Peculiar, Utah, USA

indrarado 6inch@facebook.com Posted Nov 17, 2011, 6:09 pm	Hello there! I just heard there's a rest of the world and now I want to see it. Right now I really wonder when and where I go first.
indrarado 6inch@facebook.com Posted Dec 4, 2011, 10:19 am	Yay! I'm on my way! So excited!
Nonnariina Posted Dec 7, 2011, 3:01 pm	Hello Mum! Yesterday I arrived Finland! My host is Nonnariina. We went out and now I have some photos for you. It has snowed, (at least, Nonnariina said) and whole scenery was beautiful and white. And we made a snowman! And I wrote message to snow for you. Yesterday was also Finland´s Independence day and at in the evening we watched tv and saw how the president of Finland Tarja Halonen shaked hands with nearly 2000 guests at the castle of president (in the capital of Finland, Helsinki). The event is called Linnan juhlat (Party of castle) and it´s shown every year at tv. Today I have relaxed at Nonnariina´s home (Nonnariina was at school). I have read some Donald Duck comics and just relaxed. I hope that you have had a nice day! Many hugs from Finland! -Peculiar
Nonnariina Posted Dec 19, 2011, 6:07 pm	Hello! Here we are again. Nonnariina hadn´t time to upload this because she is very busy at school. Christmas is coming and she have many tests. Talking about school I visited school last week! I saw clasroom, Finland`s map and some children´s decorations. Pupils were 9-10 years old and very nice! They were very excited about me and said that I´m cute!  They taked me out at break and I swinged and slided with them. I had great fun! The sad thing is that snow has smelted allmost everywhere. It´s dark and rainy. But they said at tv that there will be snow before christmas. I and Nonnariina hope so. Expecially Nonnariina loves snow and she will be sad if there is no snow at christmas. I have also been with Nonnariina in her amteur theatre trainings. There was about 70 children and youth practising play for summer. So, Christmas is coming and I have some pictures of decorations at Nonnariina´s home. I hope that you are fine! Hugs<3 -Peculiar
Nonnariina Posted Dec 27, 2011, 9:05 pm	Hello! It´s long time since Nonnariina write here and christmas is over, but here we are and I have a lot of things to tell you! So, Christmas was wonderfull! I ate well In the morning we ate rice borrige with cinnamon, it´s trational Finnish christmas food. Porrige was served from a large kettle and there was one almond hidden in porrige. Person who got almond gets a little present or gets chance to wish! Funny, isn´t it? In the afternoon we had real Finnish Christmas table In Finnish Christmas table there is -big Christmas ham with mustard, -Karelian Stew (trational Finnish food http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karjalanpaisti), -carrot and potato casseroles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casserole) -potaoes and salad called rosolli, wich inculeds boiled beetroots, carrots, potatoes, apples and pickled cucumber. As dessert we had cinder breads, choclad and Christmas pies which are filled with plum. Then we went to Christmas sauna! There people stroked themselves with some freshly-smelling birch twigs!! They called those twigs "vasta" or "vihta". And they really hit themselves with it!! Weird I think, but I tried and it was quite nice! I have picture of me and “vihta” and sauna. And one picture of me and Finnish children book (in the book´s picture there is also sauna and fiction characters stroke with “vihta”). Oh, I almost forgot! In the morning we also went to Christmas church. In the evening there was the most exciting and happy thing: Santa Claus came!! Wow! I was so excited And guess what?? I get change to sit in Santa`s knee ! He was really kind! I was little bit scared… Then he shared presents and leaved. I have also photo of me and other toyvoyagers sitting at present bag! Hugs to you! -Peculiar-
