Our Recent Adventures - Day 4

Talk about tired kiddos!

After Hogle Zoo and This is the Place, they were plumb tuckered out! But we weren't done ~ we had a relaxing morning and then drove down to Thanksgiving Point. (Or we shall call the drive another name that rhymes with 'bell.')

Ok, I live in a small city. Pretty much zero traffic. I HATE driving farther south than Salt Lake. The traffic wasn't too bad but they are seriously tearing out the exit at Thanksgiving Point. There were some bad words said. Sorry, Mom.

They started out okay!

howdy!

We went to the dinosaur museum that Grandma has been telling us about, actually called The Museum of Ancient Life. Seriously cool place. 

awww..

 

Seriously too many things in 4 days. Can anyone say "Major Meltdown?"

No?

Let me show the proof.

at the sand tank...shaking the sand off and whining

I want my mommy!

better yet - I want Grandma!

The Girl did well for about 30 minutes, then the whining started. She played in the water/sand tank for about 2 minutes before she started whining in earnest and trying to get the yucky sand off her hands. When her momma wouldn't hold her, (I have TWO kids who needed attention, baby.) she curled up with her blankie on Grandma. But she wouldn't sleep. At one point, she got out to play with a display and threw everything down in disgust. It really was humorous, but I did feel bad for her. She tried and tried to keep up!

The Boy, on the other hand, got sillier and sillier!

Need proof of that?

Here you go.

swim away!

There are no words....

We played in the sand, uncovering dinosaurs, despite the constant unhappiness that sand was in The Girl's flip flops.

We gave up at that point and headed out to Cabela's.

The Girl didn't make it out of the parking lot at Thanksgiving Point. I decided that she needed to sleep as long as possible so I stayed in the car while Grandma and The Boy went in with my camera.

the moose

Now, some quick explanation. I love moose. I look for them everywhere. The Boy shot pictures of the displays for his dad, but this one was for me. Thanks, my little man!

The Girl woke up as the others were headed out, so we went back for a quick snack and headed north. We stopped at Five Guys Burgers for dinner and then.... yummy cupcakes!

yum!

Thanks for a fabulous trip, Grandma! We love you!

Our Recent Adventures - Day 3, Part 2

So, here we go to Hogle Zoo!

awww... aren't they so cute?

Since it is just across the street we really had no trouble getting there! Since it was just about lunch time, we got a great parking spot! Yeah!

The zoo I remember is no more. Everything pretty much has changed, which isn't always a bad thing and it is not always a good thing!

The Girl was pretty tired when we got there and I don't think she really enjoyed it the way I was hoping!

We did get to see lots of cool animals!

New baby elephant - aww!

The Girl and a big cat!

The Boy and a Giraffe

 The kiddos posed for lots of pictures on the zoo statutes AND they got to ride on the carousel.

she liked this horse better!

look at momma....or at the kids just outta the frame.

yeah, The Girl didn't like this one.

The Girl on the carousel

The Boy on the carousel

The kiddos were starting to melt down so we hopped on the train and played for a minute in the playground. Then back to the car. The Girl didn't make it out of the parking lot.

Grandma and the kiddos on the train.

at the playground

major meltdown of The Girl. oh and the cats.

We picked up Papa Murphy's pizza on the way home and crashed!

Our Recent Adventures - Day 3, Part 1

Day 3 was the BIG day!

We had 2 big locations to explore and now, looking back, we seriously needed more time at these places.

After a yummy breakfast, we sprayed the kiddos down with SPF 50 and headed to This is the Place Heritage Park. 

(The last time I had been there was YEARS and YEARS ago when it was just a couple of cabins and the monument. It is NOT the same! We had done some research and found out that they had a "train" and pony rides. That was our plan - ride the train and the ponies and leave. Good plan, right? We were going to have to find someplace yummy to eat lunch because neither Grandma or I could stomach eating at our next stop, Hogle Zoo.)

We got there behind 2 school buses (not good) and started to plan how we would do this quickly. We wandered until we found the pony rides. 

The Girl

The Boy

All The Girl wanted to do!

The Girl screamed/whined the whole time and wanted off, but suffered through. She just wanted to pet the pony. She was also disappointed that the pony was NOT pink. The Boy had a blast!

Next, we hopped the train for a ride around the park.

Cropped to not show Grandma's cool visor.

We REALLY enjoyed this part! In fact, we did it twice!

What we really did was ride it around to see the sights - then we rode back up to the "Hotel" for lunch. Now, it was about 11, which is a bit early for all of us! The kiddos really enjoyed the hot dogs and the pulled pork sandwiches were yummy, too!

waiting!

After lunch, we visited one of the homes that had hands-on displays. The Boy worked! He plowed (?),  milked, and saw some other kids beating rugs and laundry.  Wish he was that motivated to work at home.

