Golden Spike

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August 5, 2019 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

When we first arrived in Utah, we traveled to the Golden Spike national park for a re-enactment.

It was hot and dry and out in the middle of nowhere.

The kids were young, but we’ve shown them the pictures each history cycle since to refresh their memories as we learn about American history.

And then there’s an interesting story.

Golden Spike National Historic Site is open year round and receives nearly 60,000 visitors a year. Visitors come to explore the site and connect with one of the most transformational moments in our nation’s history. The most popular attractions include stepping out to the site where history was made, viewing the site’s replica steam locomotives, participating in historic re-enactments of the famous “Last Spike” ceremony and exploring the nearly 150 year-old railroad grade on the auto tours and hiking trail.

Learn more.

Hours and Re-enactments.

150th anniversary events on May 10, 2019.

The girls got their Junior Ranger badges. It’s a great way to get kids interested in history and learning.

We like hands-on history.

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Best and Worst of Hill AFB

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August 15, 2017 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

We never wanted or expected to live in Utah.

It was a culture shock, but we made the best of it, as military families have to do.

We lived there for four years.

My husband deployed a few months after we arrived. On our anniversary. I spent the first winter of my life alone with four kids. Our cat died and the basement flooded while he was deployed.

The Best of Hill AFB

Outdoors Activities

We’re not so much into winter, but I hear the skiing is wonderful. I did like how sunny winters are and it doesn’t feel very cold. We enjoyed hiking, fishing, and camping. We explored national and state parks. It is beautiful there!

Affordable Housing

We rented a humongous house with a huge back yard and there were lots of nice houses for sale. There were new ones being built all over! We knew many who chose to retire there.

Deals for Families

Since Utah is known for large families, there are many deals for kids and families. Lots of museums and other attractions have family passes or free admission for kids. There were lots of consignment sales and thrift stores.

The Worst of Hill AFB

Religious Discrimination

The Mormon Tabernacle is in Salt Lake City. Many LDS military members put Hill AFB on their wish list to make their pilgrimage.

I wasn’t so surprised to be treated differently because we’re not Mormon, but I was surprised to learn that even non-Utah Mormons are given the cold shoulder.

And separation of church and state? Not so much in Utah. There were blanks on even gymnastics forms for my kids as to which ward we belonged. It came up way too often in conversation for our comfort.

Once my daughter reached age 12, she was excluded from activities in our neighborhood. This is the age that kids are more indoctrinated into their church. At the high school, kids even take classes at their ward for their mission.

Our kids couldn’t even play with any other children in the neighborhood on Sundays. Mormons take their Sabbath Day seriously.

Alcohol Laws

The alcohol rules and laws are very weird in Utah. I’ve never felt so like an incompetent child as going to a restaurant and being told I can’t have a cocktail without ordering food first. I grew up in the South, so Blue Laws aren’t news to me, but Utah alcohol sales laws baffle me. Liquor stores close at dinnertime, even on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Smell

During dry, warm days…the brine shrimp in the Great Salt Lake cast a disgusting rotten fishy smell over the whole valley.

Air Quality

The Inversion in late winter makes going outdoors unpleasant. Those with breathing problems should stay inside.

Have you lived in Utah? What did you like or dislike?

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Signs of Spring at Last

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March 25, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 4 Comments

It’s always fun to see new flowers in spring every time we move.

Tori and Alex were thrilled to see this pretty lil guy in the garden!

They giggled at the name “Crocus.”

hyacinths are my favorite!

lamb’s ears

yellowbells, or forsythia for y’all other folks

the hedges all have buds on them

also, the lilacs are budding and I see tulips and daffodils sprouting up all over the yard.

We made pinecone seed gifts for the birds and they’re just now becoming really popular. The birds are all aflutter, and tease my cats who sit on windowsills chattering in anticipation, dreaming of chasing.

We’ve had woodpeckers and finches, sparrows and starlings enjoy our feeders lately.

This must be a juvenile or female Northern Flicker.

This one came and enjoyed some lard and seeds in our feeders on the maple tree.

Peek a Boo!

This bird had stunning red feather under the tail and wings and little red rings around the eyes.

Everyday we get new buds and flowers.

Flowers are poking green leaves and buds through the grass and trees are beginning to flower.

The Lenten rose twists and turns and bursts into mauve blooms, almost disguised as lovely leaves.

The primroses peek through the leafs, and stretch towards the sunrays.

Hyacinths are my ultimate favorite flower. Their scent is intoxicating.

I love forsythia and the birds are all twitterpated, jumping from branch to branch.

The mint returns, creeping, breaking free from its hibernation to be crushed underfoot and scent the cold spring air with its sharpness.

Every day, my girls inspect our buds, excited to report on the progress of each flower and tree in their springing forth.

