How can you not love these?!

July 3, 2015

I'm just scrolling through pictures and having a hard time believing how stinking adorable my children are! I'm sure I'm not the only one. 

March 29, 2015

April 17, 2015

May 24, 2015

May 30, 2015

June 2, 2015

June 15, 2015

June 22, 2015

Lagoon Utah-cation

June 25 - 26, 2015

This year we were planning on a trip to Oregon. We decided instead to spend a weekend in Idaho and another a little closer to home. We opted to spend our Utah-cation at Lagoon. It was such a big hit we took advantage of the bounce back half off deal the next day. Henry's very first ride was the kid bumper cars.

His second ride, and first roller coaster was Wicked; probably the scariest open ride in the whole park! I was lucky enough to ride it with him and Nate said he could hear me screaming from the bench he and Clara were hanging out on. Henry was VERY excited to get on and a little stunned when he got off. We got front row seats and sat next to a little girl who was also on her first ever roller coaster ride. Henry got all secured in and started studying the gears and chains on the rail. This ride slowly drives you around the corner then shoots you straight up and straight back down, then you go around some loop-d-loops and corkscrews until your stomach is nowhere to be seen. Somewhere in all of that, and between my screams, I heard Henry saying "I don't like this! I don't like this!" Afterwards, Henry seemed a little shaken, but wanted to get back on first thing the next morning. I, however, was reminded that it has been almost a decade since I have been on a roller coaster and riding that kind of ride in your 30's is a different experience than in your early 20's. Now that I'm safely on solid ground and my stomach is firmly back where it belongs, I would say that I would ride it again!

Wicked

We had a lot of fun! I am sure we will be back some day. Clara found things to do while we took turns riding rides with Henry. Henry's favorite ride was Rattlesnake Rapids. He loved it so much that as soon as we got off (totally soaked), he had to get his Daddy and ride it with him. Clara hung out with the grown up not on the ride and explored the old western part of town. 

Clara's first ride was the train through the little zoo. She totally slept through it.

 

We ate at Cracker Barrel that night. We waited an eternity for any kind of service, so Clara and I spent some time out with the toys.

Clara did some awesome buggy surfing at Target.

Family selfie!

Idaho

June 19th - 21st


Pocatello

We spent Friday night in Pocatello. Emily, Ian, and Rubye came down for some swimming and supper. It was fun cousin time and the kiddo-s enjoyed the pool. We did not get to eat in the gas station Italian place next to the hotel because they did not have another spot large enough to fit all of us. Bummer. Some day I want to sit and eat in this fancy gas station restaurant in Pocatello.

Craters of the Moon

Rubye and family went back to their home in Idaho Falls Friday night. Saturday morning, Nate and I packed up the van while Clara and Henry played in the nature around the hotel. As soon as everything was loaded and the kids had all the fun there was to be had under the tree, we headed to Craters of the Moon. Henry was extremely concerned about going to see "hot lava". He has red books and watched shows about hot lava and knows it is something that you just do not mess with! Friday night I kind of ran the idea of Craters of the Moon by him, thinking he would think it sounded like fun. He adamantly opposed the idea. Tears were involved, so we seriously considered finding something else to do for Saturday. We decided to go ahead and go, but we did not tell him where we were going. As we got closer, we started to explain that the lava was cold and could not hurt him. From then on we all called it cold hot lava, just to clarify to everyone that we were not about to walk into a pit that could incinerate us on the spot.

We hiked up this hill, that I do not remember the technical name for. It was just a dome where the giant volcano pushed up the ground but never burst through. It reminded me of a lava version of the last part of the Stone Mountain hike. It was bald and straight up. There were some amazing views from the top. It was very windy, which I thought felt wonderful, but you could feel the sun burning you up in spite of the wind and Clara was not a fan of the strong wind, so we did not stay very long.

We drove around the loop and stopped at all of the spots that looked mildly family friendly. We saw two spatter cones and a whole lot of cold hot lava. Henry really got into it all and asked several questions about how volcanoes work. I thought these teeny flowers were beautiful and amazing. They manage to grow in such harsh circumstances and they were still beautiful.

