We Go Da Goon

This last week we fulfilled the typical Utah summer...we went to Lagoon. Since our kids are on the year round school schedule, they went to school for 3 weeks and now they are off for 3 weeks. So when everyone went back to school...we went to Lagoon! What a really fun day!

We started at Lagoona Beach. We had lots fun slipping and sliding and playing in the water. Sadie loved playing in the water. She had a little routine going. Swing 3 times, climb up the stairs, down the water slide, through the tunnel and back to the swings. She had so much fun! Unfortunately, mommy's fun was slightly hindered when she was sliding with Sadie down one of the little slides...here's what happened... I had Sadie on my lap and at the bottom of the slide lost my footing and fell to my knees. I skidded across the bottom rocks for a couple of feet. When I stood up I noticed a large white circle on my knee. I walked back to the chair and by then blood was dripping down my leg. I guess I took a pretty good chunk of skin out of my knee. So at that point, my Lagoona Beach experience was officially over. Sadie said, "you got owie mommy? You need ban aid?"

I spent the rest of the time taking fun pictures of the kids and cheering them on as they raced down the slides. Spencer LOVED this fast tunnel slide. I was able to try it out before the little "scrape" and it was a blast!Spencer and Ethan loved the waterfall slide.

After a little knee bandaging and a change of clothes, it was off to ride the rides. Last year, Sadie didn't like any of the rides. She screamed on all of them. I was nervous for this year. Here she is last year....

Yeah, not fun for anyone! Poor Ethan tried so hard to get her to stop crying!!!

This year went much, much better! Sadie didn't really smile, but at least she didn't cry!!! I'm positive Ethan was really grateful she didn't cry again. Going on the first ride, Ethan asked, "Is Sadie going to scream the whole time again?" As you can see from these fun pictures, she didn't cry one time! Underneath the serious face she really was having fun!!

After each ride she would jump off with a HUGE smile and say, "I go again mom?"

This year Sadie was tall enough to ride Puff, so we could all ride together as a family! She didn't like the noise it made so she covered her ears!

Ethan was tall enough this year to ride everything. It was SOOO nice!! That meant Spencer and Ethan got to ride everything twice and Matt and I never had to ride alone! Ethan LOVED the big swing ride near Tidal Wave. He was a little nervous at first, but then realized it was really super fun!! That's my favorite too!!

(well except for Collossus..that's my real fave...speed + loops= FUN!)

So there's a lot of things about Lagoon that are EXACTLY the same as they were 25 years ago when I went for the first time and a lot of things that were VERY different... Here's a few of the things I found that were extremely different...

1. 8 year old children with cell phones.

2. Girls with their heads down during the entire roller coaster ride TEXTING people.

3. More "scary" rides...The Bat, Spider, Wicked, Cliffhanger, no more magic carpet...it's the Samurai now! Back in the day we had the white roller coaster, Collossus and Jet Star 2. That was it!

4. No more Fun House!!! :( I loved the potato sack slide and the funky mirrors!

5. The price of admission...HELLO!!!! Back in my teenage days with a coke can you could get in for 10 bucks!!

Even with the changes, it's still a fun place to spend the day. As we were walking around Ethan piped up, "Boy, this place sure isn't as fun as Disneyland." Yeah, true...but it costs almost as much!!!

The next day at 10am when the kids finally woke up, Sadie saw my knee and said, "You got owie at Da Goon?"

"yeah, sweetie, in the pool remember?"

"Oh, yeah, you got owie in da poo?"

And even still every time she sees my knee..."we go Da Goon, you get owie in da poo! You need ban aid or you ok?"

So........did you Go Da Goon???

Birthday Bash

So I know I'm a week late in posting this, but that's how life has been lately...busy. Last week for my birthday, we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory...mmmmm....soooo yummy!!! And of course you have to get cheesecake for dessert! So they did the whole singing thing for me. It was lots of fun. The boys spent their own money to buy me a present...little miniature snowman figurines. That's right, snowmen!! They know I collect snowmen so when they saw them at the dollar store, they thought that would be a perfect gift. I think it was very thoughtful of them!! So after some yummy dinner, it was off to the mini golf course for some putt putt! The kids have been talking about going mini golfing for weeks now. Sadie was absolutely adorable. Well...see here for yourself....

No joking, every time her ball went in the hole...it was shouting WOO HOO and the jumping and excitement. I LOVED watching her. I could have stayed all night. By the last hole, she finally was getting a little tired and cried because she couldn't get her ball back.

