Jacob's class field trip to Hogle Zoo

Jacob's 1st grade class took a field trip to the Utah's hogle zoo this year. Since I took a field trip with Jacob a few weeks ago and rode the bus with him around our city library, post office, fire station, etc., I told Jacob that I couldn't go with him on this one, but I would meet him at the zoo. So Kera, Michael and I joined Jacob for a day of fun at the zoo. We made it just in time to bring Jacob his lunch and walk around for a little while before he had to get back on the bus. Then the three of us went and saw the rest of the animals and spent more time at the playground. I got some really cute pictures of Michael and Kera at the playground. Just don't pay attention to Kera's post ponytail hair!

Jacob's 7th birthday party

For Jacob's birthday this year Dave came up with the idea of having a baseball party with all of his friends. Since most of his friends are playing baseball this year through the city rec, including Jacob, it would be right up their alley. So I went and bought some baseball decorations we had his party at the park with 10 of his friends. I even made an attempt at a baseball cap cake. I'm really bad at making home made cakes, but the kids love them and they don't care how lame they look. I do know that next year I'm going to make my cake from scratch because the past 3 years (you'd think I'd learn by now), I've used box cake mixes and they just don't work so well. I freeze them ahead of time, but they're still so moist and spongy that when I go to trim it and frost it, it's a big mess. So next year we're doing scratch cake and homemade frosting and I'll see if it makes a difference.
Jacob had a baseball pinata and they played baseball for about 10 minutes. It was a pretty hot day. Then we did cake and ice cream and had a baseball pinata. I was too busy making sure nobody got their heads bashed in with the baseball bat we were using to break the pinata to take pictures of it. And last was the present opening. It turned out to be a fun party. I love my little seven year old. Yes, SEVEN, I cannot believe it!

Farmington Pond

On memorial day we spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon working out in the yard and planting flowers that we bought on friday. We told the kids that if they worked hard all morning we'd go do something fun later. Our friends Jeremy and Heidi called and they were going to farmington pond to try out Jeremy's new kayak. So we met them their and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We brought hot dogs and had a little cookout on our portable stove. We all took turns riding in the kayak too. It was a nice relaxing way to end the memorial day holiday.

The boys campout

Dave and Jacob were very excited about our stake father and son campout this year, only to find out the week before they were supposed to go that they were cancelling it due to bad weather. There was some snow still on the pass on the way to the campground and they thought it was too dangerous. Anyway, they really wanted to go camping still, so Dave talked to Jacob's friend Joseph's dadJason into going camping with just the four of them. So they got Jason's camper and loaded up for the night of camping. Which meant that Kera, Michael and I were on our own. Last year when Jacob and Dave went on the campout Kera and I went bowling. She remembered how much fun we had and wanted to go again. We went to a place called Sparetime family fun last year and we went back again this year except Kera decided to try glo in the dark mini golf. She really loved that and I was surprised at how fast she picked up the concept. The concept yes, now the putting left a bit to be desired. She just needs a little practice. She did manage to get a hole in one on one of the holes where you had to hit it in the tiger's mouth. And I didn't even help her! We were excited. Michael happily sat in his stroller and watched us golf.

So our father son/mother daughter weekend was a success. I would've taken some pictures of Kera and I golfing, but the boys had our camera!

Just Clowning Around

Here's a silly picture of Michael with a clown wig that I wore when I was about 4 years old for halloween. It's one that was in our halloween box for years growing up. One of the kids got it out of our halloween stuff and thought Michael would like to try it on. A clown wig and a diaper, what more do you need?

My other blog

So here's the story about the finer diners club. My friend Heidi called me up last month to see if Dave and I wanted to go to dinner with them at an Indian food restaurant they like. We were able to get a babysitter and off we went to the Bombay Grill in Ogden. The food was really good. It was a curry chicken dish with rice. I liked the flavor and we got a 3 on the spice level, you can go from 1-10. So we were sitting there talking and laughing with Heidi and her husband Jeremy. We were saying how it would be fun to try different restaurants and maybe trying some exotic foods we haven't tasted before. We were like yeah, lets start our own club and we came up with the name "the finer diner club" where we'll go to different restaurants and try their food and rate it and compare it to other places we've tried. So tonight we went to the Happy Sumo restaurant in the Gateway. Now given this place is not too exotic and it's a bit trendy, not really a hole in the wall restaurant, but it was Heidi's first experience with sushi. Except one time a long time ago. So we got home from the restaurant, which was really good by the way, and she wrote me a message on facebook saying she started a blog! It's kind of a joke, but it's still fun and I'm gonna go on there right now and write about our experience. You'll see it listed as one of the blogs I visit, so that's the link to it or if you want to go from here the address is www.finerdinersclub.blogspot.com
Fun!
Thanks for starting it Heidi :)

Finally A New Post...

