Memorial Day with family

Before getting married, Brodie and I each had family traditions for Memorial Day.  Brodie's immediate family always had breakfast together in the canyons.  My extended family got together at my Grandma's in Franklin for a BBQ on the lawn and games of Eevie Ivie Over.  At first in our marriage we tried to do both, heading up to Franklin, Idaho following breakfast.  Over the 10 years we've been married our family has grown as well as those of our siblings and my cousins and the big get togethers haven't been as frequently attended.  Last year we just went to IHOP with Brodie's parents.  And we haven't been up to Franklin since Spencer was little.

This year we met Brodie's parents at IHOP again for breakfast.  My kids loved going with them last year and every time we've driven by it since then they have excitedly remembered that's where we went with Grandma and Papa.  It was almost like Christmas for them to be going again this year.  They got the "Make a Face Pancake" that would actually be funner if they got to make the face rather than having the pancake with strawberry eyes, a banana mouth, and whipped cream already assembled.  But they did enjoy putting some of each of the 4 different flavors of syrup all over.  I got the blueberry pancake combo and let Clara eat all my scrambled eggs as well as half my hashbrowns and some pancake.  I swear that baby eats more than her weight in food each day and she is still so small.  We enjoyed visiting with Brodie's parents as well as eating our yummy breakfast.

We then came home long enough to pack up and head for Idaho.  I bought some new portable DVD players since one of the screens on the old one has stopped working.  These ones are smaller, but a clearer picture.  They also can either show the same movie, or show independently so they could each watch their own show.  And it remembers where it left off when you restart the car, which our last ones didn't.  It's made by Phillips, which is at least a name I've heard of, so hopefully they will last a few years.  We stopped by Redbox and let the kids each choose a movie.  Spencer chose Gulliver's Travels and Tessa chose Yogi Bear.  Spencer also brought his DS so Tessa could play with the Leapster.  Luckily Clara slept a little and entertained herself the rest of the way.  My kids aren't used to being in the car longer than 15 minutes so we had to be prepared for the 2 hour drive each way.

I couldn't believe all the snow in Sardine Canyon!  It's 2 days away from June!  I kind of missed driving down Main Street in Logan and reminiscing on my old Aggie days, but I remember how frustrating all those traffic lights are, so we cut through the town on 10th West instead.  My Grandma actually no longer lives in Franklin, but my Uncle bought the house and is still gracious enough to let everyone get together there.  Because of all the rain, we all crowded the inside of the house.  As much as I would have loved to see more cousins, I don't think we could have fit any more inside the house.  My kids were so excited to see their cousins, who they see quite frequently closer to home anyway, but they had fun together.  I enjoyed visiting with cousins and my sisters.  Brodie took a trip with the guys to see my Uncle's "toys" and a small tour of the town.  We took the kids across the street to the park and to see the old jail, which seemed to be the highlight of the trip for my kids.  I took so many cute pictures of my kids playing with their cousins that I can't just choose a couple to post, so here are a whole bunch:

This is Afton trying to push Tessa on the swing.  These two girls love playing together soooo much.

 Clara LOVED her first time on the swings.  She was laughing and smiling the whole time!

 This was Tessa and Afton swinging together at the same time, having a blast as usual.  Tessa is too short to get her boots wet, but Afton's feet and socks were soaked from the puddles under the swings.

This is Tessa and little Jacob swinging.  Pretty much all my swing pictures are Tessa and someone else because Tessa rarely left the swings.  I so would love a swingset in my backyard for her sake, but I think we're just sticking with the trampoline and play house.







The bigger kids were mainly running between the two slides and playing in the volleyball pit "sandbox".  Luckily  most kids had a change of clothes after going down the wet slides and playing in the sand.  Aliya did lose her pretty gold ring in the sand, apparently she buried it with an "X" to mark the spot, but nobody could find the "X" again.  These 3 cousins were all born within 4 months so they have always been close to each other.  I also love to see how each one looks so similar to my sisters and I, and just as different from one another.

