All Aboard!! (Our Excellent Adventure)

Alec wanted to ride the "Polar Express", but when I priced it, I became motivated to find a cheaper, memorable, alternative. Alec told me about a train museum in Utah he'd seen advertised. After much internet research, I found it was located in Ogden; to round out our train adventure I decided we would take the Trax train to Frontrunner to go to the Museum. Here are the highlights...

The Frontrunner (otherwise known as "The Bwue Train!!! I wanna ride the bwue train!!) that travels from Salt Lake to Ogden. It actually dumps you off right in front of the Train Museum.

To properly travel to the train museum, one must ride in a train, a BIG train, up on the second level. (Nothing else will do!!!)

We arrived at the Union Station Train Museum in Ogden.

This engine greets you in front of the museum; people, mostly children, are allowed to climb all over it.

And hang out the side of it...

If you ask Alec, the most fascinating exhibits were the model train exhibits. He spent forever watching them, here is one of his pictures that he took. Alec & Brielle....mesmerized.

Inside one of the train cars, up on the top.

Trying out the handcar. It didn't move so well since it was chained in place, but the effort was still rewarding.

A group picture before we headed home.



In front of the Christmas tree at the museum. It had a train that ran around it - very fitting.

On our way home. The Trax train car pivot point created loads of entertainment value as Alec, Lia, Brielle, and another little boy tried to hang on and stay standing while standing on the train pivot point during turns.

And no adventure can be complete without a hair-raising dramatic experience, preferrably one that involves the police. This adventure proved to have one of those such experiences.

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Alec got off of the Trax train on 4500 S. (where the car was parked), but I had both of the girls and tried to go out the wrong door; the door wouldn't open. I ran (with the girls) to the door Alec had already exited out of; that door wouldn't open either. The train began to move. The girls and I were on the train, Alec was by himself, at night, in December, at a train stop, outside of the train.

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I frantically called Aaron and told him to what happened and to go to the station NOW!!! Then I called 911. Meanwhile I got off at the next stop and waited for a northbound train to take the girls and I back to stranded Alec.

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911 dispatched police officers to meet and stay with Alec while I headed back to him. The girls and I said a prayer for Alec. Thankfully the northbound train came rather quickly and we hopped on it. When we got to the stop, we jumped out of the train and called to Alec, who came running to me. The police officers (there were about 6-8 who were dispatched and arriving to the train stop) walked over to us (I actually beat the police to Alec by a couple of seconds). They radioed dispatch that "he's been reunited with his mother".

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We are all grateful Alec stayed in the same spot (Yeah ALEC!!!), I was scared he would walk on the tracks or catch another train to try to find us. Aaron arrived a minute later. We celebrated our safe reunion with Alec with pizza.

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All in all it was an excellent adventure. The kids are ready to go back to the museum; it was AWESOME!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hot girls and hot rods.

Brielle shows us the latest hot scooter moves.

Aunt Shelley and Sadie.

The traditional tree decorating...

Group picture of the proud interior designers who decorated Grandma & Grandpa's tree.

Lia was bummed; she'd been promised a yummy dinner, but there were vegetables on her plate. Haili watched the drama unfold.

Brielle and Great Grandna Sibley.

The young men up at the counter (boys at the bar).

Belated Halloween Posting

We went to the Witch Festival at Gardner Village a couple of weeks ago, we rode the horses, got some chocolate, and checked out the witches. It was way cool.

Lia is riding Blondie.

Alec is riding Queen.

Brielle and Prince.

Squirrely kids at the Witch Festival at Gardner Village. (That witch is shuttling a bunch of ghosts).

Big brothers can be a good thing sometimes. Lia wouldn't hold my hand in the parking lot, she only wanted to hold Alec's hand.

Lia got to visit Charlie, the miniature pony she rode last time. He was eating, so she talked to him for a while.

Getting ready to go to the Witch Festival. This bridge was too cool.

Happy Halloween at Grandma Donna's!!!

Trick or Treating at Grandma Donna's house on 10-29-08. As usual, it was a hit. This was a cousins picture, but Lia wouldn't get in it unless she was on my lap. Alec is holding Sadie (a cow), she's not very happy about her picture being taken.

