Halloween 2014

We built a Witches Lair on our front porch for Halloween this year.  Grandpa Bob and I worked on all of the pieces for about a month leading up to Halloween.  I think that it turned out pretty well.

 



 

 

 

Grandma Rhonda offered to dress up and come help hand out candy.  We all made a lovely looking coven!

 

 

 

End of Summer Fun

 Over the last few weeks we've been trying to have as much fun as we can.  Will starts first grade next week, so we've been out enjoying the last of our freedom.

On Paul's birthday he wanted to go watch the Lego Movie in the park.  The kids had a great time splashing around in the little stream that they had at this park.

 

The kids also had a recent dental check-up, and when they are good the dentist gives them a token ti use in the toy machine out front.  This is what Lilly picked as her prize.

Last Friday night we decided to have an impromptu picnic at the Herriman Reservoir to celebrate no more diapers.  Lilly has finally completed potty training!  She and grandpa Bob had a fun time building a little lake in the sand.

On Saturday we went to the new Museum of Natural Curiosity.  There was a ton of fun things for the kids to do.  We were there for hours playing.

 

Jurassic Quest

Erin won us tickets to the Jurassic Quest this week.  They had life sized animated/robotic dinosaurs.  They were cool, but they scared Lilly and Will won't stand still in front of them, so I only got one picture.

The kids were more interested in playing in the inflatables that they had.  I got them to stand still long enough for one picture, then they were running back to play.

They also had an area where the kids could "dig" for fossils.

 Erin gave us extra money so that the kids could get their faces painted.  Lilly got a butterfly and Will got a Velociraptor.

2014 Family Road Trip

 Our family celebrated the Fourth of July on the road this year.  My Aunt Kathy was turning 60 on Independence Day so the whole family went to Idaho to celebrate with her.  We couldn't get a ton of time off from work so we had to leave late on the evening of the 3rd and drive most of the night, but we made it.

We had the birthday party on Friday night and then had all day Saturday to wander around showing the kids all of the cool stuff that I used to go do when I was little.  The first thing that we did was stop at the World Birds of Prey Center.  I used to love to go there when I was a kid.  My kids loved it, too.

These were some of the birds that the kids liked best.

They loved to see all of the cool displays inside the center.  They had fun trying on the "bird wings" to see what it would be like to have wings like and eagle.

After a quick stop for lunch we headed out to the Warhawk Museum in Nampa.  Paul was in hogs heaven, but the kids were getting tired by this point, so we didn't get to stay too long.

I thought that this stop was really fitting considering the holiday we celebrated the day before.

On Sunday we left Boise and drove to Bear Lake.  It took us another full day of driving, but it was worth it.  On Monday we went to Minnetonka cave.  It's a bit of a hike, but we all managed it.

Inside the cave there are tons of stalactites, stalagmites, and columns.  It was awesome.

There were also 444 stairs inside the cave, going up and down as you went further in.  We went all the way in and all the way back out, for a total of 888 stairs.  We all were tired and really sore when it was over.

Later that day we took the kids to swim in the lake.  This was their first time at a real beach.  They had a blast swimming, looking for shells, and building sand castles.

 

We brought home a bucket full of small snail and mussel shells.  I am going to get a glass bottle to put them in so that we can remember the trip.

We finally made it home on Tuesday.  It was a crazy amount of driving, but it was really fun.