We can see for miles!

We went with the other Sellers family on a short hike a week or so ago up above the capitol building.  Some of the early Mormons hiked this hill they named Ensign Peak to get a good view of the valley and the lake.  Apparently, they started laying out the plans for the city from that point, since you can see basically the entire valley from up there.  It was an impressive view, and a pretty easy hike, so the kids didn’t have much trouble running up it.

Just a little bit windy up at the top, not that Izzy cared all that much.

 Mason seemed to be having a good time...

Until we tried to throw him over the edge.

The Utah Sellers family, with the Salt Lake way off in the background.

And us, with the city all over the place in the background.

Here's the view from the top, and this is definitely the difference between the mountain west and the east coast.  It's pretty incredible how far you can see out here.  But even though the wind was pretty intense (as usual), the weather cleared out and it was a good hike on a beautiful day. 

The Donuts are falling!

Since the weather has gotten warmer around here, it’s been good to get out and enjoy it.  There seem to be a lot of mountains around here so there naturally has to be a few mountain trails, so we decided to find one to go check out.  Unfortunately, one of us is only about two feet tall and doesn’t exactly have the stride to keep up on a long hike, so we had to find a short easy one to tackle.  We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon toward the ski resorts and found an easy day hike to Donut Falls, a popular Salt Lake hike.  If not for the snow constantly engulfing our feet with every other step, it would have been a really easy walk.  But there was a little bit of snow left up there, and since Adam didn’t have snow shoes, we had to carry him the whole way. 

Paul did a pretty good job though.  But for a boy who normally could run the Iron Man in record time if there were other kids with him, he suddenly felt too tired to go on without someone carrying him too.

Adam, looking not so happy to be trekking through the Wasatch Mountains looking for falling water.

 Especially when there's Poweraid right here!

But he cheered up and had a great time throwing rocks when we got to the water.

You can almost sort of see the waterfall up there.  If you’re wondering why they call it Donut Falls, it’s because up at the top the water falls onto a boulder and over time it has created a hole through the rock.  The boys and their mother didn’t make it up that high to see it, but I risked serious injury and frozen hands to see the cave the water had carved out.  Very cool, and a pretty nice hike on a pretty nice day!

It's T-Ball Time!

When the snow melts and the flowers start to return to life, the grass gets cut on the field, the gloves break out… and it’s baseball season!  For Paul this could be just another fun thing to do, or this could be the start of a Hall of Fame career!!  I’ll guess it’s probably the former, but hey, who knows?  Anyway, Paul is playing T-Ball, which is a full contact version of the game baseball, played with small children.  Sounds fun, right?  So far it has been, and he seems to be enjoying it.  When he’s not bouncing off the grass, wearing his glove for a hat, or jumping on the pile to fight for the ball, he’s actually been doing pretty good.  He hits solid, and he’s really picking up on the basic rules, so hopefully he’ll keep enjoying it and have a lot of fun.  And now it's only about 15 years before he signs that first contract...

So you're telling me I should take this blunt metal object and swing it as hard as I can at stuff?  Sounds good...

This is just Paulie being Paulie... watching from the plate as the ball soars high over the upper deck... a natural left handed slugger.

A few fans turned out to cheer him on, including this gentleman.

This is called, "fielding the ball."  Thankfully Adam didn't end up at the bottom of the pile.

He's growing up on us, and it's too late to stop it now.  But here's to spring and warmer weather!  Now play ball!

On a Utah Safari!

So it’s about time I catch up on blog posts, since I’m about four behind and the pictures are piling up.  Plus, you people will all start complaining at me before too long if I don’t (all five of you that read this blog, including our loyal readers in the Ukraine… Pryvit!!).  Anyway, we went with the original Utah Sellers to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and saw the tigers, the argumentative rhinos, a few monkeys, a few Mormons, and all sorts of other interesting creatures!  So here are a few photos from the day.  

Riding the tigers!  Pretty cool animals, even got to hear them roar (sort of... sounded more like they were just complaining).

 Amber and Adam checked out the elephants...

Gotta have a snack along the way...

 Quick, check the map to find the lizards!

 Mason James came along of course.

 And Jasmine Isabella, aka Izzy...

 She enjoyed her carousel ride...

And apparently so did Paul... uh... maybe a little too much.

In all, the Salt Lake zoo was pretty enjoyable with a lot of cool animals to check out, and for not too bad a price either!  Glad we were able to spend the day with the cousins and hopefully we'll get to go do it again one of these days!

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!