Topaz Mountain

We decided to go on a little adventure yesterday while we listened to General Conference.

We printed out Conference Bingo for the girls to color while we listened, packed enough food and drinks for a small army, and headed south.

We went to Topaz Mountain near Delta. It was a nice drive, with some beautiful mountains, river deltas, and desert areas along the way. There was a really cool volcanic flow area that we saw. We later found out that we barely missed Baker Hot Springs- we'll get 'em next time! Here are some pics of the trip.

I would have liked to go to the Topaz Museum, too, but that is probably a bit much for my little ones. Questions about man's inhumanity to man that I don't want my tender little ones to entertain in their pure minds yet!

Lydia loved that we gave her a screw driver and told her she could dig. She collected handfuls of rocks at every turn, which she gave me to keep. (I admit I threw most of them back when she wasn't looking.)Tim, Jenna & Aubrey pounding on rocks at one of the places we stopped.

Aubrey posing with her hammer.

She asked, "Mom, should I say 'hammer the rocks' while you take the picture?"

I think "cheese" was sufficient! At this spot, Tim caught a lizard for the girls to inspect. You can barely see it in the top hand. His other hand is holding the tail that fell off. Aubrey thought it was so cool that the tail kept wiggling and held the dismembered member until it stopped. Jenna, being my girly girl, wanted nothing to do with any of it!
Lydia and Mommy on the big rock. I had to stay right with her because she wanted to slide. If the bottom of the rock wasn't a pile of boulders, I might have let her.
This is where we (Tim) found all of the crystals. You are free to break up the rocks with your hammer and pick ax and there are lots of crystals inside. There were even some just lying in the dirt. I kept thinking that if we were smashing rocks like that in Big Cottonwood Canyon we would be in big trouble! Not to mention hate mail from environmentalists!

We all had so much fun on this little outing. The girls love dirt, rocks, treasure hunting, and Daddy's stories. Ask him to tell you hoe Drum Mountain got its name. He made up a story and has had to re-tell it to Aubrey at least 15 times already!

Most of all, it was wonderful to be with my family while we listened to Conference and felt the Spirit as we learned from the prophet and other inspired leaders.

We finished the day with a trip to Tim's sister's house in Nephi for a quick cousin fix. What a wonderful day!

Random Hair Shot: This is what Aubrey's hair looked like when we started the day.