Overall, I can't think of a better birthday. Yummy food, fun activity, and great company. Thanks for a great birthday guys!!! Love you!

A non-existant Camping Trip.... But fun anyway!

So here's the story....

Since we had such a great experience on our last camping trip, we decided to go ahead and plan another one. We pre booked a campsite at a new campground we'd never been to near some fun lakes. We pulled the trailor out into the driveway and started getting ready for our fun trip.

The day before I worked all day long getting food prepared, shopping done, packing done and lots of laundry. Everything was set. Well, that night Sadie woke up in the middle of the night with a major fever. Oh great, here we go again...no camping trip!

So the next morning, with pretty much 3 hours of sleep, I got up and took her to the Dr. in hopes it was just a ear infection or something, so we could get the antibiotic and be on our way. After 2 hours in the Dr.'s office and several tests later...nothing...nada...Just a virus.

So I took Sadie home and put her to bed and called Matt at work to let him know our trip wasn't going to happen. Unfortunately, because we prebooked our campsite, we couldn't get all of our money back. But oh well, I wasn't going to camp with a sick child...I've learned from too many bad experiences...it's not worth it.

So we stayed home....and Sadie in her bed. You could really tell when the ibuprofen was working and when it wasn't....

Here is Sadie without medication...

And here she is with her medication....BIG DIFFERENCE!!

When I told the boys that we couldn't go camping, Spencer was understanding and knew that it wasn't her fault for getting sick. Ethan however, was devastated. He cried and was so upset. He really wanted to go camping so bad!!! So Matt told him that they could sleep in the trailor in the driveway just for fun before we put it away. So the boys got ready for bed and headed out to the trailor. They ate snacks and played UNO, just like camping. Then they spent the night in the driveway.

So after a couple of days of Sadie confined to her bed....(and Mommy confined to the house) we all needed to get out and do something fun. Sadie was feeling much better and didn't have a fever anymore, so we decided to take the family up to Snowbird to spend the day. Boy was it fun!!!

When we first got there, we were walking up toward the ticket booth and a guy overheard us talking about how we were going to buy the all day passes for the kids. He stopped us and said, Hey I've got 3 passes here that I can't use because we are leaving to go back to California today, do you want to buy them? We were going to save $25 by doing that, so sure!!! We didn't have enough cash with us, so we walked back to the car to grab the checkbook. When we came back with the checkbook, he handed us the tickets and said don't worry about it. I tried to clarify...Are you sure you don't want the money? He said oh yeah, have an awesome day! And just like that he disappeared. Matt and I could not believe it. $75 worth of tickets had just been placed in our laps. What a blessing. On the way up the canyon we were trying to figure out how this fun filled day was going to fit into our budget. So because of the extreme kindness of a complete stranger, we were able to enjoy a fun family day without the financial stress. So Mister California guy...if you're out there...Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts....we appreciate you!!!!

What a fun day we had....we started at the trampolines, where Ethan learned how to do a back flip!!!

Spencer loved the trampolines too, but was a little nervous about trying the back flip...

Then it was off to the Alpine slide....oh what fun!!!! I thought Sadie would freak out, but she actually LOVED riding on my lap and the second it was over wanted to go AGAIN!!! (of course I was taking the pictures, so I don't have a picture of Sadie and I on the slide)

Then it was off to the TRAM ride to the top off the summit. 11,000 feet and a breathtaking view!

A little Bull riding anyone? Spencer and Ethan went for a ride and then Matt went ahead and tried out his skills...they all did great! 8 seconds baby!!

Then it was off up the Peruvian lift to go see the "tunnel". The skies were looking a little ominous, but we only had a few sprinkles.

Here we are inside the tunnel, which was SUPER cool! And when I say cool I mean FREEZING! It's kind of a shock on your body when you go from 80 degrees to 50. But it was worth the few minute walk through the center of the mountain to get to the most amazing valley view.

Snowbird knows how to name their lifts and trails...check out the names below...

So after all this fun, we decided to try out the climbing wall. Spencer and Ethan are both amazing climbers...

Matt is a great climber too. And after a little prodding, I decided to try it out. It was fun!!!


And finally, to end the day, Matt rode the zip line...not before we all had this AMAZING view of the Snowbird valley...

And here's our highflying Daddy on the zipline!!!

