Deni and I again went hiking today. I recommended that we try the Spanish Fork Camping grounds up by the Gun Club. When we arrived at the lower gate, it was closed with a no trespassing sign. I convinced Deni the sign was referring to the Gun Club and surely the trails on public land were open. As we hiked up, we got to the Spanish Fork Reservoir, we were met with another yet another gate and a "closed" sign. We walked past that too. Finally there was one last gate we walked by, which said the camping sites were closed. Others has been up there, as I could see the feet prints in the snow, so we continued on. The snow wasn't as packed down as the trail is in Mapleton. At times we'd sink 6 inches or more as we walked, but we pushed on anyway. While the trails had been walked on recently with snow shoes, etc - the snow was soft and loose but we had a good hour hike.
Sydney was going crazy at home so Deni suggested that I take her out on a Daddy Daughter date. After lots of discussion, we decided we'd go to the nickel arcade in Springville. We got $10 in nickels, in two bags with $5 in each bag. It was apparent that Sydney was there to obtain tickets which could be traded in for inexpensive toys and items . All the games she 'played' were put a few nickels in, if you landed in a certain space you'd get a ticket, or two, or five. I went for the more classic games like Frogger and Pac Man Pinball.
Sydney blew threw her $5 bag of nickels fairly quickly and then came to me while I had only used a handful of nickels playing actual arcade games. I split the rest of my nickels with her and she was off again to obtain more tickets.
She quickly ran out again, and asked if she could use some of her allowance to get more nickels, which I declined. With my remaining nickels, I challenged her to a game of Air Hockey. Even though she is smiling, my score was the 7 and she was the 4. She had a really good come back and for a second, I thought I was going to lose. :)
Next she challenged me to one of the side by side car racing games. She won the first game, but lost the second. Again, I took pictures of her losing, not winning.
Sydney checked in her tickets and had 598 tickets to spend at their store. She got a glow in the dark mood ring, little ball and handful of candy. That's what $10 buys these days. My guess is that the things she 'bought' with her tickets cost a couple of dollars at most. But, she enjoyed the time winning the tickets and I was glad to be able to spend some one on one time with her doing something she enjoyed to do.
After the Nickel Arcade, we went to Costco to pick up some photos Ryan is putting in his thank you cards for his Eagle Project. On top of Ryan's Eagle project of buying 30 Chromebooks for Ronald McDonald house, he's also providing a meal at the Ronald McDonald house. While driving to Costco, I had a thought that Sydney should be in charge of making her world famous cupcakes as dessert. We figured she need to make about 150 or more cupcakes, so while we were at Costco, we priced out all the ingredients she would need. She is excited at the thought of baking in a commercial kitchen (at the Ronald McDonald House) and having Ryan's friends be her assistants in making cupcakes for dessert. When we got home, Ryan agreed that it would be a great idea to have Sydney be in charge of dessert.
Deni and I have talked many times about how we want to prepare our kids for the real world. Mainly knowing how to cook, to work hard, to budget. To my surprise, when we got home Deni said that Ryan had made Lasagna for dinner of us all by himself (with Deni watching over his sholder of course.) The lasagna was edible. Actually it was more than edible, it was amazing and yummy. Two points to Deni for helping Ryan learn to cook yummy things.
To round out the day right, Deni and I went on a date to a movie in town. We saw The Intern. It was a good movie. I enjoyed laughing with my wife. When we got home the kids were having a blast together. Music was blaring and I believe we interrupted a heated dance off. A great end to a long winter vacation.