Working?!

The Boy had a fabulous time! The Girl's feelings were a bit mixed. Grandma and I wish we had planned more time for this!
Then off to Hogle Zoo!

Our Recent Adventures - Day 1 & 2

The kiddos and I have done nothing but play since school got out! Yippee!!

One of the first things we did was plan a trip to the Land Southward.

Yep, we went to spend time with Grandma who lives in Layton.

We planned on heading down on Sunday but that soon changed to Saturday. We left home early and had plenty of time to get there!  We loaded Grandma in the minivan (against her wishes really) and kept heading south.  We had a yummy lunch at Chin Wah and then we stopped at the Living Planet Aquarium in south Salt Lake. The Boy and I had been here about 4 years ago and had loved it. Grandma had never been and The Girl had no idea what was happening!

Coolness was to be had there! We loved it. The Girl got tired about 3/4 of the way through and really should have napped in the stroller but she just whined her way around the rest of the exhibits and tried to steal the pink fluffy turtle from the gift shop. Following are some of the pix that I took. (REALLY bad lighting and sometimes I was more distracted than the kiddos! Sorry!)

Looking in a tank - check out the fingers!

petting the stingrays

my fav - the Lion fish

the sea horse

Grandma and the kiddos checking out giant fish

After browsing the aquarium for a while and participating in an education class (The Boy got to have a bird hop across his arms!), we headed for home. The Girl sacked out before we hit the freeway and The Boy was really quiet!

One of the bonuses of staying with Grandma is the treats - there are ALWAYS treats at Grandma's house.

The kiddos started with the Creamies! YUMMY!

Now, I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of The Boy, but you get the idea!

We had homemade pizza that night. Yummy!

The next day (Sunday), we went to church with Grandma and then drove to Logan for a birthday party - at which I took no pictures! Boo! It was fabulous to see the cousins and eat some seriously delish food! Then back to Grandma's for a well deserved sleep!

Yes, We Have Been Busy!

No more than anyone else, I guess. I would enjoy having some down time.

THIS POST HAS A TON OF PIX! Just a warning.

So, let's recap my last two or three weeks.

OK- here it goes.

May 21: The Girl has a tumbling year end 'recital.'

She did great! We will so miss our "tumble rumble" class. Thanks to Mandy at All Star Athletics!

May 23: After school, the Primary had an activity and asked if I could come and help. Of course, The Boy was there and, because The Hubby was working, so was The Girl. Hilarity followed.

May 25: The Girl and I went to the last day of Tumbling. I took lots of pictures. The Girl felt strongly that she must wear the pink tutu! Here is one of my favs.

 

Later that day, we were off to Tae kwon do for more practice.

The Girl is just the cutest with her little nunchakus.
 

May 26: Pack Meeting in which they had a space derby. Oh yeah, I put my foot down and did NOTHING but provide the craft paint. All The Boy and his dad. The Boy led the color guard and did fairly well on the racing - came in almost always in second. Since this was just a race 'for fun' the boys were awarded stars and stickers according to where they placed in each race. FABULOUS!

May 27: Movie premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2. We all performed at the movie theater. The Girl was too cute. The Boy did great on his weapons and traditional form. The Hubby and I tried to wrangle all the kids. Fun. One of these days, I really need to share the story of how we started in martial arts. To sum up - Kung Fu Panda 1. 'Nuff said for now.

May 30: Memorial Day in Wyoming. The Hubby's mother and brother are buried in Wyoming so we usually run over there and decorate their graves. With the exception of 2 years, I think it rained, snowed or slushed on us. Great. It really is nice to see the extended family and enjoy the FABULOUS scenery.

We drive home by way of Idaho Falls, where my older sister is buried. Still miss her.

June 1: Last Day of School. Whew! We made it through another year. We now have a 4th grader in the house. Nothing to show you... move on.

June 1: TKD Testing day. Yipee. I think I was looking forward to it being over. Here are some highlights of the kiddos. The Boy didn't take any pictures of The Hubby and I testing. Thank heaven.

The Girl sparring.

The Girl getting her ORANGE belt.

The little ones get their belts the same day as testing. The rest of us have to wait.

Breaking boards - back elbow I believe.

Self defense - The Boy is being attacked - get away!

We all passed. Yeah! The Hubby and I did two of everything so we earned 2 belts instead of just one. We are now YELLOW belts (skipped ORANGE). The Boy is a BROWN belt. He is getting closer and closer to his black belt. He is still so excited about TKD. It is so great to see his enthusiasm for this activity.

The last two days have been filled with cleaning and errands and the weird adjustments that have to be made when one schedule stops and another begins.

Doesn't matter! We are all ready for SUMMER! I just wish it would get here.