Antelope Island Stampede

Antelope Island (which we live right next to) keeps trying to garner support and become a more recognized state park, and one festival they started was the "Labor Day Stampede."  The kids even had an assembly at school about the special kites that would be there, and since there was only the $15/car admission (which, for our car is a deal!) AND there promised to be a lot of free entertainment, we decided to try it out this weekend.  We got there just in time for the hot air balloons to be launched (briefly, before coming back down--the winds must've been off a bit), watched a free BMX bike stunt show (scared Anne just watching it!), saw a few really cool kites flying, and then realized a lot of the stuff we THOUGHT would be free fun for the kids (climbing walls and inflatable slides, etc.) were all additional costs.  We drove down to the ranch instead (Brian had never been there).  Remember this picture from 4 short years ago?

Looks like the horse has had his fur dyed while we were adding to our brood:

They MUST have herded all the buffalo to one side of the island for all the spectators, because we've NEVER seen that many in one day!! It was like Yellowstone, except we could see our house across the lake (not really, but we could at least see where it should be!).  With all of our trips, we still don't know why they don't call it "Buffalo Island" or "Mosquito Island."

(a distant view of a buffalo herd, the Great Salt Lake, and where our house falls--generally--on the other side)
Then we braved the beach again--at least I had Brian this time, and didn't have to carry a nursing baby in her carseat! AND---the water levels were TOTALLY different, so that the beach was much closer! After wading through the water a ways, we came to some big, round rocks we remembered clamboring over on dry ground last year.  The salt was a little brutal to Emily's chapped hands, and a small sore on Anne's feet, but it was still a lot more pleasant than our last trip.  The bugs were also a lot better!--Though in swarms, they were all only at calf level, and parted as we walked through them??-so bizarre, and so antelope-island-ish.  Lucy loved the sand, Spencer got his kite to fly for a while, and everyone's stones seemed to skip a trillion times!

 the pictures always make the place seem so picture-esque, and we do like supporting the local community, but it is ALWAYS an adventure when we go there! (maybe the children being especially tired this trip added to it).  Here is Lucy in frame by frame joy disovering no one will stop her from throwing sand:

  

 The hot air balloons WERE really neat to be close too, and the weather was so pleasant all day, I was just happy to be outside! We came home, took Spencer to his friend's baptism, and had a BLT feast w/ the first tomatoes from our little garden before Fast Sunday.  Fun to be together, since last Sunday, we abandoned the children, with a bookclub movie trip to The Help (such a good read!), a surprise 40th birthday party for our neighbor Scott Merritt, and then a stake bbq for all of the bishoprics in the stake, followed by the men playing softball as long as they could stand :).  So many ways to have fun!