Snowbird

Towards the end of June, our friends Kevin and Christy invited us to join us for evening at their timeshare up at Snowbird.  We ate dinner with them, played on the awesome playground, and went swimming in the nice warm pool.  The boys had a great time having Kevin throw them in the water.  I want Kevin and Christy to see the pictures.  Which why I am posting them (four months later).

Summer Bucket List

Look what I found

I would say it was a Christmas miracle, but I have been looking for them for over a month. I have spent hours searching for them. I had looked in just about every nook and cranny. I had opened almost every box in our house. I ordered new ones in hopes that once I did that I would find the old ones. It worked! It made me determined to find the old ones so I can return the new ones. Yesterday the new ones arrived at the store and I got an e-mail that I could pick them up and yesterday I found the old ones. Wahoo!

So, where were there? Yesterday I made Chad look with me. We each took different rooms in the house and then we moved out to the garage. We went through almost every box, again. and And then in the last possible place I was going to look, there they were. In an IHC luggage bag. I couldn't believe my eyes and a whooped with delight. I don't whoop much. But it was definately warranted.

Weekend in the Wasatch

We signed up for some activities this year offered by the Utah State Parks. Today we went to our first one. (Well, there was one two weeks ago that we signed up for but it started a little too early in the morning so we didn't make it.)

The activity was at Wasatch Mountain State Park up in Midway. Who doesn't love that area of Utah?! They gave us each water bottles and a pair of binoculars per family to keep and we set out on a hike. The boys lasted a long time for being little boys, but we had to cut the event short because Jack wouldn't stop saying, "I want to go home." Actually, that's not why we stopped. What kind of parents would we be if we gave into that? We stopped and turned back because we had other important things we needed to do today. I needed to get back to be with my mom at the hospital. Which worked out good, because the boys were truly done. They lasted two and a half hours and hiked two miles. Not too bad.

Five

My sweet Ben turned five today. He was very happy and super sweet all day long. It was a pleasant surprise, as I thought he would be a little bratty. I can't recall Jack and him fighting at all. It was a nice day.

At Ben's request we took the train into Salt Lake and met Chad for lunch at Subway. Yes, Ben chose Subway. Him and his cousin Josh are obsessed with Subway.

After lunch we walked over to the glass library (the downtown SL library) and spent a couple of hours there. The boys love to ride the 'great glass' elevator. Sometimes if we are in Salt Lake we will take advantage of the 1/2 of free parking and go inside and ride the elevator up and down a dozen or so times. The boys act like it's an amusement park ride. Kind of silly, but sometimes you just do what you can to entertain children.

And of course, we read books.

In the evening we had dinner with my parents, my sister and her family, and my brother. After dinner, most of the rest of my extended family came over. Ben got everything he wanted and asked for and then some. He is one happy boy. He got a razor scooter, swim goggles, a specific Transformer, bubbles, puzzles, Bendaroos, light-up shoes, a gardening set, and clothes.

He has been talking about his birthday for months and what kind of cake he wanted. Finally he settled on a frog theme, so I made these cupcakes-

and these cake pops-

Lots of them. And last night at midnight they were all staring and me.

My first attempt at cake pops. They are cute, but I don't think they are all that tasty. I've tried other flavors too and didn't much care for them. Oh well, they are just too fun.

Yesterday's Adventures

Every Thursday, during the summer, my mom piled us all into the awesome blue station wagon and we were off to the park. We met and played with our friends the Thorness'. We went to all different parks and had our own names for them (who cares what they really are called). I mean everybody knows Mills Park as Rocket park. Does anybody call it Mills Park?
Yesterday we went 'park hopping' with my sister and her kids. We intended on going to a bunch of parks, we only made it to three. Oh well, the kids had fun, which was the whole point.
First we went to Grandma's park. My mom's yard is like an amazing park. Then we went to Spider Park

And finally Castle Park.

We played tennis.

Swung our little hearts out.

Explored a ravine.

Swung our little guts out. (Look at Ben's face, he almost threw up.)

Stopped for a treat.

Did you know they have Tiger's Blood Rainbows at the Pace's Dairy Ann in Layton? You do now.

Last stop-DI. To find some rollerblades for our adventure later today. Jack found this little couch, pulled up this little 'television' (it's actually an ATM toy) and got comfortable.

Later, his friend whom he had dance with earlier joined him. I like that she is taller than him and all, but she dresses a little too immodestly and her hair is a little too crazy. Plus she walks around with a price tag on her forehead. That can't be good.