That's a big hole in the ground...

If you look to the west from where we’re living, you’ll see a big part of the mountain torn up by the Kennecott Copper Mine… so naturally, I wanted to get a chance to go up and check it out.  They have a little visitor’s center up there, and from that point you can see the massive dump trucks going around and down into the massive pit to collect rocks filled with copper and other minerals.  The overall operation is pretty massive in about every aspect.  The hole is the largest open pit mine in the world, the trucks can carry over 300 tons of rock at a time, and the mine produces 25% of all US copper per year.  Sure, it’s just a big hole in the ground, but we’ve gone out of our way to see stranger things in these blog posts! 

There it is!  You can't appreciate how big it is in this picture, but you'll have to take our word for it.

 

 Adam was a fan of the real big trucks driving all around, and all the toy trucks they had on display in the visitor center.

And yes, that's a big tire.  They said these things cost about $20,000 each and only last 9 months!  Thankfully we don't drive a dump truck.  But overall, pretty cool stuff, and a good way to spend part of a day!

Easter Birthday Boy

So the youngest of us, Adam Michael, got a year older last week, as he turned a big two years old!  Last week while his Unbehend grandparents were here, we got some balloons, cake, and ice cream and had an Easter/Birthday Party day.  We hid some Easter eggs in the park, ate some ham and potatoes, and sang a birthday song for the birthday boy!  Here are some photos from the day and before. 

Prior to Easter, we had to do some egg coloring of course.

All of the traditional Easter egg colors were present, and we only lost a couple of eggs in the process.

The boys blew some bubbles in the always intense Salt Lake wind, and searched for eggs at this park in Riverton.

Even Grandpa and Granny G got in on the action.

Then it was birthday time!  Adam got this chair in the mail from Uncle Ted... but it worked a lot better after we put the cover on it for him.  He doesn't do much sitting still, but he loves to dive on it and tip it over backward.

And yes, he did in fact turn two... even if it really happened the next day.  So another successful birthday bash for one of the Sellers boys!

In the Windy Valley...

A couple of weeks ago we picked up this kite for three bucks at Walmart, because, well… everything is cheaper at Walmart.  Paul was a big fan, naturally.  Since Becky has been “under the weather” this past month or two, the boys and I took a little trip together to the local park and flew the kite!  I’m not sure what Chicago must be like, but I would think they should call this the Windy Valley, because it seems to always be windy down here between the mountains.  So needless to say, the kite flew pretty well!

Fly the kite!  Ben Franklin would be proud, but thankfully we didn't discover any electricity this day.

The kite's point of view, a highly energetic kite controller pulling the strings from the ground below!

Even Adam Michael got to control it for 0.0039 seconds before his brother was nagging to fly it again.

You know Adam Michael, a straight up gangsta from Southeast DC.

 Trying on hats!  Hat! Dad-da, hat! Dad-da, HAT!

And I thought I'd include a photo of where we're currently living, for those of you who haven't been down here.  Yep, looks like an apartment.  So far it's worked out pretty well, and the playground down below has served very well as a Paul energy releasing tool.  That's all for now, but it's Easter weekend, so I'm sure we'll have more pics again soon!

Down by the River Jordan

Last weekend we went down the road to a park on the Jordan River.  Not the River Jordan of Israel, but the real one here in the land of Zion.  Thankfully, Hezbollah didn't fire any rockets over the river while we were down there, because that might have ruined our day.  But there was a nice little playground the boys enjoyed climbing on, and a paved trail that followed along the banks of the river.  The water was moving pretty rapidly, and was almost a turquoise color and I’m sure it was incredibly cold as well, so it was not something you’d want to go swimming in at the moment.  Also, the wind in the valley here gets to be pretty intense, which made it difficult to do some bubble blowing, but we tried anyway.  We took a few photos (obviously), so here they are…

I told Becky she'll probably have to deal with taking this kid to the hospital many times in his youth for broken bones.  He's terrified of large humans, but fearless when it comes to death defying stunts such as high playground slides and climbing up ladders and such.

Skippin' rocks on the river by the path.  We didn't let him get too close though, because we didn't feel like a rapid water rescue would be enjoyable.

