Sunday Excursions

Last Sunday was stake conference. I have to be honest and say that we haven't gone to stake conference as a family for a couple of years. Usually I will go and report back anything I found inspiring, or sometimes Molly will go. But we barely make it through the hour long sacrament meeting on Sundays with Luke every week, so two hours is really not even worth trying. We just end up frustrated and very uninspired.

So, we were sitting around Sunday morning contemplating how we were going to negotiate stake conference this time around and things were going downhill fast with the children. They were going crazy. I am not sure why, but they have been super wound up lately and I could tell Molly was about at her tipping point. She had that crazy look in her eye that said she was about to lose it. So I knew I couldn't leave her with the kids and go to church alone. It was about 9:30 and Molly had just put the baby down for a nap and the kids would just not be quiet. So I told them to grab their shoes and get in the car without making another sound. So of course they all started pestering me about where we were going and were getting louder by the second. I knew if the baby woke up there could be blood, so I told them that if they didn't zip it and get in the car, the only place they were going was stake conference. Well, even though they haven't been in awhile, two hours sitting in church must have left an impression on their wee minds because there was a sudden silence like I haven't heard in years. Even Luke, who I can never get to shut up, seemed to sense the great importance of not making a sound. So as quiet as little church mice the kids all got their shoes on and went out to the car. I grabbed our collection of children's movies, the car dvd player, some water, and some bread and a jar of peanut butter and was out the door with a kiss to Molly.

I wasn't sure were we would go. I thought about the zoo or the park. Anywhere to just get them out of the house for a few hours and give Molly some rest. But I am always telling the kids they can't go to the zoo or the park on Sunday so I thought it might not be a good idea to confuse them. So I thought I would just drive and let them watch a couple movies. Wendover seemed like a good destination. I had never been there before and I thought it was about an hour and a half drive which seemed about right. So I headed west. We got out a little ways and I saw a sign that said "Stansbury Island" and thought that sounded like more fun than Wendover. So I turned there. It was a dirt road that took us out past a whole bunch of evaporation ponds. Those are big shallow depressions that they pump water into from the Great Salt Lake and let the water evaporate out of to get salt and other minerals that are left behind. I thought they were really neat. There were several that were all evaporated and there was nothing left but big fields of salt. And there were huge piles of salt that we drove past too. I told the kids what they were and that if they licked the ground it would taste like salt. After driving past a few ponds, I decided to stop at dry one, and since they aren't fenced off or anything, I told the kids to go out and check them out while I made them a sandwich.

I was sitting there making a sandwich when Leisel comes back to the car and she is sucking on this huge chunk of salt she had picked up off the ground. She says, "You are right dad! It tastes just like salt!" So I got out and we ran all over the salty ground. The salt was about an inch thick and the kids took off their shoes and ran all around it for quite awhile until their feet started to hurt. They thought it was a lot like playing in the snow. Until they got it in their eyes.
The pictures aren't the greatest because all I had was my camera phone, but you get the idea.

Well after they got tired of the salt, we got back in the car and kept going on the dirt road. After quite awhile we got to the end of the road and there was a toilet and a big sign that said we were on the tip of Stansbury Island. It turns out Stansbury Island is only an island when the lake is really high, which it hasn't been for 25+ years. To the west was a big bay called Stansbury bay that is also a huge evaporation pond. I don't know what is in that water but it was purple. I told the kids not to touch it. But it was pretty.

There was a trail that left the parking lot and headed along the shore, so we decided to go for a little walk. It was a nice day for hiking. The sun was out but it wasn't too hot. Zoe didn't want to go because she is afraid of pretty much everything and she thought there might be dangerous wildlife. But we went anyway. I told them to stay behind me and stay on the trail because there might be snakes. About five seconds later Zoe screams, "Snake!" and is scrambling back up the trail the way we had come. Of course no one else saw the snake (and I think it was probably just a lizard) but it kept the other kids on the trail. We did see several lizards and a few bunnies, a horny toad, and a fox or coyote den. It was a fun little hike with big boulders that the kids got to climb up and feel like they were standing on top of the world. Here is a picture I borrowed from someone on flikr.

And here is an aerial image from good old google earth.


Well after the hike we got back into the car and headed back towards Tooele. We took a round about way home and didn't get back until about 4:00 or so. By that time Molly was well rested and life was good again. It was a pretty good day. That night as we were getting the kids ready for bed, Lila said, "that was probably the best Sunday we have ever had."

I hope they don't expect every Sunday to be like this. Next week it is back to church.