Discovery Children's Museum

The Children's Museum has a member's only time every month. This month we didn't have anything going on, and the museum has a new summer exhibit that looked fun, but not worth fighting the crowds for. I took the girls to the museum and it was nice and calm, and pretty much empty. We decided to go to the "Play" exhibit first, and it was almost completely empty. The summer exhibit is a bunch of life-size games which included: billiards, dominoes, Foosball, bowling, etc. They had tons of fun pushing the huge billiard balls toward each other, and in the Foosball characters there was a place to talk into and it altered you voice in different ways. I think the Foosball voice thing was both of the girls favorite part of the exhibit. They set up a domino house, and then set up a row of dominoes to tip over. They stood in between the dominoes and toppled with the domino train. They had so much fun!

After we played in the summer exhibit for a bit we headed downstairs to the Kid-size town where the kids enjoyed shopping for a bit, dressing up in the house, and pretending to iron.

The last thing the kids wanted to do before leaving the museum was to "fly" the helicopter.

The museum steadily got busier with members, but as the member time was about up, and it was time to open up to the general admission so we got ready to head out. I'm so glad we went to the museum when we did, and I am also so happy we left when we did before it got super busy.

Weekly Review 2011 - June 5-11

Sunday, June 5 - My nephew turned 15 on Friday (June 3)! My Sister-in-law invited us over to their house to celebrate his birthday with homemade (from scratch) dark chocolate 4-layer cake with toasted coconut pecan frosting. It was amazingly delicious. My nephew got a new bike for his birthday and was immediately out riding it. (photo courtesy of Paul's brother Chris)

Monday, June 6 - This week Kaylee and Gabby are trying out 2 different gyms for gymnastics to see which one they like best to take gymnastics at for the summer. They LOVE gymnastics so much. They need an extra outlet for all their energy that they have.

Tuesday, June 7 - The kids went to another trial gymnastics class this morning and decided that they DEFINITELY want to take gymnastics at the one they went to today. We got them signed up, and they are counting down the day to their next gymnastics class. Wendy came over for the afternoon and cut six inches off Kaylee's hair. She hates brushing the tangles out of her hair, so we decided in this case shorter would be better. She loves her cute new haircut and told me that she thinks it looks like on the movie Tangled when Rapunzel get her hair cut off at the end of the movie and her hair is short and brown. She is happy with it, and is keeping is well brushed which makes me happy.

Wednesday, June 7 - My mom called me and asked what my plans were for the day. I told her they just included things like stacking the dishwasher, and cleaning the house. She asked if I would mind picking her up so she could drop off her car to get her tires rotated, get the brakes looked at, and such. I picked her up and we went shopping, and to run a few errands. While we were out we went to JC Penney and there were some little play tents for 70% off. I got a mermaid tent for my kids and they were so excited to earn the privilege to play with it. I snapped a quick pic with my phone, so the picture quality isn't very good, but you can see how happy Gabby is about it.

Thursday, June 9 - Kaylee, Gabby, and I went to my sister Wendy's house so she could cut and highlight my hair. After we were done Roman really needed a nap so he went to bed, and the girls and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium. The aquarium was pretty busy, but we enjoyed looking at all the different exhibits. Here's Kaylee and Gabby checking out the Rubber Eels.

Friday, June 10 - We went to the Heber Valley Railroad with Wendy's family to ride the train. It was an hour and a half scenic train ride. The kids loved watching out the windows, and being on the train. On our way home we all stopped and ate dinner at Iceberg. After we were done with dinner we hurried home because some people were coming to look at our Dodge Stratus that we listed for sale. Our car sold immediately and the people were thrilled with their new purchase, and we were thrilled to finally have sold that car.