Nonnariina Posted Dec 31, 2011, 11:30 am	Hello! At 28 th December I travelled to Kauhajoki to meet Nonnariina´s grandparents! Kauhajoki is  a little town in westside of Finland. We travelled by car and it taked about 3 hours to arrive. We visited a huge shop called villageshop Keskinen. It lies in place called Tuuri (in English it means Luck). It´s a village with 500 inhabitants. There are many things that are "the biggest in the world" in the area of villageshop. There is for example a huge horseshoe monument - for good luck, of course. I have also picture of shop... In the dark photo there is the yard and house of shop´s owner. If you want you can read more here: http://www.tuuri.fi/en/villageshop/today And guess what we found from the shop´s yard?! A giant red kicksled! Nonnariina lifted me to sit on it and taked a photo I also saw a nice forest. There was many fallen trees, because there had been many storms in Finlabd during Xmas time. Yesterday I arrived home. This is the last upload of year 2011! Next would be at year 2012 Hug! -Peculiar
Nonnariina Posted Jan 8, 2012, 1:32 pm	Hello again! Did you have great strat for year 2012? I hope so! I had, I saw many great fireworks and I ate well. And I shared jokes with other toyvoyagers and laughted so much! Good news! At least we have snow at Finland! So, I have been outside very much. I played at snow with Mr. Carrot and Squabby. We made snowcastle! Have a great day and hug! -Peculiar-
Nonnariina Posted Jan 26, 2012, 6:33 pm	Hello!! Nonnariina hadn´t write there for long time, but here we are And I have something exciting to share with you! First of all now we have snow, a lot of.. And people are getiing bored! I just like snow and I cant understant how people first wonder of having snow so hard and when they have they get bored of it! But I still have to say that this is more! When I was walking with Nonnariina (I travelled at Nonnariina´s hand, because I didn`t want to get wet) Nonnariina had sometimes to walk at snow wich was at her knees high! Last week I visited ski jumping hill at Jyväskylä. Hill is called Hill of Matti Nykänen (Matti Nykänen is famous skiijumper). Anorether toyvoyager was also with us; Squabby. Squabby wanted to see hill and I was also excited so Nonnariina took me also And it was good thing that she did so because scene was amazing. Everywhere was snow, a lot of it, and forest. We also saw a frisbeegolf basket- but in the winter there were no players. I also have photos from near the Nonnariina`s house; we went to little walking and I saw nice beach and jetty Na I saw a post box, where Nonnariina put´s her letters I hope you are well!! -Peculiar
Nonnariina Posted Feb 12, 2012, 3:18 pm	Hello! How are you? I hope you are fine! I´m really fine, expect now here is very cold... Last night we had -30 decrees cold outside! Wow Nonnariina had been skiing. Once time I was with her and after skiing we went to have some warm juice at centrum and I saw long bridge. Nonnariina told that it´s called Kuokkala bridge and it´s has been built at 1989. Nonnariina told that at summer she will bicyle over that bridge to her amateur theatre rehearsal. I have also been little bit ill, because I get cold... But now I am better Have a great day and take care! Peculiar
Nonnariina Posted Mar 2, 2012, 2:15 pm	Hello Mom! Greetings from Finland! How are you? I`m really fine and I have had great time. Just yesterday arrived new toyvoyager to Nonnariina! He is a fox called Charly6. He is very nice, I think. Today I get change to do some winter things that people in Finland do. I and Charly made a snowman!  It At afternoon Nonnariina made skis to me and Charly and we went to ski. It was little bit difficult but funny. Nonnariina had made ski track to yard. It was hard to get up hill… And then lose my ski! Charly helped me. And I falled several times. We also slided downhill with skis. We were tired after skiing so we slept little and then we drank warm chocolate. So now I have a lot of pictures to you! Have a great day! -Peculiar-
crashtestrider Posted Apr 27, 2012, 4:12 am	I made it!  I have arrived in the USA!  Boy, that was a long trip.  crashtestrider was so glad to see me- she said it really made her day.  We posed for a few photos this evening after she welcomed me, and I got to meet fellow TV Huli, who has been living here, preparing for his adventures out in the world.  I told him a little about my fun travels and the great people and places I saw in Finland.  I hope my time in Utah will be just as wonderful!  crashtestrider made sure I was comfy in her purse and told me that it was the best place to be if I want to be sure to go everywhere.  Well, it's late, so I'd better get back there and settle down for the night!