Alec was a vampire soccer player, but the vampire teeth hurt his teeth, so he took them off. He looks like a dead or sickly soccer player, which works too. On Halloween, we were able to find a cape for him, and he dressed up for the rest of the part, the soccer uniform was just a temporary fix. Peyton was Captain Jack Sparrow.

Brielle was a dinosaur, Lia was Elmo. Without wearing the hoods, it makes it hard to recognize their costumes.

Trick-or-Treating, Lia has her beloved hat on.

I totally blew it on Halloween; I forgot the camera. Oops!!!

Halloween Celebrations...

Last Monday night we celebrated Halloween for FHE...

We decorated sugar cookies with the Sonntags.

Alec, Brielle, Lia, and Sierra decorating their cookies. This is serious business, and requires a steady hand and a good supply of frosting.

The Pumpkin Patch...

10-17-08: Some people take their children to a pumpkin patch to properly pick out a pumpkin and make lasting memories; that was the original intent of this journey. However, I had a meeting to go to, Lia was having a monster crisis and time was slipping away fast, so, this pumpkin-picking experience was brought to you by Smiths. (Lia ended up staying home with Daddy to continue the hysterical screaming.)

Here's Alec's pumpkin, it is much more impressive in real life.

Here's Brielle's pumpkin. We also picked up some corn (albeit the candy variety) and frosting for sugar cookies, for the joint FHE with the Sonntags.

I Want My $2.00!!

This is a tower crane at an undisclosed jobsite in an undisclosed state for an undisclosed construction company. My coworker bet me $2.00 that I could not make on the bridge that leads from the undisclosed building to the undisclosed tower crane. (You can see it in the picture below.)

There's me on the undisclosed bridge leading to the tower crane. I got my $2.00 because I'm really not afraid of heights. The bigger problem was the ladder leading to the cab of the crane. The steel contains huge gaping holes that if you acciently pass-out, you would fall through.

I sucked it up, climbed the ladder, and here I am in the cab of the crane. It has a great view of the city (might I add). I was too chicken to climb out on the catwalk on the arm above the cab - it's REALLY high up there, I'm thinking at least another $10.00.
My other co-worker took pictures to prove my deed, and for the next two hours I pestered Rick with "I want my two dollars!!!" (Refer to Better Off Dead.) Unfortunately he paid up really fast.

Decked Out for Halloween

After gnawing my nails to bleeding, I needed to visit "Nails 4 U" and get re-clawed. Lia wanted to go to, but was utterly disappointed when it was almost time to go and the guy hadn't done hers. $5 later she has had her first manicure in Halloween colors with stickers on her thumbs. Jennah, you have a kindred spirit.

Dinner was bean dip; for those noticing a lack of greenery on the plate, never fear, the vegetables were cooked into/with the meat and we used "corn" chips.

P.S. Don't tell my mom!!! :)

Conference FHE

After Sunday afternoon conference session was over, the Vermason clan headed over to the park. On a side note, Krissy picked the most complicated way known to man to reach this park. We had a picnic and played a game of soccer. The cousins enjoyed themselves, but they missed Jacob and Ellie.

During our competitive game of soccer, it was Haili's turn to kick the ball, we all anxiously waiting for her to pelt it.
Next it was Lia's turn to show the ball who was boss. The ever-spiritual Vermason FHE was followed by a lesson taught by Aaron set against the backdrop of the playground. Skyler kept running to the slide, Haili was throwing bark chips in the air and would laugh as they landed in her face, and Peyton and Alec were wrestling, all while Aaron was teaching us about Jesus (or something like that).

Big Girl On Campus

It was Lia's first day of preschool today. She was EXCITED!!! She's only been talking about this day since school started for Alec and Brielle. No first-day jitters for her.



Waiting for school to start, sporting her new Dora backpack.



Lia with Mrs. Walker, Miss Joyce is in the background; these were Brielle's preschool teachers. They about had heart attacks when they realized this was the baby I was pregnant with when Brielle was in preschool.

On Saturday I put flower-barretts in Lia's hair that I made. She allowed them to be in her hair long enough for me to take pictures of them, then she wanted them O-U-T!!!

Alec made vegetable art for a creativity badge with scouts. I think his den leader should get a creativity badge for imaginative uses of overabundant garden vegetables. He made a car (couldn't see that one coming) and a spider in honor of Grandma Janet.