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Utah National Parks Trip; Day #2 (Canyonlands)

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Sunday May 3rd, I was up early and prepped all the food for breakfast as well as making the lunches we were taking with us into the park. It was a cool morning in Moab but we knew it would warm up quickly. Since we had such a long travel day yesterday and got to bed rather late I just let the boys sleep in as much as they wanted.  We were ready to head out just before 8 and made it to Canyonlands National Park Island in the Sky Visitor's Center by 9. The ride there was lovely too.  Leaving our rental After our traditional photo at the park sign we went on to the visitor's center, walked around reading about the area, browsed the gift shop then headed across the street for what we were told were incredible views. And they were! We also spied our first of many lizards for the day and took note of the unusual plant life.  From there we drove through the park to grand view point overlook. The drive was so pretty.  But wow; no wonder they call this grand view point! It's ...
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15 Family Restaurant Games

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When my boys were little and we'd take them out to eat I kept a small bag of toys in the car to grab on our way into any restaurant.  That way they would be entertained and a bit quieter while we enjoyed our meal. Now that the boys are older we don't keep a bag of toys handy but we do have few games we use to keep the boys occupied if they start getting bored or squirmy while we're waiting for our food or our check. While there are many phone apps, portable gaming systems and electronic games that could occupy my kids we prefer to use the time together at restaurants to connect with one another and so we tend to play games like: Hangman--   any restaurant that has paper place mats works well for this.  We take turns picking  a word and drawing our hangman stand then take turns calling out letters and seeing if we can solve the puzzle.   Tic Tac Toe-- This works best with pen on paper place mats but we have played making a grid with butter knives ...
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30 History Movies for Middle School

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Ian is starting a new film study unit in our homeschool.  He loves watching movies and when I found the Thinking Tree Film Study Journal I just knew Ian would love the opportunity to watch movies as part of his homeschooling day. I set to work writing up a list of movies I thought he'd enjoy watching.  These are just some of the movies I found that I thought he'd enjoy watching as part of our history lessons. 1.   Secretariat -- A story about a horse that won the Triple crown in 1973; the first American Thoroughbred to win in 25 years. 2.   Captain Philips - A movie about the 2009 hijacking of a US Container ship by a crew of pirates. 3.  Sully- Based on the "Miracle on the Hudson" this movie takes us through the plane that landed in the Hudson river. 4.   A League of their Own - A fictional story of the All-American Girls Baseball League of 1943 5.   Gung- Ho -- When the Japanese re-open an American auto plant the wo...
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10 of Our Favorite Ways to Serve/Eat Pulled Pork

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My husband makes pulled pork fairly frequently.  I started making pulled pork in the crock pot years ago and we've since tried a few different recipes (like this cranberry BBQ pulled pork ) but it wasn't something I thought about very often.  All that changed when my husband got a smoker as an early Father's day gift a couple of years ago!   Now, I feel like we have been eating pulled pork at least a few times a month (and when I say we I really mean they as I hardly ever eat any at all because I don't like pork or smoked meats).  He'll usually smoke up a few pork butts and shred them both then we eat some for dinner and sort the rest into a couple of freezer portions for easy, nearly ready-made weeknight dinners.  1. Pulled pork sandwiches -- The simplest way to serve pulled pork; everyone just piles the pork and cheese (perhaps coleslaw) on a bun.   2. Pulled pork rice bowls -- I cook up some white rice and veggies and everyone portions out th...
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Favorite TV Shows Growing Up in the 80's and early 90's

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Do you remember the TGIF lineups on Friday nights? I can remember planning sleepovers and time with friends around TV Show lineups of our favorite shows... or else trying to set the VCR to record our favorite shows if we weren't going to be home. And through the years I had SO MANY favorites! Growing pains aired in 1985 which put me around age 8 and it stayed on the air until I was 15 or so; I'm pretty sure most people in my age group watched mostly for Kirk Cameron and all his antics.  I still have a soft spot for family sit-coms!  The Facts of Life aired when I was just 2  and stayed on the air until I was 11 so I'm sure the episodes I remember so fondly were either some of the later ones and then reruns shown later on when I was old enough to watch from the beginning. I think everyone would have loved an Edna Garret in their lives.   Benson another sitcom that began airing when I was just 2 and was done by the time I was 9 (another one I must have watched mai...
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Utah Trip By The Numbers

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I've always wanted to write one of these fun "by the numbers" wrap up of a vacation but usually blank on what numbers/facts to include-- but not this time!    8-- total days we were gone  7-- total nights we were gone  4- flights taken to and from Utah; Providence to Midway, Midway to Salt Lake City, then the same flights in reverse  1,253- total number of miles we drove in Utah with our car rental 5-- National Parks visited (Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, & Canyonlands)  2-- State parks visited (Dead Horse Point & Red Canyon) 4-- trips to the grocery store 0-- number of ice cream dishes/cones I ate   7-- Number of restaurants we tried for the first time  7-- Number of restaurants we'd go back to a second time! The food was fantastic everywhere we went 2-- Number of times we had to stop for cows IN the road 646-- Total number of photos Evan and I took combined (not counting those blurry or duplicate/deleted ones)  1- T...
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