Girls Night In

A couple of weeks ago the boys went to a Jazz game. Unfortunately they lost, but Aiden and Thad had a good time. However since the last two games Thad went to the Jazz lost. We are starting the think he is bad luck.

Taylor and I have a wonderful evening. We had manicures and pedicures, did our hair, ate cookie dough and watch chick flicks. Of course the only color we could paint our toes was pretty princess pink. I love having Girls Night In with Taylor!!

Happy Halloween

Both Aiden and Taylor understood Halloween this year. They were so excited. I think AIden wore 4 different costumes.

1. Ninja Turtle

2. Jedi Knight

3. Cowboy

4. Ninja

He finally decided on being a cowboy, wearing Papa Bray's cowboy hat. Taylor was Tinkerbell. I stayed home and answered the door while Thad and the kids went on a candy rampage throughout the neigborhood. I think they made it 10 houses before it was time to come home.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Catching Up

So I guess I took a six month break from the blogging world. Here is my attempt to catch up on what has been going on.

Sorry for having so many posts. I will try to put them in order. Wish me luck!

Lagoon

About a week ago, Jordan came to visit us. We had an amazing time playing games, hanging out at the cabin and going to Lagoon. I absolutely love going to amusement parks. Jordan and I sepnt the afternoon going on the big rides. I really liked Wicked and the spider. Wicked shots riders straight up 11o feet and then drops 110 feet straight down before going through a corkscrew and other roller coaster hills. I loved the spider because we were able to go down the first hill on the roller coaster backwards and then the cart spins.

Jordan is an expert on roller coasters, so I was worried Lagoon would not compare to all the other coasters he has been on. However, I think Wicked ended up in his top 5.

Later in the afternoon Thad and kids joined us. Aiden loved the rides. Taylor not so much. Dad and Taylor on Puff the Magic Dragon. Everytime we went on this ride Taylor told us "Too much, no more"

Aiden had to ride on the tiger. This is Aiden after I have taken way too many pictures and he is just trying to humor me by giving his fake smile.

This is the one ride I refuse to go on. Jordan and Thad went on both Re-entry and Blast Off.

Taylor and Aiden waiting in line for the boats. At the very last minute, Taylor backed out and Aiden went alone.

I remember riding these boats when I was little.

Taylor loved the flowers.

Aiden flying on a bee.

Just like Papa and flying an airplane.

Taylor's first time on Puff the Magic Dragon. She looks pretty happy.

Dad, Aiden and Jordan.

Here is Taylor trying to climb off the tiger, which by the way did not move, while the ride was moving. I don't think she is ready for rides yet. Maybe next year.

Boating at East Canyon

I know it is already the middle of July, but we just barely got the boat de-winterized a couple weeks ago and this is our first trip to the lake. This was also the first trip that we were able to have with two happy kids. They are finally old enough to enjoy the boat and not freak out about the life jackets.
We were going to go to Jordanelle, but we did not have the insurance info on the boat, so they turned us away, but only after they collected their entrance fee into the park. Anyway we took another hour in the car to drive to East Canyon, both kids got their naps in during the drive. It was amazing. The water was great temperature and the water was at max capacity. I have not seen the water level this high in years.

We had an amazing tube ready for this trip. It was the size of our car and had to be tied down on the boat because a huge air compressor took 2 hours to blow the thing up. Unfortunately the key word is HAD. We filled the tube entirely up at home the night before, not thinking about how as air temp rises it expands. Right as we got to the boat dock we the whole thing ripped apart, we filled it up a little too high for this trip. The water was choppy so it would have been a great time tubing. I have high hopes that we can fix it and go tubing next time.

We decided to knee board and wake board instead. We even got Trent to try, unfortunately I did not get my camera out in time to catch this extraordinary event. Thad went knee boarding for the first time and of course had to show off to the rest of us who could barely get up.

Annie and I both got up on wake boarding, even though I only lasted a few wonderful moments. I am determined to be great before the end of the season. We had a great day at the lake. Thanks Trent and Annie for coming with us!

Happy Birthday America!

We had an amazing Fourth of July Weekend, good food, good friend and family and a good time! To explain why we celebrate the fourth, we told the kids that is was America's birthday. Taylor spent the whole weekend singing "Happy Birthday" to America.

Friday evening, we had a pre-party where we put everyone to work helping clean up the yard, making the cake and decorations, and just enjoying spending time with each other. The kids loved it too. Nana brought over a purple porcupine sprinkler and a blow-up plastic pool. Add a little slide to the pool and we've got trouble.

Annie and I decided to make a two-tier stripped cake covered in red, white and blue fondant. In order to make the cake it took four days and countless hours, but it was worth it. We made our own marshmallow fondant, dyed the cake and decorated it ourselves. Plus the cake was delicious as well as beautiful.I can't wait until the next party to see what we can up with. I think Aiden has already asked for a Spiderman cake for his 5th birthday party, even though he has vowed never to have another birthday again. This is entirely another story, but somehow he is picked up that getting older is not all that it is cracked up to be.

For the last few years, I have banned having the 4th at my house due to the firework display that takes place. We have a tradition on making "box of fires" or "box of doom". depending on who you talk to, which includes dismantling the fireworks to create one large firework. The is great until a mortar shell or other large exploding firework, that is meant to shoot up in the air, ends up blowing up on the ground right next to the kids and hitting my neighbors cars or houses. However, this year turned out really tame. We had only one box of fire, and it was really nice, no large explosions. I have not looked out front yet, so who nows what kind a mess we have.

Thanks everyone for your help putting on this amazing party!

Daddy Day

Aiden did not have school this week, so Thad took the entire week off to spend with his son. They had a lot of plans which, unfortunately had to be post-poned due to my surgery. However, they did get to spend an entire day with Alan and Alexander in Park City.

Due to the rain they decided not to go camping, but went fishing instead. Aiden got a brand new fishing pole, compliments of Nana, for this event. They had quite a few bites but no fish to bring home, phew! I have no idea what to do with a fish if they caught it.

They also went down the Alpine Coaster, not the alpine slide. This is a new tobaggon style coaster. Thad and Aiden had to hold on tight as they went whizzing down the mountain on nearly 4,000 feet of curves, bends and loops. Aiden wanted to go again, he has no fear. This is a picture of Aiden and Alexander after getting off the Alpine Coaster.

It turned out to be a very fun day for the boys! Next time the girls want to come too.