Our Camping Trip

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June 3, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

For Memorial Day weekend, we rented a camping trailer and went to Starvation Reservoir with friends. It was so much fun!

It took no time at all for the kids to get in their swimsuits and head to the beach!

I bought some new sand toys just for this trip, and you can see they’re a hit!

Look at that amazing sunset with the mountains!

gorgeous sunset at Starvation State Park

One of our friends brought their new canoe and kayak. The kids had a blast trying those out! Kate did really well paddling!

Liz and Kate took Alex out in the canoe. I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s a Hawaiian king or something.

Liz took Alex out in the kayak. He asked me when we got home and unloaded where his yellow boat was! He didn’t understand that it was our friend’s. He thought it was ours. I guess we should look into getting one!

Kate blew bubbles while waiting on dinner.

There was a great little hill the kids enjoyed hiking and exploring. We saw deer prints, lizards, and a rabbit!

Stay tuned for our nature study post about all the great plants and moss we saw on our hike! The flowers in the first picture were from my kids on their hikes.

Here’s the view of our campsites from the top of the hill. We have the white truck. The truck camper and green tent on the left belonged to our canoe and kayak friends. The RV with the blue awning belongs to our other friends. We had 5 couples and 10 kids!

Our friends also had 2 fishing boats. The kids (and Aaron) loved that!

Alex’s first fishing trip. Look at that fish!

Tori’s an old pro. She loves fishing and went whenever she could.

Alex didn’t stay awake to tell me about it.

I took the kayak to the other side of the reservoir to explore the rock formations and a couple of the guys (with Tori and two other girls) “rescued” me with the fishing boat. Apparently, telling Kate where I was going wasn’t good enough since no one knew where I or the kayak were. They brought me back to the dock. and I earned my call sign: “Kayak.” My husband and the other guys were in the other fishing boat until much later that day and that was the funny story of the weekend.

We’re already planning more camping trips over the summer. The kids had so much fun!
We love camping!

Check out my camping Pinterest board.

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Measuring Snow

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January 29, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 5 Comments

It’s been rather cold and snowy here for {too long} about 3 weeks. The kids loved it at first.

We’ve never seen deep snow before! It was light and fluffy and they sank into it. Now, it’s icy and crunchy and not so fun anymore.

Alex begs to be bundled up so he can go play in the snow for about 5 minutes, then he’s crying to come inside. I don’t blame him!

Tori loves the snow. She loves playing outside in all weather.

Measuring the snow and studying shadows like a sundial.

Pretending the snow is like quicksand. I sure wasn’t coming out to save them!

My husband loves me enough to bring the bird feeders to the back door for me to fill them without having to actually go outside.

Snow is for the birds.

Read about our winter nature walk that I’m glad we worked on before the snow storms! We have some fun scientific snow studies to work out later this week. We also looked really hard and studied winter colors through the window. We completed notebooking pages.

Check out my winter Pinterest board!

ProSchool Membership - Productive Homeschooling

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Natural History Museum of Utah Field Trip

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October 2, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We went to the new Natural History Museum of Utah to explore.

It’s a HUGE place with so many exhibits and collections.

Alex really liked all the skeletons of animals.

Katie loved seeing the bugs. Especially since these weren’t alive.

Sweeping for fossils.

This was a huge gravel pit outside on a patio where the kids could sweep and uncover an entire dinosaur skeleton.

Giant sloth…Sid?!

Alex loved looking through the magnifying glass to see the brine shrimp, er, sea monkeys.

Way to knock out some of our Tapestry of Grace projects at the field trip!

weaving, plied cordage, twining.

A model of layers of an archeological dig of a hut.

It was a playground!

Just a cute pic of my babies.

Watching wind erosion inside a tunnel.

Alex was obsessed with these fact wheels. He just wanted to spin them.

How cool is this? They offered notebooking pages in their science lab for museum attendees to write about their experiences.

Tori drew roly polies and said she likes them. Katie drew beetles and said they were pretty. I love it!

Alex was so exhausted that he fell asleep right as we were pulling into the PF Chang’s parking lot. He did wake up for the rice and noodles though!

Visit the Natural History Museum of Utah:

Daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Wednesdays 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Adult $13.00

Senior 65 and over $11.00

Young Adult 13 – 24 $11.00

Child 3 – 12 $9.00

Child 2 and under FREE

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Adam’s Canyon Hike

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September 25, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Our church youth group went on a hike up to a waterfall. I came along too since it was just our pastor, the youth pastor, another man, and a boy. Liz would’ve been the only girl!

Looking at the map of the trails.

It was very steep and sandy and getting hot quick!

at the bridge about 1/3 of the way up

I just look…pink.

