Antelope Island

On Tuesday we meet our very good friends, the Berry's, for a picnic lunch at Antelope Island up in the Great Salt Lake. The funny thing was that we planned on meeting at the off ramp, but having never been there we didn't set up an exact spot, but we did map out the route and both of us ended up arriving at almost the same time. But we missed each other because we both stopped in different places at the off ramp to wait. After about 20 minutes of waiting we both decided to go on and just meet at the island. (I know all you guys will cell phones probably wouldn't have had this problem.) Once we started on the "bridge" to the island the kids looked behind us and wa-la there they were. Is was certainly something to laugh about.

After finding a covered picnic area we ate a tasty lunch with kids that were so excited to go swimming that they couldn't sit still.

Boy were we surprised when we finally got to the water. There were little gnat-like bugs EVERY WHERE -- and there were TONS of them. Swarms of them would move out of the way with every step you took on the beach. And one would assume that the rocks there would have been smooth with all that sand and water washing over them, but surprise! they were so pokey. But you know what, the kids didn't care one bit and they had a super time getting wet.
This is about as deep as we got. Mark brought his goggles and was the only one who tried to go all the way under.
Spencer did still manage to get salt water in his eyes when he started throwing rocks trying to skip them like the other kids.

After many minutes at the shower trying to get all the sand and bugs and salt off, (and after a few of the kids made sand angels and we had to re-wash them), we went for a little drive around the island.
We stopped to take a picture, but Spencer was grumpy at me because he wanted to eat M&M's, not take a picture. Can you tell he didn't get a nap yet?
Our last stop was at the ranch. They had tons of old fashioned thing for the kids to look at and touch and try out. Everyone's favorite was climbing in to saddle.

Outside they had horses and cows to rope. Jessie got a pretty good swing going.

Abbie caught her horse the easy way, by walking up to it and putting the rope over its neck.
Throwing the lasso wasn't as easy as it looks. Mark kept trying and trying.
While the other kids helped chase down a loose rooster, Spencer just sat on the horse.
After looking through some old pioneer houses the kids found a little trail and we played back in the woods until the mosquitoes started to get the better of me.
On the way home we were all so thirsty from the high 90 degree heat and so we stopped at Wendy's for a shake. Yummy (Well I think it would have been a little bit more yummy if the chocolate hadn't been out, but at least it was cold!)