32 Flavors

Could I really be 32 years old...yes, my boys remind me...AND don't forget "Mom, you're older than Dad!" I think that is meant to be a good thing? I got to have the best birthday ever. I got to play the piano in Primary and hear my boys sing "The Army of Helamen", open presents, and have the most wonderful cake in the world made especially for me. Jeff did an amazing job trying to replicate "Chris' Outrageous Chocolate Cake" from the Cheesecake factory! It was so good - but so big that we finished it over a week later!



What could be more perfect than pink boxing gloves, chocolate cake, sparkler candles, and my perfect family to share them with!

Family Picts

I should have posted these a LONG time ago....family photos! What perfect little children I have! Perfectly behaved in every way...as Skyler laughs at what I just wrote....We took these pictures on the farm behind my parents home. It will always feel like home to me.

St. George

We went to St. George, Utah for a family vacation this last week and got to go to Pirate Island. A fun pizza place with lots of fun things to try out and do!

Skyler tried his hand at the shooting gallery and did great! Laker on the other hand didn't like the loud noises and preferred watching Sky and doing other games!

Sky and Laker earned over 400 tickets combined and won some awesome prizes! We were so proud of our little buccaneers!

Downtown at the historical town square they have a fun area for kids with a shooting fountain and waterfall play area! The boys were so excited it was hard to get them to pose for the photos!

Sky was so daring and plunged right through the huge middle geyser!

The boys loved playing in the waterfall and chasing their flip flops down the stream!

We also got to go the pool quite a bit. The boys loved playing in the water and Sky was quite the dare devil completing this 5 foot fly-by over one pool and into the other!

What's a vacation without fire? The boys loved playing with fireworks and burning some local shrubbery - without permission :) Thankfully no forest fires were started and we weren't featured on the local news...

And then we went hiking....first up a short hike to a small slot canyon. It was about .5 miles total and was so cool. The canyon was named after a little girl named Jenny. This small canyon is part of Snow canyon, which we found out is named after Lorenzo Snow.

The boys brought their containers just incase a cool lizard crossed our path!

The boys handled that small hike great so we decided to shoot for a longer one. We noticed that some of the hikes crossed paths so we charted our own course and set out. The path wasn't marked very clear and we were soon lost and ended up on top of a huge petrified sand dune with no easy way down. Sky was our dare devil and climbed to the top. Of course Laker had to follow his big brother! But to his disappointment he didn't get very far because Mom couldn't handle her little guy going so high!

The picture just doesn't do this justice. We climbed down from the top where it dips down. It was a small drop off and then a slick 60 degrees slop down. Dad and the boys actually did pretty well, but Mom had to slide down on rear and all fours (thank goodness we don't have a picture of that...)

On the way back from our 10 mile hike (we didn't know it was going to be so long...) the path started going up hill again. It was hot and dry and so we all started to sing "Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked And Walked...". We got to talking about the pioneers and what it must have been like for the pioneer kids walking across the plains. We also sang some patriotic songs. It was a great experience to learn a little history and reflect on what wonderful ancestors we have and this beautiful free country we live in.

The path went right by this lava shoot. The picture is kind of dark, but you could see it open up into a huge cave, way down below. It was quite a sight and made the hike a little less painful!

They had a farmers market that we got to go to which had this huge stream that the boys got to drop sticks into and race them down! It was quite a fun time!

We also got to go to the Rosenburg Wildlife museum. I never knew there were so many different kinds of goats :) I forgot the camera, so all the images we took are on Jeff's phone :)

We also got to take a visit to the St. George temple. The visitors center was so nice and we learned how the temple got hit by lightning and had to have the steeple rebuilt! The boys also learned that the baptismal font was hauled from SLC by oxen! They had an automated presentation about the importance of families and how we can be together forever even after we die that was pretty wonderful. The boys were amazed by the books of mormon that were displayed in all the different languages and how the Japanese and Chinese ones are backwards! We also watched a presentation about the Savior and His atonement for us. It was so neat to go to the temple and think about our Heavenly Father and how much he must love us. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful life and to have the knowledge we have.

Cousins!

I forgot my camera at the Kamas pool...so all the images we have of that are on Jeff's phone!!! But we had so much fun with cousins splashing like crazy and making record times down the big yellow slide!

What happens when 4 boys get together with a lot of cardboard and lots of free time? A clubhouse complete with a couch, vcr, tv, and gaming system! Josh and Sky even spent "most" of the night in their awesome clubhouse but came in at 3am due to the sudden downpour! We can't wait till we can do it again!

School Field Trip

A couple days before Sky got out of school I got to go with him to the zoo for a field trip. He was in a group with 4 other kids and we were all by ourselves roaming the zoo! We met up with everyone right before we went home. Our group was simply awesome! We got to see EVERYTHING at the zoo in the short amount of time we had. Sky got to sit by Nick on the way there. We arrived at the zoo totally frozen due to some kids in the front refusing to roll up their windows....turkeys.
You have to get a picture by the bronze gorilla, don't you? What's a zoo trip without one?
Okay, so the only thing between the hungry pacing tiger and you is a thin rope net....literally. Have you ever heard a tiger or lion roar or growl when they are 4 feet above your head? Scary. We ran away screaming...okay, not really, but I wanted to.

We even had enough time to play in the playground for a little while! I think they had that same egg when I was 7....

Easter

The day after we got back from Cali we had the Easter Egg Hunt at Grammie & Grandpa Wilson's house. We had so much fun running around searching for those bright eggs (that no matter how fluorescent they are all seem to blend perfecting into the background). I remember having so much fun when I was little and my grandma would come down to our house and we'd stuff ourselves with grandma's potato salad and hunt for "hours" trying to find those last few eggs that grandpa astin hid and didn't remember where.....

Disneyland

At the beginning of April 2009 we were able to go to Disneyland with the boys. We had so much fun and the boys loved seeing Dad try and pull the sword from the stone!
Dad had a hard time in the rocket line but it was well worth it!

Here's a shot from the "Indiana Jones" ride :) Laker was too short to ride the actual ride, so the Jungle Cruise did just fine! His favorite part was the elephants and going under the waterfall and seeing the "backside of water!"

What strong boys we have!


The Bugs Life section of California Adventure had a giant hose nozzle that was spraying water and water shot up from the ground! The boys were soaked in exactly 2.5 seconds.



What's a vacation without Wall-e and Lightning Mcqueen? Lightning's eyes moved back and forth and Laker fit right in with his shirt!
He was giddy for quite awhile after!

It's gotten to be something we do every time we make our travels to Disney territory. The character breakfast is SO GOOD. And you don't have to waste time waiting in lines to see the characters! Maybe next time we can get the boys to eat a little more.....:)


Picture is kind of dark, but this was in Star Tours. The boys LOVED this ride! Laker squealed when he saw R2D2 while Sky was trying to figure out how all the robots worked...and if they were real....I guess we'll never know.
What a perfect day on the beach. Sky was a good sport!


What can I say....perfect kids.




The day we left...Howard Johnson Hotel had an awesome pool and water park. The boys spent all morning getting wet in sunny California before we headed home.
Over 50 gallons of water came crashing down on Sky right after we took this shot. What a daredevil!

Laker was sure tuckered out. I couldn't help but snap this photo about 5 minutes after we got into the car for the drive home. Bye Disneyland, thanks for the memories!