family vacation

Our little family took a little vacation over the weekend to good ol' Utah! We stayed with Weston's wonderful aunt Melissa and staying at her house was half the fun of the trip. She's always very hospitable even though my children think her toy poodles are actually ferocious monsters in disguise.

On Saturday we spent the day at Thanksgiving Point. We went to the Dinosaur Museum and looked at huge dinosaur bones, watched a 3-D movie with popcorn, and then actually discovered real dinosaur bones in the "Dig For Dinosaur Bones Here" area! The kids were enamored with everything at the Museum, although I think the popcorn part at the movie was their favorite.



Then we hit Farm Country, because being from Idaho we thought our kids could use some farm animal exposure, and they were even able to ride a pony! (Where can you do that in Rigby, I ask you?) I have to say the mini-goats were quite impressive.

After lunch, we strolled through the 60-some acre themed gardens. Actually, the adults strolled, Brooklyn danced, and the boys dozed, which made for a very peaceful walk. Overall, the trip was a huge succcess and well worth the three hours of "are we there yet?" getting there.

dance, baby, dance

Brooklyn had her very first dance recital on Saturday. She was very nervous (although, if you ask her now she would deny it) and I was a little worried that she wouldn't even make it onto the stage but she did and she came out strong! I was very surprised, emotional, excited, and proud all rolled into one.


Brooklyn and the boys during the rehearsal. They had about reached their dance limit at that point.


Brooklyn, showing us her self-proclaimed "best shot"


Another "best shot"

sand, please

The kids didn't think they had enough dirt to play in so we built them a sandbox.





We told them to keep the dirt out of the sandbox so it wouldn't get dirty. Ha Ha.

goodbye, rose and goat!

We have quickly learned that we are not cat people. There are many reasons for this conclusion, including:

-digging in my flower pots to do their "business",
-leaving cat prints all over Weston's freshly washed car,
-the smell of the litter box,
-having to guard the door every time you want to go outside because they run inside and then
you have to chase them because they automatically run to the basement and hide,
-seeing them climb up our new screen doors and windows with their stinkin' claws and then
thinking very bad thoughts,
-changing the litter box,

and finally,
-we just don't like cats.

We found them for free (now I know why) and we got them because I was very naive and because I love my daughter. What did it take to appease her after telling her that we had to get rid of her favorite things in the whole wide world?

A bike for her and Roman. Fifty bucks.



At least bikes don't require a litter box.