Discovering new things =)

A few weeks ago I went to the Discovery Gateway with the kids and with my bestest friend Kanani and her boys.  She home schools her boys and with the school program they get to go on field trips and she invited me along.  It was fun. It was like the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.

Playing in the farm section =)  They got to play on a horse that was the size of a real horse.  They loved it!

This was Ian's favorite part.  It was a big thing with water and lots of water toys.  He had so much fun that he soaked himself.  I had to take his clothes off and dry them with the hand dryer.  But at least he had fun, right?

He got to stamp some fun pictures =)

Ian's other favorite part.  These were magnetic sticks.  Now I know what to get him fro Christmas =)

Huge waffle shaped blocks.  The kids had fun building blocks out of them and stacking them

The helicopter!  The kids loved this!  Especially since it was just like the one at Daddy's work.  It even said IHC on it =)

Brenna, Jameson, and Tyson.  They were concentrating so hard to build stuff.

Brenna being a checkout girl and doing some shopping of her own.  Smart girl, went straight to the fruits and veggies first =) 

 

Maybe future news anchors? 

Brenna got to build some block buildings and then you push a button and it shakes the platform.  Its supposed to recreate what happens to buildings during an earthquake.

It was a pretty fun day.  I don't think I would pay the full price of $8 a person to go, but I'm a cheapskate with everything.

Help! We're lost!!

We went to the Coldwater Trout Farm on Saturday.  They had a kiddie corn maze and at the end you got to pick your own pumpkin.  It was fun to walk around and get "lost."  Both kids took a turn trying to lead us out......they didn't do a good job because we were stuck in there for about 45 minutes.  Jason claimed he knew the way out all along and just wanted to let the kids wander more but I think he's just trying to cover up the fact that he was lost too.

This is Brenna leading the way.

of course Ian had to be like Daddy and walked with him the whole time.

He loved the spider webs.  Whenever we came across a web that didn't have a spider he would look for one and would call "spider! Where are you?"

My brave boy touching a "big huge spider!"  He said afterwards, "It was so cute and fuzzy."

Oops....another dead end...photo op!

Me and my favorite little guy.  He's still the spit image of daddy and doesn't look like mommy.

Me and my sweet (most the time) girl.  I think she might look a little bit like me....but that may just be wishful thinking....

Isn't she such a poser?

Getting lost in the corn.  After we had been lost for 45 minutes Brenna started getting a little whiny and was afraid we would never get out.  Ian didn't care, he thought it was like walking through a forest.  Maybe one year we can take the kids to a haunted corn maze....yeah right...Brenna gets scared of the Halloween isle at the store.

The only thing I was disappointed in was the pumpkins.  I was under the impression that they would be big pumpkins.  They said that adults were free but if we wanted a pumpkin we would have to pay.  I wanted one so I paid extra.  Then we get to the end and they were mini pumpkins.  I asked if I could get a refund on me, since adults didn't have to pay, and they wouldn't.  Oh well.  It was still fun...I guess I can think of it as me and Jason got in for $2 each.  Next weekend we are going to to go the Punkinaze.  We went last year so I'm excited =)

Goin' Fishin'

I wanted to do something fun with the kids and Jason today, since he didn't have to work.  We originally went to the Coldwater Trout Farm for their kiddie corn maze, but while we were there we met up with some our friends, the Moons.  They were going fishing and the kids wanted to join in.

We started out feeding the fish.  The kids loved to watch the fish gobble up the food and swarm around it.

We had to watch Ian because he would throw handfuls in. =) 

But eventually the kids wanted to fish like everyone else was.  so we went and grabbed some poles.  I was jut going to let them put their poles in the water and try and fish, not expecting to get anything.

Brenna loved sitting next to her "BFF" Adrea (can you tell who is who from behind? )

Ian got some help from Daddy, mainly because we were worried he would end up catching a human instead of a fish because he like to swing the pole around.

Brenna was having lots of fun =)

But lo and behold......Ian caught one!!! (okay, it was mainly Daddy but let's pretend it was Ian)  Actually......they caught 4 fish!  Holy cow!!!  Brenna even caught one (okay, it was Daddy again, but she was helping which was a good thing Dad was there because every time a fish tugged at her pole she dropped it)  She was scared of the fish and would even get near enough to let me take a picture of it.  Oh well.

Aww....they actually got along for a few minutes.....maybe we should try this fishing thing more often.

I lov ethis picture!  I may need to frame it =)

Okay, so I wouldn't classify a fish farm as real fishing, but the kids had a lot of fun and we got to take home 5 fish.....now what to make with it since the only fish I really like to eat is salmon.

Do I really have a 1st grader?

Brenna started first grade last week =)  She was so excited to go back to school.  I wish that enthusiasm would last the rest of school.  I think she's going to have a great teacher this year.  Brenna got sick last Thursday and couldn't go to school and her teacher called to check on her, not the school, her actual teacher. That shows a lot of caring.  She is going to learn a lot this year and she's excited to have 2 of her friends from church in her class, plus the girl that was the first person to be friends with her when we moved here last year, and one of the boys that was on her soccer team.  It's bittersweet her going back.  I loved having her home with me in the summer, at least most the time.  Ian is going to be lost without his "best friend" around to play with so I'm going to have to do some playdates with other kids.  

