Our Trip, Day 2, Stop 2

I forget the name of this place. Something about Heritage or something. So I call it Pioneer Village. I think it's so awesome they were able to take all these amazing pioneer era buildings and move them all to one fantastic place. The kids loved it too.

We first stopped in on a small one room cabin that housed a family of 10! That's right people. One room. Ten people. Someone told us the size of the homes didn't necessarily depend on ones income, but the amount of lumber available in the area.

The kids learned about laundry, pre washing machines.

I somehow only took pictures of them washing and blinking.

The kids in this family of ten slept in the loft. They had to go outside and up the ladder to get there.


And of course they didn't have indoor bathrooms, which Jared really loved. He wanted to use the outhouse so bad! Silly kid wants to use any public bathroom he passes.


And here we are on the steps of the church/schoolhouse.


Upstairs had a benches and a stage.


Downstairs was the school room.






There is a "train" you can ride around the town, see some cool buildings, and learn a little history along the way. They kids loved the ride. I did too.




The kids and their poor chapped lips. Utah always does that to them.


Abby had chapped cheeks, but Photoshop worked its magic on them.

And this adorable little nugget is six months old today. Not the day of this photo, but the day I'm typing this. Six months! Can't believe it.

And our last stop of the day. We learned how wool goes from sheep to clothes. Jared was looking forward to this all day. He barley made the age cutoff for carding (combing) the wool, so he was a happy boy.


I loved this place. It's always entertaining learning a little bit about history.

Our Trip, Day 2, Stop 1

To do list:

1. Go to the dinosaur museum.

This is a dark, dark tunnel you can walk through and all you see is stars. Disorienting, but cool!


Happy dino.

Have I mentioned I hate florescent lighting? I can never make it look right.

Jared LOVED this cool water/sand table. You could build dams and rivers and then wash the dinos away. I bet Nathan would have loved this part. Hopefully next time we will be there with him (he was home working) and show him all our cool discoveries.



Madie was having a grumpy moment. But she loved hanging out with Grandma.


Madie carried that ball around the whole time.





I don't know why, but I love this picture. Maybe it's the blue.

Or the giant fish about to bite my sons hand off.

Or not.






Then they played in a sand pit and excavated dino bones. We actually have a park near us you can do this at, but they thought it was a way cooler thing to do on vacation.




Here's Kayla. I somehow managed not to take any pictures of Amanda. How did that happen?


And my beautiful baby.


We loved this place!

Our Trip, Day 1

Guess what these two munchkins are waiting around for.




Our trip to Utah!

They were seriously so good! They helped me pack and got their own carry-on bags ready with quiet toys and snacks, then they just played and were all excited to head out to the airport where Grandma Susie was meeting us. That's right people, my mother in law got up early in the morning, hopped on a plane, flew here, waited around in the airport for us to arrive, then helped us check in, get through security and onto the plane and flew back with us. How nice was that!?! There is just no way I could handle flying by myself with a small baby, an often times cranky three year old and keep an eye out for Jared all at the same time. So thank you, thank you, thank you Susie! You're my hero. And we had a great time!

Our trip pics to come...

The Party

We all know Madie loves pink and princesses and everything girly, so of course she decided to have a "Pink" party. It was really the easiest kid party ever. We had a few snacks, a cake, a water balloon fight, and general running amuck play time. And kids love to run amuck so it wasn't much work for me.

A Barbie princess was the guest of honor.

We didn't tell her she'd be eaten at the end.

Madie has found a new love in water balloons. Here she is sopping wet and ready for cake.






Madie has always loved and adored her Uncle Thomas. When she was a baby she'd always want him to play with and hold her. Something just clicked with those two. And he was nice enough to come to come hang out with loud little boogers running amuck just so he could be at Madie's birthday party.

And this is Madie

my big 3 year old!


We went out for ice cream first, but all she wanted for her third birthday was a pink princess bike.

And that's what she got. She LOVES it!

I just love the way she looks at her feet to make sure she's doing it right. Funny.


We raised Jared training wheels the same day. A lot. He got scared but tried really hard. But as you can see by Nathan's hand on Jared's neck, he needed help. A lot of help. So we put them back down.

In the mean time Madie was as happy as a clam on her new pink princess bike. She even changed into that shirt to match it.


And Nathan sat on the curb looking extra scrumptious with that cutie pie little baby in his arms. Makes me want to have ten more with him. Did I just say that? Don't let him know that.


When Madie got tired of trying to figure out the peddles she'd just walk her bike around for a bit...


...while Nathan sat on the sidelines basking in baby glow...


...and watching Jared smile big with relief that we put his training wheels back down.


All in all it was a very happy third birthday for Madie.

This is

Jared

He is incredibly cute and adorable.


Loves making goofy faces.



And is very interested in watching his baby sister trying to drink a can of Coke.

Lets talk about

Abby


She is incredibly cute and adorable...and has a fascination with soda cans.


They're shiny.


They're smooth.


They make funny noises.

And it's the only "big people food" she has ever acted like she wants to taste.