Nate's Birthday Ride to Antelope Island

How Davis does Disney....

We knew Disneyland was not in the works this year so I decided last minute literally to take the kids to Disney Worlds of Fantasy on Ice in SLC. I was able to find some discount codes online so the whole family went for $49.00

There was a "Princess Pre Show" which ended up just being two princesses who took turns stepping out on this stage and waving, no personal photos. Do you know which princess this is?  Uh, I don't know her name and haven't seen the movie yet, but she has something to do with a frog....

 

My kids wove their way to the front and we were able to catch this picture before the mob pushed us out of the way...I know this princess is Cinderella, cause that's what Sissy Sue says ;o)

 

They had the rest of the Princesses dresses on display.

Don't you just love Sissy's Sue's princess pose (oh dear)

 

The first story on ice was Cars.  The boys got a kick out of this one...Gooooo Mater!

Nate and I got a kick out of how excited all the children were but especially Baby C who clapped and whooped and hollered with the best of us.  He kept making sure Nate was seeing everything by pointing and shouting "dad! dad!"

This is the Lion King section. The lighting was amazing and they had great costumes and excellent skating skills!

The final story was Tinkerbell, don't know the name of the movie, but the first adventure where she discovers why she is a tinker fairy...Baby C was really good but got overstimulated and was done when the last show started, but I was able to go stand in an open stall area and watch and let him wander around. 

The kids had a great time but the fun was tainted by the commercialism bombarded them at all angles. It's hard to not feel bad when your mom doesn't buy a 15 dollar snow cone...i know, I know, horrible mom. 

Can't believe this snow cone with flashing lights and music, just kidding, no music but yes on the flashing lights!  I'd rather have the kids experience this on a small scale that I didn't spend hundreds of dollars, so that I can teach them to not let it ruin their whole trip. 

Snowy Spring Surpise!

Snack J found a brown and black catepiller

out by the chicken coop this morning in the snow. It was curled up and he wouldn't touch it so i carried it inside and we had a science preschool moment. 

Baby C thought it was the cutest thing in the world and kept making "awwww,  ohhhhhhhh" high pitched squeals.

After we made a habitat for the newest family member....

Snack J quickly found his magnifying glass to investigate.

(Gotta love Sid the Science Kid)

I have a ton more posts to do, but I'm saving them for a reward for cleaning my room, which has been doubling as a storage room since I disembled the office in my front room.  Wish me luck!

Back to Red Head!

It was Girls Night Out with two sisters Anna and Melissa and I decided that it was time to try something never done before: dye my hair!  I have claimed myself a red head all my life, but as the children have come, my hair has lost it's red and gave way to brown.  I have tried highlights but my husband says he misses the red head he married.  So my sister Anna is an expert at dying her own hair offered to help me with a temporary dye. 

We were quite tired, it was 12:30 am, at Melissa's house, but it was fun!

It turned out pretty good!  It was fun, but should wash out within 8 washes. 

Hardware Ranch: Valentine's Day Weekend Trip

Last week while riding around the backyard on the horses, Snack J said:"Dad I don't want to ride in the backyard, I want to go see the elk!" Of course nate and I smiled big, as Snack J always amazes us with how much he takes in at such a young age and Nate said, "Well, I don't know about taking the horses, but we can take you to go see the elk" And as I type this, I realize that is how we ended up at Dinosaur Park last month: Snack J's idea. This kid's got an amazing power of suggestion. I need to tell him more about Hawaii! :o)

We just bought a Dogde Intrepid 2000 which i'm so excited about not having a car payment,getting better gas mileage and fitting all 3 car seats in without slamming the doors closed.

So anyway: last Sunday we drove the Trapper's Loop, North Ogden Canyon Loop to try it out. We saw 2 moose up by Snow basin and on this trip we saw a bald eagle and 3 white tail deer on the drive, and the lodge where you buy the tickets for the elk wagon ride had a small museum....another museum and my kids loved it! I've got several animal encyclopedia styled books for the kids and they pour over them everyday, so the kids were very excited to get up close and personal with the pictures they look at daily.

Baby C needs to be signed on by Baby Gap Modeling agency, IMHO, but I'm just the mom.


I love the sign below this bobcat: Please do not touch, I BITE!

I was so excited I caught these facial expressions on the kids as they trepidiciously (is that a word?) came face to face with the skins of animals they talk about (and smell) all the time.

When we saw the moose at Snowbasin last week, Snack J couldn't quite see them at his angle in the car, despite Nate turning around the car trying several times to try and help him, so desperately he wanted to see them, so we made a big deal about Snack J being able to get face to face with this moose.

Look Mom, There's Elk Poop!!!!

Gotta love 3 year old enthusiasm.

And gotta love 3 year old obstinance: "No I don't want to look at the camera!"

Well I thought I cropped clipped and zoomed, but apparently it didn't work. Here are the 3 deer we saw on the way home. What, you can't see them? Come on...Look harder!

On the way home Nate asked if we wanted to go out to dinner in Logan, Of Course! So on the Friday before Valentine's we walked right into Copper Mill right before 5 pm with all 3 kids. We lucked out with our waiter who looked about our age, he let us order off the lunch menu and he brought out the kids meals FAST. The kids were so well behaved, we actually were able to enjoy ourselves. We ate at the copper mill for 25 Dollars for the whole family! We can hardly do that at Arby's anymore, well, since they introduced their dollar menu it' s a little easier... And as we walked out the line had begun to form to get into the restaurant. Good timing.

P.S. Nate got me a gift card to Deseret Book and a beautiful bouqet of flowers on Sunday. Okay, so maybe I did give him a suggestion, but I'm so excited to go pick out whatever I want. Many a pleasant thought this past week has been spent deciding what I should get with my gift card. I got Nate another remote for the Wii. So we can now play Wii tennis together, on the same team of course, we don't want to be throwing the remotes at each other :o)

Dinosaur Park

On an No School Day, in January, when the day was a Balmy 45 degrees I decided to give in to Snack J's endless requests to go to Dinosaur Park. I justified that since I was saving money not going up to visit my family in Idaho, for a reason I can't remember anymore,,,really, that I could spend a fraction of that and do a spontaneous trip to the park. I had free tickets somewhere, but have been so disorganized that I knew I would spend half the day trying to find them and miss the opportunity to seize the day. So I just paid full price. Which you have to know is NOT easy for me to do, enough for me to make a big point of telling everyone on my blog! P.S. I finally found the free tickets like a week later, luckily for Snack J who is already back to demanding we go back, at least 3 times a week.
I even splurged and rented the wagon, which was so great to take in the whole park, my double stroller was underneath snow somewhere in the back yard. I love this shot, it reminds me of 3 ducks in a row, waddle, waddle, quack quack.:o)

uh, mom, why am I sitting on this thing?

We were the only ones in the park, I guess not too many people think Dinosaur Park in January, but really, i'd rather stomp around in the snow than be beat down by the summer heat. I think 45 degrees is a perfect temperature.

Now Sister Sue has never seen Karate Kid, but she sure knows how to strike a pose! We had a great time, and my children made me proud as I took them through the inside museum. They looked at each display with awe and asked a ton of questions. I'm glad to be raising museum loving children. I think that respecting and learning about history is vital to our freedom and museums help bring history to life.