Weekend adventures ...

Free weekends don't come along very often at our house. Knowing that this was going to be my last free weekend until at least the end of December I knew that I had to get out and do something fun with the kids! In addition, I had to keep my mind busy ...

So a trip on the Frontrunner to Ogden to visit the Ogden Nature Center seemed like the perfect choice! Growing up in the US, J and C S haven't had many chances of riding trains - during the summer they had mentioned several times that they would love to ride on the "doubledecker" train that you can see from the highway sometimes. So, this seemed to be a perfect kid-friendly combination of adventure. For $12 (round-trip including bus transfer to the ONC) we all boarded the train, and of course we had to sit on the top level. The second we started rolling J had to call M on the phone to tell him about every little detail of this train ride. It was good to see him talk with M in such an engaged conversation ... even C S joined in. 

When we arrived in Ogden we had to wait a while for our bus (in America buses only come every hour on Saturdays ... really?!?). No problem for the kids - C S immediately made friends with another girl who was also waiting for the bus, and J discovered a cool train engine to play on.


Once we finally arrived at the Nature Center we were greeted by beautiful views, deserted trails, and "cool" animals (turkeys and deer to be specific ... and a few birds of prey in cages). Oh, and by crisp air ... which of course the kids didn't mind. Their cheeks turned red quickly from running through the leaves, crawling through tunnels made of branches, digging in the water, climbing a tree house, chasing deer (sorry, deer) ... a perfect adventure on a cloudy fall day.

I enjoyed the calmness out on the "trail" - during our two hours there we ran into only one other family (sad, but true ... nobody else seemed to want to take advantage of this great place). The kids were busy and happy and I could put everything aside for a few hours.

We ended our day with a lovely dinner at a restaurant in Ogden, walked back to the train station in the dark, and headed back to SLC on the Frontrunner. Once we got home C S wanted to go to bed and she fell asleep within minutes of being tucked in ... that is when you know that the kids had a good day ... a sunny day!