Utah!

We decided to take the trip up in two days and visit some places we don't usually see-like the western part of our state (and there's a reason for that-ugly).  We drove up through Las Vegas and into St George this time, which meant we got to stop and walk across the Hoover Dam!

The St George Temple grounds are lovely-the last time I was here was for Dan and Tricia's wedding.

I still can't believe that this is a city park! Amazing!

The kids had made a list of to-do/visit while we were on our vacation-it of course included a visit to BYU.

After cleaning up the apple, the boys invented apple-golf

Fishing was also on the kids' list of to-do's in Utah.

Temple Square was also on our list.

A visit with Grandpa J, check.

Seeing where Papa was buried, done.

Mentos and Diet Coke, yup.

And let's not forget the penguins-we told them all about this aquarium, and the kids HAD to go.

And finally, after the Funk family reunion, we headed up to This is the Place.

Another Birthday.

This kid, he just keeps getting older! 14 this year, I don't think I can handle many more.

After the requested breakfast (farmer's breakfast), he opened his first gift-Lego Star Wars for the Xbox.

We took advantage of the indoor a/c at Bounce U, and had a great time.

After 2 hours of goofing off, it was time for video games.

He took a break to open another gift-from Nana this time. Yes, Lord of the Rings Monopoly!

Mmm, chocolate cake...

all over the boy's face-a family tradition.

Last gifts: a new camera (and case) along with his seminary scriptures, marking pencils, and a temple recommend holder.

After the girls went to bed we broke out the Monopoly game-lots of fun!

Summer fun

A rare "tolerable" day meant they could pan for gold at the Museum of Natural History before we headed in to check out the dinosaurs.  This was also a MB trip for Aidan, he had to check out the pottery prior to camp for his pottery MB.

More pre-camp homework-Aidan was also working on his Bird watching MB, and had to log so many sightings before camp.  We counted to ones we saw in California at the beach, and then headed to the Riparian Preserve to log some more (and feed the ducks).

The girls got some summer haircuts.

And this was a common sight at Nana's house.

And just in case you were wondering, this is what $30 worth of firecrackers looks like.  Needless to say, we had a very fun 4th of July!

Taking advantage of Zoyo's half-price pajama Wednesday nights. 

And of course, the AZ Science center-one of our favorite summer hang-outs.

And finally, I re-introduced the kids to Sorry over the summer.  It is, of course, way more fun to play with our own tokens-we used lego guys, angry birds, squinkees, you name it, we used it.