Our friends Chris and Stephanie took us out to Bonneville Seabase (out by Grantsville). It was such a neat experience. When we first got there we watched the Jacks (in the Tuna family) swim around... they were HUGE!!
Charity and Kelly made friends with the welcoming party/poodle
(this was somewhat nerve racking considering this tank is like 30 or 40 feet deep (can't remember how deep)
But then the guy came out and started feeding everything. He fed the little tiny fish first- that was pretty exciting, they just attack the food and fight over it. Then he fed the Reef Sharks. They have 2 male Reef Sharks and this is one of them. I got to pet them first (nobody else was brave enough!).
But Kelly and Charity braved up quickly and took a turn
Bradley wanted to at first, but then chickened out. Course if you ask me, he was just using his best judgement. Which Bradley is really good at when it comes to new things :)
It took a while to get them to come back up for some reason.
Nate finally got his turn.
The sharks were amazing to look at. They had really rough skin too. Like wet sandpaper. They made a weird snorting noise when they would suck their food into their mouths so it made you kind of jump when you were petting them. What a cool thing though.... I loved it :)
Charity, Kelly and I took a few more turns...
Then we went over to the Jack tank again and watched him feed them! This was AMAZING!!! They looked more like sharks attacking their food, flipping their tailfins all over the place, we totally got splashed a bunch of times while they were eating and they were way out there. It was really cool.
After that we got to take off our shoes and stick our feet in the water with the little fish. They come up and nibble on your feet- it's really tickly, Charity was laughing her head off.
Noah really couldn't get enough of this part. He wanted SO badly to go out in the water. It was kind of scary though because the spot where we were was really shallow, but really slippery. And then only about 5 feet out was the drop off to the huge tank.... I just couldn't imagine what would happen if one of my kids fell in..... I didn't want to have to jump in with the humongous Jacks to get anyone.
here you can see the little fish eating Nate's foot.
Bradley actually slipped and fell at one point and got all wet :) (and that was all! phew!)
Then the kids got to help Chris get all ready for his dive. Carrying all of his gear over to the water. It was fun watching him dive down. I can't wait to learn how to Scuba dive.... Chris is going to teach us someday.
poor Noah was so bugged at us for not letting him swim in the water.
The Seabase was incredible. We all loved it. It's so nice of Chris and Stephanie to think of us when they find cool things like this. We had an awesome time.
Since Nate had the whole day off and it was only 11:00 am when we were done there, we made some crazy last minute plans to drive up the canyon and have a little picnic. We went up to our old spot in Big Cottonwood Canyon at Moss Ledge and played in the little creek there and ate some lunch. The kids have fun making a dam with Nate and Chris.
The kids couldn't get enough of the water and climbing all over the rocks.... it was so fun!! I dont' know how we missed out on this last year.... I think this was one of our first times up there since we moved back from AK. Bradley talked about how much he loved driving on the mountain all the way up there, and Luke kept asking Nate if we were lost :). It was a fun thing for them.
After our picnic we thought it would be fun to hike up to Donut Falls. Chris is from Montana and had never been there before, so we figured we couldn't be right up there by it and not see it. It was a little crazy considering we hadn't planned much for it and weren't completely prepared (I was wearing flip flops), but it's such an easy hike, we figured we could give it a shot.
This was so funny. I don't know if you can see the flowers in Noah's hand, but I turned around and could see him holding on to the two little white wild flowers that Kelly had picked for him and I just had to laugh. I can't believe how much Nate carried him!! He's such a good Daddy.
It was really fun to watch the boys just run up the trail. Bradley was ALL boy on this hike!! He was WAY ahead of us most of the time, we had to keep telling him to wait up. But he was finding all kinds of sticks and stuff, and just totally got into it... It was nice. I love it when he is all boyish. It's not easy too, having two big sisters to watch. He and Luke had a lot of fun. I loved it.
Here's Donut Fall. I was a little disappointed to see that the place was so different than I remember it. The boulders in front of the cave. I don't know when they did that or if it was just something that happened up there- does anyone know? It was still fun though. I'm glad that Chris got to go hike right up by the waterfall at least (the rest of us stayed back and watched.... not all that flipflop and kid friendly). But the kids had plenty of fun in the river!
Kelly was the queen of picking flowers and leaves. She had made herself a little "duster broom" with some leaves and then shortly after that we noticed she had a rash on her hand. I'm not sure what caused it (just an allergic reaction I'm guessing), but some wipes and cold water cleared it up pretty quickly. I think she kind of mellowed out on the picking things after that :)
Luke had a hard time refraining from throwing rocks in the river, but there were several near misses with people's heads that made us take away all the fun. He still managed to enjoy himself.
Noah could not get enough of the water. I was so worried about his feet, the water was freezing and he just stood there in it forever! But he was playing in his own little waterfall, washing off rocks and just letting the water run through his fingers, it was adorable. He kept sitting down in the water though, and was completely covered in mud by the time he had to get back on Daddy's shoulders for the walk back down.... poor Nate. Now, can anyone tell me why this kid is so anxious to climb in the tank with the huge Jack tunas, and so eager and fearless to play in the river, but will not for the life of me sit in the little kiddie wading pool in the back yard???? Does that make ANY sense??? It's weird to me.
Kelly collected rocks "for Grandpa" and went around asking us all which ones we thought were prettier :) I'm pretty sure she left them in the car and I will probably find all the pretty rocks next time I clean out the car.... but that's Kelly for ya :)
Brad had so much fun in the river. Like I said, he was a total boy on this hike.... what a cutie.
It's nice when you have kids old enough to work a camera :) Charity took this for me- I love being able to get pictures of me and my honey every once and a while. Even if I am chubby.
Poor Charity slipped and fell on a really sharp rock, right on the side of her hip, just as we got up to the waterfall. She had a hard time enjoying herself at first, and didn't really get into the river, but she cheered up later. That fall is really going to leave a mark, it was nasty! She sure was talkative on the way down. She gave us all the run down on the movie Caroline. She wanted Chris and Stephanie to know how scary and creepy it was. But I couldn't believe how fast her little mouth can move :) She's got a good memory.
This was supposed to be a picture of Lukey's sixpack. He pulls up his shirt when he's bored and sometimes it looks like he has a six pack. It's funny. Instead we got ribs.... he's so skinny! He was a fun little boy on the hike. He's so bouncy. We had to turn getting down the mountain into a competition to get him to hurry up because he was doddling, but the minute you mention that someone might beat him, he's all gungho and takes off to beat them instead. He's pretty competitive these days.... it's fun.
I had to take this picture of Nate climbing up the rocks with Noah on his shoulders.... I was amazed!!! (and he was doing it with Chris prodding him from the rear)
It was a really good day. I loved the sharks, the hike, the picnic. It was nice to be out and about. I think this was a good way to top off our summer break since the girls will be starting school on Monday. In fact we had to hurry home and change to get over to the Back to School night at the school. The girls were SO EXCITED to meet their new teachers. They have been so thrilled to start back up. They both have really nice teachers! I'm really looking forward to this school year and have made a new resolve to do better at getting homework done right away, and to keep better track of their reading minutes because I am pretty sure that Charity got gipped last year thanks to my slackiness..... We're going to do better this year. I am also looking forward to NOT having a kindergartener. We will have the whole day to play before needing to pick up the girls now. I like that. And driving to the school only 2 times a day will be great. But overall, I am not happy that school is starting back up. I am really going to miss my girls.
So anyway. That was our day. I slept so well that night!!! Couldn't be better than that!
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