Discover Scuba

On Saturday morning Mark and Kris invited me to try scuba at the base. Mark and Kris took the scuba classes offered at the air force base earlier in the year and knew that Larry (the scuba instructor) had a discover scuba course on Saturday mornings. I was a little hesitant at first but then I though why not?

 Before I got into the pool I had a sit down with Larry to go over some basic scuba techniques, signals, and equipment.

 I didn't think the equipment was going to be that bad until I put the tank on. It was a bit heavier then I anticipated, and I didn't realize that you had to wear weights as well.

I was pretty weighted down as I made my way to the pool steps..Lesson 1 walk a little hunched over so that you fall backward. I did make my way to the steps of the pool without falling backward thank goodness! Once I was in the pool it was nice not to feel the weight that was on my back.

 I was a little nervous as I was getting in but Larry was very good at explaining thinks so I became more comfortable with what I was suppose to do. It didn't take me too long to get use to the breathing so I was happy to catch on quick.

 There are a few scenarios you have to get the hang of with the regulator(the thing you breath with) with taking it out while your under water. I didn't have the mask on so it was a little weird doing it with my eyes closed. After I got the hang of taking the regulator out of my mouth/blowing through it and breathing through it under water, I was ready to go.

 Since I wear contacts and only had one pair with me and my glasses left in Indiana I did skip the scenario of the flooding of the mask. It would have been good to know but I didn't want to risk losing a contact and not being able to see for the rest of the trip. Luckily Larry understood and was okay with skipping this step.

Here I am going 12 ft under. I know that is not very deep but that's how deep the pool is and for the first time it was deep enough. After getting my ears to pop..my left ear didn't want to cooperate, I was free to swim around the bottom part of the pool. It was really a lot of fun! Probably the hardest thing is not using your arms, its all in the legs. After the lesson I was told I did pretty good! So I was pretty proud of myself and had a great experience. Who knows maybe one day I will become a certified scuba diver ;)

Cotton Candy

Friday night we decided to try out the cotton candy maker. At first Thomas wasn't sold on trying the cotton candy, and insisted to Papa that "coffee candy is not good for our bodies!" And made it quite clear that he was not going to put coffee into his body. He is a boy that sticks to his values :)

After explaining to him that it was COTTON candy and not COFFEE he was a little more open to the idea. And had fun watching Gramma make it.

It was not his first time that he has had cotton candy but it has been a long time. After he got a bite though decided that it was pretty good ;)

Peace at the Temple

Since I was in Utah and I had family to watch the boys, I thought I would take some time to go to the temple. Kris (my mommy-in-law) and I went to a Friday morning session after we were done exercising. Since the Ogden Temple is closed for two years for reconstrucion the next nearest temple is Bountiful. It was amazing to see how busy it was and what a blessing it is to be able to go.

 This is a rare picture because I am all by myself and Kris is taking the picture, but it was a beautiful temple so surprisingly I was okay taking it. It was wonderful to go and be in peace at the temple and enjoy the blessing you get from going. It was a great little outing for the both of us and one I truly enjoyed.

After the temple Kris took us out to lunch at this great little cafe she found, Zuppas. It was a great place for a little lunch serving salads, soups, and sandwiches. It was really good and a great choice! I didn't think about taking pictures but I had a salad and sandwich combo and Kris had a soup and salad combo. It was a great morning with great company :)

Dinner in the canyon

Thursday night we drove up into the canyon to have a picnic dinner. We had a great time and the day/evening was just beautiful! This was an awesome picnic place that Papa and Gramma found. It had nice green grass, a spectacular view of the mountains. And for the boys it was by railroad tracks and a river to throw rocks.

 It was nice and quiet and we were the only ones here. After we unloaded our stuff and making preparations for dinner, we rolled out some blankets enjoyed the evening.

 We had all sorts of yummy food but the spotlight of dinner were Marks Turtle burgers--two thin hamburger patties with a slice of ham in the middle, topped with cheese with a crisscross of bacon on top. It had four little legs and a head stuck to the burger made out of hot dogs. They were very yummy and had very nice presentation!

 Papa and Gramma remembered to bring a ball along for the boys to play with. They had fun with it but not necessarily together ;)

 We were hoping that the boys would be able to see a choo choo while we were here. We didn't think one was going to come but a little bit after dinner we had two trains come around the mountain. It was indeed a highlight of the evening for Thomas and Sup.

If there is any kind of body of water my boys are drawn to it. One of their all time favorite things to do is to throw rocks in the river. They could do this all day I think and still not have their fill. So it was a bonus that there was a river as well that they could throw rocks with Papa.

Future Air Force pilots??

After flying to the moon they wanted to try the other simulators the kid zone had. This time they were USAF planes so they strapped themselves in and started to fly. Sup was more into the real life plane as Thomas was more into the computer generated game. I am not sure if this would be a good influence or not?

 Here was the computer game Thomas did pretty good with it but poor Sup kept crashing his plane.

