Back to School

It's hard to believe it's that time of year again! Summer vacation has flown by. (Sniff, sniff.)

Though we are sad for summer to end, all of the boys were looking forward to school at least a little bit--some more than others. I think it's always exciting to start a new school year. It looks like it will be a good one!

Snowbird Visit

The Far Grandma and Grandpa came up for their annual visit to Snowbird, so we spent some time with them there.

This brazen creature was hanging around the pool looking for handouts.

I spent way too much time obsessively searching the Internet to figure out what kind of a critter he is. He looks chipmunk-ish, but I don't think he's a chipmunk. (New discovery: he's a Uintah Ground Squirrel.)

He was definitely a beggar!

The Bonneville Salt Flats

The Bonneville Salt Flats are an amazing natural feature in Utah, located less than two hours West of Salt Lake City. This was our first visit. Junior kept saying "It looks like snow!"

A few miles Northeast of Wendover is where the Bonneville Raceway or Speedway is located and we just happened to visit the day before "Speed Week" began so there were a lot of people setting up camp with their racing vehicles.

If you want to see some amazing pictures of this event, go here.

We decided to set some land speed records of our own.

Woo-weee! So speedy!

Look at that perfect formation on the way back.

I expected the salt to be dry like a sea of sand but it was actually damp. It stuck to our feet and car like salt mud. I don't know if that is normal for this place or not.

Uh oh, I think this guy ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Let's not be like him.

Below is a picture of something that we passed on our way to the Raceway. It startled and disturbed us greatly. It was right next to the freeway without warning or explanation; no freeway exits or anything. So on the way back, I asked Brandon to stop on the side of the freeway, scurry like a jackrabbit across the freeway to take some pictures and figure out what it was. I told him to look both ways very carefully because I would have felt awful had something happened to him. He kindly obliged.

Are you as confused as we were? Luckily, there was a sign with a brief explanation.

I think I would have called it "Giant Tennis Balls Skewered on a Giant Broken Roasting Stick".

Sorry, I guess I have no appreciation for random abstract art on the side of the freeway. Or maybe I have more appreciation than most. I mean, I was willing to break laws and risk my husband's life to get pictures of it. (Click here for more info about this sculpture.)

The boys really appreciated the mirages they saw on the road. They wanted me to take pictures of those, so I did (from inside the car).

The Children's Museum and Planetarium

Next we spent a day in Salt Lake City hanging out at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum and the Clark Planetarium.

The sculpturesque thing below was the younger boys' favorite at the Children's Museum. I think it was called the "Bee Hive" and it was full of colored plastic balls which could be sent through networks of plastic tubing that sucked up in one spot and blew out in another. There were also other interesting contraptions in which to move the balls around, and ways to gather them, move them, and dump them.

I think "Bee Hive" was a pretty good name for it.

Check out all these purty gurls that Junior hooked up with!

This place had a lot of really cool things for the younger kids, and some cool things for the older kids, too, but it seemed to mostly cater to the younger crowd.

We rode Trax around just for fun.

The Planetarium had plenty of interesting exhibits to explore.

I'd say this contraption was the coolest thing in both the Children's Museum and the Planetarium.

This is how the Clark Planetarium describes it on their website (here):

NEWTON'S DAYDREAM

"Newton's Daydream," an audio-kinetic sculpture by renowned artist and sculptor George Rhoads, is the newest permanent exhibit at the Clark Planetarium.

The two-story tall sculpture combines an intricate maze of moving balls with bells, drums and other noisemaking obstacles to create a whirring visual and auditory palette. "Newton's Daydream" is installed inside the Planetarium's main lobby and will be the focal point for all visitors.

"Whirring visual and auditory palette"? Love the phraseology.

It was really difficult to take decent pictures of it because it was so huge and the lights reflected in annoying ways on the glass. I highly recommend going there just to experience this thing. I could have watched it for hours...if there had been a comfy chair.

Luckily, there was a comfy chair in the dome theater where we watched "Violent Universe". I must say Brandon and I were disappointed in the dome theater movie. We both slept through it and the boys said it was "okay". I had wanted to see it because I thought a dome theater sounded kind of cool (and it was). But it turned out that it was only a half hour long, kind of a low budget film and we paid the same price we would have paid for a feature length professional movie in the IMAX. I'm just letting you know, in case any of you want to go...

Coming up next...the Salt Flats!