My awesome sister, Tiffany, made me a bunch of really pretty bows for Clara.  My neice Bailee decided to try them all on Clara at the same time.  Then the kids moved the bows over to Grandma, who was a very good sport.

 I am so lucky to live close to family (and grateful my sister moved back to Utah) so that my kids can play with their cousins so often.  My brother and his family weren't able to make it up to Franklin, but we still see them at least once a month as well.

My girls adore little Abby.  Clara kept trying to pull the oxygen out of her nose, but was very intrigued by her.  Tessa loves to kiss and talk to and sing to Abby.









This is some family picking at the last of the food in the kitchen.  My baby sister is so beautiful.  I take it as quite a compliment when people can't tell us apart, despite the fact she is pregnant (yes, I know my non-pregnant belly is about the same size as hers).  We've both learned to answer to either name.





 

These are some pictures in front of the house.  I have so many wonderful memories of this place.

And of course the reason for all of this (and all of us) is my beautiful Grandma.  She's 96 years old and still sharp.  She can tell you the names and birthdates of her 4 children, 25 grandchildren, and exponentially more great grandchildren (I really don't know the number here--although she would--but over 50) and all their spouses.  She even sends birthday cards and gives Christmas presents to all of them.  She made Spencer a hat, Tessa a purse, and Clara a baby doll blanket for this past Christmas.  How amazing is she!?!  

Snow in the mountains? We'll just put the tent up in the backyard.

For a few years Brodie was Scoutmaster and I was Girls' Camp Director.  We acquired quite a bit of camping equipment and the love of camping, although I think we've only camped together about once a year.  Since being released from those callings, we're down to about one campout a year.  I thought it would be fun to go together and I reserved a spot in Little Cottonwood Canyon about a month ago for this weekend.  We got a call about a week ago cancelling our reservation because there is too much snow and we were told they won't be opening up until June 14th.  Kind of glad now cuz even without the snow it was a cold, rainy weekend.  Problem being that I had already told the kids we were going camping...

So we set up the tent in the backyard.

My favorite part of an evening Friday Fun Day is that I can get the house cleaned.  I have the time, as well as an incentive for the kids to help ("We can't have Friday Fun Day until the house is cleaned...").  I mowed the backyard in the morning during Clara's nap and after lunch the kids and I tackled their rooms, the front room, and the TV room.  I can't wait until the kids can do their rooms all by themselves.  Spencer is close, I just organized his books since he just shoves them all into the bookcase, but he did the rest.  Tessa is still young and pretty much just arranged her shoes on her shoe tree (which although I'm proud she has finally caught on to putting matches next to each other I still had to re-arrange them to keep boots together, church shoes together, slippers together, sandals together, and sneakers together) and threw her dress ups in her dress up chest.  I kept the lid closed and avoided the urge to organize those.  Other than that I ended up doing the rest of the clean up in her room.  We didn't have time for the toy room as I had to get to the store to get stuff for dinner.  While I was gone Brodie started a fire in the smoke box of our charcoal smoker/grill.  We then had the kids roast their hot dogs over the open fire.  We originally sat on a blanket on the grass to eat, but Clara was attacking too much so everyone moved onto lawn chairs except me as I still had to restrain the adorable baby monster and direct her to her own dinner.

After eating we had the kids fill the tent with their gear.  I had the kids bring out their foam couches to sleep on to provide some extra comfort and warmth.  They also brought out pillows, their Disney sleeping bags, water bottles, and flashlights.  And Spencer doesn't go anywhere to sleep without his tissue box due to his propensity to bloody noses.  It came in handy with Clara's cold.  Then the kids got on their warm wintery fleece pajamas with the feet attached.  I had bought the Giant Roaster marshmallows at Macey's (they are like 4 times the size of the large marshmallows) and the kids' eyes ended up growing about as big as the marshmallows.  Once again we roasted them in the smoke box and put them on graham crackers with Hershey's bars.  Clara just got a graham cracker.  The bigger kids only ate a few bites before asking to be done, but they enjoyed the experience.