Here's to another great school year =)

Living Planet Aquarium

Since both Jason and Brenna were going to be heading back to school, we wanted to do one last family thing.  I had originally planned on going swimming but we changed our minds.  I had been wanting to go the aquarium for awhile, but didn't really want to drive clear to Sandy for it, but since I wasn't driving, it worked out =)

This was a little pond with a few little fish and some bull frogs.  The frogs were hiding and it was tricky finding them, but Ian loved it!

They had a stingray and shark petting tank.  Since Ian had already petted(is that a word?) the stingrays at the fair, he was an old pro at this.  Brenna, of course, wouldn't get near them.  I even got to pet a shark =)

They had some starfish, horseshoe crabs, and a couple other things that you could pet.  Ian went through the line twice and touched every one.  Brenna wouldn't come near it.

But Brenna did love seeing all the fish and was plastered to the glass.  She loved seeing the giant octopus.  My pictures of it didn't turn out but she thought it was pretty cool.

Since it was so dark inside there, and I was just using my phone, the pictures aren't that great.  This was Brenna at one of her favorites, the seahorses.  They had a bunch of different kinds.

I had to snap a pic with my favorite girl =)  love her to death!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, for some reason a bunch of them didn't get copied over and they're not on my memory card anymore.  Not that they were that great of pictures to begin with, but there were some of the penguins, octopus, electric eel, caiman, and piranhas   

With the electric eel, they had something hooked up to the tank that would show you how much a charge it would emit.  At first, it felt more like a vibrations, but the more noise you made near the eel, the more agitated it became and the more electricity it gave off and then you got a pretty good zap.

We got to watch them feed the octopus, which was neat.  the octopus would wrap it's tentacle around the hand of the person and play for a bit then it would go after the fish.  I think it would be pretty neat to play with an octopus =)  Then we got to watch them feed the penguins.  They were swimming and diving everywhere.  The kids liked watching them swim really fast.  

They has all sorts of exhibits.  Jason really wanted to watch them feed the piranhas....but i don't think they would do that in front of people, but I have to admit, it would be cool to watch.  Ian liked seeing the caiman, which is kind of like a mini crocodile.  For some reason he has become fascinated with alligators and crocodiles lately.

I was disappointed in the sharks.  I thought they would have more but all they had were a few reef sharks,  think a leopard shark and a hammerhead.

I liked the scorpions that were black, and then you switched on the black light and they were purple.  Jason had told me that scorpions did that, but I had never seen it before.  It was also neat to see the giant anaconda snake.

It was pretty fun to go spend some time together as a family.  The kids were literally running from tank to tank.  They were so excited to see everything.  I think I would take the kids again, but only if i could find some discount coupons or something because $8 per person is a little steep for me.  Remember, I'm a cheapskate =)

Stirrup some fun at the fair =)

It's the end of summer so we all know what that means.  Fair time!!!  I took my kids to the Morgan Fair and then to the Weber County Fair.  They loved it!  I really think these kids should have grown up on a farm =)

While at the Morgan Fair, they had Scales and tales there.  Boy oh boy was Ian excited!  You should have seen his eyes when they brought this big lizard out.  He thought it was the cooles thing ever....until they brought the alligator.  He got so excited, reached out his hands and yelled "Mommy, I want to hold it!" and then tried to get on the stage.

He was excited to see the giant tortoise too.  He tried to climb on the stage to get that one as well.

Then, at the end of the show they had the huge albino python.  Ian almost made it on stage with it =)  They they annouced that the kids could pet the animals after the show.  As soon as they brought them out, Ian was shoving his way through everyone so he could pet a snake and a lizard.  Brenna liked watching it and even got brave enough to pet one, but there were tons of kids in teh way so I couldn't get a good picture of her.

But the cool thing that she got to do was get some feathers in her hair.  She keeps seeing all these people with it and she wanted it.  She won't let me take them out, and for the first few days I had to fight with her ot brush her hair because she thought I would brush them out.  And yes, they are still in her hair 2 weeks later. =)

After the Morgan fair, the next week we visited the Weber Fair.  Of course their favorite things were the animals.  They even had sting rays there to pet.  Ian was all excited about petting a "fish."  He had to tell everyone later all about it....and I heard all about it the whole time we were there.  Brenna wouldn't get near them.  Can you tell who my dare devil child is yet?

While walking aroud, they were getting ready for teh miniature horse show so we saw a few out and about.  The little girl in red was nice enough to let the kids come and pet her horse.  The kids loved seeing one that was their size. 

"A pig goes *oink* *oink*"  This is what Ian was doing while we were looking at the pigs.  He even said he wanted to crawl in the cage with them and take a nap with them.  He serioulsy needs to be on a farm so he can raise his own pig.

Or maybe he should raise a sheep since he was giving them all hugs.  Such a lovey boy!

Not to be out done, Brenna of course was willing to give the fuzzy sheep a hug...but heaven forbid she touch a slimy "fish."

They both got to pet a cow too.

This is them petting a pygmy goat.  These two are all about the farm animals.

Most of the horses were gone, I think ti was when they were doing a horse show in the arena, so we didn't get much with them.  But there was one horse that let out a loud whinny right as we walked by.  It scared Brenna and Ian thought it was cool and kept telling me "that's a loud horse, mommy!"

My kids had lots of fun just looking at the animals and petting them.  I don't even think they asked if we could ride the rides or play on the bouncy toys.  I'm so glad they can find pleasure in the simple things in life.  I defintely think this will be a great tradition, to go see the animals at the fair.