Free Ninety-nine

My favorite price for family adventure is free. That is why hikes and parks are so often at the top of our summer bucket list. But I am discovering our new area has an ABUNDANCE of free activities for families. And we are taking full advantage.

Soccer clinic: This clinic is included for all registered soccer players. So I guess technically you could say it is not free. But the registration fee is less here than California and we didn't have anything like this there. Twice a week for the entire month of June our little soccer players enjoyed a coed skills clinic for 90 minutes each day. Brilliant.

The baby is playing soccer!

The Auto Show: This free family event was a part of Strawberry Days. Each and every town in our area puts on a summer festival unique to their city. Pleasant Grove calls their's Strawberry Days. Each day for about a week there are different community events. Usually there is a parade on the weekend. This car show was one of the events we attended.

The Life Flight helicopter was on display and the pilot and medical nurses were there answering questions. Not long after we arrived the helicopter took off. It was so fun for the boys to see.

Most of the vehicles on display had very clear "Do NOT Touch" signs. But this gentelman had built a miniature drive-in theater replica in his trunk and invited the boys to come check it out.

One of the other vehicles the boys were invited to touch.

And Jacob's favorite vehicle at the show. The other boys were a bit jealous since they were told they were too big to get in.

We decided this should be Amber's car. Unless she gets a pink Barbie Jeep...

Free public swim: Another of the Strawberry Days events. Zero charge the whole day. It was fantastic.

I didn't get enough pictures. They had water basketball, a water rock climbing wall, water slides, a little kid splash area, beach entry, diving boards and this floating obstacle course to name a few things. It was one of the best public pools I have been to. For free.

Hill Aerospace Museum: This was amazing to me. This museum was big, well planned and developed, and completely free. We spent about 2 and a half hours here. Adults could easily spend much more time reading and taking in all of the artifacts and films. There were nearly 100 aircraft on display here. Many of those planes the boys got to touch and climb on. And because the museum is right on the edge of the active military base, we were thrilled to see several different types of aircraft fly by as we were there.

Lunch under the wing of a huge carrier.

This was a cute memory I don't want to forget: Aiden has been learning about body parts in his speech practice (Head, hands, toes, ears, arms, legs etc.) This was the first moment he identified verbally a 'nose' without prompt. He was so proud of himself. It's funny the things that you take for granted with your hearing children...

The boys LOVED climbing on the planes and peeking into the open doors. The doors were all secured shut so you could not get in. But they were also propped open with just enough room to peek in.

There were three separate buildings for the indoor portions of the museum. They had films playing in multiple locations. We really could have stayed much longer if our average age were above 12.

There were plenty of hands-on items for the littles to enjoy even inside the museum. Ty was facinated with the POW exhibit.

Huck Finn Days: This was another city festival event we attended. And again, I can't believe it was all free.

Free events do mean long lines and crowds. But it was still very pleasant and lines moved quickly.

Specifically for this event the city blocks the drain of this flood basin, fills the area with knee high water and stocks it with rainbow trout. For the first few hours of the event everyone enjoys some fishing. The best part is the last 30 minutes... 

Since we didn't bring fishing gear we enjoyed the carnival games and stations while we waited for the Huck Finn activity to begin. They had every game you can think of: Plinko, ring toss, mini put put, cake walk, etc etc etc. But the boys favorite:

Foam sword fights! They would make two teams and play capture the flag. If anyone was hit during battle they had to run to a 'life tile' on the edge of battle to rejoin the fight. The first team to successfully bring the opponents flag to their side won.

Jacob was so happy to get his face painted.

Then it was finally time. The last 30 minutes of the event everyone takes their fishing equipment out of the little pond and the kids are allowed to go in and catch the remaining fish by hand. Most of the people there had obviously done this numerous times before. They had nets and buckets and baby pools ready to collect their fish. 

The boys ooooed and ahhhhhhhed over everyone's catch. Some of the fish were actually sizable.

Clark Planetarium: Again, another free museum I can't believe is free. This one is a little more believable because they make their money with their iMax and Dome films (If you want to purchase tickets they run a different film about every hour and they have concessions available for purchase). But the three floors of hands on exhibits are fantastic for FREE.

Caitlin found these in the gift shop and I thought they were hilarious. Mini stuffed viruses.

The kids had a great time with the green screen.

This was a smelling exhibit demonstrating the way other planets and moons smell. Ty liked this one.

Goofy boys melting on Mars.

Oh, if only everything in life were free... But I'll take what I can get.

A hiking we will go!