 

After cleaning up from S'mores we moved into the tent where we read goodnight stories and ate the bag of taffy I bought.  Ever since our tour of Sweets Candy Factory (see prior post) I have been addicted.  And previously I thought Macey's only carried 2 of my favorites, Huckleberry and Watermelon.  But when I was buying hot dog food I noticed a couple variety mixes they had.  One was a tropical mix and I quickly spotted 2 of my other favorites, pineapple (green with yellow center) and coconut (brown-ish with white center).  Then there was another mix that had my very favorite--butter popcorn (paler yellow than banana but only slightly darker than eggnog.  Since this mix had red licorice, cotton candy, and bubble gum I figured it was safe to assume this was butter popcorn and not eggnog).  Is it wrong that I can tell about 50 different flavors just by looking?  Anyways, I couldn't resist and I bought a bunch of taffy for our "campout".  Clara wanted in on the action and stole our bag.  She kept taking them out, putting them in her mouth (with the wrapper on) then setting them on my lap until the bag was empty.  Then she put them all back in the bag and did it again.  I didn't let the kids eat all I had bought this night, saved the rest for Saturday. 

 

Then Brodie wished me luck in getting 3 sugar high kids to sleep and he went in the house to watch television (saying he needed to keep Pace inside to make sure he didn't pee on the tent).  Lucky me I had all three kids asleep by 8:30!  Then I covered them all with an extra blanket to ensure they stayed warm despite the rain.  I took out my Sony Reader and re-read my favorite novel, P. and P. for the umpteenth time.  I didn't finish it as I got tired of using a flashlight (couldn't find book light) and went to sleep.  I woke up around 3 after a neighbor's car alarm went off and noticed Clara had gotten her hands out and they were freezing!  I picked her up and brought her with me for the rest of the night.  From about that time on Spencer asked me every half hour or so what time it was.  Finally around 5:30 all kids were up so I let them play around while I laid half asleep, occasionally checking on Clara.  Just before 7 she crawled back to me and cuddled up and closed her eyes so I sent the big kids into the house to watch tv and Clara and I got another hour of sleep.

For breakfast Saturday morning we made breakfast sandwiches.  Spencer saw a commercial and has been begging for a Burger King cheese sandwich for breakfast.  Instead I toasted English muffins, cooked some sausage patties, cooked eggs in a nice circular shape, and sliced some cheese.  The kids assembled and enjoyed their sandwiches, but Spencer was set on the Burger King idea so he sweetly drew some pictures with a black crayon and stapled them together to create "coloring books" for he and Tessa as their "prize" with breakfast.  Then he got on the computer and discovered McDonald's has the new Happy meal toys, Kung Fu Panda 2.  I'm sick of McDonald's and the kids didn't enjoy the first movie so I have no desire to take them to the 2nd, or to McDonalds.  The next toys will be Pokemon Black and White and Liv, both of which I know the kids will enjoy so I want to hold off for a few weeks until these come out.  Remembering the toys we got when the first movie came out, I told Spencer to go downstairs and find those toys.  Turns out we have the panda, praying mantis, and monkey.  I told them to each choose one toy and now we don't need to go to McDonalds.  I was so surprised when it seemed to work and the kids were happy.  Wahoo for mom!

We left the tent up for most of the day and the kids had a blast playing in it and around the yard.  I even made them sack lunches to eat outside as part of their "camping trip".  We took the tent down shortly before dinner and a much larger rainstorm.  Boy was my bed comfortable last night...

Making a Thor hammer, Dino Towne, and Mayan Adventures!

Yet another day Spencer didn't have school.  At the end of Mommy School today we made crafts.  Spencer's been begging to go to Burger King and get Thor toys, but I'm not a really big fan of BK (you can read my earlier BK post about this) so I decided he could make a Thor hammer for his craft.  I rinsed out an empty Tropicana orange juice box, squished the spout inside, and folded the top part in to form a rectangle.  I put some glue on it and let Spencer wrap it up in tin foil, like a present.  Then we took an empty paper towel holder and I had Spencer crumple and stuff old papers he had colored on into it to make it firm so it wouldn't squish when he held it.  Then I used clear packaging on the top and bottom of the paper towel holder to keep the papers in it and then taped the orange juice box on top of that.  I didn't have any brown ribbon so I used lime green that I had to tape a loop to the bottom, like Thor's.  Then he decorated it with super hero stickers he had.  I admit it doesn't look just like Thor's, but it's close enough to make Spencer happy and it was made out of stuff that was going to be thrown away, so it was basically free.  Tessa made a Dora bracelet.

