Heritage Days

The last week of June is Heritage Days in Syracuse which includes free concerts, a fair, parade, and ends with fireworks.

We headed to Founders Park for a magic show since Jena is a big fan of magic. We took Gary's mom with us.

It was a magic show designed for kids. Part of the fun was listening to the kids laugh at the fun things he did.

Fireworks used to be at Founder's park and you would lay blankets on the grass and you were so close you could see them light and fire the fireworks off. Now they do it much further south in a distant field. We watch from Gary's mom's yard which is nice but not like before. Of course, nothing matches fireworks in Hong Kong while you are sitting on a junk. One of life's magical moments that everyone should experience.

Summer hike #2--Antelope Island

As a point of historical note, our first hike was done on June 20 and this hike was on June 23rd. I am a little slow in writing the post....being sick for a couple of weeks puts life behind in many different areas.

For this hike, we were joined with my sister Valerie, her husband Lance, their daughter, Kylie, and then Jena, Gary, Tosha, and I. My sister and her family were up for a week because of a family wedding on Lance's side. They spend 24 hours with us and we loved it. We fit in a birthday/father's day dinner and games with my dad and Karla. Then we headed to Antelope Island for a hike and a few minutes in the water of the Great Salt Lake.

This hike is about 2 3/4 miles long and is actually called the Lakeside hike. It travels along the western edge of Antelope Island.

Here at the beginning of the trail....before we started sweating in the heat

Tosha found this large rock that was hollow just off the trail so we headed up for picture taking

A view out to the west over the Great Salt Lake. This area and Syracuse would be totally a different place if this was a fresh water lake.

We had a buffalo which had settle on the trail. This is a picture of Gary taking a picture of Tosha who was posing as if she is holding up the buffalo (from Gary's angle). We watching him for a few minutes and then decided to take a 'wide' detour off the trail. It had a moment of adventure on our hike.

We also saw antelope, deer, and some lizards along the way

Treking along

There were also a few wildflowers in addition to the grasses along the trail

Heading off to the Great Salt Lake. Jena was the only one who actually sat down. Our time was limited so we didn't walk out to any areas that were really deep enough to try to swim or float.

The girls did spend some time trying to catch brime shrimp in their hands. The shrimp were brown or red. They caught quite a few although the pictures of it weren't very good. Tosha was the master "catcher".

It was a fun day and we were glad to share it with some of our extended family.

First summer hike

As part of Jena's summer PE program, she had to complete two hikes. The hikes that they went on as a class were too difficult for Jena to keep up on so we did our own.

The first was our family night hike through Syracuse. Syracuse and Davis County have built a nice trail system through the area so we parked one car at the southest end of Syracuse at Jensen Pond and then headed up about 2 1/2 miles and parked at an trail entrance in northern Syracuse.

Jena posing for a picture at our starting point

A bench stop along the way

A bird house in the middle of the wetlands

Heading under Antelope Road. I think this tunnel and walkway cost lots of money...I think a million, but I might be wrong.

If you look closely you can see a black bird that I caught in flight. We saw a variety of birds and heard many more along the way. We needed our niece Megan with us. She just completed a class on birds at Utah Valley university. Maybe we will get her to come on another hike with us to identify birds.

Our hike was in the evening so we got some nice pictures at Jensen Pond as the sun was setting behind us.

Hope you enjoy a Syracuse hike. Stay tune for Summer hike #2-Antelope Island.

BYU pjs.....and camp for Jena

Here is Jena sporting her new pajamas:

Jena is off this week to Camp Kostopulos. We re excited to hear about all the fun she is having. She went with her good friend, Kaitlyn. The camp has a swimming pool, a pond with fishing and canoeing, horses, arts and crafts, and all of the other things that make for a fun time. She told us she would miss us but that she was very excited to go camping with Kaitlyn. She took her camera so we may have some pictures to post next week.