crashtestrider Posted May 5, 2012, 3:57 am	Yay!  I finally get to see Utah!  Today we visited Brigham Young University, or BYU.  It is one of the largest private universities in the United States, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons".  There are alot of Mormons in Utah!  crashtestrider found out on Facebook that the school was giving away bricks from the old dormitories where she used to live as a student, and she wanted to keep one to remember it, since it was recently torn down.  It was the perfect reason to take me to visit, she said!  Our first stop was the Hinckley Alumni Building.  Can you see those beautiful mountains?  crashtestrider said that the snow will stay on the tops until at least August.  As the snow melts, it provides much-needed water in this desert area.  Inside the building was a visitor's center that was pretty interesting to see.  Here I had my photo taken with an actual Olympic torch from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which is just 45 mins to the north.  I also had my photo taken in front of this gigantic photo of the BYU campus at nighttime.  Do you see the two structures that are lit up?  One is a Mormon temple, but the other is the carillon, otherwise known as the bell tower.  That is where we went next!  On the way back to the car, I posed for a photo in front of the Tanner Building.  This building is so square that the students joke that it is "the box that the temple came in".  Here we are, at the bell tower.  We arrived right before 3pm, when the bells rung, and they were SO loud!!  While we were up there, I also had my photo taken in front of "Y Mountain".  Can you see the "Y" that stands for BYU?  It is tradition for students to hike up the side of the mountain to visit this giant concrete marking.  crashtestrider says that it is common for towns or high schools in Utah and Idaho to make letters like this to mark where they are.  She says you can even see them from an airplane!  It was a busy morning.  There were many visitors on this day, and parking was crowded, so crashtestrider said we would come back to look at the football stadium another day.
crashtestrider Posted May 6, 2012, 5:15 am	Today crashtestrider's husband had to work, so we and her children decided to leave the house and find something to do in this beautiful weather.  The tulips were in bloom at Nielsen's Grove Park, and so we went there for a photo shoot!  Here I am in front of some of them.  Aren't they beautiful? I pointed out (politely) that while I was in focus, the background wasn't, and crashtestrider admitted that she needed to work on that.  We weren't the only ones who were there to have our photos taken.  There was a couple who were about to have a baby, a couple who were wearing a fancy dress and a tuxedo, and a girl who looked like a princess!  We thought maybe she was celebrating her quinceanera- her 15th birthday.  I hear that in Latin American cultures, this is a big milestone.  I hope this good weather keeps up so we can have more fun springtime adventures!
crashtestrider Posted May 8, 2012, 2:36 am	Today we went geocaching!  Well, almost.  We went on the search for a geocache (a hidden treasure found by using GPS coordinates) called "The Pirates of Utah Lake".  Sounds exciting, doesn't it? We found the area where the first clue was hidden, but crashtestrider discovered that she would need boots to reach it because it was way back in the trees and brush!  She says that's the way it goes with geocaching: sometimes you've got to come back and try again.  But the great part about it was the trip!  Even crashtestrider had not been to this area before.  Look at the nice mountain lake.  It has a running/biking trail beside it.  We also saw a farm that grows only grass!  It is called a sod farm, and when the grass is grown, it is scraped off the ground and taken to people's houses and put on their lawns.  Can you see the piles of sod behind me? I also made sure to get my photo taken with these strange pipes and wheels.  Can you guess what they are for?  Since Utah does not get much rain, all their fields must be irrigated.  The pipes that carry the water are suspended off the ground on the wheels and pushed by a huge motor across the field each day to water the crops.  Pretty neat, huh?
crashtestrider Posted May 8, 2012, 3:28 am	Peek-a-boo!  Do you see me? Huli and I decided to play a game of hide-and-seek outside this evening.  The children who live here had gone to bed, and there were a few minutes of daylight left.  This is my favorite spot in the minivan that takes me on most of my adventures around Utah.  From here, I like to help crashtestrider put CDs and DVDs in the stereo for the children to enjoy during our rides!  Their favorites right now are songs from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and the movies "Cars 2" and "Kung Fu Panda". Here we are hiding in the tree in front of the house!  We had so much fun, and were sad when crashtestrider came out and told us it was getting too dark and that we needed to come inside.  I guess I am a little sleepy... *yawn*.  Goodnight!
