Happy 24th (a little late)

We celebrated Pioneer Day with some fireworks once Jake got home from Idaho.  We didn't have very many, just some we saved from the 4th.  But it was enough to keep the kiddos happy.

I'm bummed this picture turned out blurry cause Abbie was so cute watching the fireworks, trying so hard not to be scared of them but not always succeeding.  

She liked them

Then not so much.

Overall I think the kids had a fun time.  

Caught on Film

Look what I caught on film yesterday.... two two-year-olds (Abbie and my nephew Zack) cooperating to complete a puzzle.  Normally they fight over the same puzzle and I have to make sure to separate them and give them each a stack of puzzles of their very own, but yesterday they were working together.  It was really cute.

We were so blessed

You may be wondering why I am saying that we were blessed when Abbie's head looks like this

and this.

Oh how much worse it could have been.  We were at the Herriman Farmer's Market this morning walking around looking at all the different vendors.  One of the people has mirrors for sale, they are massively heavy.  They are made of rocks and glass and all sorts of things.  Well Abbie was playing around with some of the mirrors that were at her level, nothing bad just looking at her self in them and seeing who else she could see in them she wasn't doing anything that I would have considered dangerous at all.  Then she made the stand wiggle just slightly and down came one of the biggest mirrors (it must of weighed 40 pounds or more) right on Abbie's head.   I was right beside her because I had been looking in the mirrors with her and somehow I reacted fast enough to mostly catch the mirror as it fell.  It only grazed her instead of falling straight down on her head.    The man selling the mirrors said "how in the world did you catch that?"  At first I didn't really know how I did it, but after some thought I realized that I couldn't have done it by myself, our guardian angel, Trisha, was there to help me.  She loved my kids as much as I do and had hardly any time on earth with Abbie, I think she watches over all her nieces and nephews, but especially the little ones.  She is there to protect them when she can.  We were not lucky, we were blessed by a very loving angel.

Kennecott

This whole week Kennecott had free admission to go see the copper mine.  We had been before but not for a couple of years so on Monday, we figured we would go again.  It was a fun day, there were lots of people there but we kinda expected that,  even some people from our neighborhood.  The kids really enjoyed seeing the huge dump trucks and all the other massive equipment that they have there.

In front of the huge tire to the huge dump truck, Ashton was amazed that just the tires were this big.

Lexie telling Ashton something she learned from a school trip earlier this year.  She knew tons of stuff from coming with her class.

Looking over the edge at the mine.

Abbie playing with samples of some of the stuff they pull out of the mine.

Lexie and Jake learning about copper together, this happened a lot, they would stop to look at something closer and I would end up chasing after Ashton and Abbie as they continued on. It was fun to see them interacting like this though, Lexie interested in what her Dad was interested in.

Standing by one of the monuments to the early mine.

How they did it in the early days, can you imagine how long it took to mine anything with these little carts compared to what they have now.

Splash Park

It must be summer because here is yet another post about water.  We went to the Riverton splash park today, it is much quieter and less busy than the main Herriman splash park (there were only a handful of people there from 10:30 to noon on a Friday).  It is so much fun, everything looks like it should be on a farm.  One one side of the park is this cute tractor/barn playground and on the other is the water park.  The kids had so much fun, it seems bigger than some of the other parks around, but maybe that's just cause there weren't a million kids running around.

Abbie did get a little wet, but she wasn't very impressed with our new park, 

she spent a good deal of time on the bench with me

But she did enjoy the park side and spent most of the time there.  

Ashton and Lexie had lots of fun playing in the water as you can see.

We will definitely be going back to this park, it was lots of fun and not very busy.

Slip 'n Slide

Today the kids played outside with the slip 'n slide.  They had a blast, even Abbie got wet of her our accord.  She usually spends most of the days that I let the kids play with water in the backyard sitting on the porch trying to stay as far away from the water as possible so imagine my amazement when I saw this....

instead of this....

Lexie always has fun trying to do tricks and slide different ways. 

Ashton just tries to get down to the bottom, any way he can.

Lucky for me he came up laughing after this one.  He thought it was awesome that I got a picture of it.  Last year this would have totally made him cry and not want to go anymore, but not this year.

Abbie mostly walked up and down the slide, but she was having a good time and she was getting wet of her own accord!

Speed Demon

Since we got Ashton his bike a few weeks ago we have been spending a lot of time in the front yard riding bikes.  Abbie has gotten really good at flintstoning around on her trike.  Her legs aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals but that doesn't stop her from flying down the hill by our house.  She isn't scared of crashing and that scares me.  She does her best to keep up with Ashton she really is a little speed demon.

The Zoo

We had a fun Friday (last week) at the zoo with Maren and Landon and their kids and Grandma June.  It was Gauge's birthday, what better excuse do you need to go to the zoo but a birthday for a two-year-old.  We ended up starting a little later than we had planned, but it all worked out in the end and we all had a good time.

Abbie playing with the masks in the gift shop while we waited for Maren and Landon.

Abbie loved this monkey and he sat there for a long time.  It was cute to watch her trying to get him to play with her.

Waiting for the elephant (or helaphanent if you ask Abbie) show. 

Elephant tricks.

Ashton watching the elephants intently.

Looking at the cheetah, we had good luck having a lot of animal up close for the little kids to see, they had such a good time.

What a bunch of monkeys. Brinlie, Abbie, Ashton, Gauge.

It was a really fun day.  We bought passes so we will be going back lots this coming year.  

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

I love this.