Tiny Dancers

After watching his sisters dance and sing on the stage at Thanksgiving Point in front of the waterfall, Isaac joined in the fun, making up his own little dance . . .

His inspiration:

Dinosaur Museum

It's that magical time of year where Greg's work hands us a pile of family passes and we go and try and see as MANY of them as possible in one month!  Saturday it was the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with the kids, my parents and my sister Star.

The new Physics exhibit near the entrance of the museum was a favorite among everyone . . . in fact, I was worried we wouldn't be able to drag Greg out of there!

Here's Annie, Grandpa and Isaac playing with the balls . . .

 Annie and Ellie repeatedly ran through the 'star tunnel', and got more and more excited each time they did it . . . here's Annie after coming out of it the fifth or sixth time . . .

 Isaac and Aunt Star

 I think the only reason we were able to get Greg away from the Physics exhibit was the promise of the erosion tables . . . it's a favorite with all my kids :-)  Here's Ellie working on building an island for her dinosaurs . . .

 Aunt Star comparing Ellie's size to the fish -- the fish won . . .

 Aunt Star and the girls . . .

 Ode to Shark Week (it was still Shark Week when the pictures were taken, at least)

 Ellie pouting 'cause Aunt Star (the horrible person she is) totally forgot to bring her grape lip gloss with her . . . Ellie was beyond disappointed . . .

 Isaac was a huge fan of the tiny guard rails that worked well as hand rails if you're under 30" tall . . . it was like, "It's about time they start accommodating us short people!"

 I absolutely LOVE this picture of Annie and Grandpa . . .

 Mommy and Isaac digging for dinosaur bones . . . or smuggling gravel out in Isaac's diaper . . . one or the other . . .

Zoo Day

Greg's work had their annual party, and this year it was held at Hogle Zoo. From 4:30-9:00 the zoo was open to all Kennecott employees and family, complete with face painting, open concession stands for free food, and unlimited carousel and train rides.  Unfortunately, we never got near the rides, 'cause we stayed so busy and it was REALLY crowded.  But, the kids loved it.  The highlight was the dinosaurs and the dinosaur digging pit.  And the zebra face painting -- the girls LOVED that.

Checkin' out the giraffes -- you can see my baby bump (which was a tad exaggerated in this pose, but isn't entirely inaccurate.)

Isaac eating sand.  Yum.

My cute boys.

Annie in the sand, rocking her brand new Rio Tinto/Kennecott hat.

Ellie VERY enthusiastic about seeing snakes -- there was pretty much an interpretive dance of joy.

Isaac checking out turtles.

Isaac chillin' out in the misters -- 'cause it was FREAKING hot.

Greg (with his new visor) and Isaac with sand and ice cream on his face.

Man, I love this kid!

The kids as Rio Tinto employees.

The girls showing off their zebra faces -- they LOVED them.

At the end of the night, it was late, they were all getting cranky, and when they found out we'd JUST missed the last train, Ellie went into full on freak out mode and screamed the entire walk to the car.  Good times.  :-)  Overall though, it was so awesome -- I'm hoping we get to do it again next year!

Red Butte in Pictures

Greg and I took the kids, and my brother Cody and my sisters Talina and Star, with us to Red Butte Gardens today. We spent hours wandering around and enjoying the outdoors. And having cartwheel competitions and taking pictures. Thinking about it, and from watching other photographers there, we were probably the only people at Red Butte today who took almost 200 pictures and not a single on of them was focused on any kind of plant life. :-) The kids (including my siblings) all had a lot of fun.

Here's Aunt Star and Annie walking on the stepping stones in the pond.

Ellie found a pine cone.
And approximately 7000 acorns . . . and she wanted to carry every last one in her pockets.

Star doing an impressive cartwheel -- Cody and Talina standing getting ready to go next.

Cody's technique is very, um, interesting. And cool.

The girls weren't about to be left out, and both tried and tried . . .

"Hi Dad!"

Over in the Children's Gardens (where they'd been changed from jeans into shorts), Ellie played in the water . . .

Annie raced through the mazes with her Aunts and Uncles.
Which was amusing, since most of the passageways are designed for the 6 and under set.

Ellie getting 'caught' by someone in the maze.

Talina, amused by the kids. Or amused by Cody. Probably Cody.

Here's Star and Isaac.

There hadn't been any pictures of him until now, 'cause he slept the first hour or two we were there.

Annie

Annie behind the waterfalls

Isaac, highly amused by something Star just said.

This was Greg's favorite picture he'd taken of Annie all day.

This was my favorite one I took of Isaac all day.

Talina, Star and Isaac, with Cody chilling out on a gigantic lizard in the background.

Annie posing by on her lizard.

Taking time to smell the flowers . . .

Look, it's me! :-) I was actually there. You know, to feed the baby. Change the baby. Keep the baby asleep. :-)

Ellie, Talina, Star, Annie and Cody were chasing each other around the edge of the sandbox pit.

It was so much fun. I just loved getting outdoors and walking around for hours. Especially in such a pretty place. I couldn't stop thinking about how soon Cody's going to be leaving for his mission . . . and it makes me both sad that he won't be here, and motivated to get as many of these kinds of activities in before he leaves as possible!

