Strawberry Days '09

I love living in this cute town. Strawberry Days is a big part of that. All last week there were fun festivities and most of them are within walking distance of my house. Tuesday night we went to the concert in the park where there was great music and decadant (and free) strawberries and creaMmmmm. We went with some friends so the kids went up front and danced to their little hearts content. So cute! Sorry, I forgot the camera for that part.
Wednesday was the children's parade which was great despite the sprinkles. We also got a couple of tickets to the carnival for that evening.

Fifty cent night at the carnival is very crowded, but I'm too cheap to go any other night. The girls of course loved the rides and yes, more strawberries and cream!!


Friday we went to Huck Finn Day at the park with the Arnold's. Lydia loves the princess' face painting (the PG royalty do that), Ali likes the bouncy slide, and my favorite is that they actually create a pond and fill it with fish for this event.


Saturday was the parade. Sure, it was cloudy and rained a little, that didn't stop us from enjoying the shower of candy that came with it too. Again, we met up with the Arnold's. Lydia and Jake were good at getting out there and making a lot of noise, so they came home with a lot of stuff like popcycles, sodas, candy, frisbees, and even a t-shirt. Bryant slept through the whole thing, even with all the sirens and marchinig bands. I love this newborn-sleep-through-anything stage.

We had a great week! I love Strawberry Days! It is the perfect summer week.

Birds...peck peck peck peck

To give mom some needed rest, I took our girls up to Salt Lake to visit the Tracy Aviary for the first time. I highly recommend going there (especially if you have the entertainment coupon book). We got in for $5, and paid an extra $6 for a great interactive display called the amazon adventure.

Every hour, the aviary does a feeding demonstration where you enter a cage of beautiful birds. The host gives you some chopped apples on popsicle sticks. You hold them out and pretend to be a tree. The birds come flying down and land on your arms to snack on your apples.

Ali went crazy. She thought it was the best thing in the world. Even Lydia calmed down and laughed at how the birds tickled her arms. Needless to say, I became the "best daddy ever". Getting chased by the frisky peacock was kinda fun too.

A Week with Grandma!

My fabulous mother came to Utah from Washington for a week to help out with the new baby. Of course the girls were thrilled to have grandma around for a week. She got up with the girls (and let me sleep in to 10:00), fixed all meals, got kids dressed, bathed Bryant, cleaned my house, read stories, and entertained the girls. I pretty much only had to feed the baby. On top of all of that she took the girls somewhere everyday to keep them entertained. They had loads of fun this week. Tuesday we all went and watched the new Pixar movie "Up". It was a great movie, fun for the kids while still enjoyable for the adults. I recommend it. Bryant slept through the whole thing, but he does sleep all day (not all night though). I realized that I'm not ready for outings, so on Wed. mom took the girls to the pool without me. Now, the pool is pretty much Lydia's favorite place in the world. For nine months out of the year, Lydia asks when is summer so she can go to the pool. She trotted off happily with Grandma, Ali, and her best friend Ellie. Thurs. was a little rainy, so they went to IKEA, Lydia's second favorite place. Ali is still too short to go into the play place (even though she has been potty trained for over a year), but she is a good sport about it and still likes to play in the children's section of the store. Friday our whole family went to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. Tim held Bryant and got a lot of attention with such a new baby in his arms. Tim doesn't like attention...ok, he does. The girls favorite parts were the princess room (the bridal room), the chandeliers, and the player piano at the reception at the end of the tour. We all had a wonderful week. Thank you so much mom for all you did for us. It is a shame we don't appreciate our moms as much as we should until we become moms ourselves and realize what they sacrifice for us and that they know more than we think they do as teenagers. I love you mom!! The girls even had to sleep in "grandma's room" one more night because they missed her. Luckily, we will see her again in a few weeks as we go to a family reunion.