Sup loved this one and wasn't too happy to leave. I think that he would have stayed there all day if he could. He is my boy with no fears so looking like you were high off the ground didn't bother him in the slightest. In fact it was probably what he thought was most fun about it. 

Flying to the moon

In the Air Force museum they had a really fun kid zone. The boys spent a good amount of time here checking everything out. They had some fun simulators for the kids to test out and play around with, the boys had a blast. They got dressed in their flight suits and were off on an adventure.

 They decided their first adventure was going to be with space. They got the helmets on and were off to the moon.

 Of course there were others kids so they tried to wait patiently for their turn....Sup was a little more patient then Thomas.

 Thomas was a little in awe with all the buttons and able to sit in the cockpit. While Sup seemed to jump right in for the take off.

 It didn't take long for Thomas to get comfy and try his hands at all the buttons and help Sup fly.

They were so proud that they made it all the way to the moon all by themselves! They looked so cute in there little uniforms :) 

Air Force Museum

Of course we had to stop and see the Air Force Museum. The boys and I had come last year when we were out for a visit but the boys love it here and seeing all the USAF planes. They were just as excited to see it this year as they did last year.

They have a lot of planes on display both inside and outside the museum. We walked around the outside first and the boys were running from plane to plane in awe on how big they were and how close they could get to them. Thomas really liked this one because it looked like it had a nose.

If there are any green planes Thomas already puts dibs on them saying they are, "green airplanes that Thomas is going to fly someday."

Even though they have the big planes they also have some fun displays of mini planes inside. These did not go unnoticed with these two. They made sure to stop and look at "the baby airplanes" too.

This is a huge museum with a lot of fun things for everyone to look at. It seemed to be boy heaven for these two.

The infamous Burger Bar

When we go to Utah it has become an Anderson tradition to go to the well known burger joint... Of course I am referring to Burger Bar. This trip was no different after seeing the trains we headed back and stopped in Roy for lunch.

Burger Bar is just take out, so after we ordered all our yummy food we headed over to the park to eat. Although we did see some just roll out their blanket on the sidewalk and have lunch.

Burger Bar never disappoints and it seems that my eyes are bigger then my stomach. And it turns out that it becomes dinner as well.

Poor Sup fell asleep coming back from seeing the golden spike so he didn't get to have Burger Bar with us. He wasn't forgotten after we got home he was able to enjoy it as well.

Thomas was starving when we finally got lunch so he pretty much scarfed down his lunch. So while the rest of us were still eating Papa took Thomas to the playground to burn off some energy.

Promontory Point

The next day we headed up to Promontory Point, where the east met the west. The boys really enjoyed all the trains they had here. Sup more then Thomas...lets just say that to get to the trains you have to walk through the gift shop. Sup was not too distracted by what they had but Thomas decided that he was going to be grumpy because we weren't going to get something..another life lesson lets say.

Like I said Sup was excited to go and see the "big choo choo's". He was able to see them up close and touch them.

Amazingly this is not a pose (like that would EVER with either of these boys, I happy if I can just get them to stand and smile). I just happened to have my finger on the button at the right time ;)

As you can see Thomas was real happy and this was the best I could do for a picture.

The were both fascinated with this little trains model, I think more then the real trains.

Temple square and around

We couldn't come to Utah and not visit temple square. Thomas has decided that the Salt Lake Temple is "his" temple and is always excited to see it. It is so fun to see how excited he is to see all the temples but this one is by far the most exciting for him to see in person.

 Thomas just took a seat and just wanted to see and look at "his" temple. It was a beautiful day so just sit and look at it.

 Sup decided that it was his job to show Gramma all the different flower beds in and around temple square. This if you have been around here can take some time, but he made sure that Gramma was able to see all the different flowers.

 I wanted to stop and see the Joesph Smith Memorial Building. They had some fun displays for the 100th anniversary of the building. The boys and I have never been and it was a beautiful building, and had a nice time looking inside.

 For those who have not been inside, this center part of the building had stain glass windows that were mostly green. This of course was the highlight of the building for Thomas, he would just stand and look up admiring the green glass.

In the summers they have concerts in Brigham Park on Tuesdays and Friday which is just across the street from temple square. So after looking around we headed over to the park to have our picnic dinner and listen to the music. We all had a really nice time and the weather was just perfect! 

More at the pioneer museum

The second level at the museum is made for kids to have fun and interact with. They have lots of fun with the different stations. Of course they had a little kitchen that they could play with and were there the longest.

 Thomas and Gramma played this matching game with the different people from the Book of Mormon. He did pretty well with it.

 Sup tried to write some of the symbols but he wasn't too successful ;)

 Here is the kitchen. They made all finds of fun food for everyone. There was a little garden that they could plant and pick the veggies. This may be a future project for Daddy to make seeing how much fun the boys had with it :)

 This was so cute and the boys loved to go and collect eggs from the chicken. When they picked up the chicken it would baak (not sure on the spelling). They thought it was pretty cool.

 Here Thomas insisted that he had to drive and Sup could help on the other side. So I guess they were taking a trip in Europe??

They had fun designing their own quilt.