corny

This year I scored a deal on season passes to Cornbelly's down at Thanksgiving Point. Since it is fall break and all I decided to forego a good day's sleep and take the boys and some of their pals down to spend the day there. I was so very glad I had the boys bring friends because they just ran around doing their own thing and I just hung out with Liam. Liam was a little bummed that he couldn't invite anyone but keeping track of two 5 year olds is too much work.

First we headed over to the jumping pillows.






After that activity, everyone split up and went their own way and I would run into them from time to time. Especially when they needed money.


I think Liam had a great time. There are so many fun activities there for his age. Since he was my only rugrat that I had to worry about I took a ton of pictures of just him. I don't think he minded.



Liam could have been here all day doing this and he would have been happy. He loved pumping that water out of the spout and watching the little rubber ducks that would swim down the tube. I think he did this for about twenty minutes before I finally pulled him away.




We found a huge tractor that I saw as a photo op but HE wanted to play on the darn thing. He kept trying to worm his way through to the front of the line and got so mad at me when I would hold him back. Luckily we were the only ones who wanted to play on it for a while because it was really hard convincing him that his turn was over when someone else came over to sit on it.




Until he saw the fire truck. This was a dream come true for his inquisitive mind. All the buttons and levers and pedals. He played on this for a good 15 minutes. He totally could have played on it longer but I got bored and wanted to do something else.

Here he is asking me what this thing-a-bob does...

...and I can see the little wheels turning inside while he is playing here...

...and here.



After a while the older two boys found me and said that they were done. I talked them into going on the tractor ride with me before we left to go home. They were nice enough to endulge me. Where is Luke you ask? He and his friend were obsessed with "The Beast"--I think they went through this thing like 20 times.

april fools and the aquarium

Our outing today was to our local aquarium. We haven't been for a while and we heard there were a couple new exhibits that we had to see. I don't know if it was because it was spring break, or because of the new exhibits or what but it was the most crowded I have ever seen this place.

I love watching the jellyfish. I seriously think the next time I need to relax or am having a bad day, I just may come and watch these guys do their thing. Liam liked them too.




They have seahorses now which were super cute...




...and a tank with some crazy sealife in it.




Of course one of the main attractions of the day was touching the stingrays. All the boys were able to touch one, the stingrays were being exceptionally friendly. One even came up out of the water and waved at Andrew. He was done for a while after that.

Then we went to see the penguins. No, this was not a typo. They have penguins, indoors. I don't know how they feel about this indoor stint but they were making the most of it. Much more exciting than watching the ones at the zoo. They were swimming and having a grand old time. It was pretty cool to see them up close and personal.





Then off to the South American exhibit. This had poisonous tree frogs of many different varieties, piranha, an anaconda, and some sweet spiders. Then Liam and I went to play in the kiddie place since he was getting a little claustrophobic and the other two went to play again with the stingrays for a while.







And no, I have not disowned Nicholas. He was at his coach's house waiting to go down to a baseball tournament in Mesquite. Don't even get me started.

And, it wouldn't have been an April Fool's day without some cupcakes for dinner and fake Kool-aid (water with food coloring in it). I usually do a pizza for dessert but this year I followed a friend's idea and had kitty litter.

this time, my kids were the animals

On Tuesday, my friend and I took our kids to Kangaroo Zoo in North Salt Lake. It seriously rocks the casbah. It is a ginormous place that is full of bounce houses...the boys jumped and ran and actually wore themselves out.



When I first told Nick about it, he didn't seem too excited. You see, he is getting way to cool for things like this. Don't tell him I told you that he enjoyed himself.
Immensely.






They went nonstop for over an hour. They told me they were tired at about the hour mark and then their second wind kicked in for another go round. My favorite thing is that they were having so much fun together. They walked around in a little clump of cuteness. I wish I would have taken a picture of one particular moment when they were in their little clan and Nick was holding Liam's hand and all of them were talking and laughing. So cute. It will have to be stored away in the sometimes forgetful memory bank of mine.


I must have caught Andrew at a bad time. He looks a little mad. Or like he is going to puke. But he really did have fun.



They also have minature golf there but we will have to go back for that. It looks super cool...it is a dark course with glow in the dark stuff.

Here is the crew (minus one of my friend's boys and my friend's friend's daughter (did you get that?)):
Cute girl, Wyatt, Luke, Nick, Liam, Andrew