Friday, October 28, 2016

Solana Beach - San Diego

The first place we went after arriving in San Diego, was to Solana Beach.  Meghan and Corey were able to come with us and they brought wet suits and boogie boards!

Jacob and Hannah had a blast boogie boarding and the beach was so wonderful.  We could just stay there all day watching and listening to the waves.

Along the beach, there are so many multi-million dollar homes that sit right on the edge of the crumbling sand wall that is very visibly eroding from the wind and rain.  Several houses had the edge completely eroded all the way to the foundation of the house!













Love this pic! This was our parting view as the sun was setting

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Glitter Mountain

Over "Fall Break", we decided to take a quick trip to San Diego.  We were really missing the beach, and we've been to San Fran so many times, and it's been a long long time since we were in SD.

On the way, I wanted to stop at Glitter Mountain.  I had this down to do when we went to Southern Utah for our Family Reunion in July, but we didn't get around to it.  Kinda glad, because it would have been so HOT that time of year!

Glitter Mountain isn't really a mountain.  It's an old abandoned gypsum mine, where some of the mines have caved in, revealing the walls of a short area of the mine.  And it's not really in St. George, but it's actually in Arizona - just across the border on a dirt road.

The non-mountain mountain is really made up of selenite, and it's colorless and easily splits into sheets.  It's a variety of gypsum and is used nowadays in sheetrock, among other things.

There is NOTHING else out here - this is just a little hill in the middle of nowhere.  We were told to bring hammers and stuff to chisel at the rock, which we did.  If we didn't have anything to use, it would have been pointless as it's hard rock - until you start chiseling at it - then it peels off and crumbles very easily.  You should also bring a bucket to put your "treasures" in to take home.  One lady there had a 5 gallon orange home depot bucket to fill up.  Um...that is too much.  Once you have 2 or 3 larger pieces, that's enough. They all look the same!


Keep going down a dirt road until you cross over into Arizona.   Then keep going.



     
There are thousands of small pieces all over the place.














Yeah, it's in the middle of nothing.





Wednesday, October 26, 2016

October means Corn Mazes!

It seems that corn mazes were much funner when the kids were smaller and got lost in the mazes.  These days however, Jacob and Hannah are so smart, they just whip right through the mazes.  It's still fun to go though.

We went to a different corn maze this year, and a real working farm.  We got hay rides through the fields, of course the kids played in the corn kernal "sandbox" and on the slides.

The maze was pretty big and fairly complicated. The "hard" maze was supposed to take about 45 minutes to complete.  We did it in less than 20.  There are "check points" through out and then a map that shows the next check point.  Jacob would look at the map, see the next check point, and look for about 15 seconds at the maze and then we were off.

He directed us to the next check point, maneuvering all the turns and twists, leading us right to the next checkpoint, without taking us on any dead ends.  Not sure how he does it, but he's always been good with directions.

Even when he was 3 years old, he would tell grandma and grandpa how to get places when they came to visit. And he would see a road or a landmark and recognize it right away.  He's very good with directions.







Jacob and Hannah had to show all the little kids the real way to slide - on your feet!






This corn maze had very tall corn!  Not like those wimpy corn mazes we've been to where you can see over and through the corn.



Sunday, October 2, 2016

Let's Run Away To The Circus!


It's Fall!  That means a lot of things...but one regular thing for us, is the Circus!  We love the circus and try to go every year.  It's so full of energy, a great live band, and fun things to watch.

This year was no exception!  This is the first year the elephants are no longer in the circus, but they were missed, but it was still a great show!  The greatest show on earth!  Matt and Marissa and Gma and Gpa Gwilliam came with us too!


This year's theme was space and "Out of this World"







VIDEO:










No elephants this year, but there were goats! And Alpacas!




Video:
There was even a Kangaroo!!















There is so much to watch and see, you don't want to miss any of it


The clowns walking upside down was really cool and very different





VIDEO
This is always Jacob's favorite!  There were SEVEN motorcycles going at the same time.














Yep, there were even giant pigs!