Dinosaurs for $2!

Every Tuesday in August the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum

had $2 admission!!  So of course, it was packed.

Luckily, we went on the Tuesday after school started so the line

was only to the door and not around the building.

Andrea and Trey went with us this time.  See them in the back?

 First stop was the fun experiment room.  Gavin could have stayed there forever.

They have really cool hands on things for kids to try.

 This paleontologist has an AWESOME mustache!

 Posing with some old bones.

 Really, what color were they?

 

 Creating some new types of dinosaurs.

 Then there's the wet sand to dig in.

 

They really need more dinosaurs in the sand.  There were a few fights.

Luckily Gavin isn't a fighter, but gets his feelings hurt when kids take his dinosaurs. :(

I love Thanksgiving Point.  I wish it weren't so expensive so we could go more often. 

It was fun going with Andrea and Trey.  He's getting so big and could kind of enjoy it.

What was that holiday back in July that I forgot to document??

Yes, I'm still catching up.  I keep telling myself to do a better job with blogging

(or my online family journal of fun events), but I just don't do it!

This year we did the 4th of July with my dad's family.  They rarely get together so it was a good event.  So glad that almost everyone came.  Just missing one of my dad's brothers.

The funny thing is that my cousins are really the age of my kids. 

All the kids got to play and have fun.  We did dinner and sat around talking.

Then it was time for fireworks.  Hopefully our neighbors still liked us.

Gavin and my little cousin were due the same week (although she was born

almost a month before him).  I thought Gavin was tall, but I was wrong!

The next morning we did the Provo Freedom Festival Parade.

My aunt Pam and her family, my dad, sister Andrea and Trey met us

at our usual, wonderful spot in front of Bombay House.

The ice cream man conveniently parked his truck close to where we were sitting.

Fun times.

Summertime Recap 2011

Summer 2011 is gone.  Sad.  I LOVE summer.  I don't look forward to school starting.

I thought I'd put together a little highlight section to remind me what we did.

As I get older, I realize that time kind of blurs together. 

Good thing we have digital cameras!

Gavin made his own Angry Birds game.  Just in front of him is our strawberry patch.

The first half of the summer we really had a problem with birds eating our strawberries!

Gavin loved to chance them away when he could find them. 

Now the birds are gone and we are overloaded with strawberries!

 In June, we went to the Orem Summerfest Parade. 

Very nice weather and fun time, but we missed our Liam.

He was out of town during our traditional parade and fireworks.

 Gavin risked his life to get a lot of treats from the road.

Spent some time at the park next to our neighborhood school. 

Gavin liked visiting where he will go to kindergarten.

We did the slip and slide at my sister's house a couple of times.

The second time, Liam ended up getting a large scrape down his back.

We turn on the sprinkling system to get the most water on the slide, but he went off the slide

and right over a sprinkler head with his back!  OUCH!

We had the Utah County Pass of All Passes this year.

We spent a lot of time at Seven Peaks, as usual.

Jim and I attended the Pioneer Day Patriot Program

at the Conference Center with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The last week of July Liam went to Youth Conference with our ward

down in Bryce Canyon at Pine Lake Campground.  He had a good time. 

They did a really long bike ride and his bike ended up a little muddy.

 Jim's work had a party at Boondocks.  We got an unlimited pass and spent several hours playing.

It was really fun, they even provided dinner.  We rarely do things like this as a whole family. 

Liam's getting out of this bumper boat after getting SOAKED.  I was on for only a minute because a grown woman that I didn't know was after me trying to soak me.  Who does that??

Gavin did race cars with dad.

Gavin in the 4D Theater watching the Haunted Mine.

That was the first time I've been in one of those and they are crazy!

Well, I guess that Star Wars ride at Disneyland is like that, but I hate that ride.

Liam spending his tokens and avoiding his mom with the camera.

Jim and I celebrated our 6th anniversary in August.

My cousin did my hair - curls!  Not something you will normally see on my head.

We went to eat at Texas Roadhouse and then saw the new Planet of the Apes movie.

Excuse the blurry photo.  Liam is now in a digital photo class.

With our Pass of All Passes we got into Trafalga Lehi.

Gavin and Asher liked the airplanes.

Trevan and Liam avoided their moms.

Gavin on his first merry-go-round ride.

Our Stake has a summer party every year.  We had a big picnic at Scera Park

and then they rent out the pool from 8 to 10, a little late for tiny kids but oh well.

Liam went home for a neighborhood outdoor movie party.

Gavin braved the chilly air and wanted to swim.

Jim didn't feel great so I ended up in a swimming suit in front of everyone!

It was a fun, but pretty typical summer.  No vacation for us. 

Well, Liam got a vacation to Kentucky but the rest of us got to stick around Utah.

