$2 Tuesday!

Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays for the month of August so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go check out the Dinosaur Museum. Unfortunately, half of the Salt Lake Valley had the same great idea. The line wrapped around 3 sides of the building! It's a big building. Luckily the line moved pretty fast, it only took us about 45-50 minutes to make it to the door. We went with our friends Becky, Ben, and Julia so the time in line seemed to go fast. The kids had fun playing with the dinosaurs, puzzles, running up and down the ramps, and digging for bones in the sand. It was impossible to get many pictures of their faces, they were just too busy for pictures, definately worth the $2 for a fun morning. Thanks for going with us Becky, Ben, and Julia!

Brad's first time ever...

on a horse!

It was pretty entertaining seeing him mount his first horse ever. Sorry I laughed Brad, but you did look pretty funny! Some friends in the ward go up Payson canyon a couple of times a year for a week of camping, riding horses, and relaxing. It is beautiful up there! They invited us to come up one night for dinner and a ride, so we went last night and had so much fun! Thank you Burninghams!

Daylen got to ride with me and he did really well for his first time on a horse. Brett's horse in front of us stopped to poop at one point and you wouldn't believe how long a 2 1/2 year old can have a conversation about a horse pooping. Of course, it was just the same conversation over and over. The only part Daylen didn't really like was going downhill, it was a little painful for him I think.


Meet Buck, Cisco, and Josie from left to right. The Burninghams assured us Buck got his name from the fact that he is a buckskin horse and not for other reasons. They were such good horses, so fun to ride. They were perfect for Brad's first experience on a horse. The mountains and area was absolutely beautiful, and the weather was perfect. We had so much fun!




After our ride we roasted hotdogs over the fire and had a yummy dinner. Kate had a little too much fun crawling around in the dirt, filling her cup up with wood chips and dirt and whatever else she could find. She was soooo dirty by the time we had to head home, but she didn't care she had a great time!

Daylen "roasted" the same marshmellow all night. It never got close enough for the fire to actually cook it, but that's alright by me. He had more fun carrying the roasting stick around with a marshmellow on the end, than actually eating the marshmellow.

Daylen still roasting his marshmellow with Kaitlyn, our trusty babysitter.

Even Kate wanted to try roasting.

This picture doesn't quite do justice to how dirty Kate really was. She has a crazy mad look on her face in this picture, but she was really just talking really loud and playing and the camera happened to capture an odd face. Thanks again guys we had so much fun!!

Perfect Park Day

We had a perfect day at the park this afternoon with our friends Janell, Rylan, and Asher. The weather was beautiful, we amazingly had the park all to ourselves, and the kids played so well together. I'm so glad I finally thought to bring my camera. We usually walk every morning and stop at the park while we're out to let the kids play. We missed our walk this morning, so we went this afternoon for some fun and fun it was.

Kate has a fascination with noses right now, so poor Asher played guinea pig to her exploration.

Good thing he's such a happy baby, he ALWAYS has a smile on his face.

Daylen and Rylan having fun with the park all to themselves.

Enjoying a "picnic" of sticks. It's fun to see their imagination and pretend play blossom.

Kate likes to climb on the playground like the big boys.

If it's not the swings it's up and down the slide.

I love being a stay at home mom!

Happy Birthdays!

My wonderful friend, Janell, put on an awesome birthday party for the February birthdays on the 21st. She invited all of the girls in her ward with birthdays in February, and me. Hey, I used to be in their ward at some time or another over the last few years. It was so much fun! We had yummy Cafe Rio style salads, played Apples to Apples, visited, and ate a delicious chocolate chip cake made by Jessica. There were 9 of us altogether, funny thing, 6 of the 9 are nursing mothers. I love girls nights, and I had so much fun catching up with old friends I don't see much anymore even though we all live in the same neighborhood. Thanks for an awesome night Janell! I totally agree this needs to become a tradition!

