This is the Place Park

While Gramma Becky was here, we all went to This is the Place Park. We got an early Christmas present (wahoooo) - a year pass to the park - and we are so excited. The park is really quite amazing. The day we went was Civil War day and we got to see a nice little reenactment.

We were told to cover our ears but leave our mouths open so that our ear drums didn't explode when the canon blew. Are you kidding me?




Lucy loved all of the excitement.


Avery got to be the dunce in the school house demonstration.

Pony rides? Could this place get better? Apparently there are tons of things we didn't get to see in the three hours we were there...good thing we can go back for an entire year!

Donut Falls The Second

Two days later, we went to finish what we started...hiking Donut Falls. This is the perfect hike for kids. Not too long that they are sitting down in the middle of the trail refusing to move, but not too short that they think they didn't really hike. Lucy called after Avery and Aidan ("AVEE, AIDA") the whole way and sang us songs.






I highly recommend this family hike.

Donut Falls - Attempt #1

Gramma Becky came to town the second weekend of August. We decided to hike Donut Falls. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the trailhead, we didn't have much daylight left. We did make it to a nice little stream before turning around and heading back for the evening.

A Big, Giant, Mechanical Mouse

What in the world could make my kids lie down and take a rest? Must have been an awesome trip to the one and only CHUCK E CHEESE!!! I know what you are thinking. "Natalie, you are a germ phob. Why in the world would you take your children there." And then I would say to you, "If I am moving into student housing where we will basically be living at a communal playground, I must get over my crazy ways!"

In all seriousness, we had a great time. The place was surprisingly clean. I would totally take the kids back. The pizza was edible (if you are really hungry) and the kids loved the games.




Oh, and I found the coolest game ever where I could get over 14 tickets every time I played. Seriously, I could have played this game all day.

Afterwards we headed to Emy's cool pad to check out her new furniture. For the record, Emy was with us the whole time, but she was the one behind the camera.

He Survived - and so did we

What makes Mikey look like this? Finishing 8 credits of Calculus and 4 credit of science in eight weeks while still working full time (sort of) and being YM Pres. Seriously he did the impossible, especially since he took the Calc 2 course before the Calc 1 course.

Mikey's parents took us to Olive Garden to celebrate...and by the looks of Avery, that is just what we did.



Now let the next four years of studying/working begin...

Back it Up to June - Lisa Falls

Sometime in June while Mikey was still killing himself with full time work, two calc classes, and two science classes (oh, and being YM's Pres), the kids and I went with Emily to hike Lisa Falls up Little Cottonwood canyon.

The kids prepped with their hiking hats and sunscreen.


Unfortunately, some of that sunscreen made it into Lucy's eyes making her not a happy camper.

Before we located the trailhead, we ate some Subway in the back of our car and then the kids climbed on the rocks.


This was the day that the hiker nameage began. Avery gave each of us our very own hiker name. Avery is Smiley Hiker, Aidan is Fast Face, Emy is Hiker Em, Lucy is Hiker Baby, and I am Hiker Jazzy Jazz (I got to pick mine). We could only refer to each other by these names for the entire day and the names have been used on every hike since - gotta love Avery.

Emy got a nice shot of the canyon before we headed off.


This was seriously the shortest hike ever - we probably only took 5 (maybe 10?) minutes to reach the falls. Definitely worth it. After we finished the hike, we headed up to Snowbird and walked for a while on their paved trail that goes across their ski slopes. It was June and we had to turn back because there was too much snow.

I'm a Picture Thief

This is the first of many catch up posts full of pictures that I stole from Emily's blog. We got to do a lot of fun things with her this summer and often times she brought a camera when I didn't.

On Aug.11 (I think), Emily took us to the Children's Museum. She had a free pass from school and thankfully she chose us to take with her...now that we are starving students again, we LOVE going to fun places for free. Actually, I have always loved going places for free, starving or not.







We snuck our way into the already full kid's activity. They read books about school buses and then make super healthy school bus snacks from twinkies, frosting, and lifesavers. They were so sweet that Avery couldn't eat hers - this was a major first.

The kids loved the LifeFlight helicopter on the roof.



As always, Lucy thought she was 16.

Thanks Emy for the fun day!