Birthday Part 710 Lagoon

I think I may actually be nearing the end of our birthday festivities.(If you haven't checked for a while there are like 5 other birthday posts, so take a look at all of them) The grand finale was taking the boys to Lagoon. They have never been and when we gave them the tickets they looked at us like.....what the crap is this? I knew once we got there they would be more excited though. And I was right. Kaden has only been on a few rides at the fair and Jase and Ethan have never been on any so we weren't certain how they would fair. We started them all out on the small rides in Kiddie Land.

This was the one and only ride Grandpa Marley made it on. The kiddie swings did him in for the rest of the day.

Ethan loves cars and when he found this ride he pretty much lived there. Seriously I think he rode it about 50 times.

Jason and Kaden were pretty much over Kiddie Land within an hour and headed over to the larger rides. Jase followed a short time later.
While Jason and Grandma took Kaden and Jase on the rides, Grandpa, Ethan and I had fun together. It was fun to spend time with Grandpa Marley, especially when he's more than willing to buy his youngest grandson and pregnant daughter every snack and goody we spotted. Love you Grandpa!
This was Jase's absolute favorite ride. He went on it over and over again. Every time he got off he had a huge smile on his face and ran back to get in line.

Ethan spotted the baby bumper cars and wanted to give them a try. However he didn't quite get the hang of it and ended up trapped against the wall. But he still had fun.
One of my Mom's favorite rides, The Tilt-O-Whirl. It was fun to see all 5 of them on together.

As I mentioned earlier, Jason and Kaden were done with the Kiddie Land after about an hour and were ready for some real rides. I wasn't sure it was such a good idea and tried to get Jason to take him on a few easier rides first, but Jason said, "Nope, we're heading for The Colossus." It's been over 11 years since Jason or I have been to Lagoon so starting with the Colossus sounded insane to me. Kaden loved it!! As soon as they jumped off it, they went for all the new big rides. The Wicked, The Wild Mouse, some other ride that dumps you straight down and sprays you with water. It was crazy. Of course all of these rides are back behind a lot of trees and I couldn't really get around to see him get on or anything. Then Jason took Kaden over to The Samurai. I watched them get in line and noticed pretty quickly that there were NO other little kids in line. I checked the height requirement and knew Kaden was not tall enough. I yelled to Jason to get out of line, but he said, "Oh he's fine, they'll give him a special seat." A special seat?! What the crap! If they had special seats there wouldn't be a height requirement. When they got to the front the guys said, "He's a little too short." To which Jason replied, "Ah he's fine, he'll hold on." And the dang guy just shrugged his shoulders and let him on. I think I about had a heart attack as I watched them strap my sweet little boy into what looked like an oversized carseat. I thought there's no way he's going to stay in that. And I knew once they made the first flip I was going to see Kaden fly out into the sky. Seriously, look how tiny he is that huge seat!
Flip after flip Kaden stayed in his seat. Thankfully! When they walked off the ride Kaden had a very distant look in his eye and I could tell his brain was a little scrambled. After that I said it was time to head home before Jason talked Kaden into doing The Catapult, which is exactly what it sounds like, a giant sling shot. No place for my little 8 year old boy!

Of course they persuaded me into staying for about another hour. We all got to ride the carousel. The only ride I was allowed on all day thanks to my baby bump. We had a great time together and are all looking forward to returning next year....baby bump free and with a babysitter for our new little man.

Birthday Part 398 Salt Lake Temple

We spent an afternoon at Salt Lake's Temple Square. It was a gorgeous day and we had a very special experience together as a family.

Kaden was very interested in all the statues and wanted to read everything with me. His baptism was just a few weeks away and I think he really wanted to learn and enjoy the spirit on the temple grounds.
Grandma and Grandpa Marley with the boys.

Isn't it wonderful to have little children near to remind you to stop and smell the flowers.
My little pioneer children. I wonder if they would have sang while they walked and walked and walked.....
Kaden taking a little break.

I lived in heaven a long time ago, it is true; Lived there and loved there with people I know. So did you. Then Heav’nly Father presented a beautiful plan, All about earth and eternal salvation for man.
Father said he needed someone who had enough love To give his life so we all could return there above. There was another who sought for the honor divine. Jesus said, “Father, send me, and the glory be thine.”

Jesus was chosen, and as the Messiah he came, Conquering evil and death through his glorious name, Giving us hope of a wonderful life yet to be—Home in that heaven where Father is waiting for me.

Birthday Part 3 Salt Lake Discovery Center

On Saturday we spent the day in Salt Lake City. We didn't tell the boys we were taking them on another trip for their birthday so this was quite a surprise. We had never been to the Discovery Center at the Gateway so weren't sure what to expect. But it was perfect! 11,ooo square feet of play rooms. The boys were in heaven. Of course as soon as Ethan spotted a car he was in it. Silly boy.

Kaden and Jase had fun playing construction site with Grandpa Marley.

You've gotta see the joke here, right?!

They even had a kid sized rock wall.

Jase even gave it a try. Of course when he got to the top he said, "Catch me Mom!" Then he let go. No worries I caught him, and may have given myself a hernia in the process. ;o)

Kaden gave us the latest news report.

Outside there was an old Life Flight helicopter.
Kaden and Jase made excellent pilots.

Grandma, Ethan and I were content to be passengers.

