Our Busy Week

Niles doesn't quite know what to make of the bubble bath




That sober face just cracks me up. "Being a baby is serious business."

***
Last Thursday we went to play at the ranch for one last hurrah. I failed to take pictures of most of the fun, but I did get Addie and Izzi playing on the beach.

...a big windy storm blew in and pooped our party, so we went out for pizza rather than having a bbq. It was FUN.

***

On Saturday, 8/27, Rich and Mike Petry took the kids floating down the Yellowstone River while Niles and I stayed home and did chores. Here are the pix:

Heidi & Mike

James & Ava

Heidi

James & Ava again

...and again

(how cute are these two, serisously...? LOVE IT!)

Rich-eye view

Ava, Mike & James rounding the last bend before the ranch

Addie

Izzi & Addie

***

Later that afternoon, we had our Primary Summer Activity.

We explained the plan to the kids out on the grass at the park...

We practiced a few "opening songs" then divided up into teams for the Book of Mormon Olympics

A Team- Izzi, Addie, Lydia, & William

Another Team- James, Ava, Heidi, and Hailey

Jessi Tyner helps the kids translate a message from the Book of Mormon.

I helped the kids do a Liahona Treasure Hunt

Families gathered for the BBQ

After dinner, the kids got to throw waterballoons at the current & former Primary Presidents (the kids earned a balloon for each article of faith they memorized or sometimes for bringing their scriptures to church).

Ashley menacing Sister Weisgerber

Lydia takes a shot

Heidi is ready to let loose, too!

***

We had a super fun time at the activity, then we had a double date with the Petrys. Their daughter Hannah babysat for us and we all went out to play games and chill at the ranch house. We'd originally planned to see The Red Elvises at Pine Creek, but didn't want to pay a cover charge for a band we'd already seen for free. It was really fun and something we need to do regularly! Needless to say, that was a very busy Saturday and we were so dang tired on Sunday, we won't be out late on a Saturday again any time soon. I did sharing time, then came home and crashed. It was a great last weekend of summer for the kids.

Lagoon Day Movie

Lagoon Day from MelinFamily on Vimeo.

Too Much Fun

Well, I suppose there's no such thing as too much fun, but there is such a thing as too many pictures. I have tried all week to get photos from last week's trip to Utah organized, and finally decided to just make some videos, the first of which is featured in my previous post (below). I will post more as I finish them, but for now, here is an abbreviated collection to tell the story of the past 10 days or so.

On Wednesday night, we cleaned up and packed up and got ready to say goodbye to our cutie Gram:

Heidi, James, and Addie with their Great-Grandma Elrey

Heidi & Gram

James & Gram


Addie & Gram

***

Early Thursday morning (August 11th), we started our drive to Utah. We went the West Yellowstone way and took a break at "Potty Springs" and filled our water bottles with ice-cold spring water.


Heidi enjoyed pulling moss off the rocks around the spring

Crazy Heidi action shot

Ew, moss!

Niles enjoyed some time out of his car seat...kisses from Addie!

Addie is such a good big sis!

Posing with Gram at the spring, then back in the car and off to Utah!

We got to our hotel in SLC around 4pm and I took a much-needed shower. Then we went out to the Layton's new house in Tooele for dinner around 6pm. We met my mom and Mark there so they could take Gram back to Eagle Mountain. The kids had a blast jumping on the trampoline and playing "Cars" with Owen, and we enjoyed some delicious tacos made by Kristen.

Nana & Niles

James jumping over Addie, Aunt Abby, and Darrin

Sam graced us with some pipe tunes

James & Owen adore each other and it's really cute!

JUMP!

Moonrise in Tooele

***

We had a great night at our hotel...it was incredible comfy with all-cotton bedding and light down comforters. The location turned out to be great (airport Hilton) for all the things we needed to do over the weekend.

***
Friday the 12th we surprised the kids with a day at Lagoon amusement park.

Here we are walking into the park

We went to Lagoon-a-Beach (the in-park water park) first, from 11-2pm-ish. Toward the end of our water park time, James got really whiny because he wanted to "drive the tiny cars" really bad.

Addie and Daddy went on lots of water slides together. Heidi went on most of them on her own ( including that steep white one on the right of Addie, which I wouldn't even do!)

Later, we went out to the little-kids' part of the park and Heidi and James had a ball on the little rides.

We took a break at the Hollywood Sings show and got a kck out of seeing the guy who plays Young Joseph Smith in "Prophet of the Restoration" gettin' his "Glee" on. After the show, Rich and I decided that I would go back to the hotel and clean up and take care of niles (around 6pm) and come back and pick up Rich & the kids at closing time. It turned out to be a grrreat idea.

Rich & James on the Ferris Wheel

Heidi & Addie on the Ferris Wheel

Addie (right) and Heidi (upper left) on the Turn of the Century swings.

Immitating the Flying Dragon

Here's what they looked like when I picked them up--sunburned, exhausted, a little spoiled, and overjoyed. Mission accomplished.

***

Saturday August 13th was our "downtown SLC" day. We had a yummy breakfast at Denny's, then met Sam & Kristen & boys at the children's museum at Gateway center. Our memberships to Museum of the Rockies also worked at this place, saving us $43...yay, that.

James, Sam & Owen, busy in the "Beehive" at the museum entrance.

Addie & Heidi making music

Sam & cute little Gavin watch the kids play

Addie & Heidi picking lemons at the "farm"

James & Owen at the water feature

Kristen & I (with Gavin & Niles) watched Owen & James play in the water for quite a while.

Gavin is a sweet, happy boy who looks like his mama and loves his Auntie.

Up on the roof there is a real helicopter which the boys LOVED

James, Uncle Sam, and Owen in the 'copter

After the museum (11-2pm-ish), the kids wanted to play at the fountain, so we went there for a while.

(Addie, James, and Uncle Sam)

Silly girls!

Sam & Owen in the water

Owen was ready for a nap, so the Laytons went home and we went to lunch (Rumbi Island Grill, YUM!) and rode the Trax to Temple Square.

The kids and me near the temple.

James is super-into Joseph Smith right now, so he was THRILLED to see this in the North visitors' center in the ancient-to-modern prophets area (we could have stayed down there for HOURS--it was really great).

***

That night we took pizza over to Sam & Kristen's house and watched some "Rio." Then we went back to our hotel and CRASHED.

***

Sunday was my mom's big 60th birthday celebration so we were pretty focused on that (after brunch at IKEA, of course). We were gonna head home on Monday morning--my mom's actual b-day-- but we decided to stay late so I could go to the movies with my mom, Gram, and Jill. We saw a 3pm show of "The Help" and we really enjoyed it. Then around 7 pm we loaded up the car and headed out, thinking the drive would be easier with sleeping kids (and it was--easier and much cheaper). We had dinner adn In-n-Out, then hit the road. We stopped once in Ogden for gas and potty, and after that, the kids were all sound asleep. We got home around 4:30am and slept in til nearly nine. It was sooooo great! Rich went into the office for a few hours, but met us for a matinee--the last dollar movie--of Kung Fu Panda 2. I liked it a lot, and it was a fun ending to our vacation.
The kids took these pix of Niles in his Bumbo watching a Baby Einstein DVD on Tuesday the 16th:

Poor baby, he's getting loved to death. (PS: I am so proud of myself for finally making a brown-eyed baby. He's so awesome).

Nana's 60th Birthday

Nana's 60th Birthday from MelinFamily on Vimeo.