Discovery Park

It is odd to be at the end of January and NOT have ANY snow on the ground. We figured we should take advantage of it and decided to take the kids to a park in Pleasant Grove they had never been to before - Discovery Park. Dustin had passed by this park recently and has been dying to take the kids here...because the park is one big FORT. Yes, Fort. This huge wooden structure with lots of different things for kids to 'discover' (hence the name Discovery Park). We were the only ones there.....a huge fort all to ourselves!

Jen used this as an opportunity to play around with her camera...here are some shots of the kids having some fun!

Yup - we will be going back! Maybe sooner rather than later if the snow continues to stay in hiding.

Kangaroo Zoo

In an attempt to let the kids burn off some energy today - we took them to a place nearby called Kangaroo Zoo. It has been about two years since our last visit here. We were impressed that Logan could keep up with what ever Zach wanted to do. They have a special area for kids 2 and under....here was no way Logan would have been entertained in that....he wanted to climb the big ones!

Zach also had a blast. He was running around so much his head turned into one big sweat pit!



We hung around for as long as possible...but once Logan started going around pushing down the smaller kids and was successful in finding and dumping a bucket of water on himself....it was time to leave.

Zach's 4th Birthday Party - kid style

We hosted our first official 'kid style' birthday party! Jen put some good thought into a theme for the party and finally decided on 'monsters'....not scary monsters....just monsters. The theme colors were blue and green (Zach's favorites). He held it during lunch and provided pizza and some snacks for everyone to share. We even invited the parents to stay and attend the party - and they all did! It was a good opportunity for us to meet some of the kids and parents at our children's daycare.....


We made monster masks for all the kids and they had fun running around in them for about 5 minutes....here are Sophia, Lily and Zane...

We played pin the monster face pieces on Zach....it is pretty much just like it sounds. Each kid picked a monster face piece out and each took turns pinning the pieces on a picture of Zach (they were blindfolded of course). I think Logan enjoyed it the most out of everybody...I think he took three turns!

We also had a monster pinata. No party is complete without a pinata! The kids each took a few turns trying to beat up the monster to have it break open to get the goodies from inside....here is Allen and Sophia.

Finally we let some of the dad's take a turn. After the second dad (Floyd) the monster busted open - the kids were excited and the parents were just laughing.

Next it was time for presents. I was quite impressed that Zach was fine having all his friends around him looking at his gifts and helping him open them when necessary - there was no fighting....not what we normally see when Logan tries to help Zach open his gifts!

At this point the kids were itching to dig into those green monster cupcakes. We sang happy birthday and watched all the kids lick off all the frosting...

The it was play time with everything in our house until people wanted to leave. We were getting a kick out of our neighbor, Sydney and her cooking skills...

Logan on the other hand was trying to open all of the boxes his gifts came in.....

Logan also enjoyed being a monster for the rest of the day :)

We had a blast throwing this party for Zach and having all nine kids just run around and have fun today!

Zach turns 4 years old!

Today Zach turned 4 years old! He had quite the eventful day. When Jen woke him up this morning he was SO EXCITED it was FINALLY his birthday. He kept running around the house doing his "birthday dance" (this basically looked like a kid skipping while singing a song).

Zach decided he wanted to spend the day with his friends at preschool and daycare. He was excited to bring cupcakes to share with his friends. Jen had taken Zach to Sam's club over the weekend and he picked out Spiderman and Mator/McQueen cupcakes to take (daycare/preschool rules are all food brought has to be store bought). When we picked Zach up from preschool he was wearing a crown. His teacher Mrs. Madsen had given him a birthday crown to wear for class and Zach ended up wearing it for the rest of the day!

When we picked the kids up from daycare tonight all the workers at the center said the kids had a BLAST eating the cupcakes. They had cupcake frosting EVERYWHERE on their faces. Sure enough Zach's face was a bit blue :) We asked where Zach wanted to go for dinner - he wanted Chick-a-fila. Zach and Logan had fun eating nuggets and playing on the play scape.

Now it was time to head home for presents and cupcakes (yes - Zach worked it so he got THREE cupcakes today!).

I have never seen my kids tear through wrapping paper so FAST! Zach and his helper Logan were able to clear through everything...

Overall a quite successful day. Zach has a birthday party with his friends this upcoming Saturday - so we wanted to make sure we didn't go overboard today :)

Zach is our little character. He is so full of personality it is such a joy to spend time with him. Zach is also pretty easy going. Right now he is going through is "TV" phase - so if Mom and Dad need a break, we know what to do to keep him entertained :) Zach also likes to be out and about. Every weekend he is always asking where we are going to go and what we are going to do....he gets that from his dad.

Zach and Daddy

We are loving the lack of snow so far this winter. Zach decided that this afternoon was the perfect opportunity to spend time with his daddy. It was daddy and Zach time in the garage with the green dump truck.

Daddy spent some time teaching Zach how to drive backwards in the green dump truck.

I think these boys will continue to have their 'guy time' in the garage!

Living Planet Aquarium

Today we hit up the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. Every time we visit this place they seem to have expanded even further. This time they were getting ready to open a otter exhibit the next week. The otters are going to be housed right behind this frog our boys like to ride on.

Zach kissing some fish!

The stingray exhibit is always a hit....Zach loves to pet them, Logan is still a bit afraid of them. No matter how hard we try to get Logan to pet the stingray he always resists....

We love the sharks too....

We love to spend the bulk of our time watching the penguins at the aquarium. Logan and Zach have grown so much lately they are as big as some penguins!

Here is Jen having fun with her new DSLR camera!