Lunch break. These two are currently our youth group.

A fun “cave” to explore.

lovely purple flowers…they’re nightshade.

the rocky surface of the waterfall area

The waterfall just trickles down over the rocks, but it’s still really pretty.

Liz at the base of the waterfall. slippery!

The view from the waterfall grotto.

and I only fell twice coming back down. It was sandy and I skidded. No injuries.

And was I sure sore the next day!

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Clark Planetarium and IMAX Field Trip

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August 18, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

When I heard we could go see an IMAX about Pangaea for FREE, I was excited.

And the Clark Planetarium is always free. This doesn’t get any better!

All we had to do was make clay dinosaurs since the IMAX is Claymation. Easy peasy!

The nifty electricity ball

Working on their scavenger hunts from the planetarium’s website.

A really cool projector-illuminated Earth…

We saw meteors, moon rocks, and Mars rocks.

Katie is irritated with me here that I interrupted her “scavenging.”

Display of different kinds of space rocks

Alex was fascinated by the pendulum that showed the movement of Earth

The movie was great.

We had popcorn, slushies, candy, and it was 3D!

Alex did really well sitting still and watching it and keeping his glasses on.

The film was snarky and fun and Claymation!

It gave us some opportunities to have conversation about Creationism and evolution and dinosaurs.

We just learned about Pangaea in our science book!

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Lunch with a Zookeeper

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August 15, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

To celebrate our new year with Apologia Land Animal science, we went on a great field trip!

We had lunch with a zookeeper at Hogle Zoo!

They served the humans pizza and we got to ask questions and learn about animal enrichment!

Here are Tori and Katie with their warm-up activity: a word search and information sheets that Dad and I read to them about zoo careers.

Our zoo educator with a ferret

We even got to pet the ferret!

A zookeeper with a macaw.

Providing enrichment to the lemurs. We drew on their exhibit’s glass.

The girls really enjoyed drawing for the lemurs. They loved helping the animals not be bored.

We watched the zookeeper provide a snack in enriching hanging baskets.

It was fun watching their antics as they got their treats!

A fun touchy feely center

Then we were let loose into the zoo.

We bee-lined for the new Rocky Shores exhibit to see the seals, sea lions, and bears.

I think I love the zoo more than the girls!

The seals and sea lions are all rescue animals. One is completely blind and another is blind in one eye. Due to injuries by humans. So sad.

We got to review the differences in seals and sea lions that we learned last year in Apologia Swimming Creatures.

The polar bear was swimming and doing flips underwater. We watched him a long time. He was so funny!

He kicked off these rocks and flipped and just swam in a circle to the surface.

Hi there!

There are three grizzly bears rescued from Yellowstone.

Their mother had to be put down and they were rehabilitated and brought to the zoo.

The bears were romping in the water like they were still cubs!

We went to check on the tigers before we left and they were sleeping in the heat of the day. Maybe next time!

Visit Hogle Zoo and check out their education programs!

Literature Study (or Book Report) Notebooking Pages

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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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Quail Nature Study

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August 1, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

Liz found this little guy in our yard waste can. Someone left the lid open.

She rescued him.

So, we called all the kids to come and see!

Katie was so excited and gentle.

Isn’t he cute?

We sure hope he found his family and is safe and sound.

Learn about quails:

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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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Hummingbird Nature Study

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July 29, 2012 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

Hummingbirds are probably one of my favorite animals. I feel so delighted watching them. They have such personality!

So, we have Mr. King Hummer who sits in our maple tree and guards the feeder. He chases away all other hummers and twitters at them. Sometimes, he’s so feisty he sounds like a hissing cat when he chases those others away!

I like to sit on the deck with my morning coffee and watch him chase the lesser hummers. He often comes to eat and I was so pleased to get a few good shots of him at the feeder!

And we have this lovely trumpet vine that attracts hummers and bees. Do you see her? I think she’s a broad tailed or black chinned.

The girls are more difficult to identify. The rufous chases her and all others away from the feeder, but he leaves them alone at the vine.

I like to sit on the deck most mornings, drinking my coffee and watch the hummingbirds. They come to my feeder that is no more than a couple feet away from me.

They twitter at me and frolic and chase each other. I love it.

My husband captured these shots. They sure are fast!

I got these with my iPhone.

I’m pretty sure these are black chinned hummingbirds.

Check out this Outdoor Hour Challenge at Handbook of Nature Study blog

I only had ruby throated hummers in Georgia and Texas. I missed hummers in Hawaii (they’re not allowed there due to ruining the pineapple crops) and we have thoroughly enjoyed all the varieties the last couple summers here in Utah.

The kids are as excited as I am about hummers.

We completed hummingbird notebooking pages.