We did the Scera summer movie season again.

I miss summer.  I miss sleeping in.  I miss doing fun things.

But I also LOVE fall.  I can see the trees in the mountains are turning bright red.

Plus, it's just over a month until HALLOWEEN!

Once Upon A Time There Was....May

Wow, I really haven't been blogging!!  I do it most for myself as a kind of journal of things our family has been doing.  I hope I can remember back well enough. 

Here was our exciting month of May.

 My sister always does great parties for her kids.  We are lucky and get to go.

This year her 5 yr old decided on the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy.

We had a great time.  Here's Gavin on a giant frog and Liam trying to drive a boat.

At the end of May, Jim and I got to see U2 with his sister and brother.

It was an excellent show.  This was the 4th time I've seen them and they are always great.

My only issue is that they are SO good that it almost doesn't sound live.  Crazy.

Gavin was able to start his first session of swimming lessons. 

He took 2 sessions at the Orem Rec Center and did really well. 

He could almost float on his back by the end of the last session.

We should have worked on it a little more this summer.

On Memorial Day we went to the morning program at the church.

This is the one where Liam broke his arm last year. 

This year it was really raining so they weren't able to do the bike/foot race.

Liam helped with the flag ceremony and Gavin colored a few patriotic pictures.

We made a trip to the Orem Cemetery so visit my mom and grandpa's graves.

Here's Gavin and my nephews at my grandpa's WWII cross.

Spring Break 2011

This year I actually got to take the kids on a vacation for Spring Break!  Vacations don't happen around here so they were excited.

We started the trip by going to Las Vegas for one night.  Vegas has a lot of cool things to look at and some...not so awesome things to look at, especially for kids.  I'm sure I said "close your eyes" too many times.  We really got a lot of walking in though and the kids had fun looking at the fun things there.

Then we headed to St George for a few days.  I know a very generous family that allowed us to stay in their vacation home for free.  So nice!  We went to Zions National Park and did the Emerald Pools hike.  We rode the crowded shuttle in, hiked the crowded trails, and sat by the crowded pools/water falls.  April is the PERFECT time to go temperature wise, but a lot of people have the same idea. We rewarded ourselves after the hike with an ice cream at the visitor center.

The next day we hiked in Snow Canyon with my dad.  We saw lizards, cool plants, and lava tubes. It was just as good as Zions and cheaper (well, we got into Zions for free but if you had to pay Snow is cheaper).

We got to eat out and go swimming and just had a really, really fun time.  I'm so glad we got to do it.  I hope we can get down there again soon.  Sometimes I forget that we live so close to really fun and beautiful places.  If I were a tent camper, which I'm not, then we could do a lot more things.

Liam Likes Choir?

Liam is in Mixed Jr. Choir this semester.  He wasn't sure about it at first. Liam's never been a "singer".  In fact, he kind of avoided it.  But this year he really enjoys the class.  I've noticed him actually singing at church and trying to do well.

 Lean On Me

Liam's teacher must be good because she has him excited about the class. She even got him to sign up for men's choir for next year. That one is going to be all year. I'm glad he's doing it. It's nice to have good teachers!

Gavin Turns 4!

My little Gavin turned 4 in February!  We were a little worried because he really liked being 3 and he didn't want to be 4.  But the day came and now he loves being 4!

 We had my family over for dinner on his birthday, which is always a good time.

 The big boys trying to hear TV over all the loud talking.

 Gavin got some excellent gifts and was very excited!

 Robot Arms!

 When asked what he wanted for his birthday he kept saying "A Banana" so Uncle Eric gave him one.

 Now baby horse has a mom.

 Liam, Gavin, and bowling pins

 He chose 4 tractor candles for his cake.

 Gavin was sick when Jim's family got together for February birthdays.  So, grandma and Roxanne came over on his birthday and brought him this awesome ROBOT cake!!

 I'm going to have a helper in the garden this year.

And here's my big 4 year old boy!

And he was still in a cast for his birthday. It came off a couple weeks later.

This video is of Gavin blowing out the candles on his cake.....with his nose! 

Good thing we put the candles on his piece only!

The birthday turned out pretty well given this is what he looked like most of the day.  He was SO sick that weekend.  We thought we'd have to have him sleeping in his room during his party.  But he was miraculously better just in time for the party and then he crashed again when everyone left.  I'm not sure what he had because nobody else caught it, thank goodness.  But he was down for a few days.

iPhone Over Computer

OK, we bought "refurbished" iPhones pretty cheap a couple of months ago.  Since then I seem to go days without even getting on the computer!  Those phones are GREAT!  But, that means I miss out on some things like blogging and blog-stalking.  I'll have to take that trip to the computer a little more often.