100th post and Thanksgiving Point

Well, first of all, this is my 100th post. I know. It's taken me 2 years to get here. But, take what you can get.

Last night we took advantage of our Thanksgiving Point membership and went to a free night for members at the lights. They had live reindeer to see and pet, and then we went through the lights.

As we were in line waiting to show them our card, Ryan looked out his window and saw this:

He started laughing hysterically. It was the deepest, loudest belly laugh you've ever heard. If he hadn't been buckled in his seat, he would have fallen out. He wouldn't stop laughing. It took us a few minutes to figure out what was so funny. But his laugh was so contagious that we all started laughing hysterically. That was the last thing we would drive under, but with the way it is set up, we could see it throughout the drive. Ryan would get excited about all the other lights and we would ooh and aah, and then we'd turn a corner and see this giant Santa again. And then out came the deep belly laugh again. I think we were all crying by the end. We ended up going through again, because the kids didn't have enough the first time around. It's impossible to describe exactly how Ryan reacted, but I had to write it down so we wouldn't forget the event. It kind-of reminded me of when we went to the circus when Michael was 4 years old and he laughed so hard he fell out of his seat several times and then wet his pants. Ryan has a little more control. As soon as we were out of the lights the second time, Ryan calmed down immediately and said, "Mom, can I take a little nap now?" He completely wore himself out.

Wednesday thoughts

I had a dream last night that people actually read my blog.

Part of the dream was that I actually had something to say.

If only dreams came true.

Birthdays

I titled this 'Birthdays' but it really should be titled 'Rachel shows off a little bit.'

August is a big birthday month for us. We have Ryan on the 10th, Anna on the 14th and Josh on the 17th. First, we celebrated Ryan's birthday.

Isn't he cute in his new clothes? We love our little 4-year-old.

He loves dinosaurs. We all love dinosaurs. We have quite the collection of dinosaurs. And now we have even more.

Now here's where I start showing off. I made this cake. It's my first attempt at sculpting things. I did pretty good, didn't I? It pleased the kids, anyway.
Next we had a combined birthday party for Ryan and Anna. We had a total of 22 kids here. Considering 5 of them were mine, and 9 of them were cousins, each child only invited about 4 kids. That's what happens when you have a big family. Well, it was nice weather, so we played in the water and stayed outside.
I made this cake for the party. It was a lot of fun to make. It was the easiest, too.

Next came Anna's birthday.

I made this cake, too. Isn't it pretty? This was a lot of fun, too. I copied my designs from a blog I found, and tweaked it just a little bit to make it my own. I did that with the dinosaur cake as well.

I made this outfit for Anna's birthday. She loves dresses and skirts, so I made her one. She would wear a skirt every day if she had that many. Isn't she a cute little 6-year-old?

Josh got a great dessert for his birthday, but I was tired of fancy cakes.

Sophie's birthday comes just a couple of weeks after the other 3. She got a teddy bear cake for her 2nd birthday. Cami gave me a teddy bear cake pan for Christmas last year. I have so many cake designs I want to try that I just barely got around to this one. But it was easier than it looks and was a lot of fun.
Sophie spent about an hour on her birthday playing with play dough. She concentrated so hard on it for so long, I just had to take a picture.

I made this outfit for Sophie's birthday, too. She loves it. She likes to twirl and run around in it. It was not fun to make. But it is done and it is cute.

Well, there you have it. I am a show-off who likes to celebrate my kids birthdays. I think I will give up on trying to catch up and just move on from here.

Bad, Bad, Bad

Yes, it's time for an update on my weight-loss challenge. Last week was lots of fun because I got to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. At this time of year, that's really easy to do. The problem was, I forgot to replace some of my other calories with fruits and veggies. So, although I was eating healthy foods, I was also eating a lot of snacks. I stayed on my diet plan most of the days, but just barely. Then there were a couple of days that I really splurged. As a result, I've gained back some of what I'd lost. I'm now down just a pound from where I started. Boo. But, this is a new week, and I'm determined to work hard. We'll see what my body is willing to lose this week. This week I'm supposed to add a new health food to my diet. I'm adding blueberries. I've never really liked blueberries, but I had some fresh ones a couple of weeks ago, and I decided they're not that bad. Hopefully I still feel that way by the end of the week. (By the way, if you think I should be adding something like tofu, you should just google the health benefits of blueberries. They're pretty cool.) Also, this week I'm trying to add a running plan to my exercise routine. Part of my exercise goal is to run a 5K by the end of the 15-week challenge. I've been doing some other things to help me build up my strength before I start running. So, that's this week in a nutshell. Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving Point

Yes. I know there are a lot of pictures. But, I like pictures. And I take all these pictures and nobody ever sees them. So, I'm subjecting you to the modern Family Slide Show. Besides, aren't these pictures fun? We have been having lots of fun at Thanksgiving Point this summer. We used some of our tax refund to buy an annual pass. The gardens are beautiful, the dinosaur museum is fun. We haven't been to the farm since spring, but it was fun, too. During the summer they have a lot of family activities, especially on Monday night. One night, they had lots of water activities, from water fights to giant slip-n-slides.

Then, on another night, they had a Harry Potter night. They started by being sorted into their houses, then we got to make wands. We went to our classes, including Herbology, Divination and Potions. (They had already taken down Defense Against the Dark Arts by the time we got there.)

This was such a fun night for us Harry Potter fans. I would love to copy this idea for a birthday party, but the last birthday kid for the year has a different idea. We'll see if we can't talk him into it.

And of course, we can never get enough of the Dinosaur Museum. We love it there. Next time we go, we have to remember to take a couple of dollars to make our own fossils. We are having so much fun discovering all that Thanksgiving Point has to offer. I'm pretty tempted to buy a pass again next year.

Our Temple Adventures

Last spring when we went to Moab, we also went to Monticello to see the temple. Whenever we go on a vacation, if there is a temple there, we always try to stop. It's always fun. So, when we were in Monticello, I thought to myself "hey, there are 13 temples in Utah now. We should try to see all of them this year." So, that started our adventures. We started at Salt Lake Temple (well, after Monticello).
Then, one evening, we went to the Draper, Jordan River and Oquirrh Mountain Temples.
Then, we took another Saturday to go to the Ogden, Logan and Bountiful Temples.

On the grounds of the Ogden Temple, there is a great little pioneer museum. They had hundreds of pioneer artifacts and things, from dolls to doilies, and tools to toilets (seriously, there was a wheelchair that you could take out the seat and use it for a toilet). There was also a little cabin there that was the home of the first settler in the Utah area.
We saw some magnificent views and beautiful flower gardens.

Then there were these beauties. Five of them. How lucky can we get!

I guess it's fitting that the favorite song to sing during scripture time is 'I Love to See the Temple.' We've still got a few more to go. I'm looking forward to heading down to Manti this week (hopefully). It's a great time of year to take a detour through one of those canyons in that area. We'll hit Provo and Timpanogos, too. The tricky ones will be Vernal and St. George.