Outside was wet, cold, and rainy so I had to think of a Friday fun day activity inside.  Since I had to make a Costco trip today, I decided we'd stop at South Towne Mall and play at Dino Towne.  I know Spencer's taller than the dinosaur's hand (I think it's 42"), but he wasn't near the biggest kid playing.  If you haven't been to Dino Towne it's a dinosaur themed play area for the kids on the lower level of South Towne Mall--and it's free.  The floor is cushy and carpeted.  There's a big tree they can climb in and go down a couple short, but steep and slick slides.  There's also a dinosaur skeleton looking slide, a dinosaur skeleton they can climb inside of or on top of, a small dinosaur they can climb on and pretend to ride, a globe they can spin, and a few other things.  Spencer and Tessa ran around for about an hour.  I even let Clara go down the slides with me helping, and she loved to look in the mirrors that were just her size.  Personally I don't really like going shopping, I prefer online, but if I have to go to the mall I usually choose South Towne just because of Dino Towne.  I rarely make it anywhere without kids and having the bribe of Dino Towne if they behave while I shop makes it much easier than other malls, even though Fashion Place has more of the stores I would go to.  As was, I only bought Tessa some more shorts to wear under her dresses and skirts, but the point was for the kids to have fun and they did.

By the time I got home it was close to dinner time so we decided to go out for dinner.  I was glancing through the Happenings Book we have, trying to decide where to go and saw a buy one get one free at the Mayan Adventures.  We went there once, about 4 years ago, and were so unimpressed I've never had the desire to go back.  I've heard the food has improved and thought the kids might get a kick out of the diving and Brodie agreed.  The kids loved playing on the rock dragons in front of the restaurant.  After climbing up stairs all the way to the 4th floor, we sat down and opened our menus.  If you go, keep in mind about $2-$3 of each meal is the price of the show.  That makes their prices more reasonable.  Really $8 for a kids meal?  Luckily we had the buy one get one free so we got out of there for $34 including tip.  Brodie and I each got he carnitas, which were surprisingly good!  Not something I would crave or go back specifically for, but they were good.  And there really was a lot of pork, more than you would need for the 3 small tortillas they give you, but I was full after only 2 and we brought the rest home.  We had the kids split a chicken tenders meal and Spencer ate 2 pieces and a few fries while Tessa ate only 1 and a few fries.  Clara had some rice and beans and pork.  Maybe it was all the chips they gave us at first, but we were all stuffed when we left.  And more than that the kids LOVED the shows.  Every 15 minutes they have a different show.  The first one was a really cool diving show with about 5 divers playing drums and diving off the "cliff" into the water.  Some of them even swung from the ceiling and then did their flips and spins from the ceiling down to the water.  They were quite talented!  There was also a girl who spun batons with fire on the ends, one who hung down from the ceiling on some material doing the whole wrapping and spinning herself down routine, and one did acrobatics on a hoop hanging from the ceiling.  I was very impressed with the shows and watched most of them myself.  The kids were mesmerized.  Tessa was only scared during the "monsoon" act with the loud thunder and flashes (lightning).  If you think of the prices including a small fee for the show, this is a place I could see us going once a year or so.  It really was fun!  When we came home Spencer ran outside to practice jumping off the garden wall so he can be a diver at Mayan when he grows up.  I totally forgot to bring my camera here, but if you haven't been before or if it's been a while, I really recommend this place.  I also recommend going a little earlier before it gets too crowded and requesting a table by the edge so you can see while you eat rather than having to put down your food and walk over to the edge every 10 minutes.

