Gardens at Thanksgiving Point

As I stated in a previous post, Thanksgiving point was having $2.00 Tuesdays.  We decided to venture out to the Children's Gardens.  Once again, we were met by a monstrous line and surrounded by kids (we were hoping it wouldn't be AS crowded because most of the kids had started school). I think everyone was thinking the same thing, because it was just as crowded.  When you enter the Children's gardens, there is a Noah's ark sculpture that squirts water, kids were everywhere, we could hardly walk by.  Once we got past that, things were a lot less crowded and so much fun!

Lily pads-so pretty

Italian gardens (since I can't go to Italy, I'll take what I can get)

I was actually wrestling with J, trying to get her to hold still for this picture

I think they thought this was a bathing fountain

K took this picture, not bad for a 6 year old

Metal caterpillar the kids can climb in

Trying to get closer to the waterfall

Pretty view

This was crazy-tons of Coi fish.  The kids kept feeding them, it was kinda creepy, their mouths were huge

Hogle Zoo

Trip to the Zoo

Why is it that every time I go to the zoo, we always get the same pictures?

I forgot how HUGE eagles are

I think he was worried for a second

White alligator (very rare, or so they say)

K on the trunk of the elephant that sneezes and shoots water out-slightly gross, but kids love it

self portrait on the trian, sorry J, we didn't quite get your head in

Park City

A few pictures of our trip to Utah

We or course had to take a trip to Park city to complete the 'Utah experience'.

On the tram going up to the Alpine Slide. I was convinced that G was going to purposely slide through the bars and dangle on the outside of the chair lift.  Luckily, no such thing happened, but I couldn't stop checking to make sure he was okay.

This is a great new slide called the Alpine Coaster.  It was GREAT fun (kinda pricey, but worth the mile long trip at 30 mph).  When the ride ended, the kids both said they wanted to go again.  If you go up there, make sure you take a ride on this!

G with Grandma

We couldn't leave without letting the kids ride some rides (or so they kept telling us)

The kids had a blast on this little tractor here.  It was all hydraulic and really worked (well, after depositing 50 cents)

It was great to spend time with family and it was gorgeous up there.

Dirty little one

Well, as much as I hate to admit it, J is not a sparkling clean, always looking cute, never dirty little girl. I had just gotten her dressed and she went outside with C. She came down 15 minutes later looking like this. Please note the dirt on the front of her face in the top picture. I can only wonder HOW it got there or WHAT she was doing. Did someone step on her face? Did she LAY down in the road and roll front to back a million times to acquire this look? Maybe she put her entire body against a big black tire? I don't think I'll ever know. K is always clean as a whistle. He can play outside for 12 hours, and he would come back in looking like he had just stepped out of the bath. J and G go outside and in no time flat they come back in looking they had just entered a mud wrestling competition. It's baffling. It's one mystery I guess I'll never know the answer to.

Cascade Springs

Well, we went to one of my favorite places ever-Cascade Springs. For those of you who have been there, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who haven't been, if you ever get the chance, you should go! It is SO beautiful! There are boardwalks over tons of streams that are full of fish, covered with green plants and beautiful flowers-I'm so glad we got the chance to go..

Every time I turned around, this is how I found J. Leaning over the boardwalk, on the verge of falling into the water, trying to drop sticks into the water
Peeking over the bridge
I spotted this snake and the guys caught it. The kids were so excited, but didn't want to touch it-Yuck! I don't like snakes-too squirmy and squiggly-but the kids were excited.

We finished off the night making dutch oven lasagne and dutch oven cobbler. I love the mountains and going up there. K ended up soaking wet (but had packed himself a change of clothes-I don't know why-he even had underwear). G of course was soaked, but didn't mind at all. J got wet even before we went to Cascade Springs, so I hung her pants out the window and voila-they dried. Such a fun night.

Tracy Aviary

After our trip to the park, we stopped at the Tracy Aviary and let the kids walk around and see the birds for a little while.

I was amazed and these-I don't think I've ever seen flamingos in real life, unless they were stuck in the front of someone's lawn
Feeding the ducks-J and G were both scared to death
J started chasing this bird, then it turned around and started chasing her, I don't think I've ever seen her turn around and run so fast
K thought this was cool. This worker went into the cage and was trying to put this branch up. The birds crawled up on her back and would just sit there-so I had to get a picture for him
I think this was the coolest thing. These are pelicans. Their beaks are usually like the one who's beak isn't in the water. If you look closely, the beak that is in the water has expanded-almost like a balloon, and is filled with water. I always wondered how they worked. (You always see in cartoons pelicans carrying fish or things in their huge expanded beaks, but I've never actually seen on close up, it was pretty amazing!) Anyway, I guess I'm easily entertained.

great friends

On Monday a group of us gathered up all our kids and met at liberty park for swimming fun and playground time. It was so great to see all of you girls again-and to see your cute kids. I'm so glad it worked out that Emo was in town and we all got to see you. Sorry about the other girls who couldn't make it. These are the girls I have known since-well, most of them for 25 years. We have grown up together, swapped clothes, stories about boys and dates, getting married and kids. You guys are a great bunch. I'm so lucky to know you. I love all your personalities and I am feel so lucky to have you as friends. Thanks for shaping my life.