It’s so exciting to run barefoot in the cool grass and soak up the sunshine after a long winter. They report to me on the clouds. Even little Alex is watching the sky and learning the different cloud shapes and purposes. While many of my friends in other parts of the US are experiencing snow still, we are blessed to have an early springtime. The temps have been in the 50s.

We’ve been reading poetry by Seamus Heaney and Emily Dickinson with our tea, listening to Brinkman Adventures or Vivaldi’s Spring.

We love the pastel art lessons by Hodgepodge and I am so impressed by my talented kids!

They know hyacinths are my favorite. This hyacinth is just barely being kissed by a sunbeam.

The cherry trees are riotously bursting forth, a surprise around a corner, bringing happy smiles to our faces.

We love and recommend Notebooking Pages for nature study (and pretty much everything else!)

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Ice Castles Field Trip

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February 19, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

We took the kids on a frozen fun field trip to Midway Ice Castles a couple weeks ago. It was memorable and we’re so glad we went before the weather got warm.

What is it? Metal frames get doused with water and then it freezes into gorgeous formations. The sunlight streaming through the ice on the day we went made it look magical.

The ice forms canyons, stalagmites, stalactites, mountains, hills, tunnels, and valleys. Some water is left running to create an ethereal feeling like being underground in a magical icy world.

The girls loved the icicles and canyons that were created by the water freezing.

There was even an incredibly fun tunnel slide carved into the ice. Ice stairs were chiseled and at the top, you can stand and look out over the winter wonderland, then slide down an ice tunnel. The kids really loved it!

Since we’re homeschooling, we went on our field trip while other kids were in school so there were no lines and it was like an icy playground castle. Perfect timing!

Here are my beautiful snow babies:

I love this pic my husband took of me. The ice formations make me look like I’m standing in a cloud. Look at that stunning blue sky!

Here are some of the lovely ice crystals and icicles – it went perfectly with our crystal study in science we did a while ago. We were all in awe of it.

Oh, yeah. I went down the ice tunnel slide. A few times. It was totally awesome.

Since we’ve had a warmup the last week or so, they’re closing early for the season after Tuesday! Usually, the season is over in March.

Ice Castle Ticket Prices in Midway, Utah :

Monday, Family Day
General Admission: $8
Children age 4 to 11: $5
Children 3 and under: Free

Tuesday – Thursday:
General Admission: $9
Children age 4 to 11: $6
Children 3 and under: Free

Friday – Saturday, and Holidays:
General Admission: $10
Children age 4 to 11: $7
Children 3 and under: Free

Sunday: CLOSED

* Senior and Military discount $2 off General Admission (woohoo!)

Special events:

Ice Princesses:
Monday 2/17 4pm to 8pm
Fire Performance:
Monday 2/17 6:30 pm to 9pm
Ice Carvers:
Monday 2/17 6:30 pm to 9pm

Click for more info and directions to Midway Ice Castles.

Check out some other field trips from the Crew:

Linking up: Chestnut Grove Academy

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Winter Bird Study

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February 18, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 10 Comments

Liz has gotten to be a rather good birder and photographer. She took these shots of the woodpecker and finches from indoors.

I just love this one!

We made pinecone birdie Valentines for the birds.

The gloves didn’t fit Alex so he did it bare-handed. You can tell he doesn’t like it.

Kate loved every second!

I love Tori’s reaction to the gooey-ness.

Kate loved her finished pinecone, ready to hang!

She picked a branch in our lone tree in our backyard.

We shook the pinecones in a baggie of birdseed and tied yarn to them.

Tori picked our shepherd’s crook to hang her pinecones.

Rubeus guarded the deck.

Recipe for Bird Pinecone Valentines:

Large open pinecones
Birdseed
Peanut Butter
Lard
optional: dried fruit, berries, dried corn, seeds, nuts

The kids loved it that our Bible reading for the day was from Luke 12:22-34 about the birds and flowers. Serendipitous!

And we also read a lovely poetry book: Birds of a Feather by Jane Yolen.

Bird sightings in our backyard so far this month: chickadees, sparrows, scrub jays, towhees, finches, woodpecker, magpies, crows

Later in the season, Tori and Katie practiced “sewing” popcorn and cranberries onto thread for the birdies. I was impressed they completed the strand without much help.

It was pretty!

They placed their strands on our lilac bushes.

Each girl got a pair of binoculars for Christmas so we can go bird watching more.

We haven’t noticed too many birdies.

So, for our December nature study…

We read about pine trees in the HNS. Tori is 5 and Katie is 4 so they’re not much interested in listening to that yet.

The girls have observed lots of winter weather. The temps have been in the teens so we haven’t been outside as much as we’d like! We can sure see our breath outside! We haven’t gotten much snow, but there were some amazing icicles a couple weeks ago. We got to go sledding once (Alex did not like it). The girls love the pattern of snowflakes. They’re a little obsessed with Snowflake Bentley right now.