crashtestrider Posted May 12, 2012, 4:14 am	We visited the local library today.  Can you see me in this photo with Maisy, a children's book character? They have the tiniest chairs and tables here.  I sat and helped the youngest child in the family read his alphabet.  Then I found a book that looked interesting. They had some great displays on top of the shelves in the "Fairy Tales and Legends" section. After visiting the library, we made a visit to a local restaurant called Terra Mia.  It is an Italian restaurant with real Italian ovens for making pizza!  We didn't try the pizza today, but instead had some delicious gelato.  My favorite flavor was called Stracciatella.  Yum!
crashtestrider Posted May 15, 2012, 9:56 pm	Every Friday, crashtestrider's family has a tradition of making homemade pizza and watching a movie!  Sounds like fun to me!  She let me help with making the pizza this week.  We started off by making "poolish", a combination of water, flour, and yeast that sits for several hours to enhance the flavor of the crust. Then we added it to the mixing bowl, along with several other ingredients... ...and we mixed it using this huge dough hook. Is it done yet? Nope.  We put it in the window so it could rise. But in the meantime, we went to Redbox to pick up our movie.  Redbox is a vending machine that dispenses DVDs, Blurays, and video games for renting- how convenient!  Tonight's movie was Spy Kids 4, for the kids. (whoops!- looks like a finger got caught on the lens) Time to make the pizza!  The dough was stretched and put on the pans. Look at all these great ingredients!  Green peppers, tomatoes, basil,  parmesan cheese, onions, mushrooms... Into the oven they go!  Oh, I was so hungry by this point! Finally, they are done.  Grab a can of root beer, and it is time to eat!
crashtestrider Posted May 21, 2012, 5:29 pm	Today a new friend arrived!  Konrad has just come from Texas, and I am glad he is here, just about a week since Huli left.  I welcomed him and showed him around a little.  He is going to join us on our trip to the zoo tomorrow!
crashtestrider Posted May 21, 2012, 5:47 pm	Today we went to Hogle Zoo, in Salt Lake City!  Konrad and a non-TV friend called Carrots got to come, too.  We got strapped into our seat belt in the car (yes! I actually got to ride in the seat this time, instead of in the console!)  It was early morning when we left and the sun was so bright! crashtestrider apologizes for the blurry photos.  There were so many people there that it was hard to get good pictures.  But we still had a great time!  We saw a mother and baby elephant... ...and giraffes (this one was laying down)... ...and a huge peacock, sitting in the shade!
crashtestrider Posted May 21, 2012, 5:53 pm	Oh, yes!  I forgot to mention that before we went home from the zoo, we stopped by LaVell Edwards Stadium at BYU, where they play football in the fall.  During the summer, to celebrate Independence Day around July 4th, they will have a huge concert with lots of fireworks!  This year, the Beach Boys will be performing.
crashtestrider Posted May 24, 2012, 11:52 pm	Today we went geocaching and actually found some caches!  This first picture is of me at a cache called Literature First Liners.  We had to solve a puzzle about first lines in classic literature to get hints about where the cache was.  We found it!  It was on the side of a hill at the base of the mountain.  It was so steep that we were worried that the car was going to roll away! We also found a cache called International Coin Cache.  In this cache, there were many different kinds of currency for the finders to trade for.  Today there were dollars and pennies from Canada, one cent from Spain, and some pesos from Columbia, plus a 10-rupee note from Seychelles!  (We had to look up where that was when we got home- it is a very small island off the coast of Africa)  Pretty neat, huh?
crashtestrider Posted May 29, 2012, 2:21 am	Today in the United States is Memorial Day, a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.  There are American Flags everywhere and lots of services to honor the fallen.  Many people, especially families, get together to have picnics on this day, and so it is also common to think of this day as the beginning of summer.  We took the children to a playground in the morning, and then, this afternoon, we visited an automatic car wash!  All we had to do was drive the car onto a special track, and then sit and wait while it was pulled through a series of machines that washed and dried the car. All the noisy machines made me nervous, so Konrad sat with me so I would feel a bit better (I think he was a little nervous, too!) Then, we had to clean the inside, so we went to the vacuum station.  The vacuums were also very noisy! When we got home, it was time to "fire up the grill", as they say here, and cook hot dogs and hamburgers outside.  We also had corn-on-the-cob with butter, and deviled eggs.  Those are eggs which have had their yolks removed, mixed with mayonnaise and mustard, and then returned to the eggs.  I was told these are very traditional food items to have at an American picnic!  They were all very yummy. For dessert, we had another classic American treat, a root beer float!  After putting vanilla ice cream in a glass, we poured root beer on top and watched the bubbles climb so high, I thought they would fall out of the glass!  It was the best part of the whole meal. Now, how am I going to drink this?  Hmm......