Me and my Brilliant Ideas!

The other day I was at my moms and realized that Thanksgiving Point was having $2.00 Tuesdays! What a great deal I thought outloud (knowing that usual admission is quite pricey). So I planned a little outing with a few great friends and my cute sister. I got their about 10 minutes before it opened and was horrified at what I saw. The parking lot was already dotted with nearly 200 cars-WHAT-I thought this was MY great idea. I quickly called most of the people and told them to go home, but my sister and I (and Alexis-sorry) decided to brave it. I just kept thinking to myself 'I forgot how many kids there are in Utah' Kids were EVERYWHERE. We tried to have fun, and I think the kids did, but honestly I felt like I was being pecked to death by chickens.

So, when I first saw this guy, I thought he was part of the dinosaur musuem exhibit-you know, like an archeologist..no,no, he was just visitng too, maybe he wanted to dress the part. It made me chuckle, so I had to get a picture

Huge dinosaur leg
Trying to see which dinosaur they weighed as much as
cute kiddos
their favorite part was the sand and water table, too bad you had to throw a few elbows to keep your spot
Admiring the bones

All in all, it was a crazy day. Next time you read about $2.00 anything in Utah, you might want to think twice about it and go to the $1.00 movie instead.

Fantastic Parade

One of the best thing about being here this time of year is the small town celebrations they have. K loves going to this parade (mostly because he gets a bucket load of candy), and he was ecstatic that we were going to be here for it this year!

When we pulled up to the parade route where we watch, this is what greeted me. My fam had set up two huge canopys to sit under-LOVE IT! I couldn't stop grinning. There's never a dull moment watching the parade with them. My brother, who teaches seminary, carries a big bucket of water and a high tech soaker, when he sees former students, he gives them quite a soaking. G even got into the fun when someone gave him a small squirt gun. He stood in the road squirting all the floats that passed by (good thing the squirt gun only went about 2 feet).
The fruits of their labors

Please notice that the girls have on their running shoes to be sure they don't miss any of the best treats. K bugged me relentlessly for a few days about eating candy-from sun up to sun down. I finally told him he could pick out the tootsie rolls (they are his fav) and we were throwing the rest away. Little did I know that when it was all said and done there were 47 tootsie rolls...oops! I let him pick out 5, and told him we would save the rest for the plane ride home (we'll see...). The rest of the candy is now feeding rats and seagulls at the landfill. AND I failed to mention we have another parade this Saturday where they will get even more-anyone know a good dentist?

Fireworks

All of the cousins watching fireworks!
J not lovin' the fireworks
Relaxing with cousins

As part of G's birthday celebration, K was determined that we were going to have fireworks. I bought a small box at Target and we lit them at my mom's house. The kids had a ball, you would have thought we put together a professional show. I wonder if G thinks he'll get fireworks EVERY year...

Now that's a whopper!

So, there is a funny story about this crazy fish....this past Christmas we were at the family Christmas party playing Greed. Because we had flown there, we were worried about being able to take gifts, etc... home on the airplane. During the game, I let K choose my present. He came back with a not so big box. We opened it. I kept pulling and pulling and pulling, out popped our big fish. He was beyond excited. I looked at it and mentioned that we would just take it as our carry-0n. Needless to say the big fish never made it home with us and K was devastated. You can only imagine his excitement when we returned and our great friends who we are staying with (and stayed with at Christmas) they had kept it. It was like K was finding a long lost friend. We have laughed and laughed about this 'big fish'. K asked if we could take it home with us this time, sorry little man, no room...but i'm sure he'll be waiting for you on our next visit.

Aquarium

Crazy looking octupusCute little Sea horse
Looking at the Sting Rays with Grandma and Grandpa-no one dared to touch one though
G hiding in the coral
Jelly fish-I loved these!

This trip to the aquarium (or as G called it, the Museaquarium) was pretty fun. It is pretty small and we were through it in about 45minutes. (I love that K is absent in all of the pictures, he was in a mood this day and wouldn't let me take ANY pictures of him)

More pics of G's Birthday

Opening presents

Grandma and Grandpa got this for G-he was SO excited! He kept asking if we were going hiking
Blowing out candles on his birthday cake, yes, it was coffee cake (which he refers to as cinnamon cake)
I love this picture of G trying to open his presents. I love that the cousins are smothering him. They were all so excited to see what he got and they wanted to be right there in the action! So fun seeing cousins and family again!