We had a really great weekend despite all the sickness...but this week, the sickness has unfortunatly spread...Spencer missed 4 days of school and Mommy wasn't feeling so hot either! We all seem to be on the mend now, and hopefully it will stay that way!!!

July 28th...First Day of School????

Back to School already!!!!

Yes people, my kids started school on JULY 28th. I know I'm a couple weeks behind blogging this, but school in July is crap. The only good part about this year round school schedule is that they go OFF track August 18th. And then they don't go back until September 8th. Which is kind of nice because all the fun places we are going will be much less crowded.

Isn't Spencer so cute! He's in the 4th GRADE!!! I just can't believe I have a 4th grader!! No way! He's a smartie pants too. He's excited to be in the same class with his best friend Jake.

And Ethan, doesn't his smile melt your heart? What a cute blondie!! He is in the 2nd grade!! I know...little Ethan...I can't believe it either! His teacher is super nice. He's a really great student.

I miss my boys while they are at school, but I have to admit, I sure enjoy the peace and quiet while they're gone. Sadie screams much less and the house is MUCH less messy. It is a little sad that they are growing up so fast though.

So for those of you that are thinking August 25th is so early for the kids to go back to school, (or maybe for some of you not soon enough :)) Just think, my kids have been in school for almost a month!!!! Enjoy your summer!!!

I love the Olympics!!!

So I don't know how the rest of you feel, but the Olympics are my favorite!!! There's just something about the worlds athlete's coming together and competing in every sport imaginable.

How about those opening ceremonies?? I thought they were nothing short of AMAZING!!!! I couldn't believe all of the tens of thousands of Chinese people that danced. Truly stunning...

My favorite part was the torch lighting. The last torch carrier was suspended in the air as he ran through the air around the entire stadium to finally light the torch. It was awesome.

I'm excited to watch as much as a can over the next 2 weeks. I'm trying to become an expert commentator on each event and accurately judge and score every gymnastics routine.

I plan to cry every time I see someone cross a finish line; a gymnast stick a landing; a new world record broken; or an American presented with the gold medal and hear the Star Spangled Banner play...except with Michael Phelps...what's the deal? They didn't play the whole song? And of course it cut out at the best part...Home of the BRAVE!!

Anyway, I hope your next 16 days are filled with lots of Olympic viewing...I know I'll go through a box of tissues. YAY Olympics! Go USA!!

You can always have your own Olympic fun at home...just check out this link to Home Made Olympics... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdwa8s2-Zb0

Catching up...Days of 47....

So I'm getting a little behind in the blog world lately...sorry folks. I'm too busy reading everyone else's blog! I forgot to blog about our Pioneer day fun.

As a family tradition, we go downtown and watch the Days of 47 Parade. Oh what fun we had! This year my Dad joined us. (not the best photo of ya Dad...sorry! Love ya!!)

He picked up these fun umbrella hats for the boys to wear to keep cool....a few days ago, Spencer wore it to the store because it was raining outside...pretty funny....

All of us LOVE to see the prophet...Sadie got pretty nervous hearing the airplanes and helicopters...I tried to tell her...just wave! Then you'll be on TV!

Another reason we like to go to the parade is to see my sisters and Mom with their Paso Fino horses. They always look so beautiful!

Here is Larena in red....

Here's my Mom in the white shirt and hat and my sister Danielle in purple...
Here's more of Danielle...

Spencer and Ethan sat up close to get a better view...until it got too hot....All in all we had LOTS of fun!!

Oh....but it's not over yet people...the week before this we all walked in the Days of 47 Youth Parade....that was VERY hot, but fun!

Our Stake entered a float of the new Oquirrh Mountain temple that is under construction right now. They just put the angel Moroni on top of it a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty amazing to live so close to a temple!

After the parade, they have a FREE carnival for all participants. It was lots of fun going around to all the blow up rides and booths and collecting all the free stuff. Ethan got his picture taken with these cool Star Wars people...who had to be literally baking in those costumes! It was sooo hot!

After all the parade stuff on the 24th, we all came home and laid on the couch for naps. I think that was the best part of the day....the fireworks that night were pretty cool too. The kids love lighting them all by themselves now. (with some extremely close supervision of course) Sadie loves the glow stick necklaces and cheering with me after each firework is lit. "Oh YAY! That was a pitty one!!" she'd say.

All in all, we had some serious holiday fun!!