crashtestrider Posted Jun 5, 2012, 11:28 pm	Sorry I haven't updated my travelog for a while.  We have been enjoying, as they say, "the lazy days of summer"!  School is out and we have nowhere to be, so we take each day as it comes and try to find some fun things to do.  The boys had me try playing Super Mario Bros. on the Wii video game system... It was fun, but exhausting!  Because my arms are so short, I had to jump on each button with my feet, and boy, was that a workout!!  Maybe I will play again later. I also tried to introduce myself to and play with the baby in this family.  She has so many cool toys, and I hoped maybe she would share.  "Hello, there, I'm...." "Ahhh!!  Save me!!" crashtestrider did rescue me and told me to feel free to play with the baby's toys if I wanted to.  I spent a long time driving with this toy- lots of fun!  It has flashing lights, and says "Fill 'er up!" and "Beep, beep!  Out of the way!!"  Haha! Konrad and I also met Sassy, a baby toy who has been with this family ever since the oldest was born.  She was really nice. I wanted to show you this awesome thing we made today- can you guess what it is?  Spaghetti and meatballs? Nope!  It is actually cupcakes with chocolate hazelnut candies and strawberry jelly.  It looks so real, doesn't it?  We are going to try to fool the host dad when he comes home from work tonight. I'm having lots of fun.  The boys are beginning their swimming lessons.  Maybe tomorrow I will remember to bring the camera to the pool to show you!
crashtestrider Posted Jun 16, 2012, 5:33 am	Hi there, sorry it's been so long.  I did take a photo at the swimming lessons, but it wasn't on the day I planned because that day turned out to be freezing cold!!  The boys still had their swimming lessons, but I did not want to come out of my nice warm pocket on the baby stroller to watch.  This photo was taken the next time, 4 days later.  It's a nice pool, isn't it?  Don't worry, the weather warmed up quickly and got very hot for the last few days. After swimming lessons on that day, we went to this nice big park and visited the duck pond where we fed bread to the ducks... And visited a fountain... And rode on some giant swings!  Whee!  They were fun! Then a couple days later, I made my first visit to In-N-Out Burger!!  This restaurant is usually found in California, I am told, but they recently built several in Utah. And boy, are they good!  Look at the size of these "Double-Doubles" and basket of french fries!  I couldn't finish this all by myself! Until next time, -Peculiar
crashtestrider Posted Jun 24, 2012, 4:12 am	We have been having so much outdoor fun lately!  Recently, a shopping center here called The Riverwoods hosted a "Beach Party" with lots of games and other fun activities.  My favorite part was the outdoor "splash pad"- it is a spot on the sidewalk where small fountains come out of the ground and people can play in them!  For the beach party, they provided......what else?  Beachballs!!  It was so much fun! Then, today, we made a visit to Seven Peaks waterpark in nearby Provo.  Don't those slides look fun?  I didn't go swimming because I didn't bring my swimsuit, but decided to soak up some sun in the grassy area for sunbathers instead!  Ah!!!  This is the life!  Now all I need is one of those tropical drinks served with a tiny umbrella.  Oh, wait...that is the umbrella! Isn't summer great?  I hope you're having a great summer, too!
