Family Baseball Night

For Family Home Evening we decided to end with a little baseball.  Mike was pitching to the kids in our backyard while I was inside cleaning up.  Hunter came running in to tell me that I needed to come take a picture of Aria.  When I got out there I found Aria holding the bat looking like she was ready to take a swing.  

She loved carrying the bat around and picking up all the balls.  She even added "bat" to her growing list of words that night.  Chase was getting some good hits and was very cautious about running the bases, he didn't want Dad to get him out.  

I love this picture of Hunter hitting the ball.  The ball came straight at me! 

Michela is a brute. She was whacking the balls out over the fence and then she was running so fast around the bases that Mike never had a chance at catching her.  

A couple of times the kids were all on the bases so I stepped in to help bring them home.  

Mike, the ever competitive, suddenly started throwing the ball as fast as he could.  

It wasn't easy hitting them with the kids' little bats but I did succeed in getting a piece of some and getting them past him.  It was a fun night and the evenings in our backyard are always so nice, no matter how hot the day has been.  

Num, Num

Aria is becoming very independent lately, especially when it comes to eating.  When she wants something to eat she will point at it or go to the fridge and say "Num, Num".  This is her word for I want to eat that, give me some of yours or this is yummy so give me some more.  She is always grabbing for the spoon when I'm trying to feed her so she can do it herself.  I really don't mind this, I was planning on letting her try to feed herself.  The only problem is she refuses to wear a bib.  It also doesn't help that she says "Ah, Oh" every time she gets anything on herself or her high chair and then refuses to keep eating until it is cleaned up.  

Here are some cute pictures of her eating ice cream the other night.  She LOVES ice cream!  She definitely takes after her Momma.

    

    

Today at lunch she wanted to feed herself some yogurt.  I could just picture the mess.  In a stroke of brilliance I pulled her shirt off and let her go at it.  She had a lot of fun until she noticed the drips of yogurt dropping on her big belly.  She was pretty frustrated until I got her all cleaned up.  She actually did pretty good though, I only ended up having to feed her a few spoonfuls at the end.  What will she want to feed herself next?!

    

Stewart Falls

Yesterday I took my sister on a little Post Birthday Excursion.  We drove up to Sundance in the morning and rode the lift up to start off our hike to Stewart Falls.  It started out really pleasant.  It wasn't too hot yet and the terrain was fairly level.  W hiked through fields and groves of trees.  I loved the aspens, one of my favorite sounds is the wind rustling through the leaves on the aspen trees.  

The wooded areas were my favorite.  It was nice and cool and you could smell the dirt, the trees and the fresh air.  About halfway to the falls we saw a caution sign which said from here on out the trail gets steep and the footing was a little precarious.  That wasn't going to stop us!  It turned out to be a pretty steep downgrade and we slid around a few times, but we still had lots of fun.  The trail is rather narrow, so you have to be careful at some points so you don't end up sliding down the hill.  

When you get close to the falls you start to hear the water.  You can hear it get louder and louder, but you can't see it until you are almost right on it.  You actually have to walk through a rather dense jungle of bushes and trees until you come out into the clearing and see the river and the falls pouring down over the cliffs.  

It was really beautiful and extremely refreshing.  You could stand about 30 feet away and feel the spray.  

We got as close as possible, we didn't want to get drenched, and enjoyed the cool water.  Here is Tiff getting refreshed.  

"We Made It!"

We took a short rest and then decided it would be a much better idea to hike the rest of the way down to Sundance rather than hike back up to the lift.  It was a much more gradual slope on the way down from the falls.  It was just so wonderful being out there in the mountains and the trees with so much beauty surrounding you.  

We finished the 3 mile trip and arrived back at Sundance hot, sweaty and dirty.  The trail was pretty dusty, so our shoes, socks and legs were covered in dirt.  We cleaned up the best we could and then took our scroungy selves over to the Foundry Grill and enjoyed a yummy lunch out on the patio.  This is something we will definitely have to do again.

Happy Birthday Tiffles!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Lil' Sis Tiffany. I am so thankful for her in my life. She is one of the few people in this world that I can be my very true self with. There is no one else that I can be as silly as I want to be with and won't look at me like I'm insane. She has a great big laugh and a great big heart. I always have fun when I'm with her and I can tell her anything. She is very kind and extremely generous. She will always jump in to help me out if I need her. She is my Lost, Heroes and So You Think You Can Dance partner. We love the same movies, TV shows, and books. Who would be my Broadway show partner if she didn't live so close by? She is a fantastic cook and makes the best cheesecake ever! We've been sisters now for 32 years and it's been lots of fun. Sure there were those times when we couldn't stand each other and drew a line down the middle of our room, but it usually didn't last very long. She played Barbies with me, even when she didn't want to, and she would be Boss Hogg or Uncle Jesse when I wanted to be Daisy or R2D2 when I wanted to be Princess Leia. What a sweet sister. Who knows how many board and card games we have played together in our lifetimes? She loves my children and would do anything for them, she is the best Aunt! I wish her all the happiness in the world and I hope her dreams come true someday! I love you Tiff with all my Heart! Have a very Happy Birthday. Love ya, Mauri

