Dinosaur Days

One thing I love about Utah are all the many fun family activity places to visit. We have season passes to the Hogle Zoo, the Aquarium, Thanksgiving Point (which has a farm with animals they can pet, amazing gardens to play in including a childrens garden area, and of course the Dinosaur museum. Calvin wants to go there at least once a week. So, let's just say it was a great investment. The only problem is he wants us to buy him a dinosaur before he leaves. So basically I always leave with him kicking and screaming. But it still is worth it for the couple hours leading up to that point!

Here are Cal and Martin playing with the dinosaurs. They have tons of hands on stuff for kids. This area is filled with books and toys for them to play with.

Look how cute. You can put these on and wear them through the museum. Cal rarely wants to wear his- mainly because there isn't a t-rex one and Martin usually ends up tripping on his face if he wears it too long. So he only wears it at the beginning.
And of course in Utah there are fireworks every single weekend in the month of July. There are fireworks on the fourth, fireworks on the 24th for Pioneer Day when the pioneers made it to the Utah Valley. And each city has its own fireworks and celebration. Here we are at Draper Days. We went with Jayla and Cody Campbell. Which by the way they have a new product called Oh Snap Bands. They are really cool bracelets. They have just started and have one called Stand United right now. More are on the way. Check out their website and everyone should get one. If you know any young people pass it on. We are so excited for them. Anyways- I can't wait for the skulls and flames!!! Anyways we had a lot of fun at Draper Days. They had wicked good fireworks and we ate lots of junk!

Look at how sweet my boy is. He normally goes to bed at 6:30. This picture was taken around 9:30pm. He was still awake and still happy. I just love him!!!

We also had a fun night on Saturday this week. Christy & Ben Tomlinson and their six kids came and stayed at our house. We had a blast. Here is a quick photo of some of their kids and my two early in the morning watching Disney Channel. They have such a fun family! Calvin keeps asking where they are and when they are coming back. He really enjoyed having so many kids around!

Well, that's about it. I will post more soon, because I have some pics of Rebecca's b-day. What a fabulous week!

Camping at Downata

What a fun weekend we just had. We just went to Downata Hot Springs in Downey Idaho. If you are wondering how to say that it is down at a hot springs. Pretty clever huh? Me, Josh and the boys finally went camping. Can you believe it? We haven't been in four years partly because we have had little ones (which is really hard to camp with) and the fact that I really love beds!!! We went with our friends Ben & Christy Tomlinson and their 6 kids. Can you believe she has had 6 kids?!! I can't. Here is me and Christy. She is such an awesome woman and a mother. I really look up to her!

Here is Cal with 3 of her boys. They are so cute. Cal had a blast hanging out with so many kids. So did Martin. He was the baby of the group so it was everyone's job to make sure he didn't fall into the fire.

Here is Martin at breakfast. It is his goal to stick whatever I give to him in his mouth in one shot. If I give him 3 crackers all 3 go into his mouth. If I give him a whole pancake the entire pancake goes into his mouth! As you can see below.

At Downata they have different places you can stay in. We rented a teepee. This was really fun, the only problem was no air conditioning. It got pretty hot during the day. We have learned that next time we need to get a yurt or a cabin that has air conditioning. Or we need to go during a different time except for July. Cal and Martin loved the teepee. It was great, except for the middle of the night when Cal wouldn't go to sleep because he wanted his own bed.

Right next to the teepee was a fence and lots of horses. We fed the horses apples. They were very nice. Martin would hang out near the fence and watch the horses.

All in all it was a great outing. Although I still think that we need to wait at least 1 more year for Martin to really be old enough to go camping. It was fun. Can't wait for our next adventure. It is nice to have an adventure in the states for a change!

The Barbecue

We just had a bunch of our neighbors come over for a really fun barbecue. We had 12 adults and 12 kids. It was perfect!! Everyone brought yummy food and we hung outside and played. We had barbecued skewers, strawberry salad, pasta salad, Brazilian lemonaide (which is my new favorite drink!- I'l post the recipe later), ribs and many other yummy foods. Here is Kevin fixing the skewers! Titan and Martin just love each other. They both get excited to hang out. Titan was nice to share his drink with Martin.

All the kids brought their food into the clubhouse and packed themselves in there.

Brandon, Josh, and Kevin and the other guys finally made it outside when the sun began to set and it started to cool down!

Josh brought out a bunch of sparklers and the kids had a lot of un. They especially loved the giant sparklers!! Ryan, Crew, and Titan are playing with sparklers

Here is the marshmellow lady- Jen. Josh got a fire going and we made smores for desert!

Here is Andrew and his son Ethan. Don't you just love his red hair?

Here's everyone making smores!

Here are the girls- Jen, me, Sue, Lisa, Monica, and Marci. They are such a fun group to hang out with!! And it is great having kids near the same ages!

The entire time of the barbecue Calvin was searching for slugs (YUCK!!!) Here he is with a baby slug on his thumb in between Bella and Crew.

After the barbecue we went in the front yard and lit a few fireworks out on the street. The kids were very excited!

I can't wait to have another barbecue!! Now it really feels like summer!

July 4th

After spending the day in Park City we headed to Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks. We met up with the Delgrosso's and headed down. Spencer and Emily also met us down there. Martin loves her little boy Jackson. Here they are looking at something in the grill. We also did sparklers with all of the boys.

Here is Monica and Brandon with their boys. They are such a fun family to hang out with.

Here is Spencer and Emily with the boys. We put them in their pj's because we knew they would be sooooo tired. Which of course Calvin did have a melt down when the fireworks ended and we had to go home!

The fireworks lasted for about 1/2 an hour. We kept waiting for them to end. Martin was very tired and also very hyper. He crawled all over Spencer the entire night. He was pretty funny! It was a superb day and night. I love the month of July. We celebrate the founding of our country as well as the pioneers reaching Salt Lake City and founding Utah. I am so glad to be an American!!!

Park City Fun

For July 3rd we all went up to my cousins house in Park City. We had a great time. This is me and Wendy. I am so glad that she moved here because she is so much fun to be with and she has an amazing and fun family!! She also has a little boy Eli who is Cal's same age. They had a fun firework show. We had a great barbecue over at their house so we got to the fireworks late. We decided to just hang out in the parking lot and watch them. It worked out great because we were right near the fireworks and we didn't have to wait long to get out of the parking lot!

Calvin and Martin both loved the fireworks they had a blast. However it was really loud for Calvin's ears. We had to hold the blankets up around his ears and then he was happy!

The next morning we all met at Wendy's again. My parents came as well as Spencer and Emily. We had a really fun day. Here is Martin getting ready to eat.

Wendy's mom (my Aunt Cheri) brought over some fabulous purses that we all bought. It was fun doing some shopping for purses right at home!

This is a fun activity for families. We went to the Alpine Slide area and visited the chocolate factory. We got some caramel apples. The one to get is apple pie. It is really delicious!!!

Park City has a new ride that opened last year. It is called the Alpine Coaster. It is a lot of fun! I would say it is one of the most fun rides I have ever done! We loved it. Calvin rode with me and he wanted to go very fast. The only problem is it is really expensive. For one ride it is $17. But it is actually worth it. However for only $5 more you can also do the alpine slide. So, if you are up for a spendy night this is a lot of fun!

Here is Josh going down. It was really fun!

Here is all of us after doing the Alpine Coaster.

Of course we hit the Alpine Slide as well.We drove home very tired from the busy days we had just had. It was a really fun day. I think we might have to go to Park City again next year for the 3rd and the 4th of July.