To Chicago to see the Grandpappies

We love our yearly family reunions where we get to see everyone, but with 14 adults and 14 kids all together, it's a bit of chaos and we never feel like we get enough one-on-one time with my parents. So we've tried to budget in a trip to see them at their home in Chicago at least once a year. So far it's worked and my kids have been great travelers.
It helps that there are fabulous play places at both the Salt Lake and Chicago airport so waiting around isn't too hard.


Ethan ended up missing 2 days of school during the trip so I made him bring along his homework- which since it's just 1st grade is mostly just reading. He didn't seem to mind.

And after we get there, everyone gets spoiled by grandma Tina. Chocolate chip pancakes shaped like Star Wars characters. Who could ask for more?

And since Grandpa Pat had to work the first day we were there we ventured off to check out the newly renovated park- complete with zipline! This is the one and only time Miles tried it.

Isaac took his allotted turns but refused to let us push him. Apparently gravity was just enough of a thrill for him.

Ethan was the most adventurous- being twisted, spun, and pushed hard. At the end the chair swings almost 180 degrees up (taking the rider along with it).

And of course Grandma's tiny tent is always a hit.

As are the popper guns shot off the deck. Shoot, find, shoot, find... until it's too dark to see anymore.

My sister Kristina drove up from Iowa with her 2 kids to join us for the weekend.

And she's a pretty good shot which is helpful since Isaac doesn't have the arm strength to shoot by himself.

Although Grandpa is the favorite helper by far.

All 5 of the cousins monopolizing grandpa.

So the ziplines were such a hit that almost every morning when we left to go do something, we got talked into first stopping at the park for a few minutes. Miles didn't even bother going most of the times and just stopped at his personal favorites- the old school metal rocking horses. Evan joined him of course as this is a little more appropriate for 2 year olds than a crazy swing ride.

And grandma Tina can't resist joining in on the rocking and singing.

Of course when we did finally make it over to the zipline, we discovered Ethan had talked grandpa into doing the zipline with all 3 of them together.

This is Ethan's favorite part- the big jerk at the end. Of course Grandpa paid for it later when they bottomed out.

And then we had to stop at the climbing gym. Thanks for paying your outrageous taxes mom and dad- your parks ROCK!

We had planned to explore downtown a little but the forecast was all rain so we instead just went to a local lake where we could rent a canoe and then try out another fabulous playground. The paddling started out beautiful.

My boys are in heaven!

Exploring all the sides of the lakes.

And while Kristina and Evan had their turns, there were lots of snacks to eat and geese to chase.

Unfortunately the rain forecast came true and Miles' trip around the lake was not as stellar as the others.

But even with full-on rain, Ethan and Isaac insisted on going out for one more pass. See they even have smiles? Luckily they have a really good grandpa who loves them and loves canoeing- even without a jacket in cold, Chicago rain. If it looks like Ethan is trying to help in this picture, he isn't. He's trolling for sharks. The child was fully convinced there were sharks and that he could "get one" if he could just whack the water hard enough. Isaac is sure his big brother is right too!

And at the end of a wet, muddy, fun day all 4 boys needed a bath.

Monday was rainy again so we ventured to the mall playground which is just like one we loved in DC and wish there were some in Salt Lake.

And then after a few more small adventures it was time to head home. Mostly uneventful flights- Isaac slept the entire way, Ethan played games, and Miles watched Elmo. Easy-peasy.

Our New Cub Scout Master

In August when we got back from my family reunion, we had several messages from a bishopric member asking us to meet with him. I dreaded being asked to speak in church and Taylor dreaded getting a new calling. He LOVES teaching our primary class. We have the 11/12 year olds and they're just very fun to teach and we get to prepare lessons together. Luckily for me, he was right and we were both being released and given new callings. I'm in the Primary Presidency now so not much of a change, and Taylor is the new Cub Scout Master. Everyone we tell this to groans and expresses their sympathies to him, but he's actually really loving it.
Apparently Taylor was a very over-eager cub scout. His mother tells the story of waking up from a dead sleep and jumping out of bed to see what was wrong and there Taylor would be standing next to her bed with his scout book in one hand and a pen in the other begging for her to sign off something he'd passed off the previous night when he was supposed to be in bed. So Taylor's pretty excited for the calling and the bishopric counselor said his main job is to be silly and get the boys excited. Both of which I think Taylor is an expert at.
Normally for the fall kickoff pack meeting, everyone meets up in the canyons around a campfire. That seemed like a lot of work for Taylor since he's still getting everything and everyone organized, so we opted just to have everyone over to our backyard and since Taylor's parents have a firepit in the middle of our yards, we basically had the campfire with no work- just the flip of a gas switch. Too easy!


