Five year Anniversary

Will and I hit our five year anniversary last Saturday.  We spent awhile trying to decide what we wanted to do to celebrate the happy occasion and decided to spend the Friday and Saturday in Coeur-d'Alene and Silverwood.  My mom came to Cheney to watch the girls for us.  Thank you so much mom, it was nice not having to worry about them during our trip.  And we had a blast.

Here we are at Coeur-d'Alene Lake.  It has the longest floating boardwalk in the world.  There were so many boats attached to the dock; they were cool to see all the variety.  Some were even for sale if we happened to have thousands of dollars in our pockets.

Will practices his best pirate pose in front of the pirate ship.  We could have gone on it and sail around and have dinner, but we decided not to.  Will, all you need now is a parrot and a wooden leg.

We stopped at the beach for awhile.  The water was a little cool, but not too bad once you got use to it.  Will tried to teach me how to skip rocks.  I think I got one rock to skip one time and that was a victory for me.  Will did pretty good.  In our defense, there weren't any large flat rocks to skip around the beach.  It was mostly just pebbles that don't make for good skips.

I loved walking around the town and checking out the stores.  There is a toy store called Figpickels that has all these toys out for people to try.  Whitney would have loved this place.

We decided to not be dieting for our anniversary, so we stopped and got icecream.  It was heavenly; everything tastes much better after you have been dieting for awhile.

We weren't sure what time Silverwood opened Saturday morning, so we got there a little early and killed time in the gift shop.  What do you think of my hat?

The rides were so fun.  It is hard to tell, but Will and I are on top of the ferris wheel.  We were stopped for a bit while they were putting more people on.  The line for the ferris wheel was mostly little kids and their parents, but we wanted a turn since I like ferris wheels and Will had never been on one.  It was nice and relaxing.

 

My favorite was the bumper boats.  We watched the people in front of us and figured out which of the boats were the best ones.  Two of them did the best squirting close up, so Will and I got those two. Aren't we sneaky?  Of course, then we sprayed each other so we still both got really wet.  It was fun during the warm afternoon.

 

 

 

Being wet when it got a little later was less fun; Will was nice and let me borrow his over shirt thing and I was able to warm up.  Such a nice husband I have.

 

The picture is kind of funny and from far away, but this is Aftershock.  It is the newer scary ride at Silverwood.  Will and I were only brave enough to do it once.  We sat in the front and it really looks like you are going to fall hundreds of feet into nothing.  It is intense.

 

I always think this sign is funny.  On the Tremors roller coaster you cannot stand up or you really might kill yourself on the little caves it takes you through.  It is probably my favorite roller coaster at Silverwood.

The rides lit up all pretty at night.  This one is like a ferris wheel but you are in these little cars that spin all around.  Will was the driver though and he kept us pretty upright during the trip.  For which I was very thankful.

Anyway, we had an awesome anniversary.  It is so wonderful being married to the one you love.

Everything Else in Utah

So these are some random pictures of some of the other things we did while in Utah.  It was such a fun vacation and we took lots of pictures.  We went ice blocking on the hill behind the Provo temple.

Everyone got their ice primed by rubbing it on the grass for a minute so it would slide down the hill easier.  I forgot all about that trick until I saw my siblings doing it.

Going down the steep hill.  It was a perfect hill for ice blocking.  Thanks Michael for the idea of the good location.  Of course, having to carry the ice back up the hill was quite a workout, but that was okay.

We made a train from oldest to youngest.  It is hard to tell who is who, but I am second to the front after my brother.  Our train did pretty good going down the hill.  Everyone stayed connected right until the very end.  So I would call it a success.

Will told me that he had never been ice blocking before.  So he got a chance to try it out for the first time.  He got pretty good at going down the hill too. 

Whitney did not like ice blocking.  I don't know if she was afraid that she would go too fast and fall off or if sitting on a towel on the iceblock felt funny or what the problem was, but she just cried and cried.  Whitney didn't even like watching the rest of us go down the hill, so we took turns occupying her with other things.  Sorry Whitney, maybe we will try again in a couple of years.

While in Utah, we visited Will's grandpa.  He lives right outside of American Fork in an assisted living facility.  We chatted with him for a couple of hours until the girls got antsy.  I was happy that Whitney took to him pretty well because she is usually really shy.

We had some downtime at my aunt and uncle's house in Lehi.  We played lots of games and had fun just goofing off.  Here Rachel has a staredown with their family dog.  I cannot remember who won.

The reunions were fun.  There was a pretty good turnout.  It was fun talking to some cousins that I haven't seen in years and just catching up with people.  Everyone was really friendly and we had a good time.

Rachel wasn't even the youngest baby there.  One of my cousins had a baby (as seen in picture) just seven weeks ago.  They flew in all the way from Maryland to be part of the reunion, so it was neat to see them.

And a cute story about Whitney from the reunion.  We were waiting for some people to arrive before starting dinner and Whitney was having a hard time waiting.  She really wanted to open a box of vanilla wafer cookies and start eating some right away.  My excuse was we couldn't open and eat the cookies because we hadn't said prayer.  Then I walked away to do something else.  When I came back like a minute later she was hard at work trying to open the box.  I reminded her that we still had to say prayer and she told me that she had said prayer already.  My mom confirmed that she had heard Whitney praying.  So I was so touched that I let Whitney have a cookie before the reunion officially started (shh...don't tell anyone). 

Anyway, that was our fun Utah trip.  We had a blast spending the week with everyone.

