Spring Break! (In Between Snow Storms)

It snowed a few days ago...and is supposed to snow again tomorrow! YIKES! But in the meantime we had Spring break haha. So we made the best of it. One of the days I took the day off and we went for a hike. We wanted a hike that is easy for the kids to do, so we went for Payson Grotto. However, we did not account for the fact that there would still be snow! The road was closed before we even made it to the Grotto. We decided to walk up one of the other roads that was also closed. 

It was beautiful! We had to trek over some snow banks, but that was fun for the kids too. About a mile up there was evidence of the large wildfire. Above that there was literally nothing. We were enjoying the walk and the impressions of the leaves in the snow and then I saw cougar tracks. The further we went, the more there were. Which makes sense because any higher there would be nothing to eat. I went a bit further to see if there was a good place to picnic. I walked about 3 steps off the road and heard a low warning growl...YIKES!!! I backed away slowly and walked back down the road to Lady Hiva and the kids. I tried to tell Lady why we needed to leave without getting the kids overly excited...glad we listen to those warning voices! 

I carried up the plasma cars...it was so fun to ride them down

 We had our picnic in the warm sun overlooking the entire Utah Valley from the south. As we sat and ate we heard the wild turkeys running around us. Both Koala Bear and Lucky Dragon were gobbling the rest of the day.

cougar tracks in the snow 

 Lady Hiva took the kids on another day to Ogden with some friends. I was so jealous to get the photos. They went to the train museum that houses the "Golden Spike" that commemorated when the two railroads joined together to make a trans-continental experience.  They also went to the Dinosaur park. It looked like they had so much fun. We will have to go back for sure.

 One day we, and the rest of Utah, went to Hogle Zoo. It was a day not too hot and not too cold so the animals were all out. It was beautiful. We had so much fun exploring the zoo and watching the animals. We were entertained by the otters playfully diving in and out of the ponds and were mesmerized as we watched the bobcats from around the world chew the heads off their mice! Talk about seeing nature in action~!

 Next stop was the Young Living farm in Mona, UT. It was fun to be there too. We will have to go back when it is all open. There are plenty of outdoor activities for the kids and places to run and explore. We had fun on the swings. They laughed and laughed and laughed. Although Koala Bear fell off backwards after swinging for nearly 20 minutes. It was one of those slow motion experiences when you can see your child heading for destruction but cannot do anything to stop it. The things nightmares are made of! I was so glad that after some tears it was clear she was alright. Tough little girl.