7 peaks

We got passes to 7 Peaks this year with the hopes of using it a ton. Then the nausea came and I really didn't feel like leaving the house much, so unfortunately we only made it there twice.

These were the best pictures I got since the kids were both so interested in everything around them. Neither one of them was very sure about the place. For some reason, Mathias would not leave my side which made things really boring for him since I couldn't do much with Azlyn on my hip. Azlyn was also pretty nervous about the whole thing. She would kinda whimper for a while until she was used to just sitting there on my lap in the shallow water. Next time we go we will have to bring Dev so he can go and play with Mathias while Azlyn and I just hang out in the shallow water.

Thanksgiving Point Farm Country

Mathias did well at his 5 yr check up so I told him that I would get him a surprise.  I didn't tell him what we were doing until we were almost there. We went to Thanksgiving Point Farm Country. It was such a nice day and there were supposed to be lots of baby animals so I thought it would be fun.

When you walk inside they have a little store as well as a place that shows you how milk is produced and sold. Then in the back they have baby chicks that you can look at and buy. Azlyn loved them.  She loves animals and I couldn't wait to see how she would react to the rest.

The horses were the first things we saw. Azlyn was fascinated. She kept making the funniest noises. I have to admit the baby horses were super cute.

 Mathias in jail. I told him if he doesn't shape up this is where he is going to end up. ;)

 We stopped and fed the ducks for a while. Azlyn loved this.

The pigs loved Azlyn. They came right up to her. She even touched one's nose. I tried really hard not to be too grossed out by it.

Mathias seriously loves his little sister. He was so excited by her reaction to the animals.

The kids checking out the big horse. I don't have too many pictures of Mathias checking out the animals because he would run from one to the next and back again. Azlyn wanted to stay at each one for a while.

Mathias was a little scared to ride a pony by himself at first but then got over it and couldn't get on one fast enough. He really like it.

Checking out and petting the goats. Again trying not to be too grossed out at them touching them, then I saw Azlyn put her mouth on the fence. I seriously just about lost it. Talk about gross!

 I have a picture of Mathias on this sheep when he was just over 2 years old so of course I had to get a picture of both of them on it even though they have it fenced off this time.

 Mathias loved this little farm play area. You get to learn all about bugs and which ones are good and bad for plants. You also get to learn about planting things and such. It was pretty cool.

We ended the day with a quick horse-drawn carriage ride. I think both of the kiddos had a blast and I think we will for sure have to go back this summer.

sand dunes

Our friends, the Jackmans, invited us to go to the sand dunes with them. They go all the time and we were curious to see what it was all about. Dev has only been once as a boy scout and I have never been. We made the mistake of telling Mathias a couple of days in advance and he was so excited and continuously asked when we were going. We met the Jackmans up there a day after they got there. We ended up having to take two cars up because Dev wanted to take his jeep and there was no way we could all fit in the jeep plus our stuff, not to mention the top is off on the jeep so that would not be that great of a drive with a baby.

The drive down wasn't bad. It was only 1 1/2 hours and Azlyn slept through it all. Mathias was in the jeep with Devin and he actually fell asleep for a bit too, which is crazy to me since there was no top or doors and they were going 80mph down the freeway. The only bummer part was that they charged us for both cars to get into the dunes. We were hoping to leave my car outside the gate. It was $18 per car. Nuts!


We got there Saturday afternoon. After we got there, we went over to Sand Mountain and watched as people raced up the front of the mountain. There were a ton of people watching. Dallas and his buddies were trying to race and see how fast they could go. They even had a radar gun. These guys are crazy. I was pretty impressed. Mathias loved playing in the sand with Cohen and watching all the four wheelers, sand buggies, and dirt bikes. Azlyn did pretty well considering how noisy it was. She would just cuddle into me.