Little Monkey

Well Aria is at it again.  She is such a crazy little thing.  She learned how to climb up the little rock wall to get to the slide a couple of months ago.  I thought I would be safe if I kept her in the playroom with the door closed while I exercise.  This isn't going to work anymore.  While I was working out today Chase ran in to tell me that Aria was climbing up the slide.  I ran out and sure enough she was half way up the slide.  So I did what any mother would do, I ran and got the camera.  Witness for yourself my fearless little monkey.

One Hectic Day

So today started off with a trip to the pediatrician for Chase and Aria's well checks. We did Hunter and Michela's a couple of weeks ago, so thankfully they weren't today also. Chase had his Kindergarten checkup. His eyesight was awesome, he showed the doctor is climbing and hopping skills and he weighed in at 40 lbs. and was 43" tall. He also had to get two shots and was totally tough. He was actually kind of enthralled when they pricked his finger and he watched them draw the blood up into the little tube.
Aria had her 18 month check up. She weighed in at 21 lbs. 4 oz. (9%) and was 31" tall (24%). She is still so petite but she charms everyone we meet. She also had to get a shot and only cried for a second. We then ran to the grocery store for some much needed food and cruised home for lunch.
After a short nap for Aria we were off for the Dentist to finish up the work on Chase, Michela and Hunter's teeth. Hunter was a stud and didn't make a peep the whole time they were working on him. He had to have two fillings and one baby tooth pulled. He was in the chair forever, but he was totally patient and didn't complain once. Michela had a couple of teeth sealed where she has been grinding them down. I can't believe all of my children grind their teeth in their sleep! I can hear them sometimes at night when I am walking by their rooms. I have to go in and hold their face until they stop doing it. It is like finger nails on the chalkboard.
Chase on the other hand was not so cooperative. After the first novacaine shot he was too freaked out and would not open his mouth. No matter how much cajoling and attempted trickery by the dental staff to get him to open his mouth he stubbornly defied them. We took a little breather and he was almost out the door before I came up with the plan to let him pick his prizes and let him hold them while the dentist worked on him. He also watched Hunter and Michela get worked on and witnessed how tough they were being. The dentist also decided laughing gas was in order and it got Chase going. He was soon joking and being a total clown with the dental assistants and decided to let his guard down. It was a marathon dental afternoon. We were there for almost 4 hours! I was so exhausted by the time we got home. It was hard enough going back and forth from room to room and reassuring the big kids, but I also had to run after Aria and keep her entertained the whole time. She is becoming quite the little mischief maker.
To top off the day we had a big laugh at family prayer. It was Hunter's turn and it went something like this. "I'm thankful I could get my tooth out today. I'm thankful we could get prizes at the dentist. Please bless that the tooth fairy doesn't get lost. And please bless that I don't lay on my pillow where the tooth fairy can't get my tooth and I squash her." I was trying so hard not to laugh through the whole thing. After the kids left the room to get in their beds Mike and I had a good chuckle. Thank goodness for the funny moments or the rest of our hectic lives might get the best of us.

Family Fun in St. George

We were in need of a little vacation and decided a little trip down to St. George would be fun. I guess we weren't thinking it could be much hotter than Orem, but we were wrong! I've never taken so many showers, it seemed like you needed one everytime you stepped outside. But besides the heat we still managed to have lots of fun, thank goodness for the pool!

On our first day we checked out the Wildlife Museum. Matt and Sara went there a couple of months ago and said their boys loved it. It was actually pretty cool, maybe not $8 for adults cool, but still pretty fun. It was kind of like the Bean Museum at BYU, but much better.

I loved how they had a lot of the animals staged in action scenes. There were lions and hyenas fighting over a water buffalo, mountain lions jumping off of cliffs chasing after deer, a lion attacking a zebra and I loved the fox jumping up and catching the tail feathers of a bird in its mouth.

There was also a little playroom for the kids with dress up stuff and things they could do a little pretend play with. Michela threw on the hunter gear and Chase decided to get up close with the bear.

There was also a little gallery with all kinds and varieties of insects from around the world. There were butterflies, moths, walking sticks, beautifully colored beetles that looked like gems, spiders and much more. These tarantulas were HUGE! How would you like to wake up with those crawling around on your bed. Yikes!



Aria's favorite things to do were push the stroller around, that she was supposed to be sitting in and throw all the balls around in the gift shop.


