School's out! School's out!

Teachers let the monkeys out!

Now what???

Little Sahara

Last week Matt's supervisor at work invited 

him to the sand dunes down by Jericho, Utah.

 Matt has a new dirt bike; so now the guys

always want him to go ride with them.

I was very excited for him

 but also really wanting to go myself.

Not to ride but to go camping 

and get out of town for a few days.

Over dinner I brought it up to Matt

that we should all go, as a family.

He said, YES!!!

I was thrilled and got to work right away

making all the arrangements necessary to go.

I took care of everything so all Matt had to do was

prep his bike for the trip, and drive us down to Jericho.

I was so excited to go that I did not even care

that I knew none of these people we were camping with.

Matt only knew the one guy and met his wife once.

We figured if things were not going well, 

we would just go do our own thing.

So anyway, we left Friday afternoon.

Checked the kids out a bit early from school

and hit the road.

The drive down took just over an hour. 

Freakin rocked!!!!

Utah is so amazing that way.

You can go a short distance in any direction

and be in a totally different environment.

We just drove straight down Redwood  Road

along the backside of Utah lake. 

The drive was fun, quick, and the kids

 didn't even have a chance to get bored.

We checked in at the fee area.

Signed the visitor's log.

And found our campsite.

We were greeted by Ben, his wife Jo, and 2 boys.

 Zane, his wife Jen and their 3 kids.

Tyson, his wife Carrie, and 2 kids.

David, and some other kids that came along.

We had 4 dogs to add to it all.

Ben is the guy Matt knows from work.

It was the nicest, most welcoming bunch.

I knew right away I was going to be fine.

The boys were of and digging in the sand 

before we could put the car in park!

The other couples even commented on

how much our kids liked to just dig in the dirt.

Totally entertaining themselves for hours.

Guess that is what you do when you don't have

cool toys like 4-wheelers or motorcycles??

Every kid there had some sort of vehicle of their own.

Even 3 yr. old Mason had an awesome set of  power wheels.

Crew & Mason chillin' in the pow, pow, power wheels!

The other families also each had their own

camper or trailer, or motor-home.

We just camped in our tent.

I totally loved it though.

Camping is one of my favorite things

we did as a family growing up.

So many fun memories with the tent.

After camp was set up Matt was already taking

the boys on rides with the 4-wheelers.

When the guys would go for rides 

I would hang with the boys. 

This pond was one of our first little hikes.
The boys wanted to stay here and throw rocks all night.

Our first night there was very windy.

We had to keep our sunglasses on just to keep

the sand out of our eyes.

Matt even adjusted all his goggles to fit the boys.

Once it was time to get ready for bed
the boys seemed to perk right up and get super goofy.
Their favorite part was playing with the flash lights.
Shadow puppets, telling scary stories, even dancing.

Everyone slept pretty good; except Matt and I.
It was so windy all during the night.
Felt like someone was outside our tent
 holding onto the poles and shaking it like crazy!

I was feeling so bad for Matt since he never
 even went to bed the day before.

The next morning the wind had died down and
the weather was turning out beautiful!

I played lots of baseball with the boys.

Went through a gallon of bubbles.

Took many walks, even went garbage collecting.

Rides on 4-wheelers and motorcycles.

Lots of playing and digging in the soft sand.

Matt took us over to sand mountain

so me and the boys could see how cool it is, 

play, and watch people ride up the dunes.

 Was trying to take a family pic but Crew
was choosing not to be in it.

 Cody digging a big hole.
OF COURSE!!!

 Ladnen was pretending to be a dead body
we found in the sand.

 Cody with his head buried in the sand.

Matt teasing Landen.

 The boys wanted me to try out the hole in the sand.

 Crew taking his turn.

 Crew wanted us to try and pull him out. lol

 More of those dead bodies we keep finding.

and Cody just can't keep his head up!

And a  crazy thing that happened....

Roxy (a chocolate lab) had half her ear

ripped off by the other dog, Sunny.