The kids ate and then played soccer while everyone arrived. My boys were in heaven. They're not old enough to be a part of scouts, but since Taylor is in charge, they get to tag along at least to some things.
And then everyone roasted mallows and made smores over the fire.

Even the parents got in on the smores action.

For each pack meeting, Taylor has been charged with making sure that each boy earns at least 1 award each month. Apparently there are tons of small badges and that's not too hard. So for this month the den mothers chose to do a "manners" badge which everyone earned in addition to whatever other badges they'd earned during the summer. To make it more fun (and very hilarious) Taylor asked each boy to come up with a cheer that the entire audience would do with them. Some were just silly like the boy who raised his shoulders and said "I don't know" so Taylor had the whole group in unison raise their shoulders and cheer "I don't know".

And others were more sports related like the U of U football jumping huddle cheer. The parents laughed and thought it was funny but you should have seen the boys. They were rolling on the floor. So I think he accomplished his "be silly" assignment too.

He'll be a great leader and those boys will never have a dull pack meeting!

Hill AFB Open Planes Day

Over the summer we ventured up to Hill AFB and LOVED the experience. The only thing that would have made it better was if we could have actually gone inside the planes. Luckily for us, they open most of the planes once and year and welcome anyone who wants to come explore. To make the experience even better, they get hundreds of veterans who actually flew or maintained these specific aircraft to volunteer their time answering your questions and giving in depth tours.

To make the day even better, we invited my cousin, her boys, and my aunt to join us. Wade is exactly 2 months younger than Ethan, and Kingston is exactly 2 months younger than Isaac. They are so hilarious together- instant best friends.

It was impossible to get a shot where they were all 4 looking and smiling at the same time, but we sure tried.

Besides airplanes to explore there were jeeps and tanks and helicopters- and that was only what was outside.

Inside there were even more planes to climb in and even little airplane toys.

Ejector seats to try out.

And after almost 3 hours of running and exploring, the boys found a TV with a movie explaining the different parts of a specific airplane. And they were sold.

If you're in Utah the 3rd Saturday of September, you should check it out. Fabulously exhausting day!

Loving our Groupon

So I've become a bit of a couponista- mostly because I love a great deal and because it is SO EASY to do with the internet. So when I saw there were unlimited activities for just $5 at Hollywood Connection (normally this is like $30/person) I jumped on it- twice!

The first set of tickets I gave to Barb and Clint when one Friday night they offered to watch our kids but showed up and asked where they could take them for fun. The zoo and children's museum were already closed so I offered them this place if they were brave enough. And amazingly, they took all 3 of my crazy boys here and had a blast.

So there was 1 more set of tickets left and about to expire one Friday night when Taylor got stuck at work. So I said "no problem" and off we went for an evening of pure fun.

Mini-golf- 18 holes. My boys eat this up. Even Miles who still doesn't quite know how to swing loves this.

And since they're occupied with their golfing I can take lots of cute pictures of them. Seriously they could do this course over and over again- thankfully they can with the groupon tickets.

And then of course there was the roller coaster which I let the older 2 ride the first time and then decided Miles could ride with me the next 10 or 20 times we rode.

Then there's the ginormus climbing structure where unfortunately I'm too large to go in so darn, I have to sit on a bench outside and take a break.

Happily they're all 3 big enough to do the climbing thing and slides all by themselves so it really is a break for me.

Then we had to head off to the bumper cars, which Miles was too small for so he got to wait with me. Isaac insisted he knew how to and though he was just barely tall enough to reach the controls, he managed to drive his own and laugh his little head off the whole time. See that ear to ear grin? It never once left his face- and just got bigger each time he slammed into someone else.

See how tiny he is? I don't think I even got a picture of Ethan because he was off bumping others.

And then we had to ride the carousel- several times since there were so many zoo animals we love.

There were a few other rides I went along on so there's no pictures. All in all a very fun, cheap night. Dad can work late any time mom has a groupon!