crashtestrider Posted Jul 6, 2012, 3:07 am	Hi there again!  I'm still keeping busy here in Utah!  This time of year is such a busy one, because July 4th is the celebration of Independence Day in the US.  We've been to so many places!  One afternoon, we all went to visit the BYU Museum of Paleontology.  I'm sure you remember that many, many dinosaur fossils have been found in Utah, and several of them are displayed here. Here I am, in front of a dimetrodon (I think?)... ...and in front of an allosaurus- yikes!  He is scary!  I'm glad he wasn't alive.  He might have eaten me for a snack. And then we hopped on a plane and went to New York City to visit the Statue of Liberty!!  No!  Just kidding.  This is a giant background that I had my photo taken in front of when we went to the local Freedom Festival. I saw a musical play about the Declaration of Independence, with dancers. The children in this family played on a giant inflatable slide. I've never seen one so huge! I wasn't allowed on, because of height restrictions    But while I waited, I had my photo taken with the things around me.  There was a booth requesting support for veterans... ...a stage where performers played and sang music... ..and a really cute puppy that belonged to the man who was managing the slide. crashtestrider told me that this historic place is the Provo Tabernacle and that it went up in flames just before Christmas a year or two ago.  The outside was mostly saved, though, and they are in the process of restoring it.  We were parked nearby, so had her take my photo really quickly before we drove home. I also had some time to kill while waiting for the hostdad and the children to buy some fireworks, so I thought I'd show you the stand where they bought some.  There is one of these on nearly every corner around here!!  Some offer discounts for military members. And, finally, here I am, watching those fireworks in the parking lot of the home, last night!  They are small compared to the big ones in the city, but they are lots of fun because we could light them ourselves.
crashtestrider Posted Jul 10, 2012, 9:35 pm	Yesterday I met a brand-new TV named Wugui.  He is eager to start his travels, and seemed to really enjoy listening to my stories about the places I have been.  Just as soon as he arrived, however, we had to say goodbye to Konrad, who is on his way to California.  I will miss him a little.  He was a great companion these last several weeks.  I hope he has a great trip! Today, we ventured up to a popular lookout in this area, called Squaw Peak.  We drove up and up and up and up and I thought more than once that we might fall off the side of the mountain!  I felt better when I closed my eyes, but the view was so magnificent, that it was hard to keep them closed.  When we got to the top and looked out over the valley, it was just so amazing, and I could see alot of the places I have visited, like the football stadium (on the left), the Riverwoods shopping center, and BYU!
crashtestrider Posted Jul 14, 2012, 4:09 am	The last couple of days have been great.  I visited the duck pond at Brigham Young University in Provo.  The ducks were all very friendly.  Could it have been because we brought lots of bread to feed them?  Hmm...  We also found a plum tree nearby and made little tiny plum cakes when we got home! Yummy! It was time for the little ones here in this family to have their annual checkup, so I got to visit a real doctor's office!  Here you can see me in the waiting room... ...and again in the exam room.  Look at all that great stuff on the walls.  The nurse called it the "elephant room", because there were two elephants painted on the walls!  I was glad that the children did not have to get any shots this time- whew!  They were very healthy. I said goodbye to Wugui today, because he is on his way to visit some wonderful places, beginning in Germany!  I am so excited for him!!  This evening, we took a drive up the valley to visit an old paper mill in the Salt Lake City suburb of Cottonwood Heights.  It burned down decades ago, and is now known as one of the most haunted spots in Utah!  And we visited it on Friday the 13th!!!!  I am not superstitious, though (I think?), and really thought it looked pretty cool.  While we were there, I found a letterbox!  Apparently, letterboxing is similar to geocaching, but is much, much older (the 1800's) and doesn't require a GPS device.  Also, to prove you were there, you collect a stamp in your notebook that is unique to that box.  First, I had to pull out the letterbox from its hiding spot underneath a huge rock... ..and then I stamped the notebook.  This stamp was of Jack Skellington, from Tim Burton's movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas".  Awesome!  It totally fit the theme with the scary old mill.
crashtestrider Posted Jul 28, 2012, 2:53 pm	In the state of Utah, they celebrate Pioneer Day every July 24th, to honor the people who came to this part of the country and settled it over 150 years ago.  In Salt Lake City, there is a rodeo and a parade, with floats made by different communities in the valley. We got to visit the floats in a special preview party before the parade!  There were so many, that it was hard to fit them all into a photo. The building of the railroad was important in Utah.  Here I am as an engineer- toot, toot!  All Aboard! We stopped for Mexican food at a restaurant called Chipotle.  I just wanted to show you this photo of my burrito- it was bigger than I am!!  Oh, I was so stuffed by the time I finished!
