Red Butte Gardens

It was my Saturday with the Girls yesterday. Alisha, Cheri and I (and Beau Dee when she can manage it) get together once a month. We take turns hosting/planning the get togethers and I always look forward to them. This month Alisha suggested we go to Red Butte Gardens, which I hadn't seen yet. We had fun wandering around looking at the landscaping then had a picnic lunch and talked, talked, talked :) I think the sitting around chatting - with no kids in sight except for baby Anne, who was being very good - is always my favorite part.

For once, I wasn't being a photo fanatic and only walked away with a few pics. At least they are dencent ones!

Haircuts

I know I'm strange but for some reason I never get in to get my hair cut more than once a year. So haircuts are a Big Event in my life :) I let it grow out, then chop it off to my shoulders, let grow, chop it. But I can't do that with Tyler's hair. So after 3-4 weeks of trying to get it done we finally managed it and all three of us got hair cuts. I lost about 4-5" of mine, Ty's went really short for the summer (maybe 2" off the back), and Kaitlyn had 3-4" taken off because she changed her mind and kept it long despite telling me over and over that she wanted it cut "to here" (chin length) for weeks before.

Here is Katy before and after.

And here is the final product (sorry no self portrait of me:) ). Camille did a great job!

A day at Gateway

Ok - first I just had to show you what my little monkey was up to this morning. I don't know how or why he got in the drawer but he thought it was fun!

Our family fun activity for the weekend was to go to the Gateway mall/shopping center/thing (what IS the correct term?), but not for shopping. We chose Sunday to avoid the larger crowds, but that meant we had to wait until almost noon for anything to open. So we went to watch the fountain first, which was one of the fun activities on our list anyway. For those of you that don't know - the fountain is one of those with all the holes in the ground that all the kids love to play in. And periodically they will turn on the music and do a syncronized water show.

Kaitlyn was enthused about the idea, but when we got there she was in her cautious mood. She would only go out in the fountain with one of us - she even held off on going out there with this cute little girl who really really wanted to be friends. But we did get both kids out there and they had a lot of fun. Kaitlyn wanted to go back after lunch, so that's a good sign. Maybe next time she'll be in a brave mood and let herself get soaked.

After lunch we went to the Discovery children's museum. We spent a lot of time playing with the balls and the water table. The kids also had fun in the helicopter and making their own sunglasses and all kinds of other things. There was still lots left to explore and I had to drag them all (including Sam) out of there because it was well past naptimes. The kids still didn't get their naps, but at least we were home by the time Tyler got too whiney.

We finished up the day by watching the end of the NASCAR race. Kaitlyn is quite the little race fan and was just as upset as Sam that Jr didn't win. It was so funny to watch her carrying on about it. But I really don't know what I'm going to do when they convert Tyler too and am left as the only non-race fan in the house!

mmmmm Smores

It's been another fun summer Saturday. We really didn't do anything special - just groceries shopping, errands, and a bit of yard work - but we enjoyed taking it easy and enjoying the nice weather. We finished up the day by lighting the fire for the first time this summer and making the first smores of the year.

Once Kaitlyn worked up enough courage to roast her own marshmallows she couldn't get enough of it. Tyler shared some of his daddy's smores, but he pretty much just wanted to eat the chocolate by himself. That's my boy! :)


As you can see, we still had plenty of daylight and warm temperatures when we started the fire so we didn't get the full benefit, but you have to work around those kiddo bedtimes. Sam and I did go back out to stare at the fire and chat in the dark (nice little couple moment there :) ) after the kids were asleep. Ahh...what a nice day.

Bubbles!

One of Kaitlyn and Tyler's favorite outdoor activities the last 2 weeks has been blowing bubbles. I have been dying to get some good photos of it but usually get stuck blowing the bubbles for them to chase. So yesterday I dug out the bubble machine and started snapping away. Tyler was a great little model but Kaitlyn was too busy running around to let me get any decent shots. Better luck next time 'eh? :)

Naptime

Mommy Musing: Naptime

I don't want to say that naptime is my favorite time of the day because there are so many things I love about being a mom. But I do look forward to naptime every day. It's that hour or so in the afternoon when the house is quiet and peaceful, when I know that the quiet doesn't signal that someone may be busy getting into trouble :) It's that little bit of time during the day that's mine - and let's face it, as a parent those times are in very short supply. At any time we may be "needed" to fill a sippy cup, give a hug, look at this morning's creation, break up a fight, put on a band-aid...honestly I'm exhausted by noon!

