Lovely Weather for a Sleigh Ride Together

(And now I have this in my head . . .)

It was Friday night and we were sitting on the couch wondering what we'd do with the long weekend ahead of us.  We thought it would be fun to go to Logan for a day since it's been a few weeks (and we had some Aggie basketball passes burning a whole in our proverbial pockets, and after a few phone calls and texts, we had a whole party day arranged.

On Saturday morning we met up with Heather, Terrell and Grace at their house in Hyrum.  Soon after we arrived, Ky and Michael showed up, and then Mom and Dad with Grandpa and Grandma Elwood.  We caravanned up Blacksmith Fork Canyon to Hardware Ranch for a morning of visitor's center perusing, elk spotting, line waiting, snacking, sleigh riding (finally!), and parking lot picnicking.  The weather really was lovely, and despite the huge crowds and nearly 2 hour wait in a snow-packed corral for our turn, we had a jolly time.  The last time we visited Hardware Ranch was when Sam was just 4 months old and being lugged around in the front pack, so it was fun to see him and Cal (who didn't really remember it) (and Grace who wasn't even born) enjoy the ride through the field of elk.

Lined up and waiting to ride.

On the wagon/sleigh at last!

See those huge antlers on the elk between
Ky and Mike?  There were a bunch of big
fellas out there!

  

Here we are with Annie and something else (?),
a mother/daughter team.

Tailgaiting done right.  (If you don't count the chocolate
chip cookie that Sam dipped in the dill dip (and then ate! - yuck!).)

After the elk and sleigh and snow, we headed to Providence to hang out and visit and play and color.  Then we ate dinner (yummy grilled burgers!) before heading up to campus for our first family Aggie basketball game of the season.  We had got a great deal on Aggie passes that can be used for any number of tickets at any home game and we finally got to use some of those punches.  The kids were a bit shell shocked when we entered the Spectrum - so much to see and hear and take in, combined with it being nearly bedtime and they were tired already - but they loved it and we had a great time cheering on the Ags to a win over Colorado State (we left halfway through the second half so we continued our cheering via radio on the drive home).  We'll be back on February 2nd for an afternoon game (and will stay the whole time) if anyone wants to come along!

Aggies all the way!

I wish I would have taken a picture of them
doing this same thing next to a picture of a
golden eagle at the visitor's center at Hardware
Ranch - kind of fun bookends to a fun day.