OUR WEEK--Money-Digging at the Cabin

"We'll have a money dig!" we promised the kids who joined us on July 23 at the cabin. The party included Camille and her cousins Jody Kennedy, Jill Clark, and Jacob Moench, along with some grandparents (Nancy and Darrell Moench, Dave and me), Jacob's girlfriend, and all the kids. Dave brought a plastic drop cloth and some sawdust.

He emptied out the piggybank where he had collected his change all year. We divided the kids into "little guys" and "big guys." Dave lined up the little guys and gave them a lecture on "the importance of greed."

At the count of three, they all began digging in the sawdust for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

Then it was the big guys' turn. Dave seeded the sawdust with more change, a bunch of dollar bills, and even a five, and the big guys dug in. The average take? $4-$5.

Grandpa David's hamburgers were almost as big of a draw as the money dig.

Rides on the four-wheeler around Pine Mountain were fun...

and just chatting with cousins around the long picnic table Grandpa Cliff built completed the day.

OUR WEEK--This is the Place Monument

"Don't tell me more about Joseph Smith," three-year-old Ezra begged. Camille's family spent ten days visiting Mormon church sites as they crossed the U.S. from Boston to Salt Lake City. They visited Palmyra, Kirtland, Nauvoo, Independence, Winter Quarters, and then drove the Mormon Trail across the plains and over the mountains. One last, fun bit of Mormon lore (except, perhaps, for Ezra) was Salt Lake City's living history museum, This is the Place Monument. We went early, on a scorching day, and stayed till we wilted. First stop was panning for gold, in honor of members of the Mormon Battalion, who marched to California and found gold at Sutter's Mill.

The kids traded their "gold" (iron pyrite) nuggets for candy at the bank.

The kids rode the train (Utah was the place where the Eastern and Western ends of the continental railroad met).

They rode the ponies.

They pondered the claims of a patent medicine salesman who said he could heal Annelise's (fake) eye disease.

They visited a harness shop and pressed designs into leather squares.

They dashed for taffy blown out of a cannon supervised by the town "elders."

They got a haircut and a shave at the barber's, and played checkers while they waited their turn.

They watched as explosives knocked two anvils into the air...

creating the "bang" to announce the beginning of the parade.

They paused for an ice cream at the Huntsman Hotel.

And they savored the colorful characters and picturesque pioneer vistas of the Monument.

OUR WEEK--Sunset over the Great Salt Lake and "Good Food and Junk" at Chuckarama

One new thing and one old thing. The new thing we did with Camille's family was enjoying the best sunset anywhere. That's why people come to the Great Salt Lake in the evenings. We arrived just as the sun was sinking...

with reflections of buildings in the water.

We stayed until it was so black that we could only see our silhouettes.

And there was lots of black mud to play in, too!

The old thing was dinner at Chuckarama.

We've visited time and time again with Grandma Rose, so now it's a nostalgic favorite. Camille insisted that the kids fill one plate full of "good food" before they could have any "junk." First the good food--

and then the junk.