Deal for This Is The Place Heritage Park

I've never been to This Is The Place Heritage Park, but I always wonder about going every time I go to the zoo (which is right across the street).  Today's Groupon deal is $4.00 tickets, with a maximum of 4 to purchase.  Regular summer admission is $10 for an adult and $7 for a kid.  Kids 2 and under are free.

Based on their website it is a large park with an old village you can walk through as well as a Native American area and a petting zoo.  You can take a "train" tour (it's not really a train but carts pulled by a train replica looking tractor) to see everything before setting out on foot.  The admission price also includes some fun things for kids like a mini-train ride (on rails), a pony ride, and a take home craft.  I'll give it a try for a $12 Friday fun day!  If you want here is a link to the Groupon deal, but it's only good for another 8 hours:  http://gr.pn/kSqWvk

A beautiful, sunny day with a picnic, books and motocross.

I am sooooooo loving the sunny days!  And so are my kids.  Our library books were due and I like to make the library trips extra exciting for my kids so they will associate fun and excitement with the library as long as possible.  With the beautiful weather, I decided we'd have a picnic at the library before going inside.  I brough the kids lunchables (which we rarely eat so it's a special treat for them) and Kool-Aid squeezers.  We went to Sandy library and set up a blanket just to the South side of the library on the grass under a nice tree.  Clara had a blast crawling around and trying to steal the other kids' food and drinks, despite the food I brought for her.  As soon as they were done eating the kids took off running all over the place.  There's a field to the South of the library that they had fun running through.  They also found a bunch of "blowing flowers", which are dried up dandelions, and made a bunch of wishes as they blew the seeds all over.  My favorite wish of the day was when Spencer said, "I wish the world was made of Trix yogurt and brussel sprouts!"  Yes, that's my boy.

After I put the garbage and blanket back in the car, we headed inside to return our books and use the restroom before continuing on to the kids section.  Once there my kids ran right to the Dora and superhero books while I meandered around finding some better stories for my kids.  Then we sat around and read a few books on the floor before choosing which books and movies to bring home this time.  When we got home I put Clara down for a nap and let the older kids watch a movie they got from the library while I laid on the couch with the breeze blowing in through the windows and actually read a book.  It was an easy read and I finished the book in about 3 hours, which I actually had fairly uninterrupted, before Brodie was on the border of exploding.  Sweet husband managed to be patient enough to let me finish.

We stopped at yummy Cafe Rio for dinner where we got the kids quesadillas, rice, and black beans.  Clara is also a fan of black beans and I also got her a tortilla to eat.  We usually go for the salads, but this time Brodie got the beef burrito enchilada style and I went with the salmon tacos.  You can never go wrong at Cafe Rio!  Then we headed out to Rocky Mountain Raceway for some Motocross.

Now I have spent plenty of time at Rocky Mountain Raceway and I'm embarrassed to say I never knew they had a separate motocross area on the East side of the parking lot.  I assumed they would be covering the oval track with dirt and racing there.  Now I realize that was dumb of me to think with the expense of setting up the dirt tracks just to tear it down at the end of the night.  In any case, that's what I had in mind.  We have the Seven Peaks Pass of All Passes that included a couple Motocross Races and I like my kids to experience a lot of different things, so we went.  I brought sunblock, blankets, jackets, and the diaper bag.  I remember they didn't allow outside water and we always tried our best to hide water bottles so I managed to get a couple hidden in my diaper bag, that they didn't see as they searched it.  But I saw someone else coming in carrying a water bottle and the lady just had her remove the label so I'm wondering if they will now allow outside water in or if she just made an exception?  I'll find out for sure next time.

When we got inside the motocross area there were only 2 sections of bleachers that were completely full.  There were as many people standing around as there were sitting down.  And I was carrying my 11 month old baby, diaper bag, blankets, and jackets.  And the kids wanted me to lift them up to see.  I was a bit disappointed.  We squeezed the two older kids to an opening at the fence and I put the blankets on the ground for them to sit on.  I ended up sitting behind them on the dirt with Clara for most of the time.  We could only see a few parts of the track from the ground, but it was enough for the kids.  Over my 32 years of watching races I've learned they are much for fun and exciting if you know something of the drivers/racers or if you at least choose someone to cheer for.  I didn't have those so it wasn't that exciting.  The kids on little dirt bikes were cute and Tessa was excited to see a couple of girls racing.  Clara was squirmy as all can be and dropped her toys a few times in the dirt, but she's a 3rd child so I didn't really care.  When the mosquitoes came out I changed Clara into pajamas and put jackets on the older kids.  After about an hour and a half of being there the kids had had enough and so had I so we left.

