with bees. Did you know there are about 33 different species of bees native to Utah? It is the Beehive State!

There are 3,500 species of bees in the U.S. and 20,000 species in the world.

See the different stripes and shape of the abdomens?

Hi there!

It was exciting to see wild raspberries all over the campground and near the lakeshore!

Here’s the view from the other side of the lake. I love the clouds in this shot reflecting in the water. It was so gorgeous and peaceful here!

We went kayaking too. The girls could really handle their own kayak and now we want our own! We definitely look forward to camping again. It’s like nature study in a bundle. It was so nice to be without electronics. We didn’t even have a cell signal.

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Our First Camping Trip

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July 31, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We went on our first family camping trip with our church this past weekend.

Aaron didn’t grow up doing the camping fishing thing. I did. It’s taken me this long to get him to try it!

Our First Camping Trip was a huge success!

Nice clean and cute kiddos when we first arrived at the campground. Minutes later, they were muddy and wet. Super!

Queen of the rock:

The kids found their own rock.

Alex loved being outside all. the. time.

Our tent we rented from Outdoor Rec. on base

First morning:

Aaron went fishing in a boat with some guys at 0630. Liz disappeared from camp before the kids and I got up. Story: She banged on the neighbor’s camper before 0700 and got their kids up (ages 6 and 9) to go look for berries and/or deer. They walked down to the reservoir and “borrowed” a canoe and paddled out on the lake by themselves. At least they put on the 3 life jackets they found in the canoe (convenient!). It was the story of the week. Great.

First camp breakfast:

Dinosaur Eggs oatmeal and fruit punch!

I think Alex was yelling something at me. whoa, was it cold up in the mountains!

Look at that view!

Dad set the girls up fishing at the reservoir.

Katie’s first fishing trip! We didn’t catch anything. Got to get up too early for all that. And we are not early risers.

Tent meeting in our “Tabernacle.” Pastor and his son led us in worship. We also had communion with bread baked in a Dutch oven.

We brought our own chairs and sang songs and listened to Pastor preach.

Camp pot luck dinner. Obviously, we need to get a Dutch oven. Seriously.

We went hiking and playing in the creek. That water is COLD! We borrowed kayaks and went paddling around on the lake. Tori and Katie could even manage the kayaks on their own! I was so proud. I seriously want a kayak now.

Alex was inseparable from Pastor’s granddaughter. She’s 5. He likes older women. And gingers.

Aaron got to have fun retrieving toys that Alex threw in the creek, before they floated away! Alex kinda wanted to see them float downstream, but I was worried that there would be tears if they disappeared in the current.

I love how our church practically rented out the whole campground. I felt the kids were safe running around and everyone helped watch out for all the kids. It was such a great experience for our family. We made some great friends over the weekend. We had no cell phone coverage. We really were isolated!

The kids are already asking if we can go next year. I guess that means they liked it.

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Adam’s Canyon Waterfall

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July 21, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

A great day for Adam’s Canyon Hike

Well, we took all seven younguns on a 4 mile hike to Adam’s Canyon on Thursday morning. It says on the website that it’s about 2-3 hours. It took us from 8ish to about 1:30. ugh

But we did see some amazing plant life and some awesome waterfalls. It smelled good and piney and fresh.

There were lots of little scrub oaks with these guys on them. I think they’re gall wasps?

hey y’all!

Stair steps: Liz@11, Reygan@almost9, Ben@7, Tori@6, Katie@5, Ty@4, Alex@2.

And then there were these hard little orangey pink galls on the oak leaves: gallflies.

ants. You’d think the kids never saw them before.

pretty yellow wildflower

black chinned hummingbird…see him? right in the middle on the end of the dead branch?

cactus

view of the mountains down southeast and a pretty look at town on the first leg of the hike

Fun in the creek

crossing the creek…see how Alex won that battle?

my son, the rock climber

a pretty little waterfall

yellow columbines

wild raspberries!

The jackpot: 40 foot waterfall at the end of the trail!

snack time! (on trail mix, not the raspberries…)

of course, I had to go into the waterfall, not all the way, but almost

that water was COLD

Alex thought this was the greatest thing in the world! (so did I…)

It was rough heading back. There was lots of whining and we were so. very. tired. Thank God we had four adults, but it was barely enough. Aaron carried Alex almost the whole way back. Katie is crazy and she wanted to hop on rocks and she stepped off the trail a couple times, almost toppling off the mountain. Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Krista, for saving her life.

I do love hiking and all that, but it is stressful with little kids. I think I’ll stick to the nature center and parks and our backyard until they’re a bit older. I’m still sore!

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Hill AFB Aerospace Museum

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July 19, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Our trip to the Aviation Museum

We visited the Hill Aerospace Museum.

Always chokes me up to see that POW/MIA flag…

BIG airplane

Even the wheels are big! The kids measure up.

Holding up the nose

Fun being able to climb all over helicopters!

Uncle was nice to lift up the kids so they could see inside an airplane.

Lights! Buttons!

Showing the different areas of the Ogden armory

reminiscent of M.A.S.H.

Katie being goofy

Me and my Bubba

Katie and cousin silhouette

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Treehouse Museum

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July 17, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Our kids’ museum has a literacy theme. We love the Treehouse Museum.

We started with the castle room this time and worked our way down.

Not the Chosen One…

Dressup Castle

Queen and her jester

Royal Cousins

Cool light table

Marimba! pretty cool music

Awesome view microscope. Alex loved these and could do it all by himself!

