Temple Square

Vacation Time = Museum Time

We are officially on vacation!!! Whoohoo.  First stop....Children's museum at Thanksgiving Point in Utah.  Since we have a membership to the children's museum in Lubbock, TX - we get in to children's museums all over the country for FREE!!  It's an awesome deal!  So, we definitely take advantage of it!  Whenever we go on vacation, we look up the childrens museums in the area and check them out and have some FREE  fun.  The kids love it they are entertained for hours, the adults love it because everyone is happy and it is definitely cost effective, what else could you ask for?  Where are we going next, do they have a museum?

Social Butterfly

At 5 months old, Erica is a social butterfly!  She loves people to talk to her.  She gives almost anyone a big ol’ grin if they will talk to her!  She is also very chatty herself especially in the wee hours of the morning!  First thing when she wakes up, she likes to talk and talk a lot!  It is quite the interesting thing to have a conversation with a 5 month old!  But she has quite a bit she has to say!  Erica is also rolling over onto her stomach which she loves to do until she gets stuck on her belly and can’t get herself back over.  Then she screams!  She is also trying to reach and  get toys that are close by.   Sometimes she mistakes hair for toys, so watch out...boy can she pull - especially those short hairs on your neck..yowzers!   Erica's favorite toy is...HER FEET, can ya tell? We sure love this girl!

Splash Pad

After 3 years...we finally decided to try out the splash pad.  We loved it!  We met up with several friends -  the kids played, splashed, and laughed.... the moms talked, relaxed and watched the kiddos. Great way to spend an afternoon.  I do believe we will be doing this again!

A Hicky & Loveless Firework Show

Now before you get any crazy ideas...we had a great CLEAN G rated 4th evening that we spent with our friends the "Hick"man Family and the "Loveless" Family.   We setup for the show in the front yard where we had a fire pit with smores, cookies, and of course fireworks!  We had soooooo many fireworks, the boys were still going strong when the ladies thought that we better wrap up at 11:45pm!  (we started at like 8:00!!)  CJ and Preston were in boy heaven lighting fireworks and watching them explode.  They tried really hard to blow up a LEGO man, but the poor LEGO guy was subject to LOTS of firework torture...but amazingly survived! Now that is one tough toy! Aparri enjoyed the firewords, but after hours of enjoyment, got tired so she put on some ear muffs and went to sleep under the stars with fireworks in the background!  Erica didn't seem bothered by the noise one bit!  She just swung away in her little swing enjoying the show!  and Poor Detric spent most of the evening in the house.  He doesn't like the loud noise of fireworks so he watched from the safety of the front room.  However, when his buddy, Tate, showed up later in the evening we were able to coax him outside into the back of the pickup that was safely located in the garage!  Fireworks, friends, food, freedom - That is what the fourth is all about!  Happy Fourth!  

(Hickmans joined us at about 10pm when they arrived in town..so they are not in the pictures)

Church Parade and Bishop Bombs

The day started out with a pancake breakfast and bike parade at the church.  The kids thought riding around the church parking lot was THE BEST THING EVER (it's always the little things, isn't it?)!!!   3 times around the church weren’t near enough!  Detric screamed and shouted when it was time to stop…  He would have gone round and round all day long!  Somehow through screams and kicks we got him off the bike and into the truck!  CJ, too old for the parade, had a great time learning all about sparkler bombs from... no other than our Bishop...yeah, thanks Bishop Wahlen - our next stop will be the ER!  Even though the Bishop prefaced his bomb disclosures with...."Never do this"  the boys' ears perked up and minds were whirling with this new found education.   Rather than heed the Bishops warning, the boys spent the afternoon looking up sparkler bomb ideas on youtube.  GREAT...just GREAT. When we finally got the boys off the internet  we headed to a  BBQ at the Justin and Kate Handy’s house where a group of friends met, ate, talked, and played until firework time.  

The Glove

All summer long, Detric was attached to one motorcycle glove.  It was on his hand day and night….and he took it everywhere with him.  People started to notice, comment and look for the glove!  We aren’t sure why or where he picked up this interesting fetish…but it was kinda fun while it lasted.  Detric, the one gloved Dude!  Look for it in all the summer pictures….it’s there!