WAHOO - WE LOVE LAGOON!

Actually, that's quite the understatement at our house. We've been to Lagoon a few times on my Mom and Dad's Stake Lagoon Day, but up until this year, we've just decide to ride on the rides we had free tickets for. Last year, the kids literally were drooling watching all the other kids ride the rides and we decided this was the year to buy them tickets to ride any kiddie ride they wanted. Needless to say, it was a huge success.

One of the first rides was the helicopters. Hailey was a bit apprehensive at first, when she realized that pushing or pulling the bar in front of her made her go up and down, but before long she was smiling and giggling and of course wanted to ride it again right away.


Zach loved the helicopters too and always wanted to be in the "camoflage" one.


I again forgot my camera, so my thanks goes out to my sister who dutifully took pictures of not only her own kids, but mine as well - thanks Michelle! This was one of my favorites - don't they look excited to ride this water plane? This one went up and down too, much to their delight.


Our tickets actually included a few free adult rides as well. The Musik Express is a must for our family, having been there while I was growing up. I remember riding it every time we went to Lagoon. The boys love it too and persuaded almost everyone to ride with them at some point. Aunt Kylie was the first victim and I couldn't stop laughing as we watched them go around and around with big smiles on their faces.


Since the younger ones weren't too excited about the speed of the Musik Express, Nana took them back to the kiddie rides and they rode a few while we were finishing up.


It's not surprising that one of the most favorite rides was the swings. My kids love to swing, not matter when and where we are. I watch them outside - swinging for hours on our swingset, so when they wanted to ride this ride over and over, I was not at all shocked.


One of the best things about this trip to Lagoon was being able to go with family. Zach and Hailey have cousins that are fairly close to their ages, so it really made it fun to go with each other, and then with their cousins on rides. Zach and Ashton were big boys in the picture above and wanted to go in separate swings, but sit near each other. Branson and Hailey on the other hand, decided they wanted to go together the first time. They were so cute together and it was fun to watch them enjoying the rides with each other.


Everyone took a ride on the Tilt-a-Wirl because we had free tickets for that too. Jeremiah took the boys the first time and although Ashton didn't like it, Zach had a blast! Of course, it seems that Jeremiah was having a pretty good time too!


I'm extremely surprised at how well my kids did. Both of them rode a few rides they weren't quite sure about, but decided to try anyway. Hailey found out that a few of them weren't ones she wanted to do again, but I was very proud of her for giving them a shot. Zach on the other hand loved every single ride and wanted to ride everything over and over. I've been really impressed with how much he's come out of his shell the last few years - not only socially, but mentally too. He's much more brave and willing to try new things. I really am proud of him.

So in summary, we had a great day! We were there from 11am to 9pm and literally had to drag the kids away. I would have guessed that after a hot day of standing in lines and riding rides that they would have fallen right to sleep on the ride home. But both were so excited about the day that they literally chatted with us and each other almost all the way home. Hailey finally fell asleep during the last 10 minutes and Zach made it all the way. What a fun day we had and we all can't wait to go again next year. Even though we were all tired and exhausted the next day, it was well worth it! Thanks Nana and Papa for sharing your tickets with us - we all had a great time!

Cool in the Pool

Despite the above 90 degree temperatures lately, we hadn't had time to pull out the pool. Until last week that is. After walking around the Hill AFB Museum, the kids decided they needed to cool down quick. So we inflated the pool, set up the awning, and let them have a blast.

Do they look like they're having fun or what?


We couldn't resist pulling out the pool noodles, even though they were really intended for much bigger pools. The kids had a blast with them.


Since this was our first time with the pool, it meant the first time in the kids' new swimming suits. They were so cute, I couldn't help taking a few pictures of them. Here's Hailey in her princess suit.


And Zachary in his big boy swimming suit. He's getting old enough now that he has a hard time deciding if he wants a character suit or one like his Dad's that's just plain and like he puts it "like the big boys wear." He decided on the plain one this year, so we had to choose a fun shirt to wear with it, which makes him more than happy.


