Provo, UT

It may not be fly fishing in a sleepy southern town, but Nielsen’s Grove Park is a beautiful get-to-in-a-flash alternative that my family and I frequent when we want to relax, cast out a line and stretch out on weed-free green grass.

What would you expect to see at a Bean Museum? Kidney beans, lima beans, jumping beans, surprisingly, are nowhere to be seen at the Bean Museum in Provo. What can be found are palm-sized butterflies, a live reptile show, and the stuffed remains of fantastic animals I thought only existed in Narnia. The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum is home to close to three million preserved animal and insect specimens. Word of warning: if you have a strong aversion to taxidermy this may not be the place for you.

Pop quiz! Name the first museum ever built in the state of Utah for the visual arts. Not sure? Try this: What Utah art museum houses over two thousand original works of art in its permanent collection, 1,500 of which were created by Utah artists? Still unsure? Okay, last one: This museum, built in 1907, also houses one of the largest modern Russian art collections anywhere outside of Russia itself.

Is it just me, or was anyone else surprised by last night’s snowfall? Snow on October 12th?! Three days ago my daughter was dancing barefoot in the grass! Hmmm….Well, we decided to make the most of it and have some faux-winter fun!

From the number of cars traveling in either direction through the Alpine Loop on a typical fall afternoon, you’d think everyone already knows about this Utah Valley treasure. Assuming you’re the one soul reading this who’s not yet had the pleasure of this sublime must-do, it’s time for a road trip!

My husband and I love going to the public libraries in Provo and Orem. We’ll generally go to sit and read, check out books and movies, or set up camp with our laptops and use the free wireless internet. (The internet is accessible to anyone who has a library card, and if you don’t [...]

My husband wanted to go on a date this weekend. We love walking in the mountains, so he planned for us to go up into the canyon and walk the trails at Vivian Park. He also knows that I love taking pictures, but that I haven’t done it in a long time because the batteries [...]

One of my favorite things to do with my daughter is attend weekly story time at Barnes & Noble. I’ve been taking her since she was five months old. I admit that was very young, but I really believe that such early exposure to books has helped foster her interest in learning to read [...]

Also known locally as the Gateway Fountain, it’s become something of a free, mini water park, and on most summer days you’ll find kids of all ages running through the fountains while adults lounge with frozen lemonades from a nearby vendor. The fountain was created for the 2002 Winter Olympics, so you’ll notice the Olympic snowflake pattern on the plaza floor. Overlooked by a stories-high clock tower, the fountains are controlled in a series of patterns and, on the hour, choreographed to shoot about twenty feet in the air to inspirational music such as America the Beautiful.

After attending the early morning balloon launch, we headed over to the Wolf Creek Resort, site of the 2008 Ogden Valley Balloon Festival. The festival didn’t start until 9 a.m. so to kill a little time between the launch (which ended by 8 a.m.) and the festival, we ate a picnic breakfast, then drove the short distance to Wolf Creek.