And then there was the wind. It blew and blew! It was scary for them to realize how dangerous wind can be. We had a shingle wedge itself in our stucco! Fences and trees fell down. The girls helped with cleaning up after the wind stopped. They respect the power of wind now!

We have observed some interesting tree situations, especially after all those winds. Several were uprooted and we got to see the whole tree and study the roots that didn’t hold it in the ground.

Katie drew the HUGE pine tree that uprooted across the street, in the neighbor’s backyard. She impresses me with what she sees and how she can transfer that to paper. She’s only 4! I hope to develop this talent!

And it’s not often you can climb a tree that big, but the kids got all in it since it was laying on its side. We studied the pinecones at different levels of development. The bark was really papery in some places and hard in others. Of course, it smelled good: really piney, ha! We got to discuss roots and leaves and the differences in coniferous and deciduous trees.

We look forward to January and hope to have some snow!

Awesome woodpecker page and article here.

Check out the Great Backyard Bird Count info.

We love the notebooking pages at Productive Homeschooling.

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Winter Nature Hike

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February 4, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 6 Comments

I sure got out of my comfort zone and wrapped up the kids and went on a snowy nature hike.

They were thrilled.

They came prepared, with magnifying glasses, compasses, and their nature journals.

Alex liked looking at the lichen and moss on the trees.

We noticed the different layers of snow and ice on our walk, where the wind and shade affected it.

The girls looked for birds and studied the seeds and buds on the trees.

We spotted a bird’s nest!

The keepers of the nature center help the fallen trees create habitats and keep the paths clear by sawing the logs. We noticed the rings in one.

Look at that view! The ponds and creeks were frozen.

We noticed different kinds of scat near the creeks and the keepers make sure to provide feeding areas for birds with seed.

We spotted lots of deer prints in the snow!

Towards the end of our hike, just as we were getting a little bored and pretty tired, we spotted a small herd of deer, quite close. There were about five does and they’re weren’t worried about us at all.

We collected a few treasures from the ground for our nature box and notebooking. We completed notebooking pages for our journals after we got home and warmed up.

I am so impressed with Tori’s twig drawing. I even got Alex some notebooking pages. He really dislikes drawing, so we did a snowy sensory page.

Check out the Outdoor Challenge.

How do you learn about nature in winter?

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Wheeler Farm Day

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September 26, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

I wanted to take advantage of the last warm day of the remnants of summer. We visited Wheeler Farm.

Alex begged to feed ducks from the moment he woke up. He was like a broken record. He knew something was up.

He was so upset when we drove by “the duck pond.” (Doesn’t every town have one of those?)

I assured him he would feed the ducks, but he wasn’t accepting that because, apparently, there’s only one duck pond in the whole world.

He was finally happy when he saw the ducks and geese. Really, he was happy.

Wheeler Farm has trails you can walk or bike. They also have tractor-pulled wagon rides. Along the trails are old farm equipment, perfect for picture posing.

Alex thought this old wagon combine was the greatest thing ever.

They have this ginormous box elder tree and the kids played in it for about half an hour. It was awesome.

Tori loved it and wants a big tree of her own.

Kate enjoyed exploring all the little nooks in the big tree.

The farm has all the typical animals you should find on a farm. Horses, pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, cows (even 2 Highland cows!), sheep, and goats.

Alex adored this particular goat and didn’t want to leave her.

And, we got to milk a cow! Isn’t she lovely?

We got to see the calf get fed a bottle.

Tori was the first milker. Out of the whole barn. She was so proud.

I thought Kate would be more excited since she’s obsessed with cows. I think she likes the idea more than the real deal.

I milked her too.
Alex wouldn’t even walk up with me.

It was a fun day. And it was free admission! (milking costs $1 per person)

ProSchool Membership - Productive Homeschooling

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Antelope Island Camping

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August 29, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 7 Comments

Liz had a Civil Air Patrol campout at Antelope Island – with astronomy and activities.

We came along with the rest of the family “to help.”

Her squadron got the group campsite.

And see stars, baby!

Tori and Kate loved exploring the field.

It was hot and sunny when we arrived.

Evidence of bison was present.

Hoof prints!

Several ant habitats were discovered.

Pretty pink rocks were loved.

The clouds and sunset were stunning over the hills.

I’m pretty sure there was a coyote down on the beach…

The sun going to sleep

My little airman cadet lined up to check in.

The girls ready to go see the moon and stars.

I printed the night sky printable for the girls to use. There are oodles of great printables in the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Here’s what the sky looked like for us. The clouds obscured lots.

A close-up. Through the telescope, we got to see the craters and shadow line. Amazing.

The Ogden Astronomical Society had several really cool, really expensive telescopes set up for the public to look through at all the lovely celestial bodies.

We used this one most because the owner was super nice and accommodating with our kids. We saw the moon and Saturn and Venus. Then the clouds moved in and they were tired and we called it a night.