It was a crazy bloody mess but we manged

to fix her up good with some paper towels

and electrical tape. :)

Matt went looking for the missing chunk of ear

and found it lying in the dirt. So gross!

 Poor Roxy :(

Matt and I being cheesy.

Our second night here was great.
No wind but did get chilly.

Sunday was our last day at the dunes.
The guys took one last good ride.
I packed up our little camp while they
were gone. Then we headed back home.

I believe we all had an awesome time.
I know for sure I did!

Definitely can't wait to visit here again!!!

In parting, here are some fun shots
we took at an old Sinclair station we
passed on our way home.

Since we moved to Eagle Mountain 

I have wanted to take pictures of the boys

at these huge abandoned cement pipes.

We have lived here 6 years.

Procrastinate much???

So the other day when it was about time for 

Landen's soccer practice I decided I was 

stopping by "the pipes" on our walk over

 to the soccer fields.

The boys have been playing over here a lot

as of lately. They were so excited to show

them to me. They also have a club they

have set up over here.

Cody invited his friend Gabe to come along with us.

Cody finding his true potential.

I had to jump in on the action too!

Landen looks like he is out rock climbing.

But nope, just hangin' at the pipes!

Cody, Gabe, & Landen

Landen rode his bike, hence the helmet & backpack.

Crew was loving this little side adventure. 

Anything with the big boys is so cool!

Somebody That I Used to Know - Walk off the Earth (Gotye - Cover)

Day trippin' in SLC.

January 28th 2012

Coordinated by Grandma Nette.

I absolutely love these day trips my Mom puts together.

She thinks of every last detail, 

all the way down to where we park the car.

We started in the morning by visiting

 a Lego competition thing at U of U.

Since my boys are such Lego fanatics my Mom

thought they would be really interested in checking this

event out and possibly joining this organization for next year.

{This is a very vague description of what this Lego club

or whatever you would call it is about}

Depending on the area you live in,

 they organize the kids into groups of 10 maybe?

These groups meet once a week and create 

a robot using the Lego Technic along with other Legos.

Not sure how long this goes on but in the end

 all the teams meet together for this big competition 

between the teams and robots. 

I was told it is a non-profit organization and

 has huge sponsors like Microsoft.

Here we are checking out one of the displays.
Each team has one.

This room is where the teams have all their stuff.
Cody likes this cutout that someone had made for their team.

Just a cute pic of the boys running in excitement!

This is where the robot challenge takes place.

The winning teams get these cool Lego trophies and medals.

This is a look at the obstacle course the robots have to get through
while doing challenges along the way.

The teams were all different. Some dressed crazy like these guys!

Of course my boys are playing on the stage
 where they are not supposed to be playing.

Cody is super excited about these balloons. 

Team display.

Don't know what happened to Crew
 but  here is our  cute family.

Next up is a quick lunch for all the grouchies.
CREW!!!

It is Landen's actual Birthday day so we
said he could choose where to eat.

Of course he wants nasty McDonald's.
I never, ever, ever,  take my kids there so now
that is where they always seem to want to go.

Instead of McDonald's we hit Wendy's
but don't worry about Landen; we stopped
at McDonald's before going to Wendy's
 and picked him a happy meal. 

And everyone was Happy!!!

Last stop of the day...
Clark Planetarium.

As a kid I always loved going to the planetarium
and as a teenager my friends & I would hit
 the laser shows as much as possible.
The Pink Floyd laser shows were killer!

I was totally excited to take the boys.
We toured the museum part of the planetarium
then watched a movie in the dome theater.

The boys watching the pendulum swing.

Matt teaching the kids about orbit and giving the planetarium
all our loose change.

These balls are so cool!

Cool contraption to keep the kids entertained.

They really did put a man on the moon!

The conditions on Mars are not as bad as they say.

Waiting to go into the theater.

The boys picked out our seats. One row from the back.
Ready for the show to begin!

 The boys loved the movie.  It was about black holes.
Crew was super into it and saying hilarious things, then fell asleep
for last part of the movie.  It had been a long day for the little guy!

And that brings us to the end of our day!
Much fun was had, can't wait for our next day trip!