Dinosaurs!!

Every few years we try to get to the Dinosaur park in Ogden (it's only 20 minutes away, just out the canyon). The place is HUGE, there is a large indoor museum (lots of fossils, dino bones, and a working paleontology lab), and outside is even better. Not only is there a dino-themed picnic/playground area, but there is also over 70 life sized and scaled dinosaurs. We love walking along the trails through the brush and trees, turning a corner only to find a huge dinosaur. This time, we invited Julie and Justin to come up and see it with us. The kids all had a great time, we all did. We tried to get you all to come and go with us after Tom's wedding, but no one took us up on it. We did get Julie and the kids to come up for a picnic.

3 Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue

Aidan learned "Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue" in music last year, so we had him sing it for us all on the morning of the 4th. Here are some pictures of the kids before, during, and after the parade.

What small town 4th of July would be complete without a BBQ picnic?

4th of July Warm Up

Every year we (by we I mean Eric's cousins, uncle, and brothers-the boys) have a water fight (it's really more like a war) with the parade. In our defense, the firefighters started it years ago, and we don't shoot first, at the horses, into cars, or at children. We had to test out the water guns, to make sure that they were in working order. Here you can see the some of the melee in the backyard.

Book Worm

Aidan is an avid reader, the only encouragment he needs (usually) is a new book. But as summer began, he found too many other things to occupy his time than reading. I let it slide for the first two weeks, and then I issued the summer challange: 100 books. I made the 100 book chart (1 book, 50 pages, or 30 minutes of reading), with small prizes (ie: another new book) at 25, 50, and 75, and a special prize at 100. Without any further encouragement from me, he took off reading. He has read the equivalent of 75 books (Magic Tree House books count for 2, as they take an hour to read) thus far.

Barnes and Noble has teamed up with Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Tree House) to do a summer reading program. For every 8 books you read, they give you a coupon for a free paperback. Aidan is almost done with his 3rd set, and will get his 3rd book next week. It is really easy, and a great way to encourage the kids to read. You can check it out at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summer/reading.asp?&z=y&kids=y&cds2Pid=13869