We experienced something different and spent the nice evening outside together as a family, but the next time I go to Rocky Mountain Raceway will be for the oval track.  And you can bet I'll be there this summer.

Fun & Exercise at Gymcats

My sister was telling me about Gymcats at the Point (just North of Thanksgiving Point).  Her girls love going there during Open Gym so we went along.

Gymcats is a full-functioning gym instructing kids of all ages and levels.  However, they also offer Open Gym time where you can just stop by or drop off your kids (depending on their age) and let them play.  They have open gym for teenagers one night during the week and on Friday afternoons for a couple hours for kids over 6 years old for $8 a person.  We went during preschool open gym which is for kids 6 and under on Friday afternoons from 12:00 - 1:15 and costs $5 a child.  They have a very large open floor to play and do gymnastics on.  They also have quite a few balance beams of various heights, a small rock climbing wall off the foam blocks, lots of bars of various heights, and lots of the foam wedges and rolls to do all softs of gymnastic tricks.  There was one instructor from the gym in there who showed the kids a few things as well.

Tessa used to take gymnastics and loved it, but we dropped it to do dance.  I'm surprised at how much she has forgotten and her inhibitions since she stopped.  She refused to walk on the balance beam without holding my hands and she was scared to jump in the foam blocks.  She would only slide down the mat into the blocks.  Her favorite part was the trampoline.  I find it funny that I paid money for her to jump on the trampoline over half the time we were there when we have one in our own backyard?

Spencer loved playing in the foam blocks the most.  My sister, Janelle, was so kind to keep helping him get on the rope swing and swing himself into the blocks.  Then he would laughingly complain he was stuck in the blocks as he tried to swim his way out and do it again.  He finally got brave enough to jump off a foam pedastal into the blocks but never got the courage to jump off the board up high like Bailee kept doing.  I couldn't believe how Bailee would just climb up and jump off without the slightest reservation.  That girl is fearless!  I wish Spencer could learn from his younger girl cousin!  I also wish I had taken a picture of Bailee jumping off the "high dive" into the blocks so you could see how high it is and how brave she is!  Here's a picture of all the kids playing in the foam blocks.

The kids also spent some time playing on the low bars, that even Tessa could reach.  And they loved climbing up to the rings and holding on just long enough to jump off the foam tower.  Once again my awesome sister helped them with the rings while I chased after my little mover of a baby.  Here are some more pictures I took of the kids:

And one of Clara, who wasn't using any gymnastic apparatus, but was dang cute anyway.

My kids ended up having a lot of fun and got out a lot of energy while we were here.  I don't think they would have had as much fun without their cousins, so I'm glad we went with them.  Maybe we'll have to go a little more so my kids can become a little more brave.

Deal at Red Butte Gardens

Today's Groupon is a deal for 2 tickets to Red Butte Gardens for $8.00.  It specifies adult tickets and I don't know if they can be used for children or not, but regular admission is $8.00 for an adult and $6.00 for children 3-12 (free for under 3).  It's also free for U students and only $6 for U faculty/staff.  I've never actually been here but recently a friend was telling me about it.  She said it is absolutely beautiful to walk through the gardens as an adult or child.  They also have hints and tips for gardening flowers as well as vegetables.  In addition there is a really fun children's garden with statues (including the tin man), a sandbox, a fountain (like a splashpad but just one big fountain and a few snakes spitting water), and all sorts of wildlife including birds, rabbits, and snakes.  They allow outside food and it's supposedly a great place for a picnic as well.  Here's a link to the deal http://gr.pn/mL4geI