What a fun afternoon of watching them play in the pool. I'll admit that there were a few splashes and squirts from the water gun that kept us adults nice and cool as well.

Welcome summer, we're looking forward to many more hot and sunny days that require us to cool down with some water!

I Love To See The Temple

Yesterday, we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was absolutely beautiful! We were lucky to choose a day when not many other people were there, so we were through the whole thing in a little over an hour. A big contrast to our Draper Temple Open House experience of 4 hours! We'll never go on a school holiday again, that's for sure.

We are lucky enough to have Jeremiah's parents and brother visit us this week and decided it would be fun to go all together to the open house. Our kids are usually very active and loud, but they must understand a little bit about the importance of the temple, because they were very good, reverent, and quiet during both this and the last open house we went to. We were very proud of them and gave them a cookie at the end for being so good (ok, they would have gotten a cookie at the reception afterwards anyway, but they don't need to know that).

It was a beautiful day yesterday and the sun was shining. After watching the video, touring the temple, and enjoying a cookie and some water, we headed to the front of the temple to take some pictures. I had seen some beautiful family pictures from our friends' blogs right in front of this fountain and really wanted one of our family there too (thanks for the great idea everyone!).

How beautiful is this temple?


Here's our whole group


I also got a quick picture of just our little family


I don't know what it was about this fountain, but I absolutely loved it.


This is Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Troy


And they wanted one with them and the kids too


The flowers were beautiful and as we were waiting for another group to get done taking pictures, I grabbed this quick one of the kids, it's one of my favorites from yesterday


This is the side of the temple, it looks so majestic standing there


I love the cornerstones of the temple, I guess it has to do with the fact that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our religion, the symbolism is just so strong to me


Hailey and I sat in the back of the car and I snapped this quick picture of her with her little legs crossed - too cute!


Then she caught me and smiled big for the camera


Not to be left out, Zach wanted one of him taken too. He was in the middle seats between Grandma and Troy, so it was hard to get the focus just right



We had a great time and the kids were so good. We're so blessed to have so many temples so near us. What a spiritually uplifting day it was for all of us!

Lehi Round-up Parade

I have bad luck with my camera. Most of the time I forget to grab it when we're heading off to fun places where I'd like to have pictures. Other times I remember it and either forget to use it or the batteries die on me. Never can tell, but this post will be one of much words and few photos since although I did remember my camera, the batteries died on me after two pictures. Just my luck.

Anyway, last week was Lehi's big celebration - The Round Up. It all revolves around the rodeo Thursday-Saturday, but has grown bigger every year. It now includes kids activities, fun at the park, and even a movie one night of the week. We usually don't do a whole ton since the kids are still little, but we do try and do a few things we think they would enjoy.

Jeremiah took them to a Magic Show and Dinosaur Puppet Show on Monday and Tuesday while I was working (long story). I forgot to send the camera with him, but he said they had a wonderful time! Hailey didn't quite understand what was going on at the Magic Show and apparently kept asking "what's taking so long here?" the whole time. But Zach loved it. They both loved the Dinosaur Puppet Show as well since they had all sorts of characters the kids know and love.

On Saturday, we took the kids to the parade. They had a blast watching the floats and grabbing candy that was thrown to them - and there was A LOT of candy thrown to them.





These were actually taken before the parade started. We were there a good half hour early and the kids loved just watching everyone around them while we waited. I fully intended to take some pictures of them grabbing candy, watching the parades, and even some of the beautiful floats, but my batteries lasted through these two pictures then died.