Provo Beach Resort

I don't know how I lived several years in Provo and didn't know there was a family fun center.  Maybe it is new or something.  But we went to a place called the Provo Beach Resort which was just awesome.  It is a place you can go again and again and not get tired.

It is kind of hard to tell from the picture but there was an attraction called laser frenzy.  You have to go through this little hallway without touching any of the lasers.  So you end up on the floor crawling or sometimes doing little hops to avoid touching the lasers.  I felt like a spy from all the movies going through the lasers to get to the top secret door or something.

My favorite was this ropes course.  You get attached to a harness and then there are a bunch of little paths to take.  It is almost like the show Fear Factor where you are up in the air and have to trust that the harness will protect you if you fall.  Some of the rope things were pretty scary.  Here are two of my sisters making their way across.

I liked the bowling; the pins were attached to strings, which was a little different, but seemed okay.  I played three games and got a little better each time.  But I still ended up with a lot of gutter balls.  Oh well.  I just play for fun.  Will did pretty good though; he managed to get a couple of strikes.

I was entertained by the miniature croquet.  It was like mini golf with obstacles and whatnot, but we were actually playing croquet.  So you try to get points by going through the loops and becoming poison so you can knock into other balls.  We had a big group going, so everyone just kind of took a turn when they felt like it had been long enough from their previous turn.  I believe Kaitlin was the big winner.

There were some fun things for kids at the resort as well.

Whitney went on her first merry-go-round.  We have tried to convince her to go on the one in Spokane, but it was too loud and scary.  This one was a bit smaller and Whitney really seemed to like it.  Maybe now we can try the Spokane one again.

There was a toddler playground that Whitney loved.  I think Whitney is building some kind of little house with the large blocks.  My mom was very nice and watched Whitney and Rachel in the playground for a long time.  Thank you mom!

And it wouldn't be a fun center without some arcade games.  We had all day passes that let us play a couple of arcade games for free.  Whitney loved this one where you whack a duck.  We got some tickets and were able to buy small trinkets.  Whitney loves her new little toys from the arcade center.

 

Here we take a break with a milkshake.  There was an old retro style little diner area.  We got a huge cookies and cream milkshake that was shared.  It was yummy.

 

So it was a really fun day in Provo.  I highly recommend the resort to anyone needing a fun family place to go while in Utah.

Trip to Utah (Part 1)

So we took a crazy amount of pictures on our trip to Utah this last week. We will have to split up into at least two blog posts.  But we had a lot of fun on our trip.  It was great seeing family and walking through BYU and remembering some of the old places we use to go to.  We went to some of the great BYU museums and had a fun time.

Here are some pictures from the paleontology museum which is a fun museum if you are into dinosaur things.  And it is free - which I love.

Whitney stands outside the skeleton of a dinosaur for just long enough to snap a picture.  I think she liked running around more than looking at the dinosaurs.

Rachel and I are inside the dinosaur mouth.  We don't look very scared though.

Rachel got some help from aunt Erin to try and get some more pictures.  Whitney and Rachel are both sitting on a dinosaur footprint.  I couldn't get all three to look at the camera at the same time (oh well).

And sitting on the dinosaur bone shaped bench for a little break from all the running around.  I think the girls liked the museum.

We also went to the Museum of Art on BYU campus.  They always have some sort of theme to their pieces and this time it was Islamic art.  I could have stayed in the museum forever and just admired all the beautiful work.

These pottery pieces were meant to be halfway done - the viewer is suppose to imagine the rest of the artwork.  I guess it was important in the Islamic world to imagine the unseen world.

Will and Whitney are looking at one of the few original dinars - a really old coin.

There was a statue that was part bird and part lion.  It was intricately carved with lots of religious symbols.  Almost everything in the exhibit had religious ties.  Many of the things had scriptures carved into it or paintings with stories from the Quran.

There was also a room with things for kids.  I put a wish on the tree of wishes.  It was interesting to read some of the wishes - many of them wanted more love throughout the world.

Will and Whitney put together puzzles.  There also was coloring and blocks and little kid books in this cool room.  So it was a fun museum.  I wish we could have spent more time there. 

And we went to the Eyering Science Center, which is like practically a requirement when at BYU.

The swinging pendulum that has something to do with the earth's rotation.  I am not really sure how it works, but it is fun to watch.

Will and Whitney get to play with some magnetic sand.

Whitney liked the Albert Einstein face that moves with you.  It literally looks like his head is turning while you are walking (I always thought those were neat).

Anyway, those are some pictures from some museums.  We had a fun time exploring.  I think Whitney will like the museums even more when she is a little older.

Down and Dirty

Whitney has always liked being clean.  She likes washing her hands after getting dirty or sticky or anyway not clean.  Thankfully, we always have baby wipes with us to help clean up any spilled messes.  Lately, though, Whitney has loved playing in the dirt that is next to our house.  There is a patch of dirt and rocks that are just too enticing to ignore I guess.  Here are a couple of pictures from the last couple dirt adventures.

It is hard to see the dirt on Whitney's face, but she had two little dirt streaks going across her cheeks.  I think she must have had dirty hands and rubbed them against her face.  She doesn't seem to mind though. 

What started off as ordinary "soup" of water and sticks and rocks turned into mud pie.

I remember being a kid and squishing mud between my fingers and making little mud things with my sister Erin.  We didn't let Rachel play in the mud this time, but I am sure when she is older, the two of them will play in the mud together.
There ended up being a lot of mud on the grass that I had to try to get out so it wouldn't prevent the grass from getting sunlight.  And Whitney needed a long bath before dinner.  But she still had lots of fun playing.