Gotta Love Spud Harvest!

Every October the children get out of school for an entire week so older students can assist local farmers in harvesting acres and acres of potatoes!  We take advantage of the opportunity for some quality family time together.  We stayed fairly close to home this year.  On Sunday, we drove to Utah to enjoy General Conference with Bonnie and Bryant's family.  

Here cousins are checking out the family blogs - watching their other M cousins at the beach in Hawaii.

Lillian holding the newest family addition - Baby Bennett.

Thanks for letting us hang out with you guys!

We continued on our way to Salt Lake where we spent a few nights at my parent's place (even though they were in Pennsylvania for Cam's baptism).  Aaron had some work on Monday so I loaded up the kids and we explored the "Castle Park".

The older kids have great memories of this place from years ago when we lived nearby.

The younger ones have no association to it other than - the park by G-ma's place.

Lots of places to play 'hide and seek'.

 Checking the forecast, we knew this would be the best day to spend outside.  

I might even describe it as a hot day:)

And just for the record, Tanner preferred hanging out at the library (across the street) which is why he isn't in the pics...

We informed the children we would be able to eat out once during our 'mini-vacay' and they unanimously decided on Souper Salad.  It's an all-you-can-eat kid-friendly low-budget kind of place we have frequented in the past.  Unfortunately, we discovered it's no longer in business in Utah.  The back-up plan was Sweet Tomatoes (though not as cheap and not as good as I remember it being years ago).  They were happy.

And then we were on to Gardner Village for a little family history FHE.

Actually, we were attempting to complete the "Which Witch Scavenger Hunt" to 'earn' a delicious chocolate chip cookie!

Enormous witches were found throughout the village engaged in various activities. 

The clues were clever and the witches were wonderful.

Elsie felt a kinship to this charming shop.

 Some were harder to find than others, especially in the dark, but we scored our cookies just in time!

The following day began with great excitement - not.  

The bad news is that several of the kids visited the dentist's office.

The good news is that there was less work to be done than initially expected.

And then we were on to bigger and better things.

Downtown Salt Lake City.

While Tanner went inside the Salt Lake Temple to participate in baptismal work, the others toured Brigham Young's historic Beehive House.

The red sofa is an original and belonged to the Young family.

All of the woodwork in this part of the house was original as well.

We also explored the Joseph Smith Memorial Building before meeting back up with Tanner.

Jantzen resting for a few minutes while walking through Temple Square.

And on to the Church History Museum.

Loads of cool stuff there.

The children's interactive exhibit for 2011 had a South-American flair. 

We usually make it a point to check this out every year.

It's geared for a younger crowd but the older ones found things to do as well.

Quinn could have stayed all day and made sure everybody knew that upon departure.

Around the corner, an inspiring art exhibit featured works by LeConte Stewart.  

This is where Tanner spent his time.

There were also some amazing quilts on display.

After a brief visit to the Family History Library to connect with a missionary couple serving from our local ward, we were on to Midway, UT - all things Swiss.

We knew our awesome weather was about to change so first thing Wednesday morning, we hit the trails.

 Loved the sign.

Pine Creek Trail.  A first for us.  A must for the locals.

This is only part way up and the picture didn't capture the scene below, but it reminded me of a quaint European countryside.

An absolutely gorgeous morning - scenery fantastic! 

Along with our water bottles, a few jelly beans and trail-mix were all we needed.

Well, maybe not.

We really had no idea how long of a hike it would be or when we would reach the 'boulder part' we had heard about.  These three decided to continue on with Aaron as their fearless leader.  I packed Quinn back down the mountainside with Tanner and Anna (who was determined to find her 'lost leaf' and ending up losing her cherished ring - tears!).

And of course, we later learned we were only a few hundred feet from reaching this:

So, now we know...

They found the boulders!

Elsie surprised us all. Not only did she pack the snacks most of the way, but she never complained and never slowed down.  That girl can hike!

  

We made it down from the hike just before this storm blew in.

The kids humored me and let us drive to the top of a large hill to see what the Military Memorial was all about - as the rain came down. 

On to our next adventure.

We checked out the Homestead Crater, a 55 ft. high "calcite" dome which houses an ancient geothermal hot spring.  It opened to the public in 1996 after a 110 ft. tunnel was constructed through the Crater's north side.  The calm, azure water maintains a year-round temperature of 90 degrees.  At 65 ft. deep, if you are into scuba-diving, then this is the place!

Aaron indulged the older four while I watched Barbie's "Princess and the Pauper" movie with Quinn and Elsie.  I'm sure they would have loved the 40-minute swim but for the price tag, we decided they could wait a few more years:).

Swimming inside the crater.

And there was a lot of hanging out and goofing around!

Thursday morning brought this:

Although Aaron and I had a few commitments in Salt Lake on Friday, we decided to reschedule what we could and pack up our bags.  My parents had recently returned from another round of travels and we  decided they could use a little R&R without all our motion and commotion.  Additionally, Aaron discovered a few work deadlines, so we called it good and headed for home after one more quick swim in the cold indoor pool nearby.  After two hours of packing and loading (yeah, it seriously took that long even in turbo-mode), we were on the road once again.

Home again.