In the absense of pictures, I'll just say that Hailey's favorite part of the parade were the princesses - or city, rodeo, and such royalties that came by on different floats. She also like the dance, gymnastics, and cheerleader groups that came by at different times. She's so funny, she would always point to something and say "Mom look!" Almost as if she'd never seen anything like that before, even though something very similar had just passed us by. Zach's favorite part of the parade was the UVU mascot and the bands that played music. He loved the UVU mascot because he was zip up and down the street on a little motorized scooter and he thought that was the coolest thing ever! He also like all the other things that got thrown out - frisbees, shirts, squishy balls, and even toothbrushes. We came home with a few things, but mostly just candy.

In all, it was a fun week. We had plans to make it to the rodeo too, but with rain and other things that came up, we didn't quite get there. We'll have to make sure that do it next year though. We've all decided that Lehi is a pretty fun place to live.

Hill Air Force Base Museum

This last Wednesday we headed to Ogden for some fun on our family play date. We started out by stopping by Kylie and Jedd's new house - ok, it was just a poured foundation at this point, but it was still exciting to see where their new house will be and to see it actually being built. After that we headed to park down the street for a little picnic lunch and some playing on the playground.

Things got a bit hot, so we decided to head to our main destination - the Hill AFB Museum. The kids just love this place and we love the fact that it's free!

Hailey kept saying, the planes are bigger than me! She was definitely right!


Here's Nana with the kids in front of the "camo" plane - for some reason the kids were on a special look out for the planes painted camoflage.


Our two buds who love to do everything together. They thought this was one of the biggest wheels they had ever seen!


Reach really high and you can touch the propeller!


Once we browsed through the planes outside, we headed inside to see the planes in there. This helicopter was one of the favorite for the kids, so we had to get a picture of most of us in front of it.


Michelle had this double stroller she brought along and the two little ones loved being in it and being pushed by Aunt Kylie. I think she got quite the workout with the two of them in there!


Having worked for Pratt & Whitney for almost 10 years now, I get excited when I see the name around the aircraft industry. It was neat to see it on quite a few of the planes at the museum. I had to take a picture of this plaque and actual engine.


It makes me proud to know that we have so many engines out there flying on military aircraft. All the hard work of employees like me actually get these planes off the ground and flying - how cool is that?



We had a great time and can't wait to go back - the kids never get tired of seeing all the airplanes up close!

Primary Carnival

The Primary Carnival was such a big hit last year that we decided to do it again this year for all of the primary kids. Last year was warm and sunny and we were able to do it out in the church parking lot. This year it was cloudy and rainy, so we had to move into the gym last minute. But, despite the change in location, the kids still had a great time.

Here's Zach and Hailey doing the "cake walk." They were so excited to do it and Zach was excited to walk around on the numbers, after a year of preschool and a year of kindergarten, he knows his numbers well and loves that he can do it all by himself.


They were the only two playing at the beginning so guess who won the first two prizes? Yep, Zach and Hailey - yummy cupcakes!


One of the favorite booths was the balloon animal station. Who wouldn't get excited about getting a balloon animal when the person doing it looks this fun?


He's our neighbor across the street and is absolutely hilarious! The kids loved the animals he made, but I think they loved his hat and bowtie even more!

In addition to the cake walk and balloon animals, we also had a penny pitch, bean bag toss, duck pond, plinko, guessing jar, train ride, and two different stations were the kids could memorize articles of faith or write thank yous to their teachers to earn more tickets. The other favorite booth for our kids was the face painting booth. Zach chose a snake and Hailey chose some cherries - this isn't the best picture - my batteries were running out and I couldn't get the flash to turn on - but I love the look on Hailey's face.



Unfortunately, due to my batteries going out, I didn't get a picture of the on the train, but they had a blast riding around in the parking lot during their train ride. Even though it was sprinkling most of the time, it was still fun and they had a blast!

You Know You're a Good Uncle When ...

You let your niece do your hair.





Hailey and Zach absolutely love their Uncle Taylor. And he's so good to indulge them in whatever they want to do. Whether it's playing catch, jumping on him, or even doing his hair, he's always willing to let them do whatever they want.

Thanks Uncle Tay - we love you!