Spiral Jetty and Crystal Hot Springs

Last weekend we took a little adventure out to the Spiral Jetty followed by a soak in the hot pots at Crystal Hot Springs. Robby loved our journey to the edge of the Great Salt Lake the most. The foam was a surprise, we thought it was salt until you got right up close to it. 

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Science Fair

 Robby made some rock candy for his first school science fair. 

We had a lot of fun and Robby was pretty proud of the medal he received.

Logan Bonneville Shoreline Trail

Last weekend he hiked to the Logan Canyon water tower from our house. It's actually part of an urban trail system. This used to be the prime stopping place when we used float the canal back in the day, it's all underground now.

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So Many Leaves

We had a good time cleaning up all the leaves this last weekend.

Halloween Weekend

We had a great time last weekend at the American West Heritage Center. Here we are riding the train. Lot's of fun games and activities, it was Robby's first time going through a corn maze. We went trick or treating at the Cache Valley Mall, Fun Park and met up with the Woods in our neighborhood at night. Super fun Halloween!

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Boo at the Zoo and Pumpkin Walk

The faceless ghost first appears at the Willow Park Boo at the Zoo.

Pumpkin Walk was pretty awesome this year, waiting till dark is the way to go.

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Family Picture - Aliso Beach, CA

Here is a shot of the whole Sproul/Converse side of the family from our trip to southern California in July. 

Lake Powell

Karli and I spent some time last week down in Lake Powell with some friends. This was my first proper Powell trip and first time heading out from Bullfrog Marina. The house boat stayed fairly close to the marina but we took a day trip out to Rainbow Bridge and I was completely blown away by how beautiful and fun this lake can be. 

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Fall

Fall has just been magical here in Cache Valley, here are a few recent pics of what we've been up to. We celebrated Karli's birthday last week and the rest are pictures from hikes up Logan and Green Canyon. 

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Monument Valley - USU

Recently I had the opportunity to take a road trip around the state with some guys from UEN and Cisco. I've worked for USU for 16 years and never made it down to our site in Monument Valley before. It's crazy to think USU is broadcasting live two-way interactive classes to some of the most rural areas in Utah. On our way down to Monument Valley we stopped at USU sites in Roosevelt, Vernal, Price, Castle Dale, Moab, Blanding, Montezuma Creek and hit Ephriam on our way back north. It was great to meet more of the wonderful local people that help make USU's regional campus system such a great success. 

Maverick Stadium

 Our football stadium game is on point now.

We had a lot of fun at the family day scrimmage and first home game last Thursday where we beat up on Weber State 45-6.

Lil Robby likes family day the best because we can run out on the field after and meet all the players.

Bear Lake before fall semester

 We decided to spend another weekend up at Bear Lake before USU classes started back up for fall. We spent the whole day at the beach, tried stand up paddling board for the first time and crashed at the Hula Hut after a long day relaxing in the sun.

Robby is quite the little slugger. Water wiffle ball at Bear Lake is one of my favorite past times.

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Golfing at Birch Creek

 This time Momma made it out to hit a bucket with us.

Normally it's just the boys but Karli gots skills, I can see this as a family event in the future.

First Day of Kindergarten

 Today was Robby's very first day of school.

He had such a great day and is so excited to learn new things.

Tony Grove Hike

 With the end of summer approaching we've been trying to out as much as possible. Last weekend we went up to Tony Grove Lake for a picnic and small hike.

I didn't take that many pictures but we got up there early before the crowds and heat and enjoyed the wonderful scenery.

Grand Junction, CO Anniversary Trip

We spent our 8 year anniversary in Colorado this year. We had so much fun renting bikes and wandering around the many wineries, breweries and fresh fruit stands in Palisade. Colorado Grand Monument was also super fun with a couple small hikes, a little rain and two big horn sheep. This is one place we will definitely return to. We also spent the night at my parents house the night before our trip and had an awesome pool party at my sister's house. Lil Robby is so lucky to have so many fun cousins to hang out with.

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24th of July

Here some pictures from the 24th of July weekend. Karli and I spent Friday and Saturday up at Bear Lake with some old and new friends while Robby hung out with his Grannie and Grandpa. We all went to the Logan City parade on the 24th and then had our own firework show at home. Such an amazing weekend that I didn't want to end.

