The Dinosaur Museum

Will's parents bought a pass so we could see all the sites at Thanksgiving Point.  There are several museums and outdoor things that are really fun for kids.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Keeler for buying a pass.  We went to the Dinosaur Museum first.  The girls had never been there.

Of course, there were lots of dinosaur statues and dinosaur bones and fossils.  I thought that was pretty neat/ 

And a fish room.  Did you know there was an El Weirdo fish?  I learned a lot.  Megan liked this part too.

And being brave enough to touch the coral reef things.  They weren't real, but it was still fun to see.

Grandma Keeler helps Whitney design a dinosaur.  You could build a dinosaur out of foam blocks.

This water site was well loved by Whitney and Rachel.  The girls learned how excavators do their job.  I think it was about excavators, something like that.  There also was a digging in the dirt spot to uncover "dinosaur bones", but those pictures were messed up when our camera had issues.  Oh well. We still have the memories.

Figuring out which dinosaur piece went into which spot.

 Whitney and Rachel dressed up like a dinosaur and gave their best roaring noises.

And Megan crawling out of a tunnel.  I don't know how this relates to dinosaurs, but come on, it was a tunnel.

So that was a fun museum.  I think the girls got to learn a bit more about dinosaurs.   They were pretty awed by how big some of them were.

Going to Utah

We did so many fun things while in Utah this last week.  But the best part was being able to hang out with family.  We hadn't seen Will's parents in a long time.  I am glad we were able to spend a lot of time with them.  Here are some pictures from around the house.

Grandma Keeler got to read lots of books to the girls.  They all sat and listened to her better than to me.  Oh well.

And there were enough clipboards for each girl to use while coloring.  Here are some pretty pictures. 

Helping Grandma in the garden.  There was a lot of rain, so we had to plant during the dry times of the day.  All the girls got a turn putting a plant into a hole.

They have a fire pit in their backyard.  One night we decided to make s'mores after dinner.  The girls loved watching the fire grow and helping roast marshmallows.  They were delicious.

Grandma Keeler and Whitney made some homemade playdough.  Then we got out some cookie cutters and made some fun things.

This tree in the backyard has a lot of ladybugs.  I probably would have never noticed, but the girls did.  Here they are trying to coax the ladybugs onto their sticks.  Whitney had the most luck with this because she was the most patient.  Maybe it was the ladybugs that were the most patient with them.

There was a big box in the backyard.  It got colored on by three girls and became a house and sometimes a bus.

And these stairs were fun.  There was a basement with all kinds of treasures for three curious girls.  Megan liked following her sisters.  If they were up, so was she.  It was kind of fun watching her try to keep up.

Anyway, those were some fun times at the Keeler house.  Hopefully soon I can put up some pictures from the places we went.

Inner Mexican

So I haven't been taking so many pictures lately.  It seems like we haven't been doing too much.  But for Cinco de Mayo, I decided to dig way, way deep to find my Inner Mexican (which really is non-existent).  I wanted to make some Mexican food for dinner.  So the chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice turned out great.  The tres leche cake was a different story.

Whitney gets herself all ready for baking.

This was my first time making cake by scratch.  I am a cake mix lady, but the recipe didn't look too complicated.

Rachel and Megan wanted turns stirring also.

And the cake out of the oven.  It looked and smelled pretty normal, so I was happy about that.

Megan (and her sisters) lick the bowl clean.  Rachel likes to tell me that once they lick it clean, I don't have to wash it.  For some reason, I wash it anyway.

The cake had to cool and it was such a nice day, we decided to go outside to play.  All the girls wanted hats to wear.

It was impossible to get a picture with all of them looking at the camera, but this one was close.

We went to the park.  Megan can really only be in a baby swing still.  She doesn't hold onto the chains all that well.  But she likes the big swings better.  Here she is hanging on for dear life.

                                         

Then we came home.  The recipe says to take heavy whipping cream and whip it until it becomes like whipped cream.  I whipped and whipped and whipped and it never got any thicker.  Oh well.  I knew it would taste like whipped cream so I just put in on the cake anyway.

Anyway, the cake was not so good.  I think it was too much milk and the liquid seeped all the way to the bottom of the pan.  I didn't even use all the milk it said to use.  So I am blaming the recipe on this one.  The cake part tasted fine though, just the tres leche part was no good.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some when it comes to cooking.  Will told me to just make choco tacos next year for dessert.  We will see.

Safety Fair

My mom was wonderful and watched the girls for a while so I could have a mommy break.  And Will was at a work training during the same time, so I had a very quiet house to myself.  Talk about the blissful peace.  Thanks for watching them; it was a great mini vacation.  Anyway, my mom said that on Saturday morning there was a child safety fair down in Pasco.  Will and I decided to meet them there.

There were a bunch of booths for kids.  This one let the kids make vegetable animals.  Ours didn't look so much like animals, more like broccoli on a toothpick.  Oh well.

Trying to stack cups.  Most booths had activities for the kids and hand outs about services for the grown ups.

This one was a cute fun shaving cream art activity.  You put dye in shaving cream, stir it around, and press a paper down on it.  Then use a window squeegy thing to wipe off the excess cream.

It makes really cool designs.

The community college technology club brought extra key boards and things for the kids to try to unscrew.  The girls really liked this booth.

There was more of a play section where kids could build with different blocks.

Learning which rocks have little shiny crystals inside.  The kids didn't seem to really care which rock was what; they just liked touching the smooth black one in the middle.

Using darts to pop balloons to earn candy.

After playing with all the booths and then eating a picnic lunch, we let the girls play on playground for a long while.

It is hard to tell but Megan was fiercely protecting her apple core all along the playground.  It made it harder for her to climb onto things, but she didn't care and wouldn't let anyone else take it.

And Olaf came to the fair.  Whitney and Rachel shook his hand, but Megan only stared at him.  Which was kind of surprising because she loves shaking hands with everyone at church.  I guess a walking snowman is not trustworthy enough.

Anyway, that was a fun day.  It was good seeing the girls again after my mini vacation.

Mother Daughter Camping

So I was fortunate to go to a women's retreat last weekend with my mom.  It was awesome.  We went to Camp Zarahemla (a church owned camp that I went to girls camp at growing up).  Here are some of the things we did.

The theme for the weekend was to S.M.I.L.E.  There is a verse in 2nd Nephi 9 that says to be Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal.  It was such a good theme.  When we are spiritually minded we should be smiling, life is meant to be happy.

Thankfully, our "camping" was in a lodge with beds.  So we just needed to set up some tables and whatnot.

There were a couple of get to know you kind of activities.  The first one was blowing bubbles (literally to get us out of our bubble because we had to make other people blow our bubbles).

We also got to play with playdough.  A lot of the women were talking about how long it has been since they have done that.  But I am quite use to making random playdough objects.

There were a couple of crafts throughout the retreat also.  We made mugs that said our theme on them.  It was a sticker thing that wasn't too hard.  Hooray since I am not so crafty.

And we made cards to give away to people to help them Smile also.

There was some free time so my mom and I went exploring.  The lake and trees and hills were gorgeous.

We found a little log swing to relax on.

For some reason I really liked this.  It is a tree growing inside of a stump from an older tree.  It just made me think of life and renewal and just being positive.

Anyway, the whole experience was wonderful.  I think everyone felt the spirit and feels closer to the women who were at the retreat.  Thanks mom for inviting me.