Our Logan Trip

Ever since our college merged with Utah State in Logan a few years ago, Tyson has been required to go up there each August for training meetings. The college pays for the hotel room and gas and we can even tag along and spend the week with him and make it a mini vacation. The kids always love the adventure of sleeping in a hotel and finding all the fun things to do in a new city. They also have plenty of stores there so we spend some time and get all of our school shopping done too.  The first night we went to eat at Golden Corral and then saw The Avengers at the $3 movies.  We don't go to very many movies, so the kids were very excited!

As an added bonus, my good friend from the Memphis days, Kelly Cromwell lives in Logan now. It was really fun to spend time with her and her kids and explore Logan together. This year we went to the American West Heritage Center. They have hands on activities to give kids a taste of what it would have been like to live in Utah when it was first being settled. There is a woodworking shop where they learn how the earlier settlers made their own tools, furniture,coffins, etc. They can try their hand at panning for gold or building a log house (it's like gigantic Lincoln Logs.) They really enjoyed riding the "transcontinental railroad" and having pony rides. We got to see a dugout and a homesteader's cabin and try playing old fashioned games. We wanted to try out the tomahawk throwing but never got a chance. Maybe that was for the best, considering it may have been a bit dangerous to have 8 kids under the age of 10 wielding sharp tomahawks!

After the American West Center we went to the USU campus and got some Aggie ice cream and then went to the park for awhile. The following day we went to Kelly's house for awhile and the kids played while Kelly and I chatted and looked at her Memphis photo album. That brought back a lot of memories!

The following day Tyson didn't have any meetings until later in the afternoon so we spent the morning at Willow Park.  They have a fun playground and also a little zoo.  It is mostly just different variations of birds, but there were a few monkeys, bobcats, coyotes, and a boa constrictor too.  It was a beautiful day to be there. 

Our last day I took the kids back to Willow Park because I had noticed a sign saying they have a story time there.  So we went and listened to several books (in fact, they could have done half as many books and it would have been enough!)  The cool part though was that at the end they brought out the boa constrictor and let all the kids pet him.  Zac especially thought that was really neat.

Then we went to the Cache Valley Fun Park and the kids played for hours in the soft play area.  It is a really big padded jungle gym with tunnels and slides, similar to what you'd find at a McDonald's only bigger.  The kids thought it was fun to have lunch there.  When the kids are bigger I want to take them roller skating, but I think that would be tricky to do at this age!

We had a really great time in Logan this year.  It's fun to have an annual trip like this to look forward to.  I hope the college doesn't ever realize that it would be much easier and cheaper to just have all these training meetings via conference calls or using their distance learning equipment at the school! Shhhh....please don't tell!