Ready, Set, GO!

Uncle Cody playing in the fountain at Red Butte Gardens

Videos from Red Butte Gardens

Ellie 'cartwheels' :-)

Cody, Talina, Ellie and Annie doing cartwheels (or attempting to, at least.)



Annie liked the acoustics in this Native American hut display for singing . . . Ellie joined in . . .

Summer Days

Despite the blistering heat (which I was just not made for) and the ginormous water bills, August can still be a pretty fun month. And the two highlights of the month for us are both courtesy of Greg's work . . . there's the totally awesome Kennecott Employee Appreciation Night (that's just what I call it, I don't remember if it has an 'official' name or not) held at the Real Soccer Stadium. There's face painting, playing on the soccer field, tons of food, balloon animals, snow cones, and our favorite, the movie. You throw out some blankets, grab some popcorn, and they play "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" on the big screen. So much fun.

Then, as if throwing parties and writing Greg's paycheck weren't enough, Kennecott goes all out with one more giant step towards winning all my love and affection. In fact, at this point Kennecott could pretty much talk me into getting an "I Love Kennecott!" tattoo on my forearm. (Don't waste your time though Kennecott, Greg totally wouldn't allow me to do it.) Every summer they mail us Family Passes to several local family fun venues, each to be used at some point during the month of August. We've already been to the Dinosaur museum, and yesterday Greg took the girls to the Thanksgiving Point Farm, and today we met up with my sister Talina (who took a LONG lunch) and went to This is the Place Heritage Park. And we still have half a dozen other places we still need to get in this month!

Here's some pictures from the last couple days . . .

Greg got some pictures of the girls at the Farm.

Ellie LOVED riding the horses (and in the last two days has had about 6 or 7 opportunities to do so! Thanks again, Kennecott! Love you!)

Annie on a horse.

Annie with her hip cocked all sassily in front of the chicken coop.

Another horse ride.

Ellie's so proud of herself.

Annie & Ellie came home just gushing to me about all the fake cows you can sit on at Thanksgiving Point. It's the simple things in life . . .

This is unrelated to all the Kennecott-financed goodness, but one of our sweet neighbors gave us some hand me downs. Some for Annie, some for Ellie and a ton for Isaac. It was like Christmas. Here is Ellie in her favorite dress . . .

Here's Greg and Ellie holding Isaac. I'd just asked Greg to take the baby, when Ellie came running up, arms outstretched, crying out, "La la take! La la take!" (La la being her name for herself . . . she wanted me to hand her the baby, as she was just standing there with arms outstretched . . . we compromised, and she got to hold her brother on Daddy's lap.)

Isaac was less thrilled by the situation.

Close up of Daddy and Isaac's face squished up together.

Ellie wanted to get in on this, so Greg told her, "Come squish in with Daddy and Isaac . . ."
Which is why she has her hand pressing her face into Greg's . . . she was 'squishing' the best she could. :-)

Isaac chilling on Greg's arm. We find this position, him slung over an arm, keeps him the happiest most of the time.

Back to our summer of fun provided by Kennecott . . .
Here's Isaac in the sling at This is the Place Heritage Park.

Our little cowgirl again. Aunt Talina asked her what a horse says and Ellie enthusiastically shouted out, "Yee Haw!"

Annie atop her mighty steed . . .

Ellie loved chasing around after the animals and petting them. She kept getting right down on their level talking to them.

Annie hanging out inside some replica ship.

Annie and Aunt Talina hanging out on the ship's deck.

Greg, Ellie and Annie riding the little train. We rode the little and big trains a lot. It beat trying to get two kids to walk all day in the heat.

Isaac and Mommy cuddling in the shade. In his second outfit for the day -- after blowing out a diaper of epic proportions, decimating not only his clothes, but also the sling I'd been carrying him in. I'd packed a change of clothes, but with only one sling, I had to just carry him the rest of the time. Surprising how much 10-12 lbs. feels like after a couple hours.

Aunt Talina with Annie & Ellie on the little train again.

Annie sporting a 'coonskin cap and a wooden horse.

Isaac's first time in a coonskin cap . . . slept right through it.
Greg and I have found that taking pictures of our babies in gift shops wearing memorable hats beats actually paying for them. A picture lasts longer than touristy crap. :-)
(We have pictures of a sleeping Annie -- at about the same age -- in a Hogle Zoo hat).

Ellie takes fake-horseback riding as seriously as real horseback riding.

Playing in the village of miniature houses.

Isaac sleeping in his favorite position . . .

Ellie driving the wood train. She loved this wheel. She ended up spending a couple minutes in time out because she refused to share said wheel with other children. Always fun to have the non-sharing, then angry-crying-in-time-out child in public. But hey, as long as we're parents who notice our child isn't sharing and react by going and removing her from the situation and put her in time out, I'm happy.

It was so much fun. We were there for hours, but barely saw a fraction of the place. We've been there twice now, and I swear we've barely scratched the surface. Partly 'cause our kids are so young, and we spend a lot of time riding the train and all, but I think you could spend two days there without repeating anything . . .