TEAM JCAT

We got some crazy idea when we found out nearly two years that the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference was going to be in Salt Lake this year to all make the trip together instead of Tracy going alone. Slowly and with much planning the day of the conference was upon us.

We got James independent study work and packed up our stuff. Got a good night's sleep and off we went.

On the drive we had breakfast at our favorite spot in Truckee; CoffeeBar.

We spent the first night in Utah at Tracy's parent's house, since we gave ourselves an extra day to get to the conference just in case something happened. James and Charles really enjoyed the creek behind their house.

Tracy went on one of the field trips that were part of the conference. It was a 2 night trip prior to the main part of the conference. While on the field trip the boys and I stayed with my mom. They took over her living room with toys. I didn't get pictures but one of the days, I met my sister and her kids at a splash pad in Alpine and we had a fun morning/afternoon together.

The day we were to meet Tracy in Salt Lake, the boys pulled all of my mom's movies off her shelves as I was packing up our stuff. It wasn't fun trying to put them back while Charles kept trying walk on them or tried to pull them off again.

We ended up meeting Tracy in Provo instead of Salt Lake and we got to visit the Paleontology museum at BYU and see the collections. You can't tell from the first two picture but both James and Charles were quite intrigued by the dinosaur bones.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Once we were settled in Salt Lake and all had a good night's rest, Tracy's conference meetings began and I had to find entertainment for the boys. The first day we went to Gateway and the Planetarium.

Charles loved the train rides.

James did too.

I failed to look at when the Planetarium opened so we ended up needing to kill about an hour.
What better way than climbing on all the various structures.

Pretty much the only thing James would do or look at at the Planetarium.
He then would beg to go back just about everyday afterwards.

After the Planetarium, we enjoyed lunch with my brother at Red Iguana. Then I took the boys back to the hotel for Charles' nap and for James to do school work. That evening I had to finish my mail in ballot and then James wanted to place his votes too. So he worked on the sample ballot in the back of our voter information pamphlet.

The next day I and the boys went to the zoo. We ended up running into one of my friends there, so that was extra fun. Both boys enjoyed seeing all the animals and riding the train.

After Charles' nap that day, James wanted to visit a library. I took them to the City Library downtown and James thought it was the coolest place ever.

Yummy The Pie Pizza for dinner!

The next day I took the boys to Wheeler Farm. They mostly loved the playground and the leaves.

We had lunch with Tracy at Blue Lemon and then had nap time and did more school work. (We did school work just about everyday.) Tracy had a late evening at the conference that day, so I took the boys before bedtime to city creek to watch the water and fire fountain show. They thought it was pretty cool.

James Cool

Our last and final day in Salt Lake, It took the boys to Liberty park in the morning. We had a blast. After the park and during nap time, I listened to the Utah football game. (Our hotel had issues with their cable service and we only had like 5 channels.) Then we heavy hearts after the Utes lost we had dinner at Tucanos and ate away our feelings. ;)

We then spent a couple nights at Tracy's parents' house. He was originally going to go to a field trip for 3 nights but then changed his mind. Charles took a liking to Grandpa and James learned a little guitar.

The next day Halloween, we had lunch at Rubio's in Orem, then went to Thanksgiving point museum. Tracy had arranged to see the progress on the Utah Raptor Project. Afterwards we met up with my oldest sister, her kids and some of their friends and went trick or treating.

The last two days of our trip we spent in St. George. We checked out the Warner Valley dinosaur tracks, Red Hills Dessert Garden, and Thunder Junction Park

Charles is quite the little hiker.

These three second cousins are the cuties. ;)

When Scarecrows party too much on Halloween. ;)

This park is soo awesome! Love that they made this all abilities park. James especially loved that he could try out more things that he normally couldn't do.

The drive home is forever long, but at least we got fun UFO clouds and beautiful sunsets.

James started First Grade on August 24. Crazy that I have a first grader now!

It took a little while to get use to an all day school schedule and I think we're all loving it now, even though James comes home a bit grumpy most days. The year also started out a bit rough for James. He had a bit of a bully problem. It seems to be worked out now which is good.

I love seeing how much James has grown up from his first day of kindergarten. He is right where he should be in most areas of academics. He is also making great progress in Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy. I'm amazed at the type of person he is becoming; always kind, loving and caring. I'm mostly amazed at how hard he works at over coming his struggles physically.