speed racer

Kendall doing her best pose!

Tonight we went to the car show with Tyler's grandparents. They are in the market for a new car since they had a LITTLE accident over Christmas. It is nice we get to spend so much time with them now that they live in Utah. Kendall was sad that they didn't bring their bird Sadie but she got over it fast when she realized she could get in all the cars and pretend to drive. It was fun to watch them run around and play Ben would always get in the drivers side and Kendall would wait to see what car Ben was going to and she would run around to the passenger side and "ride" with him. Every time she would get in she would say "bye mom, would you close my door?" and then she would buckle her seat belt [safety first]

bear lake camping trip

We decided that we should go camping for labor day just the four of us. This whole summer we have not had a camping trip by ourselves. At first I was worried that we would not be able to intertain the kids without family to help but what was I really scared of because it is something I do everyday. After talking we decide to drive up to Bear Lake. The weather was not suppose to be that nice but Tyler and I had not been there sense we were kids and if no one else was going with us we were going to go somewhere that we wouldn't normally. I think we found our new favorite vacation spot in Utah. The weather was surpisingly nice and we spent the entire day at the beach. It was a real beach too, not like the rocky shores of Echo. The kids love Love LOVED it.
Kendall was in the water the whole time and Ben was having fun looking for seashells. He wanted to bring some home but the only thing I had to put them in was a rasin box, it was so cute watching him pick the ones he liked best to put in his box.They were beat when we finally left. The wind was starting to blow the storm in that was suppose to be there earlier. Even Kendall did not protest too much when we put her in the car because she was getting sand in her eyes. They fell asleep on the way back to the trailer and got some much neede sleep. When they woke up we all went for a tradional Bear Lake rasberry shake. Yum Yum.

The next day was sunday and we got ready and went to church. It was a very interesting meeting because it was all visitors I think only the speakers were people who lived in the area. When we got back from church Tyler took the kids for a bike ride and I took a nap. A much needed nap. When the bike ride was over we started to make dinner and that is when the wind started to pick up and it blew the flame out on our outdoor stove. Three cheers for trailers with kitchens inside, yeah, yeah, yeah! And when dinner was done it started to rain the kids wanted to go outside so bad but we brought our DVD players from the car into the trailer and kept them intertained with movie and puzzles until it was time to go to bed. Three cheers for trailers in campsites with hookups. Yeah, yeah, yeah!
It was still raining in the morning so we just packed up and went home. But this will hopefuly not be the end of our camping adventures this year we will just have to go a little further south.

Fun family outing turned crime scene

When our evening suddenly opened up we decided we would go for a bike ride as a family. The kids were excited and we thought it would be fun to ride on the jordan river parkway so the kids could see the ducks and stop at a park for a break. If we rode our bikes to the parkway we would have had to take the bike trailer on the street something we were not all that comfortable with so we packed up and drove to a parking lot along side the trail. We saw an older man riding a BMX bike in the parking lot and even though I felt a little funny about it I didn't say anything to Tyler. Turns out he felt funny about it too and with good reason, when we returned from our ride our passenger side window was busted out all of our compartments were opened but nothing was taken. We didn't have anything to take really, the car had just been cleaned out because my dad drove it to girls camp for his ward and I didn't want any of my things getting in his way. All I could do was take a deep breath and hope Karma catches up with whom ever did this old guy on the BMX or not. We called the police just to get a case number so it would be easier to make a claim with the insurance, the officer that showed up was really nice. I know there was nothing he could do and they will never catch them and I am sure that was the last place he wanted to be but he was patient and helped us fill out a report and gave my kids some jr officer stickers that they loved. Our night as a family was still fun but I have an uneasy sick feeling in my stomach and I am not sure when it will go away.

zoo

My sister called early this morning to see what I was doing, normally when she calls she is asking for a sitter but I didn't have anything that needed to get done so I took the bait and told her nothing really and she asked if we wanted to go to the zoo. It was her second oldest sons last day of preschool and they were taking a field trip. So I packed up lunches and the kids 40 minutes later she came to pick us up. What a blast I had with my kids. They were having so much fun looking at all the animals Kendall really liked the Elephants and the porcupines
(go figure) Ben really liked the Zebras (Mom Z starts with Zebra) the turtles and the flamingos. When we were all done seeing the animals and getting ready to eat lunch Ben was ready to go back for round two. We stopped and played on the playground before we left. My sister had her little baby and he really needed to get home to take a nap but I am sure that my kids could have stayed all day. We will have to go back and ride the train next time.

Day out with Thomas

Yesterday our family went to Heber to ride on Thomas the train. It was a prize for Ben because he is a big boy now. I made him a countdown potty chart and he finally made it we had to give him some prizes in the middle because Thomas was so far away and we didn't want him to give up. In the end it was all worth it. bye bye diapers. yeah!!!! Thomas was a fun family trip and Ben was excited to see the big Thomas "pulling" the train but when it came time to climb aboard all he wanted to do was play with the toy trains that were out on the train tables.
If we would have known that we would have just bought him some new trains and save some money. Oh well he liked it enough that he is still talking about it

free ride

Yesterday we rode on the Front Runner from Salt Lake to Ogden with Ben's friend E. It was a last minute decision we did it because it was free. And as some might say there is no such thing as a "free" ride the train was free but it came with a price. First of all we still had to pay to ride trax to the station. The station in Salt Lake was not crowded at all we got on and found a seat and it felt like we were in Ogden in no time. Getting off the train in Ogden we thought we would find some lunch and ride back no problem. We finally found a restaurant that we could take the kids to, the part of Ogden we were walking in didn't seem to family friendly.
After lunch we took some pictures and played on an old steam engine then headed back to the station. There was a huge line and the train was so late. By the time we got on the kids were getting fussy and we couldn't find a seat so we had to stand the whole way back to Salt Lake.
Ben and E sat on the floor and played their video games and ate pretzel sticks Kendall sat in her stroller. E's mom had to hold little T I felt so bad because her back was killing her and he would not go to sleep. When we got off the front runner and had to get back on a trax train I thought Kendall was going to go crazy. She had been so good all day long sitting in the stroller most of the time, even on the trains because there was not always enough room for us all to have a seat. But the thought of another train ride sitting in the stroller caused a mini meltdown until she saw that she was able to get out. Thank goodness we were the first people on the trax train. She was so excited to be out of the stroller she would not even sit in her seat. She stood the whole way home and loved every minute of it. So the train ride was free but it almost cost me my patience, we had fun and the kids were so well behaved for the most part it gives me hope and makes me excited to take them on more adventures this summer. I am so lucky that I have good kids that will go with the flow and listen (most of the time).