As soon as Lisa returned from Bear Lake and the Flindt reunion, on August 11, 2012, she marked up a big calendar of August with things to do, and taped it to our refrigerator. Every day that Lisa, Grant, Kirsten, Bryce and Alyssa stayed with us was filled. While I was at work, between August 13 and 17, Lisa took the kids to the zoo, Raging Waters, Lagoon, Welfare Square, and the Bingham Copper mine, as well as hanging out at Northcrest Swim Club. When I got home, we headed together for Tracy Aviary, Red Butte Gardens, the Natural History Museum, and the Great Salt Lake. One stroke of luck was Groupon having a great sale on the "Pass of All Passes" for the five Seven Peaks resorts. We snapped up six of them, for unlimited water park admissions, miniature golf, and even a REAL soccer game. Let the fun begin!
We began the week with Sunday supper with the Calders. Scott, Jean, and Elizabeth joined us in our garden for pork tenderloin, homemade salsa, and key lime pie. The Calders, though, are nowhere to be seen in my images. I had plenty of time to take pictures as we got ready, but once the guests were there, I was focusing on food, not photos! Next time....
Dinner parties are group projects. Alyssa gathered flowers for six vases for the tables. Dave set up the chairs, made the salad, and cut the meat. Kirsten set the tables and lit candles to scare off the bees (in vain). Bryce husked the corn. Lisa and Grant were at my elbow as sous-chefs, chopping and stirring and tasting. The Calders brought fresh fruit, ice cream, and pie. Half the fun is getting ready for the big event. I had a new Cooks Illustrated magazine and, as Grant said, "Grandma worked her way through the whole magazine in one dinner." It was a cooking lesson for all of us!
The Pass of all Passes included free admission to Tracy Aviary on Mondays, so we were there. We brought a watermelon with us, as part of our picnic.
We attended the "Egg Smasher" program. A docent told us about the different kinds of eggs laid by birds in the park. The docent showed a large black emu egg, and he then chose Bryce, from the audience, to hold a bowl of food for the emu. The emu came running out and ate from Bryce's bowl.
The docent then tucked a chicken egg inside foam rubber and had children in the audience add increasing weight, to see how much weight it would take to break the egg. Alyssa was chosen to add weights. The egg finally broke with 55 lbs. weighing down on it, and a child sitting on top who made a sudden movement.
We then wandered past vultures and toucans, as well as alongside the flamingo pool and through the aviary gardens.
On Wednesday night, we took our picnic--a whole roast chicken--to Red Butte Gardens. Bryce and Alyssa loved running through the children's garden, with its snake made of greenery and its fire station pole to slide down.
We also visited the Museum of Natural History Wednesday evening, with its dinosaurs and striking architecture, inside and out. The kids were fascinated with an interactive display for which they constructed a model building and then watched it shake as they dialed up or down the intensity of an earthquake beneath it.
We spent Thursday evening watching the sunset at the Great Salt Lake. As we got out of the car, Grant protested, "It stinks." "This is a good Utah smell," I insisted, "brine shrimp and salt air." As we walked to the beach, we passed several dead birds buried in the sand, and the kids tramped through sticky mud as we got closer to the water. "Grandma, this isn't much of a beach," opined the Seattle residents, with their own memories of tide pools and green water. "Yes, but look at the sky. You can hardly tell where the sky and land and lake meet, as the light shimmers all around." "Grandma, that haze is pollution," the kids insisted. I told them the Great Salt Lake is beautiful from the air, flying in on an airplane, if not always from right on the ground....
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