Baby Animal Days

Every year there is an event in Logan called Baby Animal Days, and every year, despite my desire, I have failed to actually go. This year I promised myself and (harder to get out of) my kids that we would go. One hitch in the plan was that Joe had to work both the days that the Day's were taking place. I don't really consider myself someone who likes to try new things, to be honest new things scare me. I was 20 when I finally went through a drive through by myself for fear that I would say the wrong things. When I was young, my mom used to say we could order pizza for dinner...if I would be the one to call (we had many pizza-less dinners as a result). As I have gotten older, and maybe a little more mature I have learned to face some of my fears, and I was proud of myself when, despite the 45 minute drive, despite having no idea of the exact location, or where to go once I got there, I did follow through and we had a great time.

Basically every year the American Heritage Center, which is open year round, has this annual event to show off some of it's new arrivals. They have an open policy where you are able to see, pet, and/or hold the animals depending on their size and your comfort level. During the weekend they also feature a candy cannon, gun fights, pony and train rides, and much more. This year they also were able to have baby bears. This was the part I was most excited about, unfortunately so were the hordes of other people there, are the wait to see the bears was about 2 hours long and my kids were not interested enough to wait. We did surive the 20 minute wait to get onto the grounds though...and saw and did lots of fun things. We took a horse pulled wagon ride, and the kids favorite part was, as we were waiting for our ride to start, when a wagon pulled up behind us and these huge horses stuck their heads over to say hello to my kids. I was worried that my kids would be afraid of the animals and that this might be a waste of time, but as they reached their hands up for their first close animal encounter and squealed with laughter, I knew the trip and the day would totally be worth it.

In addition to the horses, we saw goats and sheep, cows and ponies, donkeys and kittens, piglets and bunnies and lots and lots and lots of other people
We waited a good half hour for a two circle loop, but they kids loved the pony ride most of all.

This was a great way to end our spring break and I look forward to going again next year, it's not new anymore, so it can't scare me!

Hogle Zoo

I accidentally deleted these two pics in the course of writing and can't get them back down to where I want them without deleting other pictures. Why? Oh well, on with the post...

Taking advantage of spring break an sunny days we went on another outdoor adventure to the zoo. Our last trip was a couple of years ago so it was fun to go back and see some of the animals. Joe and Chloe's favorite was the playful baby elephant.

Adam could care less. He look everywhere but at those elephants. Cracked me up.He did however love the giraffes. Especially when one came right over to us and stared straight down at us.

Noah's favorites were the crocodile and the tigers. We were excited when one got up and walked around and then over us. They are HUGE.

The kids always love the playground and getting to run around a bit

It was another great spring break day!

Waterfall Canyon

I love birthdays! I especially love when people have birthdays and invite us to celebrate with them. My friend Brooke turned another year awesomer this last week and invited us to play with her and her family. We started the morning off with a quick run, then we got the kids and dads and headed up the mountain. Never having hiked the Waterfall Canyon trail, but having often heard of if, I was excited for this adventure on a beautiful day.

The hike was a little steeper and rockier than I expected it to be, but our kids, and really all of the 10 kids in tow were troopers, I don't think I heard any of them complain once. The payoff of seeing the waterfall was definitely worth a few rocky passes though - it was beautiful!

Our family right in front of the ice sheet that leads to the waterfall's base. After the picture, I immediately put my sweatshirt back on - it was much colder up close to the water.

With one last shot of the view of the valley from the waterfall, and a hot little shot of Molly in the corner, we headed back down for a picnic at a playground and some beautiful birthday day enjoyment!

Bear River Bird Refuge

Spring Break. With Chloe now in kindergarten we enjoyed our first official week off of school for spring break. Can I say that I loved it? I know some people love to have their kids at school, and I do love the ability to run more errands or clean more of my house without all of my kids to either back in a car or create a mess right behind me. But I loved having them home all week. I didn't have to get them to or pick them up from school, I didn't have to do Chloe's hair if I didn't want to, I also didn't have to make them get dressed. The weather cooperated too, so instead of travelling far off for spring break, which due to Joe's schedule, and other future planned trip wasn't really possible, we spent the week exploring things around us. Our first adventure was to the Bear River Bird Refuge, just east of Brigham City. The weather was still cold enough that we didn't see a TON of birds, but we did enjoy being outside...and taking pictures of kids in the car.

Our route also took us right by the Brigham City LDS temple, still under constuction. I can't wait to have another temple close to us open - especially given that the Ogden temple will still be closed for a while yet.Pictures from the refugeNothing says "outdoors" like McDonald's french fries

Using the self timer on the iPhone for a family picture

Binocular fun

We had a great day out on the first of our many weeklong adventures...posts to follow.

Eastery Things

Easter is great. I love Easter. The reasons to love it are endless. Easter means that winter's cold temperatures are closer to becoming a thing of the past for a few monthes. Easter means that color comes back in the form of bright flowers, blue skies, and sunny days. Easter means windows can be opened to let in fresh air. Easter means less sweaters, more flip flops. Easter means spring break, no school, and a week full of days filled with parks, playgrounds, and outdoor activities. (PS, regarding that, stay tuned for about 5 posts relating to all of our outdoor fun this spring break). Easter means egg hunts, candy filled baskets, and crazy dyed real eggs. But most important, Easter means that I once again remember how grateful I am for my Savior. For all that he did and gave so that I could be here with the blessings I have. I have been reading a lot of the articles from this months Ensign and have really felt something different or been touched differently about the Atonement and the Resurection. I know know that it is fun to get caught up in the "fun" parts of Easter, but this year I feel especially grateful to have been caught up a little more in the spiritual parts as well.

My kids had some cute and fun Easter outfits, none of which you will see here. Never did I get any pictures of them all together dressed up. So, my goal is to get them back in them this week and post them at some point. But trust me, they were cute. Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend activities:

Egg dying with our great friends the Jones'. I. LOVE. THEM.

Serious egg dying concentrationNot so serious egg dying concentration

How long does a watched egg take to dye?

Creative Chloe

Finished products

Easter morning is always fun. We have church at 1:00 PM this year so we had a nice relaxing morning, a deliciously big breakfast, and an outdoor hunt. The kids also got to do a hunt at my parents and have treats and fun with both sides of our family. We really are so lucky to live within 15 minutes of both of our parents. I love having them so close and getting to share these days with them

HAPPY EASTER!