Baby doctors Tori and Katie

More dress up…

Crafts stations…don’tcha know that boy went for the scissors!

Climbing the treehouse

Kate loves cows

Firefighters…

an Air Force horse statue. These are all over town decorated with regional attractions. I love it.

Visit the Treehouse Museum

Hours:

Monday
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (September – May)
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (June – August and MLK Jr. Day, President’s Day, Labor Day & Christmas Break)

Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Friday 
10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Sunday  Closed

Closed January 1, Memorial Day, July 4, July 24, Thanksgiving & Christmas Day

Tickets:

Children age 1-12: $7
Adults and Children 13+: $5
Babies under age 1: Free

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Hogle Zoo Field Trip

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June 2, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Our local zoo had a FREE military day.

Awesome. We were so there. We headed over to Hogle Zoo to see animals!

Alex really enjoyed seeing the animals.

Last year, he was a bit too young to understand why he couldn’t pet the animals. He especially loved the elephant and the cavy.

Alex loved the cavy so much that we had to drag him away. It wasn’t pretty.

Look how this desert cat came over to say “hello”! Alex wanted him.

The zoo opened a new café, The Beastro (haha), this spring with gourmet food and it was amazingly good.

It was priced equivalently to Subway, which we considered buying and bringing for lunch, but when I looked up their menu and prices, I opted to get some fresh gourmet food and they offered %10 off and free drinks to military! Score!

COLD ice cream!

They have an awesome playground when you get tired.

Like, who could get bored watching animals? Well, the animals got bored with us and went to sleep about mid-day.

Alex loved the snake slide!

BIG egg

Alex loved the bridge and ran across it, back and forth.

I ain’t afraid of no spiders!

We can’t wait to return for the opening of their new exhibit, Rocky Shores.

We already have some events lined up on our calendar since Tori and Katie are studying Apologia Land Animals.

Who doesn’t love bears?

Visit Hogle Zoo and check out their education programs!

Admission:

SUMMER SEASON ( May 1 – September 30)
Adults	$14.95
Seniors (65 and older):	$12.95
Children (3 to 12):	$10.95
Children 2 and younger:	Free

REGULAR ( October 1 – April 30)
Adults	$11.95
Seniors (65 and older):	$9.95
Children (3 to 12):	$8.95
Children 2 and younger:	Free

Hours:

Summer Hours

March 1 – October 31

Gate:

9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Grounds:

9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Winter Hours

November 1 – February 28

Gate:

9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Grounds:

9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

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Red Butte Gardens

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April 30, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Happy Arbor Day!

We took a trip to our local botanical garden: Red Butte Garden.

It was cold and windy and we didn’t have coats, but the flowers were lovely. It was almost 80 yesterday! We even saw snowflakes. brrr

We rode the train and bus to be all green and the kids were ecstatic to finally ride that train downtown!

We should have brought jackets. It was still awful cold downtown.

We were quite fascinated by this Dwarf Cedar of Lebanon

Tori, Katie, and Alex tried out all the swings in each little garden exhibit.

This was in the herb and medicinal garden, which was probably my favorite area.

The children’s garden was fun and cute with snakes and lizards all over the place!

This lovely little grotto offered a much-needed respite.

We walked as far as this waterfall and then headed back to eat some lunch and head home. Oh, how cold they look!

We really loved this paperbark maple. It was just budding out and the trunk with that bark is so lovely.

So many different kinds of daffodils, narcissus, jonquils, etc.

a beautiful flowering crabapple

We definitely want to go again, when it’s warmer and the roses bloom and to see some of their new exhibits that open this summer!

Visit Red Butte Garden

Tickets:
Adults (ages 18-64): $10
Military w/ID: $8
Children (ages 3-17): $6
Children (under 3): Free

Hours:

Jan 2-Mar 31: 9 am-5 pm
Apr 1-30: 9 am-7:30pm
May 1-Aug 31: 9 am-9 pm
Sept 1-30: 9 am-7:30 pm
Oct 1-Dec 23: 9 am-5 pm

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Earth Day at Ogden Nature Center

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April 27, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Ogden Nature Center had a terrific Earth Day festival!

How cool is this? We got to ride in a llama cart!

Tori was a little excited…

Making Earth gel clings with colored glue

Looking at sun spots through a fancy telescope.

Tori impressed this guy with her sun knowledge!

She also completed a math puzzle with a pattern they’d never seen before! So proud!

my lil monkeys rock climbing

some much needed icies

storytime break

The girls have new matching desks for school! They love this setup!

We read about canines in science this week and made sock puppet dogs. They still love those junior notebooks!

We watched a documentary about reintegrating wolves from Yellowstone to the surrounding wilderness and how that impacts ranchers. Now they want to research wolves for a living. I love their passion for their studies!

How do you celebrate Earth Day?

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The Living Planet Aquarium Field Trip

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March 19, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We finished off our science study of Swimming Creatures with a field trip to The Living Planet Aquarium!

Alex was just a baby last year when we went and he didn’t care much about it. This time, he was ecstatic!

We spend a LOOOONG time watching the jellyfish get fed. They literally swooped and scooped up the food from this turkey baster!

This is a BIG lobster. Any one have any butter?

Alex got really tickled at this tank with needle fish and lion fish.

The lion fish spread his fins out a couple times and was quite magnificent.

A really colorful tropical tank

There’s a little goby hiding in the bottom of this tank.

We got to pet rays! Alex liked to watch everyone else pet rays. He really didn’t like it when I put his hand in the water. The keepers said they clip the tail barbs like we clip our fingernails.