Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point

Time for another fun, family outing and this time we went to see the dinosaurs! Anne loved it!

There are so many fun things for the kids to discover.

Just so you get an idea just how big this skeleton is...Dan and Anne are standing next to the front right leg in the picture on the right.

T-Rex!

I just love this photo of Anne looking up at her Daddy!

Anne was having fun with this little guy.

We took Anne to the museum in 2008...I can't believe just how much she has grown!

Oh no...shark!

Mammoth

I think this was Anne's favorite part of the day! She loves playing in sand.
Proof that Anne needs a little sister...she just had to have one of us playing with her in the sand.

Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point

Today's family adventure was had at Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country. We had planned on doing more today but Dan needing to see the chiropractor changed those plans. We still had a fun family day however...as you can see!

Anne was a little bit more brave today than she was around the animals at This is the Place. She actually touched the sheep...just really quick and so we never actually got evidence on camera. She was at first calling them all puppies...silly city girl!

This is as close as she would get to this miniature donkey...because I told her that it would bite her if she got too close. I'm glad she listened to me because this guy sure had his eyes on Anne!

They have a building where you can learn about planting a crop and harvesting. I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa Rea wish they could do planting like this!

And the last part of our trip today was none other than riding the horses and once again, not just once but twice! SHE LOVES HORSES...hint, hint Papa Dewey!

This was ride number 2 and this little pony was the smallest of all to choose from...just Anne's size! I actually was close by during this ride but I bet Anne would have been just fine without me walking next to her.

She really enjoys being on a saddle. And I bet this saddle is the same size as mine that I had for my pony growing up.

Another fun day with the family!

FHE: I love to see the temple!

For family home evening (FHE) Monday night, we decided to go to the temple. Anne is always asking to go there...especially since Travis and Laurel got married...so we decided to go! We feel so blessed to have so many temples close by and can do this! Since FHE is traditionally held on Monday nights, and the temple is closed on Mondays, the gates to walk up to the temple itself were closed so we just walked around the outside of it but we still were able to get some great photos. It seemed more fitting to add these photos onto the blog a little larger than I normally do.

Anne saw Laurel do this when we went to Rio Tinto Stadium last week...the walking around the pole in a "Singing in the Rain" type way! And now she feels the need to do it to everything she sees...light poles, trees, mom's legs, etc. Too cute!

Anne posed herself on this one! Such a great photo! And I love that Dan is great with a camera, too!

You just can't go wrong when you take photos of a temple on a beautiful day like Monday was. And the weather was perfect. I'm loving the cool temperatures!

This is the back side of the temple. I just love the blue, blue sky in this photo! So beautiful!

We also sat on the grass and sang a song about temples and talked about how one day Anne can dress up like a princess in a white dress like Aunt Laurel and get married in the temple. She likes talking about princesses! Then we went to Walmart and bought chocolate ice cream to have as our treat at home. Which, we then had to go for another walk to help get Anne ready for bed!

Tracy Aviary

August has been a busy month for us...and it isn't over yet! We decided to use another voucher from Dan's work to go to the Tracy Aviary. Anne really enjoyed seeing all of the birds!

The bird show was pretty fun to watch. This eagle was out while we were waiting for the show to start.

They taught us about how birds hunt for their food and how they fly.

And this poor girl got freaked out when this bird came running at her while she was holding the feed bowl. I was just proud of her for not dropping it and running!

This little guy kept following Anne where ever she walked. It was pretty cute!

This bald eagle was gorgeous! So many neat birds to look at!

We left a little bit later in the day so Anne was a little grumpy since it was during her naptime. However, Daddy was able to get her to laugh still for a few photos!

Anne leaving the wetlands pavilion that is sponsored by Kennecott.

Then it was time to go home. We didn't stay as long this year but we still enjoyed our time there. Then it was off to eat lunch...chicken nuggets for Anne again this year.

The only thing that made us a little sad is that they don't have this wall of birds anymore so we couldn't see how much Anne has grown from the previous year...but you can see how much she has changed! Our little girl is growing up so fast!!!

10 year anniversary

Dan and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary on August 10th. Being 7 months pregnant put a damper on our plans but we still had an enjoyable day. We started the day off by taking Anne to her friends house and then we went to the Salt Lake temple to do proxy sealings. What a blessing to have a reminder of the promises we made to each other 10 years ago. Then it was out to lunch. We were running behind on time so we just went to a Chinese buffet instead of the fancy place I wanted to go...but it was yummy and less expensive so I wasn't upset.