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Family Reunion - San Clemente and Dana Point, CA

Had a great vacation and family reunion to St. George and southern California. We spent a couple days in St. George at the pool and getting out into the desert. On our way to California we took a short detour from I-15 on Route 66 from Barstow to Victorville. I've always wanted to drive the length of it. We stayed in San Clemente but spent most of our time in Dana Point, driving the seven miles between the two towns on PCH was fun every time we did it, which was several times a day. We hit tide pools in the morning and went wale watching our last day out there. The ocean was pretty calm but lil Robby still got sick and we didn't see any whales. We had so much fun exploring and hanging out with the family.

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Bear Lake and Minnetonka Cave

 For Father's Day we went up to Bear Lake and had a lot of fun hanging out at North Beach. We had fun camping that night and visiting the Minnetonka Cave the next morning. The cave was really refreshing after spending the whole day in the sun.

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InfoComm St. George Trip

I had a conference down in Vegas last week, stayed in St. George afterwards. We got out and saw some cool petroglyphs near Gunlock.
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Logan Canyon Cookout

Had a great time cooking dutch oven dinner and panning for gold in the Logan river. After gypsum Robby is after a more lucrative payout. 

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Memorial Video

Memorial Weekend 2016 from Robby Sproul on Vimeo.

Memorial Weekend - St. George

Had a great Memorial Day weekend down in St. George. We spent Friday at the Red Cliffs and Silver Reef. Slept in and relaxed Saturday and then spent the afternoon mining some gypsum. Sunday we hiked the Dino Cliffs trail and rode the four wheelers out in Warner Valley to see some cool petroglyphs. The pool and hot tub was a relaxing end to each day. Back in Logan for a beautiful Memorial evening of sitting on the porch and enjoying the cool air and a cold drink. Glad my parents were down there for part of the trip; it was fun hanging out with them and staying up late hearing my dad tell some of his funny war stories that I've never heard before. Grateful for the many out there willing to make great sacrifices for the greater good.

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Preschool Grad!

 Last Thursday was Robby's last day of preschool.

 He is so excited to be going to kindergarten in the fall.

Now it's off to St. George for the weekend.

Easter/Baby Animal Days

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. Easter was fun, Robby goes crazy over Easter egg hunts. Just me and the boy for Baby Animal Days this year, I think riding the mechanical bull was his favorite thing. I'd agree, I got to ride one myself in Austin, TX a couple weeks ago at a conference.

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Golf

Robby had an awesome time hitting balls at a real golf course for the first time.

He said "I want to go golfing everyday". He had a hard time believing that there are actually people that get paid to do this for a living.

Science UnWrapped - Dinosaurs

Here are some pictures from the last Science Unwrapped activity we went to.

 Stegosaurus hat.

 I think holding the tarantula was Robby's favorite part.

 Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

Cool hair man.

Our Little Man

This little guy who isn't so little anymore is just a joy to have in our lives. Robby has grown two and half inches in the past year and his thirst for knowledge and having fun has grown many more times than that. We are constantly amazed by the stuff that comes out of this funny kid's mouth.

Snakes and Stars

Friday night Robby and I attended the USU Science Unwrapped snake event. This was the first unwrapped that we've been to and it was awesome. All kinds of fun activities and live creatures to check out. Robby had to take a step back as the snake handler first took out the giant Burmese Python and practically laid it at our feet while he put the lid to the box back on. It was a tense 10-15 seconds and felt much longer than that. That's Robby's hand you can see in the bottom right of the picture and that's after taking a couple steps back.

Fresh river water creatures. You could also look at them under microscopes.

We got to make our own ice cream by shaking the ingredients up in a bag, it was way yummy. There was crafting, slime making and cool physics experiments. The students did an awesome job making things fun and interesting for the kids, I was very impressed at the time and effort for a totally free event.

Robby was been watching Brave Wilderness videos lately and was pretty excited to hold a turtle, pet several different snakes and see a toe biter specimen. The even had a Great Basin rattlesnake, just to look at of course.

We also went down to Clark Planetarium this weekend to see new exhibits and catch a dome show. Robby wasn't impressed that the show was only about black holes. Maybe laser Pink Floyd will be more exciting for him next time. 

Sledding

 Had all the kiddos for the day on Saturday. Sledding and little crafting were the highlights.

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Aggie Game

Had a really fun time with these kiddos at the Aggies Women's basketball game yesterday.

Grace wanted nothing to do with Big Blue.

It was a close game but the Aggies pulled ahead in the last few minutes to beat Wyoming 84-75.