Vacation Update

Monday, July 28
Today we had lots of fun with our friends from Boise that came to see us as their first stop on their 3 week road trip. Kami, a friend we met while attending the University of Houston Branch, and her 4 children decided to venture out on this exciting and memorable road trip while her husband Jon is doing a job that will keep him out of town for a few weeks. I am very glad that Kami is so adventurous and brave. I'm not sure I would attempt such a road trip by myself with four kids. A plane ride with just two kids is plenty adventure for me. While they were here we set up the pool, the slippin' slide and various sprinklers. The kids loved it...except for Gabe. I think he needed just a bit more excitement. We took all the kids (Abi, Gabe, Josh, Noah, Maggie and Zoe) to Carl's Jr. for lunch so they could play on the play land for a while. They had fun and played well together. Mandi and Sadie met us for lunch and then we decided to go to Tai Pan. Kami had heard about it from one of her friends and wanted to check it out. We had fun looking at all the home decor items. By this time the kids were getting a little tired and bored. When we got home from that trip we met the rest of the family at Nielsen's Grove park by Mom and Dad's house to continue the celebration of Camille's birthday. We had a pizza picnic and then the kids got to whack a pinata. The most entertaining part of the evening was watching Justin Milne try to get the pinata hung on a light post by tying a rope to his shoe and throwing it in the air. After several attempts the decision was made to hang it from an archway over part of the sidewalk.

WATER PLAY

Zoe had fun terrorizing Noah. She would pull on his shirt and push him over. He was a good sport though. He only cried when she pushed him face down in the water. This is her pulling on his shirt, getting in trouble for it and then reluctantly giving him an "I'm sorry" hug.

Gabe "enjoying" the pool.

Joshua, Abi, Noah, Maggie

Maggie and Abi had fun seeing who could go the farthest on the slip 'n slide

Our two little water babies...who aren't babies anymore!

TAI PAN

When we first walked into Tai Pan we saw a little booth that sold chocolates and since we were there at the end of the day all their items were on sale. Of course we couldn't resist! Maggie and Abi were pretending to be statues with chocolate in their mouths. Very silly, but they had so much fun together. I guess for two little girls silly equals fun.

NEILSEN'S GROVE PARK

Pizza, homemade ice-cream and a pinata. Could life get any better?

Tuesday, July 29
This morning Camille gave Maggie a pair of jeans that she had out grown and Maggie wanted to wear them. They fit her perfectly and she was just in heaven being able to wear Camille's pants. A few minutes later she came in fully dressed wearing Camille's jeans and Camille's boots and said, "Now I look like a nine year old!" She loves to play with Camille and looks up to her a lot. I am grateful that she is such a good girl and good role model for Maggie.

Kami got here around 11:00 and we let the kids play while we decided what we wanted to do. We finally decided that we would go to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Finally! Something that Gabe was interested in. All of us benefited from Gabe's choice of activity. When we got done at the museum we took the kids to Max & Cheese. It is a really cute restaurant geared to kids and particularly picky kids. When we got done with dinner we had a few more minutes with the Yorgason's and then we had to say goodbye. They are off to their next adventure!

DINOSAUR MUSEUM (THANKSGIVING POINT)

Kami and Noah

Abi, Gabe & Josh

Abi & Josh

Maggie

Landon, Camille, Maggie, Me & Zoe

Gabe, Abi, Kami, Noah & Josh

MAX & CHEESE

Gabe concentrating very hard on those magnets!

Maggie and Abi driving to school.Josh was fascinated by the beads.

Thursday, July 31
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAMI! I am so sorry that I didn't tell you that while you were here. "You know I love ya more than my luggage!"

Saturday, August 2
We spent the afternoon at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. Grandma, Grandpa, Starr, Landon & Camille went with us. It was a very hot day, but we had so much fun anyway. We took a break to have a cold treat next to the penguins and Maggie decided she was done with her blue Icee. She tried to scoot it across the table to me and it tipped over and spilled on Zoe who was walking under the table. She was a little shocked, but then she seemed to think it was funny. A good time was had by all!

HOGLE ZOO

When our time at the zoo was done Mom, Dad, Starr, Landon & Camille left in Starr's car. I took Maggie and Zoe and we headed to the airport to pick up Glenn. We had spent five weeks without him and we were awfully happy to see our pappy!

After we picked him up we met his sister Lisha and her daughters, Shalis and Shaina, at the Gateway Mall. We had some dinner and the girl's played with Maggie and Zoe on the little rides. After we said our goodbyes to them we let Maggie and Zoe play in the little water park area. Maggie had a blast, but Zoe was a little apprehensive. She would get a little brave and venture out but run back before the water would shoot up.

GATEWAY MALL

Sunday, August 3
Glenn's brother Brent in is Utah getting some additional training before he is deployed to Afghanistan in January. He gets Sunday's off so we were able to pick him up and spend the day with him. We wanted to check out the new Harley Davidson shop in Lindon, but they were not open on Sunday. We had some lunch at Applebee's and then went to Cabella's. We saw all the animals and checked out lots of camping and outdoor equipment. We came home and had a few minutes to hang out before out family dinner. We had Shelly's family, Kayle's family, Starr's family, Ladd's family, Mandi's family, us and Brent. We had a good time visiting and hearing what everyone is doing now. I really miss being able to be here and see all my niece's and nephew's and their kids grow up. We have missed a bunch of family parties in the last five years, but we hope to someday move back and join in on all the fun!

