last day

Our last day in Utah we spent the morning at the swimming pool. The boys' favorite thing to do when we go swimming lately is to jump into the water from the side over and over and over. They kept asking my mom and I to come up with different cues for jumping in. Counting 1,2,3; Ready, steady, go; red light, green light; counting backwards and ending with a "blastoff!"; etc.

Then, in the evening we went bowling. The boys have been a few times now, and they still love it. They like to see whose name is next on the screen, they like to pick which ball they want, they like to get candy out of the vending machine, they like when someone knocks all the pins down, and even when someone knocks no pins down. This time we were right by a sort of aisle, meaning there was a carpeted space between us and the next lane, so the boys spent a lot of time dancing in that aisle, entertaining everyone around us. They are the best!!

See, they were dancing so fast, they are blurry!

That's the end of our Utah trip. We had such a great time. Thanks mom and dad for everything. We miss you already, and the boys are already saying it's time to get on another airplane and stay at your house!

children's museum

My mom took the boys and I to the children's museum in Salt Lake while we were in Utah. There was so much for the boys to play with, and even some things that I could have played with for hours. It was such a fun day.

My boys, the news anchors!

This was one of my favorite things. You put cupcake liners in this tube and air blows it way up.

Sorry Ky is so blurry in this pic. But, this was so funny. The boys put on different costumes and played on this stage. They "acted" things out and I really think they have a career in showbiz.

There was this awesome ball area. There were lots of those lightweight balls like in ball pits. There were tubes to put them in, places with air that would blow the balls around, ball tracks, etc. If it weren't for all the kids running around, we would have stayed there for a long time.

fun photo shoot

While in Utah, my cousin's wife invited me to take some pictures of their two adorable kids. It was a great chance for me to practice some of the photography things I've been learning. I hope you like them Rachel!

For more photos from this session, check out my photography blog.

fun at the park

One evening in Utah, my family and I took the boys to a park and had a KFC picnic dinner. Other than the bees that tried to ruin our picnic, we had a great time. I love the boys' Hawaiian Punch mustaches and Oreo whiskers in all these pictures.

dino museum

Another fun thing we did in Utah was take the boys to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. I wasn't sure how much there would be for three year olds to do, but there was a lot and the boys had a great time. Their favorite part was the outer space room. It's a dark room with little bright "stars" all around. At first they were scared to go through, but then they just wanted to go through over and over.

Look behind Kade's head and you can see T-rex coming after him!

This cute area was for the kids to play in sand and water. I think the boys could have stayed here for hours.
I thought this was the cutest/funniest thing I've ever seen. It's a huge dino toy with all sorts of velcro pieces to change which head, legs, tail, etc. you want on the dino. It was kind of large for the kids to do by themselves, so it required a lot of parent assistance. I think that was intentional.

reunited

These two gorgeous women are my two best friends from high school. We actually all became friends in seventh grade. It's fun to get together when I visit Utah and get caught up on what everyone is doing. They are both fantastic mothers and I'm lucky to be their friend!

my dad's idea of a portrait shoot

My dad is a great photographer, but he does not do portrait photography. Maybe because his artistic vision is very creative and when applied to people photography, doesn't necessarily bring out the best in his subjects. For example, he turned my sweet little boys into redneck handymen. Note: these pictures were taken by me. The ones he was taking with his fancy camera probably turned out better.

pirate treasure hunt

One of the first days of our trip, while we were camping, the boys and my dad started talking about treasure hunts and about going on one. It evolved and kept getting bigger and bigger, so they were super excited when my dad "found" this pirate treasure map. It was fun to watch them follow the map and its instructions.

At each point on the map, there were special instructions they had to follow like jumping up and down and counting, doing somersaults, and hopping on one leg while singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

At the end they found this blue X on the ground.

They found this cool treasure box. Inside was some pirate coins, a cannon ball, a key and...

some Transformers. This was the perfect treasure for them because although they have never seen any Transformers show, they remember last time they were at my parents house and their favorite things to play with were by brother's old Transformers. They were so excited and still play with them every day.

mini golf

One evening, my parents took the family miniature golfing. This was the second time the boys had been and they did pretty good. It was fun going mini golfing with my family and with my kids, because it is something that I remember doing a lot as a family growing up.

Kade was pretty excited about getting this ball in the hole, and here he is making his "Tiger Woods celebration face." He got two real, legitimate holes-in-one, and Ky got one. How does that happen when they are three? These two amaze me every day and I absolutely love being their mom!

bridal veil falls

While in Utah my parents took us to Bridal Veil Falls to walk and play. I have memories of going there when I was little, and it's fun to now be taking my kids there. Of course, their favorite thing to do was throw rocks in the water...some things never change.

My dad and the boys walking to the falls

My dad collected a bunch of rocks and took the boys on the bridge to throw them into the water. As you can see by the look on Kade's face, they loved this!

More throwing rocks in the water--my dad was grabbing the rocks out of the boys' hands while they were trying to throw them.

Jumping in to the freezing cold water. I wasn't sure they would actually get in, but they did and even convinced Grandpa to go in with them.

great grandparents

While in Utah we visited all of my grandparents. I love being in a room with four generations!
I'm excited that my boys have been able to be around their great-grandparents, and hope that they will remember them when they are older.

camping

The first thing we did when the boys and I got to Utah a few weeks ago was go camping with my family in the Uinta mountains. It was so gorgeous up there, and made me realize how much I miss living close to the mountains. This was Kade and Ky's first camping trip, so we weren't sure how it would turn out. But, they had a great time and loved sleeping in the tent, even if they didn't sleep much.

They loved throwing rocks in the water...apparently it never gets old.

I love Ky's face here as he looks at the fish he helped catch.

Ky and my dad enjoying our picnic.