Chalked Full of June

June 29 ... Payton Scarlett Wood was blessed at Marta and Kelly's house. We all went there and had a nice dinner and plenty of desert. Usually the kids don't have much to do while there, so I brought the slip n slide that Paul bought last year. We all had a blast. At first Laura and I were helping the children. Laura more than I, my kids played favorite to her. They would hold on and get dragged along the slip n slide, they just couldn't figure it out. Laura would take one of my children and then Kellie would be at the end of the slip n slide waiting and then chasing after her mommy down to the other end, she's the cutest thing. Who would of thought that the grown ups would have so much fun too. Laura was first to dive right on fully clothed and all. I had thought about but hadn't gotten up the nerve, so after she did there was no point in waiting any longer. It was fun and wet, the kids were so cute. Kacen kept drinking the water, I love the picture of the water going in to his eyes and him just staring at me wide eyed while it was occurring.

June 30, we all went to the zoo. I guess that some one thought it would be a good way to all spend more time with Laura, Tara and the new baby came, Marta, Laura and Kellie, my kids and I. Need less to say the baby, Tara and our Alaskan visitors got hot fast with our 100 degree weather. Thank you Laura for the snow cones. We were able to go to the Bird show this year, that was awesome. I remembered going to one in Florida about seven years ago and it was so nice that they brought one here to Utah. Last year I missed the bird show, we were an hour late at the zoo. I think the white alligator was awesome, though it looked more like it had an off green tint to it. It was pretty cool to get a picture with it in the background. Kacen loved the kitty's, we saw a tiger and a few leopards and at the very top at the end of the Asian Highlands there is a bronze statue of some cats, Kacen went up and climbed on them and then had to keep giving them kisses until Mommy convinced him that we needed to go. We passed the gift shop on the way back down towards the reptile building and they just had to get something, which I was happy to do. Last year they didn't get anything, I mean with gas up to the zoo, entrances fees and food it is hard to get souvenirs. Kacen was able to get a leopard that opened and closed its mouth when you pushed on the lever. He kept calling it his sword! Cutest thing, well I guess all except for him trying to fight with it. Alona got a stuffed leopard, Abbi a tiger that can hang by its string. While paying I only had a $20 bill for all three children's souvenirs. So I handed all of it to the lady with the money and told her that I could only get all of it if it costed this much. She then told me that she was giving me the members discount, woohoo! So the total was quite a bit under the $20 and with the extra money we rode the train before we left.

July 4...we drove to Marta's and got there at 3:00 in the morning. Man was I tired, and then Kacen woke up at 6 a.m. Dead woman walking! We went to the pancake breakfast at the grist mill, never before had I seen so many pancakes in my life. Alona enjoyed walking along the sidewalk in the little kids parade with her make shift maraca, Kacen and Abbi were cute. I kept reminding Kacen while walking with him to shak ehis maraca and wave his flag. We went back to Marta's where I tried to wake up Paul and then we went to the parade in Grantsville. I really enjoyed going there three years ago, the parade was just the right length and made it enjoyable for kids, throwing candy and frisbees. This year the grocery store threw bubbles and t-shirts. Another float threw mini first aid kits and sunscreen, Kacen got a ball and there was PLENTY of candy to go around. There was even a mini fire engine that came and parked itself right by where we were. A few of the floats came up next to him and just dumped candy in to the fire engine. Kacen was real excited about running out and getting the candy, other years I had to drag my girls to get the candy. They were so much fun this year! We went back and had lunch and came back wit their dad to the carnival around 5:00. Half of the rides were already cleaned up, but we caught quite a few of them before they deflated and disassembled their rides. They went on a big inflated slide and on some electric powered swings, then to the playground and Alona played a bean bag game for fifty cents where the girls won glow in the dark bracelets. We went to the fireworks at 9:30 and waited just a little while for them to start, they were amazing, so up close, loud and spectacular, like the sky was literally falling on you. We got an amazing parking spot right past the fire zone (the red painted curb) up along the edge of the high school which was right across the street from the park where the fire works were being launched. It was a pretty good forth of July and I was so happy to have others around during the time that Paul was sleeping, made my day!