Easter and Our Trip to Zion National Park

During Jacob's spring break from school we took a family vacation down to southern utah and went to Zion National Park. The trip down was not too bad until Kera started to get carsick. Luckily we were pretty close to our destination, with about a half hour left to go. And even luckier than that, no vomiting, just a lot of false alarms. She had her barf bag ready to go just in case.

So we got to Springdale, just outside of the park entrance, and checked into our motel. We wanted to give the kids the chance to camp, but since we have a 7 month old, I didn't want to camp for more than one night. Dave would've liked to camp the entire trip, but we compromised by camping out one night and staying at the motel the other two nights. And we're glad we did because Saturday it rained all day, and it was nice to be in the motel room during the stormy weather. Camping out friday night was just fine. We got to Zion thursday so that on friday morning we could wake up early and go find a campsite. The ranger told us when we got there thursday night that we shouldn't have any problems finding a spot, as long as we got there by 8 am. So at 8 am friday morning we were driving around the campsite searching for a vacant spot. We drove around the campground probably 7 or 8 times and were getting quite discouraged. This was a first come first serve campsite, but people had all come and "claimed" their spots by putting tickets on the site number. And there were even a few people standing in their spots claiming their sites waiting for the rest of their parties. That ticked me off a little. But we perservered and finally found an empty spot. I got a good laugh when Dave was searching for a spot on foot and found one, then came running over to the van to get our ticket quickly before anyone snagged our spot. We were tired of searching and we were determined to get that site!

We set up camp that morning and got to work setting up our new dutch oven and cooking a late breakfast. And by late I mean we ate around 11 am. It was our first time cooking with our dutch oven and it takes quite awhile for those coals to get hot enough to cook the food! We also didn't have enough coals on at first and had to heat more and add them to the dutch oven. By the time our trip was over we cooked three meals, and by the last one, a yummy peach cobbler, we felt like old pros. Okay not quite, but at least it didn't take quite so long to cook that dish. We had a hash brown and egg casserole the first day and then made chili that night and the peach cobbler for breakfast the next day. I really liked the taste of the dutch oven. If any of you are still reading this , I'd love to get some good dutch oven recipes that you may have tried and liked. We plan to use ours a lot.

Okay, so the night of camping was fun, and we did some hiking when we first got there thursday, then again friday afternoon. The one friday was nice. We took a shuttle bus up to the top mountain point and got out at the riverwalk trail where there was a great view of the canyon and the kids got to play near the river. Michael did great on the hike in the backpack (as seen in one of the pictures). He liked to be positioned in the backpack with his face pushed up against the side and was sucking on the nylon for most of the time.

Saturday it rained all day, so no hiking that day. Sunday morning we got up and packed the van. It being Easter morning, and my birthday, Dave went and got us some danishes and hot cocoa for breakfast and they all wished me a happy 31st bday. They had a little park outside the motel, and I went and hid some eggs for the kids to do an easter hunt. That morning the sun was out and it was beautiful weather. It's too bad the weather wasn't like that the day before! After the kids did the hunt we drove home. Overall we had a wonderful trip. Just a few little bumps along the way, mostly when the kids were tired and whiny. Spending so much time together in a confined space can be a bit wearing on both the kids and the adults. But what's a family vacation without a little arguing and whining, right?

Our next big family vacation will be in June when we drive to Texas. (I'm still waiting for some great deals on flights to Texas, but with having to buy 4 plane tickets and paying for a rental car, the odds are stacked against that one). So it looks like 2 days of driving in a car with a baby and two, often times bigger babies, here we come. We're also planning a trip to Oregon in August and we'll be driving there too. I'm thinking about stocking up on valium. :) We are looking forward to visiting Dave's family in Texas and my brother and his family in Oregon. It will be our first visit to Oregon to see them.

I will take lots of pictures and be sure to post about the trips later.

Dad with the kids after the easter egg hunt at the park
Kera and Jacob with their baskets

Mom and the kids

See our great easter baskets

Jacob and Kera holding hands during the hike-I wish they would stay like this all the time

Mom and the kids on the overlook trail

The whole fam

Mom and the kids-can you say cheese!


Fun on the red rocks

Mmm, this backpack tastes great

Dad and the kids

Silly face time