Scarecrow Festival 2009

Friday my parents and I took all the grandkids to Thanksgiving point to the Scarecrow Festival. Each year the West Rigde Academy puts this on. We had a blast. The kids enjoyed jumping on the inflatable toys, riding the train, which we waited 40 minutes for (so not worth it), getting their faces painted and going on a wagon ride. Chloee loved the horses pulling the wagon. All of the kids loved the snowcones Papa Tom bought for them, they mixed every color of the rainbow like most kids do. After the scarecrow festival we decided to get some dinner and went to JCW's. What a treat that was. We had 5 hungry kids under the age of 6 each having their own melt down. I don't think we will ever do that again, or at least we'll think twice about it. Over all we had a good time and the kids had a blast.

Chloee is 4!

When we got home from California we celebrated Chloee's Birthday with Tyler's family. We had everyone over for cake and ice cream and then opened presents. Chloee had so much fun playing with her cousins and is thankful to everyone for her presents. We love family!

Disneyland...

...the happiest place on earth. We just had the best time on our family vacation. My family, brothers and their families and parents and sister all went to California. We flew into Long Beach, California early Monday morning, I was worried about the girls flying, but they did great. Once we arrived we gotour rental vans and headed for the beach. We went up and down the pacific coast highway and finally decided on Huntington Beach. We had a blast. Brooke loved the beach and had sand everywhere. She was even eating it. She loved jumping the waves with mom or dad holding tight to her hands. Chloee loved the beach as well. Tyler and the kids even built a sand castle. After the beach we checked into our hotel. That was eventful, the rooms were supposed to be ready at 4:30 pm and they weren't ready until almost 5:30 pm. We were lucky enough to stay at my parents timeshare and each family had their own room.

On Tuesday we went to Disneyland. Chloee had such a magical time. She was able to go on almost every ride. Sheloved all the rides in Fantasyland especially Alice in Wonderland. We had a blast going through Toon Town and visiting Minnie and Mickey's houses. After that we went over to California Adventure and watched the Pixar Parade. It was super fun. Then Chloee and my mom and I went on Soarin' What an amazing ride. Mom and I scram and had a good time. After that we rushed back to Disneyland and I talked Chloee into going on the Matterhorn or the bobsleds if you ask Chloee. She wanted to go on it again so my parent took all the little kids Ethan, Chloee and Krew on the ride. They were lucky enough to get to ride it twice in a row. After that fun I talked Chloee into going on Big Thunder Mountain. She had a blast and wanted to go again, but the park was closing. As we were walking to the shuttle, we could hear the firework show. The producer or something from The Nightmere Before Christmas put toghether the show. It sounded way cool. On the shuttle ride home both kids fell alseep on Tyler. We totally wore them out.

Wednesday we went to Sea World in San Diego. We were able to see Shamu and watch some of the other shows. Chloee had fun. It was amazing to see what the trainers can do with the animals and the shows they put on. Sea World was not as busy as I thought it would be. We had fun. After Sea World we went to Old Town and ate dinner at an authentic mexican restaurant. It was really good food.

Thursday was Chloee's 4th Birthday. I can't believe she is 4. We went back to Disneyland becaue Chloee got in free on her birthday. Well we bought the Southern California city pass so we had already bought her ticket in to the park so they gave us the option to get a free pass to come another day or get the price value of one day admisison on a gift card to be used in any park or Downtown Disney. We opted for the gift card and let Chloee pick anything she wanted to buy. She loved the idea of having her own money to use. We had fun going on rides in Adventureland and Frontierland. I was able to convince Chloee to go on Splash Moutain and she loved it, so much that she was able to go again with Chad and Natalie. After the ride she told Tyler that she loved th big drops. Tyler told me she was my child. I love the rides at Disneyland and Tyler really doesn't care about them. He stayed with Brooke when she couldn't go on the big rides and Chloee and I went on them. That afternoon we had a suprise for Chloee's birthday. We had made reservations at Ariels Grotto and took her to a Princess dinner. She was able to eat dinner and meet Ariel, Snow white, Bell, Princess Aurora, and Cinderella. Each princess came around to each table and took time taking pictures and talking to the little girls. My mom and dad had given Chloee an Ariel costume for her birthday so we let her wear itto the dinner. She had so much fun. I loved seeing her smile and get excited when each princess came to our table. My mom and dad and McKenzie came with us to help celebrate.

Friday we went back to Huntington beach and had fun playing in the sand and water again. Saturday we went back to Disneyland for one more day of fun before we had to fly home. When we got there we found on it was Gay Day 09 in Anehiem and they were all at Disneyland. The funny thing was they were all wearing red and Tyler just happened to wear a red shirt. He immediatley wanted to buy a new shirt and I was not opposed to that at all. We definetly had the whole California experience. Our favorite ride from this day was the new Toystory ride Toystory Mania in California Adventure. It like your at a carnival and get to shot pies at the characters in 3D, so much fun. Well after a fun and interesting day we went to the airport and found out that our plane was delayed 2 hours. Trying to keep a tired 18 month old entertained at the airport was not fun. Once on the plane the girls fell asleep and the ride wasn't to bad. We didn't end up getting back to Salt Lake until 1:00 in the morning. We didn't make it to our house until 3:00 am. We were tired, but had a great time. I love Disneyland and can't wait to go back. Chloee keeps asking when we get to go back. Here are some pictures from our vacation.