crashtestrider Posted Jul 28, 2012, 3:17 pm	Yesterday was an exciting day!  I hung around, relaxing, for most of it, but when crashtestrider finished her run, she brought the mail in with her, and I was surprised to find a new friend!  His name is Greeny (delMonte), and I was so glad to meet him, since I have been by myself here for quite some time.  He is also from Germany, and just arrived from Kansas.  Shortly after we got acquainted, the family sat together to watch the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London.  What a show!  I was amazed by all the special effects and fun segments they included.  But my favorite part was the parade of nations, and Greeny and I waited patiently for Team Germany to come into the stadium.  There they are! What colorful uniforms! Yay!  I hope they do well.  crashtestrider used to be an equestrian rider before she got married, and knows that our country does very well in those events- she has been watching Germany take gold for several years!  She said they don't televise equestrian events much in the US, but hopefully we can see some on the internet.
crashtestrider Posted Aug 12, 2012, 2:35 am	Hi there!  I haven't written for a while, and just wanted to let you know that I'm still doing well and seeing lots of great places.  crashtestrider's computer died on her, and so she is borrowing a computer and having trouble getting my photos to upload, but hopefully we will find a solution soon!
crashtestrider Posted Aug 22, 2012, 7:19 pm	All right!  Now I'm ready to show you everything I have been up to!  A little while back, we had a reason to go into Salt Lake City for business, and while we were there, we checked out a couple of places.  First, we visited the Salt Lake City and County Building on Washington Square. Then, we walked to the next block over to visit the Salt Lake City Public Library.  Since the children were with us, we rode a glass elevator all the way down to the lowest level, where the Children's section was located.  This was such a fun library!  They had an outdoor court with a great waterfall sculpture and a tunnel with Native American cave paintings like are found on real rocks down in southern Utah. There were also a few different rooms for children to read in: a "crystal cave" room... ...and an attic room- wow, it's kind of dark in here! As we left, we turned around and notice this giant "spider" on the ceiling- what's called a "daddy long-legs"  Yikes! We also went to the Utah National Guard headquarters in Draper for business.  The sign said we weren't allowed to photograph the building, but I did get my photo taken in front of the American flag and this cool airplane! Later, I introduced Greeny to In-N-Out burgers!
crashtestrider Posted Sep 21, 2012, 12:58 am	Has it really been a whole month?  Wow.  Time has gone by so fast.  With summer ending and the children starting school again, there has been so much to do.  We still don't have a real permanent computer at the house, but we are making do, and hopefully it won't be long. Let's see.... We went bowling: And we went to the local mall.  Not only did we get to play on the dinosaur- and treehouse -playground, but we also got a free Pretzeldog!  It's a hot dog wrapped in pretzel dough, get it? We went to the Ikea store, where I saw lots of great furniture and places to play hide-and-seek. We stopped to eat in the Ikea restaurant and met a tiny moose.  He wanted to come home with us, and crashtestrider said yes! We are still thinking of a name for him. One day, we visited the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, where we saw lots and lots of scary dinosaurs and ocean creatures!  Hey, look, I glow in the dark! (Not really) Thanksgiving Point is also known for its beautiful gardens, and we walked through a few of the ones that were free to visit.  Isn't this waterfall pretty? I went to the small town of Payson early one morning to cheer crashtestrider on in the Onion Days 5k race.  She told us to stay in the car so we wouldn't get lost, but we watched from the window.  This is where the finish line was. So much going on!  I hope to have more adventures to write about very soon!
crashtestrider Posted Jan 1, 2013, 8:14 pm	I had a very nice birthday!  Mine and Columbus' are just a day apart- isn't that interesting?  crashtestrider made us each a card and a hat for the celebration.  The real treat was a cupcake from The Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery.  Their cupcakes won an award on a television show called Cupcake Wars.  It was soooooo rich and yummy, I could hardly finish it!