A lot of moms use naptime to get things done. Nope, not me. First off, my kids aren't deep sleepers so I don't want to make any noise that will disturb them (that's why the most recent photos I could find of Tyler asleep are from October. I just can't sneek in there and snap one, even though he looks so cute when he's asleep). But mostly I just need the time to indulge myself so I use the time to read, or scrapbook, or mess around on the computer (ok I do that even when they aren't sleeping). And so for today Happiness is...Naptime :)

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! I will be a bit mushy and say that I am happy to have married such a great guy and the kids have such a wonderful dad. He illustrated that again this weekend, which kind of felt like a marathon of fun for the kiddos and incredibly exhausting (but also lots of fun) for the two of us.

Our fun-filled Father's Day weekend started out with "grandpa's day" breakfast with my dad and mom. We figured we'd better get to Dad early so he could spend the rest of the weekend working (as usual!). Then Katy helped her grandpa find his present - which was a new backhoe seat that had been hidden in the back of the car. Sam also got his present since it had been stored at Mom's house too. It had been "hidden" in the garage for at least the past 3 weeks but he didn't spot it until the day before Father's Day LOL. The highlight of the morning came while we were standing outside chatting. Dad had been telling Kaitlyn that he wanted to have a water fight with her, then had to explain what that was. Then she wandered off and we continued chatting. Next thing we know, there is Katy squirting Dad with a squirt gun! :) (which she had found in the basement and filled all by herself) Haha Dad - you got your water fight!

We went home for Ty's nap and Sam put together his new smoker while Kaitlyn played with some neighbor kids. Then it was off to the pool. The kids LOVED it. Usually Tyler is the quiet one and one of us holds him while we all follow Katy around. But he warmed up to it really quickly this time and even got daring enough to jump off the edge - well, Tyler's version of jumping which is sitting on the side, holding my fingers and sliding in. And once he discovered how fun that was he didn't want to stop. He also had fun in the lazy river and playing with the fountains and even laughed when Sam took him down the big slide. Kaitlyn did a lot of jumping off the edge too. She also loves the kiddie slide and went down it over and over, the lazy river, and the sprinkler that sprays her when she hangs on the rope. We spent much longer than usual at the pool and only quit because we were getting close to naptime. We had lunch at Dick's (thanks Dana! she saw Sam and comped our food), followed by ice cream cones since the kids had eaten so well. Usually eating out is a struggle but they just gobbled it up. Tyler was so funny with the ice cream. I was letting him share my cone and he didn't know how to lick it so he would close his lips and get some ice cream on them, then use his hand to smear it into his mouth. So I started sticking out my tongue out at him before each lick until he would copy me. But then he would forget and I'd have to stick my tongue out again. Oh the things we do as parents! :)

Thanks goodness for naptimes because we all needed a rest by that point. Then we were off and running again to do our weekend errand/grocery run. We must have been charmed this weekend because the entire day we didn't have any major melt-downs or whining sessions - woohoo!

This morning found us heading to Midway for breakfast with Sam's family. Kaitlyn played a rousing game of "I've got your nose" with Orvil and Krystal. We checked out the tiny hummingbird nest on top of one of the lights on the porch that now contains 2 tiny eggs (I think they look like jelly beans) for the 2nd year in a row. And after convincing Kaitlyn that Orvil was kidding and they wouldn't really lock her in the monkey cage, we were off to the zoo. Where we had a grand old time, of course.

Kaitlyn checked out the map first thing and decided she needed to see the zebras. Which happened to be at the far end of the and we ended up doing the quick tour version for most of the time. Though the alligators (she has been fascinated by them recently), the elephant, and the penguins did catch Katy's attention. She didn't seem to care for the monkeys though. Tyler watched everything intently from the stroller or Sam's shoulders. After seeing the zebras Kaitlyn's attention switched to the giraffes, then inexplicably to the snakes (eww). We were reluctant to go into the reptile and small animal house but it turned out to be Tyler's favorite part. He ran from one exhibit to the next looking at everything and even tried to climb into a couple of them.

We also had a ride on the new carousel, which would be another favorite for both kids. Kaitlyn HAD to ride a zebra and was very anxious the whole time we were standing in line that she wouldn't get her wish. Once Tyler realized we were in line for the carousel he couldn't wait and started kicking and screaming when I picked him up until the line started moving. They both enjoyed the ride, then Tyler threw another tantrum when I made him get off. Last stop was the train ride but we had to take a few minutes on the way there to let Kaitlyn get squirted with water by the elephant statue.


Everyone was exhausted by the time we headed home. Sadly our charmed weekend ended on the ride home and Tyler cried for about 20 minutes before falling asleep when we were only 10 minutes from home. Kaitlyn fell asleep about that time too but woke up when we stopped the car. The first thing out of her mouth (in a sleepy slur) was "I'm not tired." :)

Well, that was certainly a more detailed account of the weekend than I had planned! But I hope you enjoyed it, and that everyone had a wonderful weekend as well. Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!