Zoo Rendezous

Tyler and I had the opportunity to attend the annual fundraiser for Hogle Zoo this year. Tyler had been working at the zoo building the new animal hospital and his company bought tickets and invited us to come. We couldn't pass up this opportunity knowing it is probably once in a lifetime. The tickets were $150.00 a piece so of course we said yes. We weren't sure what to expect but were excited. When we arrived they had valet parking which we opted out of being cheap as we are. When we walked in the front gates we were met by an eagle about as tall as Brooke, that they were showing the guests. The zoo was closed to the public and all the zoo workers were showing off the animals. Once inside the zoo they had local restaurants with booths giving away free samples. There was Flemings, PF Changs, Z-Tejas, Chipotle, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, just to name a few. The zoo was also debuting the new baby elephant, so we got a chance to see her before her bedtime. We had such a fun time watching the animals, enjoying the great food and watching the people. I think I had more fun people watching than seeing the animals. We had such a fun time and are thankful for the opportunity we had to go.

What a fun SUMMER!

Wow it has been a little while since I have last posted anything. We have had a busy past month. We went camping over the 4th of July up Hobble Creek Canyon and had a blast. My family likes to go camping over the 4th and go four wheeling. We were going to go up and spend three days up there, but our refridgerator went out and we had to stay home the first day and get it fixed. Our camping experience was a good one this year filled with yummy food, dirt and bears! Just before dinner we heard 2 gun shots. I didn't think anything of this becasue there was a shooting range a few miles away. Well a little while later, the camp host came and told my dad that he just shot a bear. A bear cub had wandered into camp and wasn't afraid of humans so when it kept coming towards the camper the camp host shot a warning shot. When the bear still kept coming he shot it and killed it. Boy was I greatful for that, but was now nervous to sleep up there in a tent with two little kids. We made it through the night and had a nice rest of the trip.

My grandpa past away and I had the privelage of speaking at his funeral and representing all of the grandkids. That was nice to hear their memories about my grandpa. What a great man he was a so full of love! My softball team ended up taking 2nd place in our softball tournament. I had so much fun playing with Tyler's sisters. We usually play every year and have so much fun.

The 24th of July was a blast. On thursday we went to the Rodeo with Tyler's sisters and their families. Chloee wanted to see the buckin' bulls. I think she also liked seeing the rodeo queens and princesses. Brooke did pretty good throughout the night. If you bring enough treats she'll eat the entire time. This year I ran the Speedy Spaniard with Tara, Eric and Tracie. My goal was to run the entire 6.2 miles and I did. I ran it in 1hour and 27 seconds. During the race I ended up running it with some girl from about mile 2 and we kept each other going. She pushed my the last .2 miles. I was so ready to give up, but she wouldn't let me. I'm greatful to her for that. After the race we went to to parade for about 10 minutes, which was plenty of parade watching for Tyler. After the parade we went back to Tyler's parent's house and let the kids play on the slip n slide. Tara and I filled up a bunch of water balloons for them to play with and have a water fight. I had an old piece of rubber tubing in the car, so Tyler got the bright idea to make a water weenie. The kids had so much fun with that until it broke. After the water we went to Tracie and Shawn's house for a barbeque and to celebrate Tyson and Josh's birthdays. What a long, but fun day we had.

The last bit of fun we had was going to the Nephi Derby last night. Tyler had never been to a derby. We had a barbeque at Tracie and Shawn's house and then headed down to Nephi. We had a blast watching cars crash into each other and had fun with the family. Chloee called it the crash boom bang! She was excited to watch the cars crash into each other since she tells Tyler and myself to drive into the cars in front of us if we aren't going fast enough. I think we might be going next year because Tyler had a great time!

Balloon Fest

Today started at 6:00 am. I felt like I was getting up for work even though it was my day off. Tyler and I took the girls to see the balloon festival that goes on every year for the Freedom Festival. We've been before, but always go on the 4th. Since this year we will be camping we decided to go the first day. Chloee has been talking about seeing the hot air balloons for a while now. This year was fun. It was great to get up close and actually see inside the balloons as they inflated. We were able to see all the balloons inflate, but they weren't able to take off due to the weather report-stormy. We still had fun and enjoyed spending time with Grandma Jane, Papa Tom and Kenzie. They came along for the fun. Papa Tom loves going every year. Chloee had her favorites: Smoky the Bear ad Tony the Tiger.

Breakfast.

Check out the guy's hair in the balloon basket.

Summer Fun

Yesterday I had the opportunity to run another 5K. This time I pushed my girls in our jogging stroller. I ran the race with Tyler's family. Lindsay, Tara, Tracie, Shawn, Tyson, Braden, Heather and Kole met at our house and we drove together to the race. We ran the Run, Walk, and Roll 5K for the Central Utah Center for Independent Living. Lindsay and Tara's work was one of the sponsors for the race . The course was fun and fairly easy, no hills. I was grateful for that, pushing my girls in the stroller is such a workout! I ran the race in 29 minute according to my chip time. I was very happy with that, since it was only about 30 seconds more than the first 5K I did at 28:29. I was suprised to see that I took 13th in my age group.

After the race, we went to the pool and had a blast. Chloee had fun with her cousins and thanks to Lindsay and Tracie she loved the slide. Brooke on the other had took a little to warm up to the pool. All she wanted to do is eat her Cheetos and sit by the food. What a little munch. She's so cute.

After swimming we were excited to come home and see that Tyler was home from Scout Camp. We missed him and are glad he had a good time boating. Hopefully we'll get him closer to liking boating and we can go more. I took Chloee the other day with our neighbors and she loved it.