Saturday, June 11 - Paul spent the entire day looking at trucks and suvs so he could get him a new car to drive to school and work since he just sold his car. He spent the whole morning going around to different dealerships, looking at cars online, and then after Roman's b-day party we went down to a dealership in Orem where he drove a few Nissan Xterras and then a Nissan Pathfinder. He really liked the 1997 Nissan Pathfinder and decided to buy that one and is so happy with his new vehicle. Kaylee, Gabby and I went to Roman's birthday party at Wendy's house. He had a construction theme party. The kids got to decorate construction hard hats, make necklaces, dig in the sandbox for treasures, play red light green light, and build tool boxes. Wendy did a cute photo booth with fun accessories for the kids to take pics with at the party.

Heber Valley Railroad

Wendy invited us to go with them to the Heber Valley Railroad to go on a train ride for Roman's b-day coming up. So, we headed to Heber and wandered around for a bit before hopping on the train for our 1-1/2 hour scenic train ride.

Once on the train Kaylee found a space between the seats to squeeze into, and then the kids were having so much fun sticking their heads out the windows and watching everything go by. Then when we got to Soldier Hollow some train bandits hopped on the train shooting their guns, and cracking their whips. They came storming through the train looking for the cash box and told everyone to stick their hands up. Once they found the cash box they got off the train and we went on our way. It was a really nice scenic ride, and the kids had lots of fun.

Living Planet Aquarium

A few months ago I bought an amazing discount deal for an annual membership to the aquarium and I finally made it up there to redeem the certificate and get my kids and I our annual pass. The aquarium was pretty busy with school out, and it was a little bit of a rainy day. We had fun looking around and feeling like there was no real pressure to make sure we saw everything since we got passes. They have a new exhibit since we were there last called Animal Superheros. It was kinda cool, and my kids favorite thing in there was the glow in the dark scorpions....um, no thank you. They also really like the Journey to South America exhibit with all the different reptiles, and fishes like eels, piranas, frogs, and snakes.

They wanted to watch the penguins being fed, but when we got there 10 minutes early the area was PACKED and we couldn't see a thing, so we headed over to the shark and sea turtle tank and watched them being fed instead and enjoyed learning some interesting info about different varieties of sharks. We went to the sting ray touch tank, and the other tanks you could touch the different sea creatures, and then headed for home.

Weekly Review 2011 - May 29-June 4

Sunday, May 29 - We went to church first thing Sunday morning, and I taught Kaylee's primary class. After church we had a nice relaxing day just hanging out at home, and enjoying not having to be anywhere, or do anything.

Monday, May 30 - For Memorial Day we went over to my parent's house for a BBQ. It was a lunchtime BBQ and was just your basic hot dogs, hamburgers, and such. After the BBQ, Marla and I headed upstairs to play Super Mario Bros on the Wii, we were joined by my bro-in-laws Spencer and Dave. I think we ended up playing for at least 3 hours. It was tons of fun. While we played on the Wii the kids played outside on their scooters, and on the play house in my parent's yard.

Tuesday, May 31 - After a week off last week with family fun, and then the Memorial Day weekend it was time to get back to real life. Paul headed back to work, and I worked on tackling piles of laundry, and housework, ran a few errands, and such.

Wednesday, June 1 - While I was working on scrubbing down the kitchen the girls were outside playing and riding their scooters. At one point they came inside and got a notebook. When I went to check on them they were sitting on their lawn chairs at the edge of the yard with a sign that said "Money you don't need." As someone (I have NO clue who it was) was walking by they gave my kids $6.00! Our neighbor across the street gave them some change too. We had a nice talk about earning money, and just expecting money.

Thursday, June 2 - My cousin Tiffany had her adorable baby boy on Sunday, May 29. They went home from them hospital on Tuesday, and we were so happy to be able to go visit her for a few hours. The kids were interested enough to hold Jacob for a few minutes before running off to play with Tiffany's older boys again.

Friday, June 3 - Today we pulled out some workbooks for the kids to do a few school pages before running outside to play. While the kids were working on their pages the dog was very happy to curl up and cuddle into a blanket on the couch. As soon as the kids were done with their pages they woke the dog up, and got him running around, and thankfully took their energy outside.

Saturday, June 4 - Paul, Kaylee, Gabby, Marla, and I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 in the theater. It was a really well done sequel to the first movie, with a good message to it too. We really enjoyed the movie.