After Anne and I both took nice, long naps (and Dan played some football on the playstation), we decided to go to Kennecott to see the new set up in the visitor center. They have this fun picture of a haul truck that you can stand next to. Wouldn't it be great if it were actual size? Oh well. We spent about an hour there and then back home to make a yummy steak dinner! Anyone who has had Dan's steaks knows it is better than anything you can get at a restaurant! So, perhaps we'll doing something big to "make up" for this year but I thought it was a perfect way to celebrate! Love you Dan!!!

Rio Tinto Family Night

This was our 2nd year to attend the Rio Tinto Family Night for all of the Kennecott Employees! So much fun! What could be better than a night full of lots of food and fun with the family? We also took Laurel and Travis with us since we could have up to 6 of us there.

Anne got this balloon flower before we started in on the food court. However, it didn't last long. She kept dragging it on the ground and eventually it popped!

This was such a yummy cookie...and the size of Anne's head! Travis and Laurel calculated that they ate about $50 worth of food! Not sure how much Dan, Antonia and I ate...but I'm sure it was about the same!

Once we were tired of eating food (all you could eat until 8pm), we went down on the field and Dan played a little kick ball with Anne. She's a good little kicker!

She also danced with the team mascot...she called him the Lion King! Last year she was scared of him so I was happy to see her do so well with him this year! I wish Dan had done a video of this...it was so cute!

Everyone getting set up on the field for the movie.

Surprisingly, Anne did pretty well while the movie was playing. (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs...cuter than I had expected) However, she still would get up, run around, jump all over Laurel and Travis and then run around some more. I'm sure all of the sugar had a little to do with that!

Clothing Exchange!

Mission: Completed! We decided to do another clothing exchange for our ward this year as a Relief Society. It is always fun to do some sort of service. We didn't get as many clothes donated this year like we did last year and because of that, we've decided to just make this an every other year event.

This is the pile of clothes before we laid them all out. It doesn't look like much but when you see it all laid out...

it was quite a bit. I had two young women help me sort out all of the clothing into 6 different categories (and to pull out what needed to go straight to DI) and so it was just a matter of laying out the clothing and shoes on the tables and stage.

We also tied 2 quilts to donate and had fun with that. Brought back memories for me when I was a little girl going with my mom to some sort of Relief Society function and I'd lay under the quilt and watch the needle go up and down and listen to the ladies chat.

THANK YOU so much to everyone that helped - donate, set up, take down and even come get clothes! It was a lot of work but well worth it in the end!

This is the Place Park

Dan's work provides their employees with vouchers to various attractions around the valley. We look forward to them because it means a month focused on doing fun things as a family...FOR FREE! Ha, ha! Our first stop this month was to This is the Place Park with our friends the Allred's. Anne LOVED it! Dan almost did. It was too hot for him (uh-hum...I'm the one carrying around my own personal heater strapped to my belly!) Anyway, so we're planning on visiting again during a cooler month.

Anyway...like I said...Anne loved it. They were able to get right in with the little lambs and goats. She wasn't really into touching them but wanted to be as close as possible.

They have an area with little houses for the kids to play in. They all claimed their own house but then all managed to end up in the cabin in the end.

Anne's favorite part of the day...riding the horse! I wasn't sure how she would do but she was a natural! (As natural as you can be riding a horse like this)

She didn't just go once, but twice! She was devistated when she had to get off so we let her go again. She would yell "Giddy Up, horsey! Yee-haa!" as loud as she could. The second time around, she was the only kid there and the guy was really nice and let her go a little longer than the first time.

They have various buildings you can go in to see how the pioneers lived. Anne loved writing on the little chalkboards in the school house.

She did not, however, like the idea of getting her hair cut by the barber/dentist/doctor!

We rode on the mini train around the pond.

Then Anne panned for "gold" in the river. She then took that to the "bank" to get some candy. After that, we went to the old time store and let Anne buy her own candy and then to lunch...where she also bought her own ice cream and shared with us! Ha, ha! Then we rode the big train to the front of the park and went home to take naps!

It was a really fun family day!