Took some time to try to blow bubbles, but the wind was ripping them away before we even had a chance to catch any.

Paul is a veteran bubble blower.

Adam learned a valuable lesson in sharing that day.

Nothing even slightly mischievous about this kid. 

Spring is (almost) slightly, kind of, sort of here in the valley!  A few windy, cloudy days are probably left, but the sun will be here full time soon enough!!

There's a Creek in the City...

City Creek is here!! City Creek is here!!  Or at least that’s what all the giant murals on the buildings downtown say.  Here in Salt Lake, the LDS church has gotten into the business of luxurious, downtown mall real estate apparently.  They dropped a ton of money to develop some big time, high fashion mall downtown called City Creek that’s apparently opening next weekend.  Looks like a whole bunch of places I wouldn’t shop even if I had too much money and nothing to do with it.  But, whatever, we went to City Creek Park instead.  Normally, there’s kind of a cool stream running underneath a couple of bridges in the park, but it’s all drained out at the moment.  So the boys threw the soccer ball in the drained waterway, and I climbed in to get it.  And then they did it again.  And then they did it again.  Good times on a sunny, early spring day!

Oh these boys...

Paul never encourages his little brother to do anything to harass their mother or father... no, Paul would never do that.

And that would be one of Adam's many faces showing the kind of kid he's rapidly becoming... the continuous troublemaker.

Oh Paul, how horrible to have to stop to take a picture.  But, truly a beautiful, warm day out in the park.  Maybe... just maybe, spring is here!

Another quick trip to Montana

Finally getting around to making a blog post after not having the internet for a whole week!  I know, I can’t imagine what life would be like if we had to live any longer than that without the internet.  I’m pretty sure life was next to impossible to survive way back in the days before Blogger, Wikipedia, Facebook and MLB.com.  I really don’t know how you old people ever lived back in those early days of the Earth.  Oh well, we’ve got it back for now, so it’s time to update this thing.  So Becky and Amber took all the kids and went to Montana for a week.  Unfortunately, Becky didn’t take many photos, so there aren’t many to share, but here are just a few of Paul and Adam swimming with their cousins Brooke and Sophia at one of the Missoula pools.

Brookie B in water wings.

And Sophia, getting older by the day.

And of course, Adam Michael, all wrapped up and ready to go.

And on a side note, this is our 200^th blog post! Unbelievable!  For almost four years now we’ve been posting on here and sharing pictures of us (mostly Paul – who happens to be absent from this post), and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as we have making it.  Stick around for the next two hundred!



No-Antelope Island

We took a little trip up to the Great Salt Lake the other day to a state park called Antelope Island just to check it out, because well, that’s what we do.  A man made road bridge takes you out to the lake’s largest island for some hiking trails and great scenery of the lake and the mountain ranges.  There were quite a lot of hiking trails up the steep slopes of the island, but on a cold day with a couple of small children, we didn’t brave any of them.  We did drive around to check out the buffalo that roam mostly free on the island, having been introduced there in the 1800’s.  We learned a lot about the lake at the visitor’s center and checked out an operational ranch on the island that’s been there since way back when.  The funny thing was, for an island named after the wild antelope, there weren’t any living on it.  Would have made more since to call it Buffalo Island, but hey, that’s why I don’t name islands I guess.  Anyway, not a bad day trip, and of course perfect for photo opportunities.  

Paul posing with a miniature buffalo.  Actually, we tried to get him to go stand by it or even try to ride it, but he opted to keep his distance.  Probably for the best.

Getting his cheeks, apparently.  

 Adam rode this wild stallion at the ranch.  Future rodeo star, I'm sure.

I practiced my roping skills, here catching a wild Polywog, a rare species in these parts, but easy to find due to their constant, annoying ability to never stop chattering, screaming, and otherwise bouncing off the walls.

 Adam was just a little worried by this.

We explored the rocky cliffs, looking over the great salty lake and distant snowy peaks.  Our Ute Indian Scout known as "Little Screaming Boy" led the way.

Pretty amazing views from on top of the island mountains.  We'll have to go back some other day when it's warmer and hike some of the other trails.