crashtestrider Posted Jan 2, 2013, 7:57 pm	I tried to make a post on here, but it looks like it didn't work!  Oh well, here goes another try... Here I am on my birthday!  Columbus' birthday was just a day away from mine- isn't that interesting? crashtestrider made each of us a little card and we got a cupcake from The Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery, which was made famous on the television show, Cupcake Wars. It was so rich, I could barely finish it! The host family moved recently to a new home in a town further south in Utah.  I got lost for a while, so I missed the American Thanksgiving, but I was not going to miss Christmas!  Look at all the snow we got in a few blizzards!  This is what it looked like when we opened the door... crashtestrider had to wear these huge boots just to go check the mail: Before we celebrated, I got to help fix a toilet that was leaking. Merry Christmas! A few days later, we decided to go back up to Salt Lake City, to visit a restaurant and see the lights on Temple Square.  It was a much longer trip since the move. The restaurant was a tiny place called Bruges Waffles and Frites.  They have a sandwich called The Machine Gun that was featured on television.  It consists of a lamb sausage in a baguette, with a special sauce and frites on top! We ordered that, plus some vanilla yeast-dough waffles with pearl sugar inside.  It was all delicious! Next door was an Italian market and deli called Tony Caputo's.  We looked at wonderful sausages, cheeses, olives, and chocolates and then decided that we would like to come back to taste some! Temple Square was beautiful- so many lights! Happy New Year!
crashtestrider Posted Sep 2, 2013, 2:47 am	Two weeks ago, I got to visit Camp Floyd State Park, one of the starting points for the famous Pony Express over one hundred years ago.  Nearby, in the town of Fairfield, is a one-room schoolhouse that was built in 1898. We got to go inside and see how it looked back when children were taught here.  I liked the big black stove and individual desks.  They even had toys that children from back then might have played with during school recess.
crashtestrider Posted Sep 2, 2013, 2:52 am	Hooray!  The weather is warming up and I am getting out a bit, finally.  I have had lots of outdoor adventures.  I have been tagging along as crashtestrider goes geocaching and it gets us out of the house and sometimes we learn something.  Here is one of the places we visited, a monument marking the site of the Spanish Fork Indian Farm Reservation in the 1850s. I've seen alot of cows and train tracks lately, too, since I have been out in the country. And I've gone for walks!  This is a trail near Hobble Creek in Springville. Oh, my little legs were so tired when we were done!!  I had to rest them and hitch a ride in crashtestrider's bag frequently.  See how beautiful it is?  Things are just starting to turn green, and it will not last long, because this is a mountain desert area, so it is nice to enjoy it.  Summer is on its way, and there will be lots more to do.  The Memorial Day holiday weekend is at the end of this month and I will be visiting the city of St. George!
crashtestrider Posted Sep 2, 2013, 3:02 am	About 30 minutes from crashtestrider's home is a real ghost town, called Thistle!  It became a ghost town when, in April 1983, a landslide blocked the Spanish Fork river and flooded the town.  There are several remnants of the buildings left, and I even heard that there is a car stuck in a living room of a house.  It was hard to get too close to the buildings, because of the busy highway traffic (lots of big semi trucks!), plus, many of them are still partially underwater! Plus, it was wintertime, so much of the water was frozen- I was not brave enough to step onto the ice, for fear it might crack and I would get hypothermia. I think this is the remains of the old schoolhouse. It was fascinating.  On the way out of the canyon, we passed by a wind farm!  The winds here are so strong, that they built windmills to help provide energy.  Look how big they are!
crashtestrider Posted Sep 2, 2013, 3:18 am	I wanted to show you some of the photos from my trip to St. George.  It is a very popular area for retired people, and there is lots of golf to play- our townhome that we stayed in was directly connected to a golf course!  Here you can see me and Chalon in front of a hole, while sitting on the porch. And there were many vacation homes being built on the other side of the porch: St. George is also a popular city for hikers to stay in, as there are many "red rock" areas to hike and climb.  We visited one nearby place, Zion National Park.  First we packed a picnic lunch... When we got there, I was amazed at how beautiful it was! Here I am in front of what is called the "Checkerboard Mesa", because the wind and ice have made lines in the pattern of a checkerboard or chessboard. It was a very interesting trip!
crashtestrider Posted Sep 2, 2013, 3:23 am	Wow!  The summer has been flying by!!!  Here are some photos of the places I have been. I went to an Asian Festival, which is Utah's longest-running festival.  There was lots of music, dancing, and food, and many friendly people from China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other countries. I also went to the Utah Lake Festival, where we learned all about the lake and how to safely enjoy water activities like boating and fishing.

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