I don't know why I didn't realize Utah would have just as many (if not more) amazing hiking trails as we enjoyed in California. But I just continue to be amazed by the gorgeous hikes surrounding us. All within an hour drive. The closest trails are admittedly 25 minutes away. But everything pictured here is an average or 45-60 minutes from our house. I can't believe I thought Utah was going to be less beautiful than California.

Hike number one: I don't know. But it's in Pleasant Grove near the 'G' mountain.

I don't even know the name of this trail. But it's only about 25 minutes from our house.

When we first moved here I kept asking people where they go to swim 'cause that's all we do in the summer in California. They all kept saying: "Oh, we don't really swim in the rivers and lakes around here because the water is really cold." My boys have not noticed a difference. Snow run-off is cold in California and Utah. But it doesn't matter to them.

We didn't even bring swim suits on this hike 'cause I didn't think they would want to swim. So they stripped down to their boxer briefs and jumped in. I do enjoy the simplicity of boys...

Hike number two: Again, no trail name. But this one was in a canyon near Springville. 

We got to cross the creek several times which provided plenty of entertainment and challenge for the boys.

When we stopped for lunch the boys all played in the creek. The meadow here was beautiful. I could have stayed for hours. Sometimes nature just feels so good.

Hike number 3: This was near Vivian Park in Provo Canyon. LOVED the park here.

The water in the creek was so shallow my kids complained about not being able to swim. But this water was actually COLD, so I was secretly glad they couldn't.

Ty always finds the highest perch for lunch.

And Jacob always finds a quiet spot to himself away from the sibs for lunch. Haven't figured that one out yet. But it's adorable.

They did 'swim' here. The little dam had created some water deep enough to get all the way in. and it was sunny enough at the end of our hike to withstand the frigid water for a few minutes.

Hike number 4: Dripping rock in Spanish Fork

Okay, there are a ton of pictures of this one. But it was SO fun. It can barely be called a hike. It is less than a mile total and it is a paved bike trail. But what a hidden gem! We had THE BEST time here.

The boys were not satisfied with the short hike so we continued on beyond the dripping rocks. We didn't find much, but the boys were happy with their added adventure.

This area had a bunch of seaweed style plants growing on the bottom of the creek. They played with that darn stuff for almost an hour.

Ty's 'ponytail'...

I mentioned to the boys the thick mud in the creek could be used as 'war paint'. Another 30 minutes of play followed.

Jacob prefers dusty dirt...

My warriors.

Aiden finally applied some mud the last 2 or three minutes before we left. He promptly washed it off before we started the hike back down the creek. 

We stopped at the dripping rocks on our way back down for a snack break. Jacob's backpack fell down the bank and into the water. It was almost a tragedy. There were real tears. Jacob learned that water wont hurt anything and mom knows how to make it better...

After snack we decided to walk down the creek instead of on the trail. I'm so glad we did because we discovered a new area we would have missed.

These little caves were so fun to explore!

Hike number 5: Paulson Lake near Payson.

This one was, again, barely a hike. Paved trail. Almost completely flat. But beautiful and easy to spend half the day finding ways to play.

There was an abundance of picnic tables and private alcoves around the lake.

The wildflowers here were amazing. So many different colors.

There was an abundance of people who had rented paddle boards and canoes on the lake. The boys were hounding me about needing something to float on. So we rolled some drift wood down to the water and they used them as canoes. But this video was classic Ty; "How are you going to get back?" "I dunno." 

Jump in first, learn to swim next. Ty's motto in life.

The second voyage was almost to far out for my comfort. They had gained a little too much confidence after making it back the first time. Lucky for me, they figured it out. I was not in the mood to swim...

I think they could have stayed here all day.

Tired boys = happy mama

Hike number 6: Provo Canyon bike trail

Okay, this was more bike ride than hike. But we did plenty of hiking and exploring at our main stop: Bridal Veil Falls. This ended up being a 10 mile ride. I was ready to turn around at any moment since the ride in was a steady uphill. But they all made it the entire way and told me how awesome it was throughout. I couldn't believe it.

We took little water breaks at a couple of the camp areas along the way. They all had bathrooms, water to refill our water bottles  and a play ground. My monkeys also found plenty of trees to climb.

On our first pass, Amber, Jacob, Drew and Aiden stayed at the bottom of the falls while Ty and I climbed up to see more. Ty and I found the easy trail back down.

We stopped at the Vivian Park exit for a snack and potty break before turning around.

On the way back down Jacob asked to play in the water at the base of the falls. So Drew and Aiden then asked if Ty and I would show them the trail we found to the big falls.

We are so blessed to live in such a gorgeous area!