Dallas has a four wheeler, a dirt bike, and a razor. Their little boy Cohen also has his own little dirt bike with training wheels. Dev took Mathias out in the Razor and kept telling him to push the petal all the way to the floor to go faster. He loved it! He doesn't seem to have much fear with things like this. He also rode Cohen's dirt bike. Dallas took Devin for a night ride in a windstorm on the razor and made him motion sick. He also had Devin swearing at him. I couldn't imagine going on a night ride and not being able to see anything. Dallas took me for a ride on the razor the next day. It was a lot of fun at first. We were just jumping on some medium size sand dunes by our camp, but then we went on the back side of the mountain with the huge sand dunes and huge drops. That was pretty fun for a while then I got really nervous. Dallas is seriously insane. The guy has absolutely NO FEAR! We had a blast though and it is definitely an experience that we will not forget. Mathias is constantly asking if we can go back again.

Here are a few pics of our little family. I get REALLY BAD allergies in the more dessert areas. They are really bad in Moab and Lake Powell and apparently at the sand dunes too. You've gotta love my swollen face and eyes! Oh well, I still had a blast!

going on a walk

I decided I would see how Azlyn does sitting up in her stroller for the first time on this walk. We usually lay the stroller flat so she is laying down or we attach her car seat to her stroller and she sits in it. I had to tighten the straps as tight as they would go and even then they were still loose. I think she loved it though. She ended up leaning against the side but I expected that. She loves to be able to look around. However, the down side to doing it today was that we went on our walk in the middle of the day so the sun was in her face the whole time.

Here are the cute kiddos just after our walk. Mathias found an acorn tree and loaded up his pockets full of them, that is what is in the bucket.

It's what fun is!

We went to Lagoon with Scott and Melanie and Family, Kevin and Kelly and family and Grandma Brower. It was two-for-one day if you mentioned ksl. we just couldn't pass that up. I was so excited to take Mathias. He loves going on the rides at the little city festivals so I just knew he would love this. Dev and I haven't been there since around high school. It sure has changed a lot since then!

This was one of the first rides that they went on. Mathias loved that he was able to control it and make it go up and down. He wasn't to excited about getting wet but got over it.

Here he is on the little swing ride with his cousins Holland and Camryn.

Then all of us went on a train ride. Azlyn wasn't very happy during it because she thought that she was starving.

Mathias loved the bumper cars. He rode them a couple of times. The first time around he did a good job bumping into people and the second time around he seemed to try to avoid them.

Riding in a space ship.

Riding the egg drop with his cousin Camryn.

Here are a few random pics of Azlyn and daddy from the day. She did so good considering we were outside in the heat ALL day long. We got there around when it opened and left at about 11 that night when it closed.

Mathias went on the pirate ship with Dev. I thought it might scare him a little but he absolutely loved it.

Here are a few more shots of some of the rides he/we did. When we went on rattle snake rapids he was having a blast till he saw that we were gonna get wet from a waterfall. He really did not want to get wet (we got soaked) but after it happened he thought it was kinda funny.

This fountain was in the middle of the park. He first went in and would just stick his finger in it or cover up the sprayer with his foot. He didn't want to get wet again, especially since he just got dry.

But when he lifted up his foot it sprayed him. After that he loved it and seriously played in there for a good 45 minutes and got drenched. He even sprayed himself in the eyes a couple of times but didn't seem to care and kept going back for more. We had to drag him away from here to go and ride some more rides. We figured he could play in the fountains at the gateway for free and we really wanted to get our money's worth out of the rides.

This is the only ride I rode with him. He always wanted daddy to go with him if his cousins weren't around.

(Don't mind my hair. getting soaked on rattle snake rapids and hairspray just don't mix. It was one crunchy mess)

This is us waiting in line for the carousel. The last ride of the night. Azlyn has been major teething lately. She will get her thumb under my sleeve and then cram them both in her mouth hence all the drool on my sleeve. She does this all the time!

