summer adventure - day 6

My little baby turned 6 months old on Wednesday, July 25th.  

Wednesday morning I woke up feeling more rested than I had in days.  I got Jed dressed and fed him breakfast, and while feeding him I could hear my nieces and nephews chanting outside our cabin: "We. Want. Jed! We. Want. Jed!"  "Your fans are clamoring for you," I told Jed dryly.  He smiled at me, not knowing what I had said and caring only that I was talking to him.  When Jed the Rockstar finally emerged from his cabin, he was serenaded with an enthusiastic "Happy Half-Birthday", courtesy of his cousins.  He loved it.

After eating breakfast and packing up, the 14 of us headed south toward Utah.  Our first stop of the day wasn't very far into the drive, at Bannack State Park.  Once a bustling gold mining town (though its boom was short-lived), it fluctuated in size from the late 1860s to the 1930s, and is now a ghost town.

The kids loved looking at all the old buildings, running in and out of them and discovering little rooms and closets everywhere.  They found a "secret" trapdoor where, they decided, the town treasure MUST be buried:

I'm sure no one has discovered this trapdoor before!

They also got themselves "trapped" in jail:

My nephew Porter, upon seeing one of the buildings that, legend has it, is haunted, declared the the story to be false. "This place doesn't look haunted to me," he scoffed.  "No offense to anyone who thinks it is haunted, but it doesn't like it to me."

After seeing all the buildings, the kids panned for gold at the edge of the town.  They seemed to really enjoy it - especially my youngest nephew, Christian, who just wanted to splash around in the water and ended up soaked.

Penelope even found some gold - the biggest flake the guy working there had ever seen found there!  He told her that it was worth "a few bucks" - an amount which increased with every recounting of the story, until finally, according to Penelope, her flake of gold was worth "about 10 bucks".  In any case, it was a very exciting find - one I think Penelope will remember for a long time.

We left Bannack and continued our drive, very very happy when we finally reached Logan.  As we unpacked the cars, the adults started laundry immediately and the kids found their designated places to sleep.  The 3 oldest set up camp in a tent outside, and 3 of the younger ones hunkered down in the 'bear cave' (a small space underneath the stairs, just perfect for little people.  They seemed to all enjoy it (even Rex, who at first really wanted to sleep in the bear cave, then decided he was too scared and went to sleep with his mom, then came to the conclusion that his excitement outweighed his fear and braved the night outside of his mother's bed).