The Zoo!

While the boys were at school on Friday Grandma, Papa, and I took Tal and Beck to the zoo. This was Beckett's big birthday outing. I knew he would love seeing all the animals. It was his first time going to the zoo. Talia hadn't been since she was tiny either, so they both were pretty new to it. On our way in we saw an eagle. Then we watched the giraffes, zebras and ostriches for a little while. Beckett was fascinated by the giraffes.

Next we saw the lions. At first they were just napping, but then while we watched one got up and stretched and yawned. It was so cool! Beckett loved it.

We saw monkeys, jaguars, tigers, lots of birds and smaller critters, crocodiles, and more. Beckett was really into it. We took a break and I took the kids on the carousel. They both loved that.

Beckett would have stayed and watched the animals for hours, but Talia was less patient. She wanted to move on pretty quickly. She got whiny in the afternoon when it got hot too. We lasted until lunch time before heading to In N Out for lunch.

We had to be home in time for the big boys to get home from school. Talia and Beckett were pretty exhausted and done for the day, but Grandma and Papa took the boys on a mission to find a white BYU shirt for Davin. They ended up playing at Scheel's for a bit while shopping. It was fun for them to get some time with Grandma and Papa too.

Fall Visit

Fall and football season also mean that we get a visit from Grandma Denny and Papa! They come out pretty much every year to go to a BYU football game. We love getting to see them and play! They stayed for about a week this time. So fun! 

We went on a trip to Barnes and Noble where Grandma treated the kids to some new books. We all had fun browsing the children's section and the boys loved deciding on a book to buy. Talia and Beckett got books that also had play mats and toys. They were perfect. Tal's is Doc McStuffins and Beck's is Thomas.

Thursday after Ian got home from work we went for a walk through the Thanksgiving Point gardens. It was beautiful and we had the place to ourselves. Feeding the hundreds of koi fish was the highlight. After the garden Grandma and Papa treated us to ice cream at JCW's. :)

Outdoorsy?

I would never describe myself as "outdoorsy." That being said I really do like being outside when the weather is nice. And so do my kids! I've mentioned before how much I love our neighborhood, but it really is the greatest. Especially for the kids! I love the late summer weather too. It's like right when I start to panic that it's going to be cold forever I get a few weeks of amazing weather to help me say goodbye to summer. :) 

Talia practicing on the strider bike. Gotta get that girl onto her big girl Minnie bike before she outgrows it!

Random game of pick up softball in the loop behind our house.

Playing in our neighbor's princess tent/tunnels on their front lawn.

We love to do sidewalk chalk!

We went to dinner at Dickie's BBQ when they were doing their $1 pulled pork sandwiches. We saw a few other families from our neighborhood there too. We ended up bringing home a couple friends with us. Weston and Caleb crack me up. They were shaking their hips and jumping all the way to the car.

Sunday Drive

We had our semi-annual LDS Stake Conference in September. We had the whole afternoon to spend together and we decided we needed to get out of the house. It was a perfect day for a drive up in the canyon. Another thing I love about living in Utah are the seasons. Fall is just beautiful with the colors and the perfect weather. We found a little trail to stop and hike around at. It was just right for our wussy hikers. Plus we found several fuzzy caterpillars!

After our little nature walk we kept driving up. We found a pretty lookout point and stopped again before heading back down. The kids were actually a little grumpy about all the driving. They just didn't quite appreciate the beauty of it. The pictures make it look like we were all having fun though. :)

Utah State Fair

This summer the boys participated in a reading incentive program from the Utah State Fair. They read ten books all by themselves, filled out the form and I signed it. Their prize was a free ticket to the Utah State Fair, a free carnival ride, and a free drink. Not a bad prize!

Since ages six and under are free anyway at the fair I figured we had to go and use the boy's prizes! It was a perfect day. I was a little worried about going on a Saturday, but we got there right when it opened and it was pretty empty until we were getting ready to leave. We started out doing our favorite fair activity, the children's farm. We hadn't been to the fair the last couple of years, so this was Talia and Beckett's first time doing the farm. Beckett especially loved it since he's very into animals right now.

Next up was the big yellow slide. We all went on it this year. It was super fun! The kids each got to choose one ride to go on. We wandered around and looked at all the options. Weston wanted to choose a scary one. He ended up going on Storm. It was fast and spun a lot. He loved it and felt pretty cool going on a big ride.

Talia chose the helicopters and Davin chose the frog hopper. Beckett didn't seem too upset about not going on a ride and he was too small for everything except the carousel so we ended up letting Weston do one more ride. Not fair, I know, but oh well. There was this really cool hang glider ride and he tried that.

We wandered through the animal buildings and then stumbled onto a little free section run by the FFA. They had a cool angry birds game with slingshots, angry bird plushes, and those big brick looking blocks. The boys played that over and over while Ian and I walked around with Tal and Beck and saw the baby chicks, cows, and a brand new baby lamb. Beckett just couldn't believe he was seeing all of these animals! He was wide eyed the entire time. Talia also got to make a bracelet out of sheep's wool.

We were all ready for a little break so the boys got their free drinks and dippin' dots. Talia and I got snow cones. I love me a good snow cone!

We walked through a couple more buildings looking for the Lego creations, but didn't really find them. We did see the butter sculpture and a giant metal dragon though! I loved the sand carving theme too. Parents are the best! ;)

We were all getting tired and hungry, so we left in the early afternoon. We stopped at In N Out for lunch on the way home. It tasted so good. Beckett scarfed his entire grilled cheese and loved sitting in a big chair. I love fun outings like this. Such a great day together as a family!