Saturday at Thanksgiving Point

My mom ran the half marathon at Thanksgiving Point last Saturday. She had a great run, won the grand raffle prize, and (lucky for us!) got 6 free tickets to all of Thanksgiving Point for that day. Since she had other stuff going on that day, she gave them to us. We were a little worn out from the busy week, but I couldn't turn down the free passes to these expensive attractions!

First we went to the Farm. We have annual passes to this part of Thanksgiving Point (it's cheap and the kids get a pony ride or a wagon ride each time, included) but it was Baby Animal Day, so a lot more was going on.

Baby animals penned around the grassy area... This has got to be the cleanest cow I've ever seen.... and Violet's still not too sure about her!

Games with little prizes

Including throwing balls at milk jugs. Cora didn't come close, but did hit a ball on the milk jug stand, thus dropping a few jugs.

Violet didn't see the point of aiming for the milk jugs and purposely threw all her balls into the gravel area.

Riding the cows train... good prep for Grandpa Ellis' train in July! I asked Violet afterward how it was, and all she could say was "bumpy! very bumpy!"

We also got to do the wagon ride (the pony ride line was way too long!). It was a nice change.

This was how Luke spent most of his day. He was a good sport. We just need to get him a sun hat!

Next we headed to the Dinosaur Museum. The girls love the sand and water area and the big sandbox where they discover dinosaur bones.

Lastly we dragged ourselves over to the gardens. I had been really wanting to see the tulips there this year (I haven't been before) but hadn't been able to talk myself into ponying up the $10 per person for it. This was a much better deal! The girls had fun (trying to) pencil roll down the big hill, the bloom-o-meter was at 65% so we saw a lot of tulips, and it was fun to explore a bit. I was impressed with how huge it is, the girls especially loved the waterfall amphitheater. I think it would be fun to go in the summer again and see everything a bit more blooming and green. And check out the Children's Garden, we missed that.

My brother, the volcanic ash refugee

Keyton, sporting his scruff, meeting Luke. That scruff got him quite a few eager sister missionaries' attention at Temple Square-- must have looked like a good proselytizing opportunity!
My brother Keyton, and his family live in England. He came to Maryland for a work conference and got stuck here because of the volcano. Lucky for us, he decided he could fly to Utah for a few days while he was waiting for the air to clear up. Lucky for him, he didn't have to wait until May 1st (what they initially told him) to get home. Due to other flight complications he is stuck in Paris now for a night, but hopefully will get home tomorrow... missing his anniversary, but home for Jarom's birthday! Kevin and I got to see Keyton and his family in Ireland last May, but he hadn't seen the kids for a few months more than that. They were a bit shy at first, but after a few games... ok, a LOT of games of hide-and-seek they thought Keyton was a pretty cool uncle.

We were lucky we didn't really have much going on last week-- we got to spend lots of time with Keyton, Kissie and Pata. We spent the four short days hanging out at Mom and Dad's, hanging out here for a day, eating Cafe Rio, taking some walks, and celebrating Jen's graduation. And, of course, playing lots and lots of games! Agricola, the Train Game, Squeak, Secret Partners, and Crazy 8's with Cora. It was a fun, packed 4 days.

Crazy 8's

And the little park with Brigham Young's grave

It started to rain a little bit.... then a lot! Luke is the jacket bump on my front.

Crashing with Pata after ballet class. The girls did pretty well with the busy days and a few late nights mixed in.
Shad and Jen drove down and spent Thursday afternoon at our house. It was so fun to relax and play together.
Thursday was Cora's Daddy Day at preschool so Kevin went for the last half hour. The kids sang a Daddy song, made a craft, and had a snack together.

Prime Agricola playing time-- Violet was napping, Cora was at preschool.

Jen graduated with her degree in Dental Hygiene from Weber State University on Friday, just over a week after having Bailee! I wasn't quite brave enough to go to graduation (with the kids), but we met up with them in Ogden afterward for a yummy dinner. Congratulations Jen!
Thanks for coming to visit Keyton! Thanks for being such a good sport Liz! We can't wait to see you, Emeline, Jarom, and Wes too in a few short months!

Tulips at the Temple

I love to walk around Temple Square and see all the flowers. Spring is an especially beautiful time with all the tulips. We visited my parents last Sunday and walked around taking pictures. We had lots of good ones! It was fun, and the girls liked running around and were pretty patient with the picture taking.

A great one of Kissie and Luke

Luke and the pansies-- I was happy we finally caught this expression on his face-- so cute!

Chub-chub-chubby cheeks!

Rolling....

The kiddos with Kissie and Pata

The girls

Violet-- I want to RUN!

One of my favorites

This one too

Cute kiddos--Luke LOVES chewing on his fingers!

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Week in Review

Last Sunday Great Grandma Anderson came to stay with us for a night. She is a great guest and we love having her visit! We had a fun time catching up and on Monday we took the tour of Welfare Square and ate lunch with Kevin at his work.
Wednesday my new niece Bailee was born!

Thursday was cowgirl/boy day at preschool. Cora was sure excited to wear her pink cowgirl hat and took a my little pony for show and tell.

Friday we made it to the farm at Thanksgiving Point. The girls always love the pony rides and this time we saw some animal babies too. We are loving this beautiful weather! We also did a family movie night, we got Finding Nemo from the library and ate dinner picnic style while watching the movie. Cora loved it, and it seemed to hold Violet's attention pretty well too. What they really loved were the mangoes and our homemade oven fries for dinner, and they even ate the cheesy broccoli too.

Saturday Kevin and the girls went to the Salt Lake Bees games-- it was Cora and Violet's first baseball game! My aunt had some free tickets from work, so it was a great chance to see if they would enjoy something like that. They did pretty well and had a fun time.

Sunday we got to see this little doll in person...
Bailee is sure a cutie! It's pretty fun that there are three babies in my family who will all be in the same grade: Wes, Luke, and Bailee.

I guess Luke has grown a bit the last three months. He's certainly not as tiny as a newborn anymore!
Cousins, three months and one week apart.
The girls have been delighted all week to see pictures of Bailee on the computer, they were even more excited to see her in person! Shad and Jen were so nice to let them both hold her, and they were extra gentle (thankfully!). Cora and Violet were also excited to see Oreo and Butterscotch, they always have fun playing together.
On the way home from Ogden, we stopped by Kissie and Pata's house to visit and take a walk around Temple Square. All the spring flowers are out and it is so beautiful! We took tons of family pictures, I'll be posting them when I get them from my mom tomorrow and have a chance to sort through them.

Our week this week will be pretty fun too-- Keyton will be visiting! He got stuck in the states while in Maryland for work and can't get back to England for quite a while. It's so sad he can't get home to his family--Liz will be on her own for about 3 weeks and he's missing their anniversary and a birthday-- but it has been a year since I've seen him, so it is nice he is willing and able to visit us while he is stuck. And, Bailee and Luke can meet their uncle! Cross your fingers that he'll be able to get home soon!