Here is a quick re-cap of our vacation so far:

Monday, July 21
I realize this is a milestone that we should have reached a very long time ago, but Zoe finally slept through the night! Since we were in the same bed I, however, did not sleep all night. She was very squirmy and, as my mother would say, she likes to "waller". I was hoping that once she slept through the night I would actually feel refreshed and renewed. I won't make that mistake again. I am just going to accept the fact that I will not be getting any decent sleep for next 20 years. According to my Mom the first 20 years are the worst!

Tuesday, July 22
I took Mom to work and then tried to get Mandi and Lindy together to go with me to pick her up so all of the ladies she works with could see all the grand kids. We didn't quite make it. They finished earlier than we were anticipating so we just picked Mom up and decided to go to lunch. Lindy suggested going to Taco time which I was just fine with, but Mom said she was going to call Dad and see where he was so he could join us. When she heard we were thinking Taco Time she said that she and Dad would probably go to Olive Garden. We all decided that sounded much better so that's where we ended up.

Wednesday, July 23
Maggie, Zoe and I were out with Mom running errands and on our way home their was a fly in the car. Maggie started panicking and throwing her hands around shooing the fly away, bawling and basically having a full on melt down. After several minutes she calmed down and Mom was asking her why she was having such a problem with the fly and Maggie's response was..."I was just raised that way!"

Shelly's neighborhood was having a pioneer day parade and she thought Maggie would enjoy being a part of it. Starr let her borrow a pioneer dress and bonnet that Camille had worn for something and she let Zoe borrow a sheriff's vest with a badge and a cowboy hat. They both looked too cute. Maggie had so much fun! She rode Camille's scooter in the beginning but had to walk later because she had hurt her ankle earlier in the day and it was hard for her to keep pushing the scooter. Shelly was walking with Zoe and she said that she did not want to hold her hand or have her pick her up the whole time. She waved at the people on the side watching the parade and thought she was such a big girl. After the parade we got the chance to see Shelly's "department". Maggie had wanted to see where Shelly was living so she gave us the grand tour of her apartment. She is living in the basement apartment of a woman's house and to get to her place we had to go down a set of stairs on the side of the house. When we got to the bottom there was a huge Texas sized beetle in the door way. We all gathered up our courage and ran through the door. Them Mom noticed that there was a grasshopper above the door. YUCK!! When the tour was over we ducked under the grasshopper and jumped over the beetle to safety and made our way home. I didn't get any pictures in Shelly's "department" because we were just too freaked out by the bugs!

Thursday, July 24
PIONEER DAY! Mom, Dad, Starr and Maggie met Mandi, Justin and Sadie at the Utah County Courthouse for the "Taste of the Valley". Several restaurants from the area get together and you can sample some of their dishes. I stayed home with Zoe while she napped. They came home with tattoo's from one of the restaurants and we put them on the girl's. Zoe thought she was sooooo cool and she kept showing it off to everyone.

Sunday, July 27
Just a regular Sunday. Not much of interest until about 10:00 pm. Landon and Camille came home from Texas. Starr had set up a cute beach themed party for Camille's birthday she had while in Texas. We celebrated with a very rich very chocolaty chocolate cake and ice cream. That was a pretty good midnight snack.

We are still enjoying our time here in Utah. The girl's are having so much fun playing with cousins and having new adventures. Here a couple of pictures from the last few days.

Zoe found Mom's mop bucket and ran away with it. She didn't want to give it up, but Grandma finally won and got her bucket back!

Zoe, Sadie and Maggie had fun playing at the McDonald's playland. Zoe was a little nervous about the Ronald statue but then saw Maggie and Sadie playing with it and got into the spirit of McDonald's!

Zoe made Grandpa a fabulous Lego necklace. He was totally thrilled!

Zoe likes to play under the bar, but it's a little scary because the barstools tip over pretty easily.

I was doing the dishes and heard Zoe fussing, but it wasn't sounding too serious so I just asked Maggie what was going on and she said Zoe was stuck. I couldn't figure out what she could be stuck in. I never would have imagined it would be the doll house. Too funny!

June 30th our first Utah adventure! We got to go to Hatch Patch and have fun, food and be with family. This was the most exciting game of Red Rover I have ever seen. Zoe was pretty impressed too. She just walked up and down this hill until it was time to go.

This little truck was the most popular item among the one to four year old crowd. It was a little tight, but Sadie reluctantly let Zoe have a turn at the wheel. Zoe was lucky enough to catch a few minutes by herself.
I watched Sadie while Mandi ran home for a minute so I threw all the girls in the tub to wash off the bug spray. They had a blast and Grandma's bathroom floor got thuroughly drenched.
(Maggie, Sadie & Zoe)

We have had lots of popcorn at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Maggie requests popcorn and a movie almost every night. I think Zoe is grateful for her requests. She has really loved the popcorn.

(Maggie, Sadie & Zoe)

On the Fourth of July we went to the parade in Provo and then to the park by Mom and Dad's for a picnic. The parade was lots of fun and the girls had fun seeing the "Princesses".

(Lindy, Cooper, Zoe, Kyler, Kaden, Kelsie, Maggie, Zack, Mom, Starr, Brianna, Will, Hayden, Louise, Me, Trent, Kayle, Linda)

I was not prepared for the water fountain so Maggie just played in her clothes and I stripped Zoe down to her diaper. They had fun splashing and then took off for the swings.

(Maggie, Zoe, Cooper)

VACATION

The girls and I have been having fun in Utah. We got the chance to go to Hatch Patch and see lots of my extended Blackburn family. Tanaya, John and Talayna came to visit for a few hours one evening, and we have had lots of fun with Sadie and Cooper. Pictures will be coming soon.