Before we left the visitors center, we made sure to obtain a permit for the caves. We basically promised to not bring an East Coast bat disease to the bats that live there. We only went to one cave, but we were able to push the stroller as far as the stairs, where we climbed down into the cave. The caves are really lava tubes that have partially collapsed. That was a crazy amount of lava running through those tubes way back in the day!

That is the hole we climbed down to get into the cave. If we were properly prepared we could have hiked the whole thing, but we were not and it turned out to not be a very Clara friendly place (surprise!). We headed up and out, loaded back up in the car and headed to Twin Falls for supper, swimming, and sleep.

Grandma & Grandpa

Father's Day Sunday was spent visiting my Grandma & Grandpa Dixon. It was great to see them! We usually do not get to stay more than an hour or two, so it was nice to spend more time with them. We talked for a while then had lunch with them. We even got to meet an old student of Grandpas! The kids did fairly well considering the long exciting weekend and that it was nap time. We felt a little like celebrities walking through the retirement home with our adorable children. Everyone watched everything they did and there were constant  "ooos" and "awws".  I am so grateful that my kids have so many living great-grandparents and that I still have 3 of my grandparents here with us. It was nice to visit with these two and a great way to spend a Father's Day.

Strawberry Picking Deer Baby

June 2015

My baby thinks she is a deer. She loves picking strawberries out of our front flower bed and if she can just lean over and nibble it off the plant without having to use her hands. Once all of the accessible ones are gone, she'll stand up and start diving in to the bed. She's cleaned us out every day this summer.

Soldier Henry

May 26, 2015

Memorial Day weekend Henry discovered war movies.  It started with Patton and Gettysburg.  He WATCHED Gettysburg.  This morning he was watching and re watching Tora! Tora! Tora! when he decided what else he could find.  He picked a black and white John Wayne movie called In Harms Way.  He said he picked it because it had lots of battles, which it does, but really he was paying full attention to the whole thing!  He told me all about how "That grirl (girl) had fun at the dance but the other grirls didn't."

Oh that boy! I love him! I'm glad he's gaining an appreciation for black and whites!

Memorial Day weekend we went out to Camp Floyd for the Civil War demonstrations and activities. Henry got to dress up like a Union and Confederate soldier (at the same time!) and do some training. He's quite the Civil War soldier now!

In the mean time, Clara explored this tent they had set up. She quite enjoyed running in and out. Little Clara heaven!

Preschool!

A Year of Preschool

Henry was lucky this year and got to go to Oakview Preschool with Teacher Marilyn. She was great! Henry loves her and she did a great job helping Henry get ready for Kindergarten. Preschool has been over for more than a month and Henry is still sad that she is not following him to Kindergarten.

The Fire Station

One chilly day in the fall, we met at the Salem fire station for a tour of the station and all of the trucks. As you can see, there were a few kids really into the fireman theme of the day and came dressed appropriately.  Henry may have been one of them. The kids were so excited to learn about all of the trucks and to see real firemen in their real fire station.

The Bakery

In February we took a trip to a bakery in Spanish Fork. There was not enough room for all of the adults to follow the kids into the actual bakery, but Henry said he got to see giant machines, a huge freezer, and a big oven. After the tour of the kitchen, they had lunch for each of the kids and a cookie to decorate. Henry loved seeing the machines!

Farm Field Trip

In May we went on a field trip to this great little farm in Springville. This really old but really nice farmer man very patiently showed all of the kids around his amazing little farm. He had several kinds of rare birds, kangaroos, alpacas, lamas, goats, one goat that was born with three legs, rabbits, all kinds of chickens, a giant horse sized friendly dog, and a brand new goat that we all got to pet! It was so much fun!

Preschool Graduation Day

Graduation was adorable! You can tell the kids worked so hard on a performance for the special day. Henry is standing SO CLOSE to two of his best preschool friends (and the one in the truck shirt lives across the street from us and is one of his best friends, period). They were all working so hard to focus on their dances!

Teacher Marilyn was great! Henry looks so thrilled, but he loved having her as a teacher!

After graduation, the kids got to play one last time.