I was so excited that we all got to ride something as a family. However I am not a big fan of heights. Add kids with the heights and I just get super nervous. I couldn't let go of the middle thing and had to make sure someone was right next to Mathias and that he was sitting down the whole time.

This is us on our way out. Super happy and super exhausted.

Mineral Basin

We went jeeping up A.F. canyon with our friends Joe, Jim, Brett, Braden, and Brittany this morning. Things got off to a little rocky start since we were a little late to meet them and then about half way up the canyon Devin noticed that his jeep had no oil pressure. We were kinda on a time line because Braden had to work later on so we went up the canyon a little bit further to Tibblefork Reservoir to air down our tires and such while Jim, Joe, and Brittany ran back down to get some oil for us. When they got back and we put the oil in we were good to go.

Here are just some fun pictures of Mathias on our trip. I love that he got himself dressed and had to wear his jeep shirt to go jeeping. I also love that he brings his little toy jeep along to do some jeeping himself. He is definitely his fathers child. I seriously love it!

Not too far into the trail I noticed a moose off to the side. So we stopped and backed up a bit and watched him and got a few pictures. I have never seen a moose this close up before. He wasn't very big, maybe a teenage moose. It was kinda cool. He walked right in front of our jeep . Sorry about the big spot in the bottom right picture, I took that picture through the windshield.

Here are some pictures of us on the trail. This is the first time we have gone jeeping with the new tires and shocks on. Man it makes a big difference.

Braden had the sami and Brett rode with him. Braden was kinda crazy and would try everything. It was kinda fun to watch.

Jim drove Brittany's dad's jeep and Joe rode with them. It was a stock jeep so they had to take it kinda easy. Devin thought they'd have a hard time getting through the couple rough patches we encountered, but it made it just fine. Turns out Jim is a good driver. Who knew?

Here are a few pictures of the gang.

Braden got stuck on a huge rock. The guys had to help push him off and it looked like he was going to tip over. It was kinda crazy. It was so much fun. I love to go jeeping. It is just fun to get out with our family and friends, escape the city and be surrounded by the beautiful mountains. It is also fun to watch Mathias because he just loves it so much.

our summer days lately

One of the nice things about living with the in-laws is that we actually have a yard and a neighborhood to play in. The other afternoon we got to play out front for a bit. Mathias got pretty creative with his bike and wagon.

We also set up a little pool in the backyard. The cousins came over to play for a bit but didn't bring their swimsuits. Didn't stop them all from having fun in the pool though.

We have been going on walks around the neighborhood as well. Mathias loves to ride his bike around. I love to get out and the walks usually put Azlyn to sleep. However, towards the end of this walk we noticed that Mathias had a flat tire in the front. When we got home we realized that both of his tires were flat. Poor kid rode through a sticker patch. I guess I will know for next time to watch out for those.

swimming

We decided that we should actually use our pool while we have it and went swimming today. We have lived here for over three years and haven't really used our pool all that often ( I am one that does not love to get into a swimsuit...but am trying to get over that since both the kids love it). Azlyn just cuddled up to me in it and almost fell asleep. Mathias loved having Dev there to play around with. They would throw Mathias' sandal down to one end then race to it to see who could get it faster. He also loved it when Dev would throw him in the air.

4th of July

The 4th of July is also Devin's dad's birthday. So we went over to their house for dinner and hung out there for most of the evening with his whole family. Sadly this is the only picture I took while we were there. Azlyn is so lucky to have so many of her cousins around. They just adore her.

Mitchel playing with Azlyn

Our family in our red,white and blue. I even painted Azlyn's toes red to match mine for the holiday. Seriously will Mathias ever get out of the stage were he never wants to take pictures? It is so frustrating to try and get a decent picture of him!

After the Brower's house we all went over to the DeGooyer's house to watch a movie in their backyard. Such a fun idea even though it was a little chilly. Who would have thought it would be that cold in July?! We watched Independence Day. I think Dev and I were the only ones who stayed awake.

LOVE my cute little family!