Lagoon Family Day 2010

Yesterday was the bi-annual McNaughtan family Lagoon trip and Rockin' E Ranch shareholders meeting.

I think at last count we had something like 47 shareholders, all of whom are members of Paul's extended family. So, in order to get everyone together in one place for a meeting they usually hold it at Lagoon. Everyone brings their family along as well, so it makes a good family reunion opportunity.

I snapped some pictures while they were having their meeting. By this time most of the kids had run off to play in the park. When everyone was there we filled this pavilion.


Someone else also noticed that I had the camera out and said "Mommy... CHEESE!"

Will was still too small to go on a lot of the rides. He was just tall enough to ride on the little swings that they have. They went around in a circle and then around a center post.

He seemed to like them. He only started fuss when Paul pulled him out when the ride was done. He wanted to keep going.

Of course, one of the usual standards is the Carousel. We love this old beauty. It is the last hand carved carousel in Utah.

We rode it twice. First Paul rode while I stood next to Will, and then we swapped.

When Paul climbed onto his horse it was almost all the way to the top of it's gears. I turned around and had to look up to see him. So, of course, I took a picture.

There is something very wrong looking about Paul on a little wooden horse. :-)

We did a lot of walking, but Will was good about it. We bought a new wagon to carry him and all the packs in, but he only wanted to be in it about half of the time.

Once it got too hot to be on rides we headed over to the water park. Will and I splashed around the kids area while Paul went down the big slides.

I tried taking Will down one of the little kids slides on my lap. Just a mental note for anyone out there who is intending to attempt the same thing... I landed wrong at the bottom and because I was trying to keep my son from drowning I ended up with some severely sore muscles. I do not recommend that you try this at home.

After a long day of swimming and riding we spread out the blanket and just hung out for a bit.

It was really fun, and thanks to Aunt Kathy and Uncle David we'll get to go again sometime before the end of the year.

No water slides this time, though...

Days of 47 Parade Floats

For those of you that do not live in the state of Utah we have a state holiday called Pioneer Day. It's each July 24th and it celebrates our pioneer forefathers. In some parts of Utah this celebration is larger than the ones for the 4th of July.

Each year Salt Lake has a big Days of 47 parade for Pioneer Day. Since it's July, and therefore a million degrees outside, we have never attended the parade itself. This year will be no different, however we did decide to go to the indoor float preview that they had.

Most of the floats are done by the different LDS ward houses around the valley, but some are sponsored by local businesses. These are full sized floats, not the little handcarts that I remember putting together back in Meridian for Dairy Days.

Paul put William up on his shoulders so that he could see over all the people.


These are the faces that you get when you ask my boys to say 'cheese'.



One of the most impressive floats was sponsored by Walmart, Pepsi, and Primary Children's Hospital. It had characters from the movie 'How to Train Your Dragon' on it.

William liked that one because of the dragons.

Another awesome one was done by the Boy Scouts of America. They are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. The float had examples of the different scout uniforms from over the years on it.

This one is from the 1910's.

1930's...

1940's...

1950's...

1960's...

1970's...

This one was listed as a 'Sea Scout'. I didn't even know that the Boy Scouts ever had such a thing.

The last float that I really liked was all about why the seagull is the Utah state bird.

For those of you who don't know, the seagull is revered around here due to the fact that it saved the Mormon pioneers from certain doom when they first arrived in Utah.

During the first years that the first Mormon settlers came to Utah and started planting crops they were set upon by a plague of locusts. The story goes that they prayed to God for help and he sent a wave of seagulls to consume the locusts and save the crops. Thus, the seagull was named state bird when Utah finally joined the union.

On this float they have commemorated this event with dozens of sparkly locusts at the front.

At the middle the seagulls are gathering up the locusts.

And, at the back they are turning them into 'Locust Cookies'.

Something about this float makes me think of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. That guy would eat a locust cookie if offered one.

Eewwwww......

Whale Pillow

Okay, I finished the pillow.

The colors that I had made me think of water, so I did a little whale theme. The yarn is a chenille, so it feels like a really soft bathrobe.



The only problem with this project is now Rhonda wants a pillow (or two... or three...) for herself.

I have some more of this yarn, so there might be enough for a matching blanket.

Arts and Crafts

Paul has been working a lot of LONG shifts lately. In order to keep myself occupied after William goes to bed I have been crocheting.

I've been trying to use up all of the varied yarn that I have laying around. I seem to be a bit of a yarn hoarder...

Anyway, I finished another little baby blanket and was showing it to someone when they suggested that I take a picture to post online.

I figured that this would be a good way to document the projects that I complete, since I usually give most away.

This is the blanket that I made for William.

This is the one that I just finished.

I ended up giving this one to one of the girls in our office for her niece.

I am working on a little pillow for William's room. I'll post a picture of it once I am done.

4th of July

Well, I hope everyone had a fun weekend. We sure did.

Due to the fact that the 4th of July holiday fell on a Sunday this year, and nothing happens in Utah on a Sunday (except church), we had 3 days of celebrations.

On Saturday Erin invited Will and I to have a picnic in the park. We went to the same little park behind mom and dad's house that has the water park that we went to on Memorial Day. We had a nice time, especially since it wasn't too hot.

Saturday night we went to the carnival and fireworks at the park in Magna. This was the first big fireworks for Will. It was a lot of fun. Paul got us some popcorn and cotton candy. William had never had cotton candy before. He seemed confused by the fact that it disappeared when it hit his tongue.

I didn't get many pictures because it was dark, and once the fireworks started William wouldn't let me move my arms from around him. He was a bit frightened by them, but as long as he was in my lap and my arms were around him he liked it. We named off the colors as they would go off. He seems to think that everything is yellow, but that could be because he likes to say yellow.

On Sunday we rested because we all have a cold, and we were out late at the fireworks on Saturday. We did manage to go to church and to the toy store. I bought Will a little doctor's set to play with because he was really interested in all of the tools that the doctor used when we saw her on Friday. He gave me a "check up" all afternoon.

Will and I took Grandma Nina to the aquarium on Monday. He liked showing her the octopus and sharks.

I could use an extra day off just to relax after running around all weekend!