Lagoona Beach

We went to Lagoona Beach one day with our cousins in August. I haven't been to Lagoon since Grace was one - and both my kids were really excited to go. We spent the first part of the day at the water park- I didn't want to take my camera to the water, so all of the pictures are on the grass by our lawn chairs. Grace & Daisy

Max

Grace just chillin

Max being blinded by the sun

Max, Tylor, Grace & Travis being squished.

Tylor -

Daisy showing some teeth.

So- when we were done we obviously had to change. I hate locker rooms, can they be more dirty, disgusting and gross? I changed Max and Grace at the lawn chairs and then went into change. When I got into the locker room there was a line to get in, think 10 antsy, wet ladies waiting to change. There were two open doors at the very end, I asked why no one was using them and the ladies told me there were backpacks in the changing rooms. Well, I wasn't going to wait. I moved one of the bags outside the stall and went into change. I was going to be super fast and about 30 seconds into my super fast change this lady comes up and starts screaming at me through the door. I had moved her daughters bag- I calmly said it was rude of them to take up two stalls while there were people waiting for the stalls and when there are 1000 people there and only 10 stalls you can't save the stall. She wanted to know where I'd read the locker room policy, and she continued to scream at me calling me pretty much every version of F-ing B. and that she was going to call the police because I touched her bag, and I better be careful because if anythings missing she was going to hunt me down and kill me. I'm not joking that she screamed at me for the next 3 straight minutes, I calmly walked out of my stall (wondering if I was going to be beat up, strung up, or something else) and walked out of the locker room, the last thing I heard was her still yelling at me at the top of her lungs from the next stall.

So, what do you think, did I break the law by moving her backpack?

Viva Las Davis Fair

We became fair people this year, and the Davis Count "Viva Las Davis" fair was our 3rd of the summer - Grace tried the hula hoop, that girls got mad skills, but not mad hula hooping skills.

Max waited for a balloon from Crazy clown Bill. He had some funny jokes, but he took FOREVER! We heard every joke 10 times, and we were only the 5th in line. He was so slow! He made Max a sword, complete with a belt and harness to hold it in.

Unfortunately we decided to eat before going through the animals, and they closed everything but the chickens and the rabbits. They closed the ponies on our way, they closed the fishing pond right before we got into the 4h building. Needless to say I didn't have the happiest kids when all was said and done.

We also were going to Lagoon the next day, so I wasn't about to pay for rides at the fair - yep - we ended up leaving frustrated! Just making happy family memories ;)

ZooX2

I'm sure you're all sick of pics to the zoo, but it's what we do. The kids love it and it gets us out of the house.

Mike's mom and I took Max, Grace and their cousin Daisy to the zoo last month. It was rainy and cloudy when we got there, but by the middle of the day it was brutally hot.

I took the kids last week also, they rode the train twice and the carousel 3 times. It was too busy! We'll wait a few week until everyone is back and school, and the people who waited until the other people who went back to school have all had their fill.

Right now the zoo has dinosaurs - have you been? They are actually much better than the ones at Dinosaur Park.

Why oh why do my kids want to ride the dumb peacock? It doesn't move, it doesn't go up and down-but they always want to ride it. Please take a moment to watch this video. Let it serve as a warning to all about the dangers of dinosaurs and little boys.

And Diva Makes 5

Meet Diva Nilla Tyler- Mike never had animals growing up. Never. Not so much as a frog. Or a cat. Or a dog. His family are not animal people.

Growing up there was never a time when we didn't have pets. Pets in the plural. Dogs, cats, horses, birds, a turtle, fish etc. My family is very much animal people.

However, I am not an animal person. I can co-exist with animals as long as I don't have to touch them- yep, I wasn't the one taking care of them, or cleaning up after them. So when Mike said, long before we even got married, that we'd never have pets I didn't even try and negotiate. That really was fine by me.

Then we had children. Grace specifically - how can two people who really don't like animals have a child who is so obsessed with them? Grace has asked and pleaded for a dog for as long as I can remember. For the last 3 Christmas's it's crossed my mind just because she wants one so badly. She loves to go to my moms and play with her dogs, she loves to go to her Aunt Liz's and play with her dog,and to Mike's Grandpas and play with their dog, and then she talks about it for weeks.

When we take walks she knows the dogs in the neighborhood and always stops to play. One neighbor told her she can come over and play with Piper and Lil (Scotties) anytime she wants. In fact its Piper and Lil's house.

Look at these two- they are crazy about each other. (Yes it's August and 90 degrees outside and my child's in long pants and a long sleeve shirt, it's so Diva doesn't scratch her while they are playing.)

I mentioned in a previous post that we got Diva from my sister - they called her Nilla because she was the color of a Nilla Wafer - but when she gave us the puppy she told us she's a total Diva. She won't go down stairs by herself and will cry until someone lifts her down. Well Diva stuck- My vote was for Lucy, but since Mike caved he got to name her.

