Butterfly

 I realized that Josh was just a baby when the other kids got to see the caterpillar life cycle at home and butterfly release. So after a little research I found a local place (Riverbottom butterflies) and ordered a Monarch butterfly kit. Then I thought about our elementary STEM fair coming up and worked it out for them to come with a butterfly tent experience. It was a lot of fun. At the end of the night they gave me some of the caterpillars and a home in appreciation for having them come to our school. 

Spiral Jetty

 We took the long Sunday drive up to the Spiral Jetty finally. It was a cool art installation, and we were able to see the pink tinge to the Great Salt Lake there (although this time of year isn't it's peak coloring). In the shallow area it was more rust/orange tinged and the deeper the water got the color diluted to more of a pink.

The boys didn't want to go so it was just the other three of us. 

Planetarium

 I talked Josh into going to the Planetarium on his day off. Then his friend contacted us to hang out, so we invited him to come along. Then when we went to pick him up he was at the neighbor's house, so we invited the two brothers to join us. So it ended up being a mini field trip to the planetarium that day. It was a fun time, but it reinforced to me that I never want to be a bus driver.

Art Show

 I decided to enter the South Jordan Art Show. Just to stretch myself and support art. I didn't end up attending the awards night because I thought there was a fat chance that I'd get anything. I learned from someone else that one of my photos won 1st place. And even more surprised to learn that there is a $100 prize. Woo hoo!

Day 6 and 7

 Friday 

Our flight leaves at 5 pm today, so we planned to check out the city of Reykjavik today. We parked by the Leif Ericcson church and walked around from there. 

They had yarn strings you could tie on this tree. Each color represented a different value like peace, love, etc. They had yellow out for the people of Ukraine.

Then we walked the cute streets. We stopped in a few gift shops and picked up some Icelandic wool blankets, and other little gifts.

We ate in one of the restaurants. Fish and chips for most of us, and crepes and a smoothie for McKinley.

The crepe place was eclectic and had these marionettes in one of the corners.

Before we headed back to the airport we went back to the Perlan Museum to try and get a good vantage point of the city.

I liked this sculpture on the grounds.

A nice view of the city

Now off to the airport for our 5 pm flight landing in JFK at 7 pm. Once in NY we slept over in the Hampton Inn. 

Saturday

McKinley and Kent left around 3:30 so they could make there 6 am flight. McKinley wanted to get back early to make it to her boyfriend's last prom. Shelley and I slept a little more and left NY at 11 am

We had a great time and are glad we had such a fun and safe trip and that we got to see everything we had planned.

Day 5

 Thursday

Our official pre-plan today was to keep Thursday open for any additional places or things we wanted to see. Today Iceland has closed down the roads due to weather and tours are canceled. So luckily we didn't miss out on anything we had wanted to see on our itinerary, but now we have to figure out something to do close by.

First we went to the Saga Museum which was just down the road from our hotel. It was a cute museum that told the history of the establishment of Iceland. It was interesting.

These are some of the houses up the street across from our hotel.

The roads were open to Hafnarfjordur which said it had a "viking village" area. Well, kind of it did. It had the Viking Hotel with a themed restaurant but that didn't open until evening. So we walked the streets for a little before ending up at a restaurant called RIF. We had yummy fish and chips, ravioli, and chicken. 

Then we drove back to Iceland to rest a bit before our reservations at Flyover Iceland which is a ride just like Soaring California in Disneyland, excepts it's about Iceland. It was a fun thing to do to fill the time since we couldn't really drive anywhere today. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to buy some Icelandic candy for people back home.

Iceland Day 4

Wednesday (and Shelley's birthday)

Oof, early wake up to be on the road by 4:30 am. We have our Glacier hike and Ice cave tour today and it's about 5 hours away. Luckily we arrived plenty ahead of time in Skaftafell and Vatnajokull National Park. Vatnajokull is the big white glacier on the map. We meet up at the southern tip of it for our hike.

Part of the ice is black from the lava rocks

Inside the ice cave

A view of the glacier through some ice

We did it, and it's sunny!

After our hike we drove to Diamond Beach about an hour further east on the coast. Glaciers break off inside of Glacier lagoon then drift to the ocean, which then get pushed onto the beach by the ocean current. It's beautiful.

Here is Glacier Lagoon, and one of the only wildlife creatures we saw this trip.

We ate lunch at the food truck here. McKinley and I got a lobster roll which was actually Langoustine which is prawns. Kent got an Icelandic hot dog. Shelley got lobster soup again.

Back west on the coast for 2 1/2 hours to reach Reynisfara Beach with just enough sunlight left. It's cliff walls are basalt that has formed columns. It's a very picturesque beach.

On our way back from the beach we finally saw some Icelandic horses up close and had to get a picture. They were very friendly.

There are cute churches throughout Iceland. We didn't stop at any of them though so I snapped a quick pic while we were speeding by in the car.

The Northern Lights tour got canceled tonight again due to weather. Surprise, surprise. So we head off to bed. While laying in bed, Shelley notices the sky is all clear. We press our faces against the hallway hotel window that faces north. We see something smudgey in the sky but can't really tell if it is anything. We decided to get dressed in our warm stuff and just go outside on the north and check it out, as we have nothing to lose really. Looking across the streets of Reykjavik toward a bright gas station it does look like it may be something in the sky. Shelley and McKinley's iphones have night mode and when you take a picture you can see that it actually is the Northern Lights. We found them!!

After a couple minutes there someone passes by and tells us it's better on the other side of the gas station, and it was. It was a birthday miracle for Shelley. We were so lucky to see the Northern Lights on this trip especially with all the crazy weather and despite being in a light polluted area. The best birthday ever!!