Michela found this awesome stuffed lizard. She really wanted it, but I don't care how cool or big it is, I'm not paying $23 for a lizard! She will just have to settle for a picture of her with it.

On Saturday morning we went for a bike ride in Snow Canyon. It was so beautiful there. All the red rocks, cliffs and hills are amazing.

Mike rode with Hunter hooked on to the back of his bike, Michela was on her own and I towed Chase and Aria in the trailer.

It started out pretty fun, but then the climbing started. It wouldn't have been too hard, except for the fact that I was pulling 60-70 lbs. behind me. Michela, bless her heart, did the best she could and I was amazed at how far she made it before she had to push the bike. Chase would have loved to ride too, but he's still working on riding a bike without training wheels.

Going back down was so much fun. We hardly even had to pedal.
After the bike ride we went on a little hike to Jenny's Canyon. It was a pretty short hike to a slot canyon.

The kids loved climbing around on the little cliffs and in the holes in the rock.



Here's Hunter at the end of the hike. He was panting behind me so I had to swing around a get a picture of him. We lucked out on the weather, we had some nice cloud cover which kept the temperature down a bit.
We also saw "Wall-E" that day. What a cute movie! I absolutely loved it. Wall-E is the cutest little robot you've ever seen. It had a great message and lots of laughs.

On Monday we went to Fiesta Fun, kind of like the old school version of Boondocks. We stayed there for a few hours, but it was so darn hot! We played minature golf, where I got 3 hole in ones, rode the go karts, the bumper boats and had lots of fun in the arcade.

That night I took Hunter and Michela to Tuacahn to see "The Sound of Music". It started pouring when we were having dinner so I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to see the show. Luckily it stopped raining as were were driving out there. We had to wipe down our seats and the show started a bit late, but it was still a great night. The production was wonderful. The lady playing Maria had a beautiful voice and the kids were all great. I loved how they used the hills behind the stage and actually drove a car out there too. My favorite scene was the "Lonely Goatherd" They used dancers for the marionettes and they did a wonderful job acting like floppy puppets. It was a perfect night and Michela and Hunter stayed awake through the whole thing. The licorice and reese's pieces might of had something to do with it. :) Five minutes after we got in the car to go home though, they were both fast asleep.

All in all we had a great time and made some more fun memories for our family to share. I still remember so many family vacations when I was growing up. My family still laughs about so many of them when we get together. I hope we are creating the same kind of memories for our kids to remember.

The Discovery Museum

Last Thursday we drove up to Salt Lake to go to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway. We met up with Megan, Mindy, Sara and all the Staker cousins. This time Aria was big enough to join in the fun. The kids loved playing with all the cool toys and contraptions.
There is this giant metal beehive when you first walk in the museum. The kids always get stuck there for quite some time because there are all these balls that you can put in different holes, tubes and mechanisms. Chase loved dumping the balls into this bucket that when you turned the handle it dropped the balls into this tube that had a pulley system that lifted the balls up into a tube and sent them across the beehive to anothe location.

Weston and Aria played together putting the balls in the holes and watching them go down the tubes. Hunter liked watching the balls go through all the different devices. I kept hearing, "Mom, Mom look at this!"

Michela and Aria were making some sweet music together. I love this picture of Aria, she was barely tall enough to see what she was whacking with the mallets.


The girls loved the construction zone. They were great at taking turns using the crane, unloading the bricks and constructing the buildings. Aria loved all the little cars around. The only problem is that she can get a little possesive and screams at any other kids who try to ride in "her" car.



Hunter loves playing with all the different contraptions in the water play area. It's fun to watch him tinkering with all of the different parts trying to get it to work exactly how it wants it to.

Michela and Chase loved climbing the rock wall.

Jaida helped Aria ring up her purchases at the little store. Aria was in heaven pushing all the buttons on the cash register. She was so cute walking around pulling things off the shelves and putting them in her basket. Michela and Alyssa were starving so they helped themselves to the fixings at the deli.

Michela couldn't wait to dig in to her super sized sandwich.

Hunter spent almost the entire time upstairs at the wind tunnels. He loved sending the papers and cups soaring up in the air through the tunnel. It was so fun to watch him, you could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he figured out which one would fly the highest. Trevan loved the building toys, here he is working on one of his creations.

Daynen plays with a puzzle while Michela tests her building skills on the earthquake machine.



There was this cool magnetic wall that had all these pipes you could move around and connect to try to make a path for the balls to go through. Kaden and Michela were cheering when their ball made it all the way through. Chase had fun connecting the pipes all the way across the wall.




After the museum Sara and I took our kids over to the fountain, unfortunately my battery died so I didn't get any pictures. The kids had so much fun running through the water and getting completely soaked. I kept bringing Aria close to the water to get cooled off, but she didn't really like getting sprayed. After that we took a trip over to the Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop for a little treat. What a sweet way to end the day.