It was so fun for us all to play together. At times I wasn't sure who was enjoying themselves more, the adults or the kids. What a great evening.

Birthday Part 2, Boise

Jason arranged his over night trip to Boise for work this month so it fell close to the boys' birthday. While Jason was in meetings I took the kids swimming, which was a blast. I don't have any pictures though, because I was too scared I would drop my fancy new camera in the pool. But the boys had fun doing belly flops and splashing me as many times as they could after I told them not to. Kids will be kids. When Jason was through with meetings on Wednesday we loaded up the boys and took them to Chucky Cheese. After all it is the place where a kid can be a kid. I'll say this for the experience, you pay for the environment certainly not for the food. Mercy! The things we won't do for our kids.

Thursday when Jason was done with his meetings we took the boys to the Boise Zoo. This never happens to us, but we actually were there on Family Day, so it was half price!

Ok so Jason thought this was hilarious. The dang bird is a Victorian Pigeon. Yeah Yeah the irony of this is not lost on me. Freakin nasty birds.

I'm trying to convince Ethan that he is a big boy (cuz well for a skinny little thing he sure gets heavy!) and that he can walk instead of being carried. He did pretty well, I was impressed.

It was a toasty warm afternoon and the boys enjoyed getting misted down. Truth be told I snuck into the mist a time or two myself. ;o)
I love this shot. Kaden and Jase were almost spellbound watching some monkeys play.

Flash forward 11 years when Jaser has his driver's license. Heaven help us!

Ethan loved all the big cats and called them all Copper, after our dog. What a sweetie.
I think this was about the time we were finishing our tour of the zoo.
Jason had to take a few shots of one of his favorite animals at the zoo, the (for lack of the scientific name) big turtles. Jason cracks me up, his 2 favorite things to see at any zoo are the big turtles and the sloths. Seriously....sloths?! Whatev.

When Jason found these turtle shells he insisted the boys crawl in them for a photo.

With one last picture on a gigantic komodo dragon we were done with the zoo. Don't they all look thrilled? Ok maybe less thrilled and more hot, sweaty, tired and over it. Despite their sad faces here they really enjoyed their birthday trip to Boise.

Party Time

I hate beginning my posts with a disclaimer, but bear with me....It has quite literally been Birthdayapolloosa at our house ALL month! Just when I thought it would be over, something else birthday has come up. But what fun we have been having! I wanted to post everything in a series of posts, because there has just been so much, but that is proving to take a bit of time, so I'm just going to get posted what I've got uploaded so far. So after this post keep watch for many more birthday posts.

Birthdayapolloosa actually started in June. Since Kaden and Jase's birthdays fall over the 4th of July it's hard to get friends together for a party, because everyone is out of town or busy. So I planned ahead this year and actually got both boys together with their friends and did individual parties. I loaded up as many of Kaden's friends as I could fit in the back of the car and we blasted Poison on the stereo on our way to McDonald's for lunch. It was so fun to hear the boys trying to sing along and watch them bob their heads to the beat. I was pumped to share Poison's legacy with a new generation.

After 5 double cheeseburgers, 20 chicken Mcnuggets, a monster pile of fries and probably a gallon of soda the boys were full and we headed down the road to go skating. Wait...these pictures aren't of skating....yeah, because no one told me the stinking skating rink wasn't open during the day! How lame! It's summer, you would think they would be open, but apparently not. So we busted over to the bowling alley instead. The first 4 frames were ridiculous. It was literally like trying to herd cats to get the boys to all bowl. They would take their turn and then something shiny would catch their eye and they were off wandering around the bowling alley. Finally I wrangled them all together and they had a great time bowling.

Gage (who I just adore, because he reminds me of my brother when he was little) was so cute when he bowled. He would move his arms and body the way he wanted the ball to go. I think it worked!

Brenner was pretty interested in watching the scores come up on the screen and kept me informed of who was winning.

Gage's attempts to straighten the ball out finally paid off and he bowled 2 strikes in a row!

I think Isaiah had bowled before, because he completely dominated the game.
Kaden did pretty well too. I think bowling was certainly designed for boys. What's not fun about throwing a heavy ball and trying to destroy the neatly set up pins at the end of the lane?

The final score. Nice work boys!
After bowling I took the boys to a park to run around for a while. I had wanted to get pictures of Kaden opening his presents, but while I was figuring out where to take the boys because the skating rink was closed the boys helped Kaden tear open his gifts. Boys! Kaden's friends were all very generous and it was clear they each know him pretty well, because he got all of his favorite things. What a great day it was.
Jase's party was a bit more low key. Jase only wanted his two "bestest" friends to come. Again I picked the boys up and took them to McDonald's for lunch. Because these boys are 5 they were completely content to eat their Happy Meals, play in Playland for 2 hours and eat ice cream. It was actually a really relaxing afternoon for me. When we left Mickey D's I asked them if they wanted to go with me to wash the car and of course they did. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a car wash so much. They all giggled and laughed the entire time. I'm not sure what was so funny, but something sure tickled them.
We then came back to our house to have some cupcakes and soda and open presents.
Jase had been dying the entire time to open his gifts, but like a mean old mom I made him wait. And he was not disappointed. The boys played with Jase's new present for a while and then we took everyone home. The parties were a great way to kick start the birthday festivities.