Best Vacation Ever-Utah

The first part of June I spent getting ready for and serving at YW camp for our ward.   It was alot of work and even though camp got cancelled halfway through we still had a good time.  Thank goodness for my mom who came out to take care of the kiddos for me since Alan had to work!  Grandmas are the best!    

The boys did a little t-ball sports league in June which I don't think I have any pictures of but it was sure fun to watch them "learn" the skills of baseball!  

I spoke in Church for Father's Day this year...needless to say I am pretty sure I cried through most of it!  I'm so grateful for the wonderful husband and father that Alan is!  

The end of June we headed on our 2 week vacation!  I wasn't sure how we would do traveling for that long but it was honestly the most enjoyable trip we have made so far as a family!  We started the trip traveling to Denver where we stopped for the night and were excited to get our first glimpse of the mountains! 

Then on the way to Richfield we stopped Fruita Colorado for lunch and a visit to the Dinosaur Museum there.  The kids loved it!

This one roared and spit water at people...Naomi was so not a fan of this one, she wouldn't go near it!

Digging for bones.

We visited with Alan's grandma for a day and then headed to visit with my cousin and her family. We had such a good time visiting with them, playing games and just relaxing!  I wish they lived closer!! We also got to see my brother and sister.  One evening we spent some time at this super fun water park they have in Springville.

We spent a few hours one afternoon at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi and got some fun pictures of the kids.

We also visited their dinosaur exhibits...do you see a theme here?   This lady gave them some dinosaur bones that were only touched by the people excavating them...to they are the second people to touch them!

Blurry picture, but I love how tiny Isaac looks compared to this dinosaur's leg!

They had a fun water exhibit and Peter of course lined up all the dinosaurs he found...

Naomi was happy with anything she could climb on.  There were a few exhibits that she clung to me on so I'm guessing they were a bit overwhelming for her.

And the megaldon!  I can't even begin to tell you how excited Peter was to see this!  It made his day!  I am pretty sure there was an exclamation of this is the best vacation ever upon seeing this!  Which was actually a very common phrase on our trip!

Alan getting in on the action.

On our way to Idaho we stopped in at temple square and to see my Great Aunt Norma and it was so good to see her and Bob.  You couldn't find nicer more loving people anywhere!

 It was neat to see the recognition dawn with the boys as they saw places we see when we watch conference or have talked about before!

 How can you not love this picture?  Who better to look up to?!

rain, rain go away

Once it started raining in May It didn't stop until July!  I was the camp director for our ward and this is what our garage looked like when we came home since I had no place to air out tarps and tents! Good thing we have a pretty open garage and a huge fan!  Also so grateful to my mom who came out to help with the kids while I was gone and Alan was at work!  

The kids enjoying lunch at our favorite plant nursery! They have so many fun plants and they are so helpful!

Now, if the rain will stop maybe our yard will stop looking like a marsh....

May

We started off May with a 5K run at the temple!  It was free and family friendly so we thought why not?  The kiddos were very excited to start the race, Peter even took off running with Alan, but once he got tired, he was done.  We will just say that we all made it across the finish line, some happier than others about it!  But I don't quit, so my kids are learning fast that that is not an option for them either!  One day they will thank me, right?!

We celebrated Alan's birthday!  The kiddos love shopping for presents and usually they do pretty good.  There was a slight misunderstanding though when dad did not want to share the water guns Isaac got him....apparently they thought since there was more than one they were entitled to one. ha

We got our first batch of spinach!  I love it!  The spring has been unusually cool and wet so our early crops look great!

Spider girl....too bad her eyes did not match up with the eyes on the mask!

We went for our annual day at Worlds of Fun.  It was a beautiful day, only a few sprinkles.  

Naomi was able to ride more of the rides this year which to be honest was a little freaky.  Alan and I both sat back anxiously as we buckled her in and the plane took off!  But she of course sat perfectly still and loved it!

This is by far the boys favorite ride!  It takes you up in the air and drops down.  They giggle the whole way!

I have been wanting to take the kids to the fire station forever to do a tour.  So I finally set it up and we had some friends join us.

The firefighter did a great job with them and they all loved it.  Here they are learning about the "pig" tool they use.

I had never thought of this before but the end of the presentation was all about the kids getting comfortable with the sight, sounds and lights to expect from a firefighter is there is a fire.  I never even thought of the fact that to a child they could look pretty scary.  So for no other reason, I'm glad we went!

I took the kids strawberry picking at a local farm.  We had so much fun and the kiddos did really good at picking only red ones this year! And surprisingly they were so excited to pick they didn't even think about eating them until the end!

And then they couldn't get enough!

The boys helped me make up some jam!

Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere!

Cousin visit

Alan's sister and her two girls came to visit in April and we were able to find some fun things to do even with the rain.

I don't know why, but the snake house always seems to be a favorite stop at the zoo.

 The new playground at the zoo is so fun, where else can you ride a hippo?

 Peter is going to be such a good daddy some day, he just loves holding the babies!

We always love having cousins come visit and it was super fun for Naomi to have girls to play with!