Golden Spike

What a fun excursion this was! The boys were enthusiastic and posed for pictures throughout. They each did an age-appropriate Junior Ranger program for this historical site, though Peter was the only one who got the badge.


The kids in front of the "One-One-Nine" train. The Jupiter was being cleaned or something that day. Isn't the scenery picturesque? We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, but it sure was beautiful!


There isn't much track left, so you can see that Alexander really isn't in danger. The have the raised railroad plane (Amanda, is that what they called it?) throughout the area, still, even though there is hardly any track. You can drive, hike and bicycle on it. Wouldn't that be fun?The pamphlet said to bring spare tires, though, because occasionally some of the old nails surface. Cool, huh?


We dressed the boys up as train engineers as best we could. They got a few compliments on their outfits. I love the way Alexander hams up the photos. Yes, Lincoln was there, too. And Peter, the good big cousin is taking care of him.


Here's the 119 locomotive running! See the steam? That was way cool. This is what I remember from when we came here when I was ten. The other thing I remember is the postcard I got of the Golden Spike. It just so happened that Alexander picked the same postcard! We also bought some posters for our schoolroom wall. Waaaaaay cool.


This one was so cute, I couldn't resist. The boys are showing us the map of the two railroads and where they met.


And here's the Golden Spike! Actually, I don't remember if this is a replica or not. The boys are pretending to hammer it into the railroad.

The kids thought the museum was pretty small (I think the gift shop was bigger!), but honestly I don't know how much they would have gotten out of a bigger museum. It's not like they stay still enough for me to read anything, anyway. But they were pretty good for the historical video. Alexander even recognized a picture from the video that we saw in a book we read a week later.

So... Thanks, Amanda, for organizing this! It turned out to be really fun. (But the Junior Ranger packet was a little too long) The weather was beautiful and I think the kids learned a lot.

Rodeo!

We took the whole fam to the rodeo last Friday! I wanted to put up a video of Alexander learning to throw a lariat at the kids' corral before the official rodeo started, but the video was too large to upload. So... you can see more pictures (and some shorter videos) on our family blog.

Wild West Show

11/5/08

As part of Heber City's Cowboy Poetry Gathering this week they had a Wild West Show. Besides being way overpriced, the show was awesome. The best part for me was when, at the beginning of the show, a group of cowboys came out on horseback driving a herd of real longhorn cattle. I was amazed. It was perfect, since we're learning about the cattle roundups right now. Alexander's favorite part was at the end of the show when they had the fake shoot out at the O.K. Corral and several people "pretend died." Lincoln's favorite part was probably when his dad took him off to the side to bounce him.

 
Alexander, Lincoln and me in front of one of the cowboy performers.

And the best news of all...Alexander is writing! Yesterday he wrote his first word, "HORSE." Today he wrote several words. Here's a picture:


Alexander is writing in his adventure log about the big show. He wanted to write "WILD WILD WEST SHOW." I helped him sound out the words to determine which letter came next (in this case, H) and he wrote the letters himself. To the left of Alexander is a notepad where he wrote his second word, "WILD" and then his third, "HORSE" (again). I'm so proud of my boy. I practically go to tears when I see those cute little words in his own sweet handwriting.

P.S. Alexander typed the title of this post and his name at the beginning of this sentence.

Ranch Hand

 
Alexander at the ranch on Antelope Island. If only he had been wearing his hat! (I was carrying it for him at the moment.)

P.S. Aren't you proud of me for posting only one picture?