Grace is working very hard to train her to shake, dance and obey.

She won't walk on a leash. In fact Mike said she'd rather be strangled than walk on the leash. I hope this is a learned thing because I really want a walking dog!

Diva's learned to go down the stairs, and loves to play outside. She's so good about leaving her kennel and going straight to the door and won't go in the bedrooms. However anything left in the living room is fair game, so she's ruined two of the kids plastic toys.

And, I've had to bath her once - she threw up in her kennel one day. I didn't even gag, I was so proud of myself. And cleaning up after her isn't too bad. Yet.

But the biggest change at our home has to be our Girl. Most of my readers know about Olivia. Olivia is the horse, turned unicorn, who grew wings, who changes colors, who I can't see because I'm mean, who happens to turn up every where we go that is Grace's best friend. Yes, my child's imaginary friend is a horse. (She started out as a real horse who lives near my mother-in-laws but kept changing and growing and moving.)

Not once since we've had the puppy have I heard about Olivia. She hasn't been flying outside the car, outside the window or shown up at our dinner table. Look what Diva solved! No need for imaginary animal friends anymore!

Did I mention she snores? We can hear her three rooms away, it's kind of cute. And so is she. Who would have thought we'd learn to love a puppy. I'm not sure we're puppy in family picture people yet - but I did run home on my lunch hour to check on her - so anything's possible.

Brigham City Pool

Right before my sister moved to California we planned a day at the Brigham City Pool- Nicole and Cassie drove up from Hyrum and met us there.

A couple good things about the Brigham pool, the kids area is huge and they have two little slides the kids can go down with fairly little help. One bad thing about it is the slides the kids can go down- that was all Max wanted to do.

My arm and hand hurt even before getting to the pull so lifting him out of the water over and over and over was a challenge.

Grace did not like the little slides and was perfectly content to play in her life jacket. My sister Cassie and niece Emery-

Max didn't think the slide was wet enough so he would carry up the bucket of water, dump it down the slide and then slide down.

Sisters Cassie, Nicole, Nephew Bracken and niece Emery-skinny butts. ;)Niece Nayvie

Niece Adi and Grace swimming- We will so miss the days where we just drop everything and go play with cousins at the pool!

Night Out Against Crime

We stopped by my mom and dad's in Hyrum on our way home from vacation- we intended just to stop in and say hi. When we pulled up a massive moving van was in front of my sisters house - ouch.

My sister was moving (has moved) to California. About 7 weeks before she moved her dog had puppies, when we got there I asked her when she would be nervous enough about getting rid of them that she'd give us one. Most of me was teasing. Grace has wanted a puppy for years- so when Nicole said "Now, got get one." We did. More on puppy in another post....

That night was Hyrum's Night Out Against Crime - bonus! I wouldn't have to go home and cook dinner - so we went with my family and had burgers and visited some of the stations.

Max, Grace and Bracken tried on the drunk goggles and played the bean bag game. Max missed all of the shots, Grace & Brack both made two. It was funny watching them try and throw the bags.

Grandpa Guy let the Grand kids climb all over and inside the firetruck, they all loved that, especially Max.

My kids have serious look at the camera issues. (One of the stations gives the first few hundred kids a stuffed animal, Nayvie got this huge bear and was suppose to be getting on a plane in a few days. Pretty sure the big fat bear didn't make it to California.)

Nayvie, Grace, Adi, Ty & Max

Max got himself buckled in and thought he was really cool! He would have loved to ride to an actual fire with the fireman.

My cute niece Nayvie, who happened to turn 8 today, Happy birthday miss Nayvie May!

Bear Country

Our last day of vacation we went to Bear Country or Bear World near Idaho Falls. By far this was the most expensive activity we did, and I'm very thankful my kids LOVED it!


If you've never been, you drive around in your car and look at animals. They have deer, elk, bison, moose and of course bears. I remember as a child my brother being so funny while we drove through, he had all of us laughing. He said the bears were really people in costumes and pretended to talk on a radio telling the bears what to do.


(This picture is out of place, but I can't drag them to save my life on the laptop.)


The kids loved the petting zoo part, The little fawn latched on to Grace's shirt and wouldn't let go. I think it's incredible how relaxed she is around animals, where Max might run or at least back away she is right there letting a baby deer lick her hand.

There were several baby bears and a trainer was working with this one, she got him to climb up on the pole and eventually stand up on his hind legs and wave. It was fun to watch - on a side note you could feed the bears for $20 a person- yeah we didn't do that.

They had a few (cheesy) kid rids, these cars went up and down and around in a circle - Grace loved it. She kept saying "Thundercats Ho!" and would giggle and giggle.

Does one of these kids seem out of place to anyone else?

This bear came right up to the car and brushed against Max's door - he wasn't too sure about it, and his eyes got huge, but it was cool.

This was a huge albino elk- They said it's one of 6000 in the world. (Which seemed like a lot to me, but what do I know.)

And the cutest little baby bears ever.