A bunch of Random

I made our favorite dinner, lasagna, for Valentine's Day which we ate by candle light, mmm.....how romantic huh? Well, it probably would have been a little more so without Daylen in the background, but oh well.

We have been having a hard time getting Daylen to drink milk, he always makes faces and spits it out. I'm lucky if I can get him to drink some of the milk in his cereal bowl once the cereal is all gone. For some reason he was willing to give it another shot. He wanted the lid to his sippy cup gone so he could drink it like mom and dad and he didn't spit it out! We were so excited we started cheering and he loved that of course so he would drink a little more then start cheering for himself while we joined in.

Now he has the milk mustache to prove he actually drank more than a sip! The next night we were babysitting for his friend, Rylan, who likes milk, so when he saw Rylan drinking milk he actually wanted me to get him some as well! 2 days in a row so far, lets see if we can keep this up. His cousin, Ivan, is coming to visit this weekend and he loves milk so hopefully all this exposure will keep Daylen going in the right direction.

Daylen and Rylan had so much fun playing together, they were cute to watch. They got up in the rocking chair together and just laughed and laughed! So here they are having fun. We started trading off babysitting on Friday nights with our friends Janell and Kevin (Rylan's mom and dad) and so far it has been awesome!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas in Walla Walla with my family this year. I was not excited at all about the lengthy drive, but it was definitely worth it. The whole reason we even decided to go home for Christmas was because my good friend from home, Candice, got married on the 21st. We decided to go for her wedding and we might as well just stay for Christmas while we were there, so we did. She looked absolutely beautiful, it was so fun to be there and see so many friends and family.

While at home we discovered we have a little Beethoven in our family, Daylen found the piano and loved to play it! He did pretty well too, I mean he wasn't spouting off any concertos, but he didn't just bang the keys he actually played it nicely. It was so cute because he would play for a little bit then stop and throw his hands in the air and yell, "Yah!!"

When Brad's parents moved to Alaska, Karen let my mom have her old high chair she used for her kids and was then using for her grandkids. My mom wanted it to in turn use for her grandkids. So Daylen got to use the same high chair his daddy used when he was a baby!

The Sunday before Christmas we got to go to visit Grandma Murray in Waitsburg, Wa, just about half hour away from Walla Walla. We spent a few hours with her and Daylen had a fun time playing with Grandma's toys. She had just gotten a bat and ball set, and Daylen LOVES balls so he had a great time. Plus, Brad and I then knew he would like his Christmas present because that is exactly what we got him!

On Christmas Eve we took a drive to Othello, Wa to visit my grandparents. This is where my mom grew up and I'm related to more people than I know in that city. If the last name is Gilbert you can bet I'm related. It was good to see them and visit for awhile, it's so hard to see your grandparents get old. I'm not sure my grandma even knew exactly who we all were, but luckily grandpa is still doing great in the mind area at least, he knows us and appreciated the visit. I especially enjoy getting to see him. My Grandma Goodwin is also living in Othello now at an assisted living facility. She lived with my parents for the last year, but she has dementia pretty bad and needed more attention and care. They had a piano in the eating area so my sister, Lori, sang "O, Holy Night" for grandma, then we all stood around while my mom played and we sang Christmas Carols for grandma and whoever else cared to listen. It was fun to sing with my family again, it's great to have husbands now to sing the men's parts, before we were pretty much a female choir as my dad always jokes about what a great lip syncer he is.

When we got back home that night the kids got to open 1 present, pj's of course. We tried to take pictures of them by the tree and they were a bunch of monkeys, they all had to have a banana. Daylen really enjoyed opening presents Christmas morning, and he was good at ripping that paper away.

Daylen was so cute with baby Kayla, he loved holding her. If someone else was holding her he would go up and put his hands out to hold her. He would watch her and touch her little fingers, he would hold her for quite awhile. When he gave her back he would have a big smile on his face, it the cutest thing! I think he'll be a good big brother.