Sunday, June 26, 2011

Legoland!!

* I apologize to those who have already seen these on facebook.  I have friends and family who are on facebook and don't read this, and vice versa.  Then there are my parents who seem to not look at either one...

  The best way to welcome the little ones?  A giant sand sculpture of StarWars!!
      Aleah's favorite part (Dino Dig)
   Musical fountain (you jump on the yellow pads to make the instruments play)

     Lego Boats!!


        Sometimes the lines were long, but these guys held up pretty well
   This picture cracked me up.  Don't worry, she is not falling, she just didn't want to get down. :)

    Lego boat tour of mini land
    Seriously cracks me up.
 When my kids grow up, I want them to know that building amazing things like this out of legos for a living is an option.
              Bionicles!!!  Luckily there was a blue and red Toa ( I don't know their names, but the boys do).


    The Technic was actually a really fun ride that the parents enjoyed too.  After riding this, the boys went crazy and want to ride every roller coaster they see.  We reached a milestone this year though- JoJo was tall enough to ride all of the rides by himself!!
   This ride was fun, not too crazy, but it "tickled their heart" as they discribed it.
   Tuesday night we met up with Paul and Marissa and went out for some delicious Tepanyaki at Fuji's.  The kids were entertained and thought it was the coolest thing every.  Poor Keenan was very concerned about the onion fire volcano.  It was so good to see them and we very much enjoyed their company.  We were able to meet up with them a couple nights later at IKEA, where my children decided to have a melt down, but the meatballs were excellent. :)
   The Lego Starwars exhibit was amazing.  I'm not that into Star Wars, but it made me excited!
            The marching band in the front actuall marched around and played.  I love lego people.



  Evil Thurston
    The force is strong with Joseph...?
   The Sealife Aquarium next door was fun.  Aleah love love loved the fishies.
   We were 'frightened' at the sharks swimming over our heads


   It took way too many shots to get all these guys, they swam too fast!


   Seeing this, I think of Feeding Frenzy on X Box... I need to eat all these little guys to level up...:)
 Look closely toward the bottom right for the sea horse,

   It was a little chilly, but we still made it to the water park.  I hung out with Aleah in the Duplo area for the majority of the time.  Luckily, the water was heated, so it was all good. :)

 I love these little turds of mine.


   At this stage in our families life, we thought that Legoland was awesome!!  And thank you Hilton timeshare people for the $100 gift card so we could buy our little guys cool toys there :)

     This is a pic of JoJo talking to the little kid in line about how cool the ride was
     Dancing again


  In the end, we all wanted this:
But it was so much fun!!!  We stopped in Primm, NV on a whim at the Outlet mall... that was my Legoland :).
 We ended up stopping at IKEA in SLC as well (since SD didn't have the table I needed) and the kids got to play in the playplace there.  (they love IKEA for that reason).  We finally made it home and have been back to real life.  I finally got all caught up on laundry, and this morning when I was looking for a certain pair of shoes, realized that there was a garment bag in Preston's car that he flew home with him on the first weekend.  See, Laundry really IS never ending.....

More...

Aleah celebrating Katelyn's Graduation...
 View of the Oquirrh Mountains on our hike behind Nana's house
    Seriously beautiful!!
          Hiking with Nana
 We stopped Here while in St. George.  It's a must for future paleontologists.  Pretty cool if you ask me.
 These are Dinosaur imprints found on a construction site that were preserved
    We pretty much landed in San Diego, checked into the hotel and headed straight to the beach

  This girl was in heaven!
    I love this so much, and I think this picture has inspired the colors of my bathroom (future project)





  My kids now love the Ocean (they were scared before they went).  There something humbling and beautiful about standing on the shoreline and letting the waves crash around you.  I could stand there all day.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day to This Guy:


We Love him.  He's kind of a celebrity around here....



You do so much for us, and we can't thank you enough for all you do for us, and expressing just how much we love you might be impossible.  We Love you baby! (Daddy) :) 

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Vaca Pt1

The first part of our trip was of course for Les Miserables, but we also stopped by the Clark Planetarium at the Gateway.  The kids had a blast, and we saw the short movie Born to Be Wild.  It was soo adorable and the kids loved it and it was quite heart warming.  I totally recommend seeing it if you can.
    Les Mis did not disappoint and Preston actually really enjoyed it.  It was nice to get out just us and enjoy a good show and a slice of pie.  And yes, it really was a slice of pie- triple berry Alla mode. :)
   The kids had fun in the Mars and Moon section
 I love how it looks like Thurston is floating
 Seriously, look at the pose on this kid.  he's wears those holy jeans like a pro.  I would buy them! :)
 Yes, you still get wedgies on Mars....
   Preston showing the kids the world...
    Seriously think she is the cutest thing ever...
Here's us right before the show.  Awwwe....
      Yes, I was trying to be an idiot, but the kiss was still good. :)

Fun with Oil Pastels

For a very very long time, I have had some oil pastels lying around, and they always seem to accompany any art set I purchase.  So the other day, I pulled them out when I did a Dinosaur VS and fell in love.  I don't know why it took me so long to play with them, they are pretty much crayons for adults.
   So when my sister Julie approached me and asked if I would do some character sketchings for her book, I... (ok, after several failed attempts at other mediums) I decided to try the pastels.  I have to say that I really liked them.  I think Julie does as well (hopefully!)
  The only downside is they cannot be fixed or sealed.  I haven't tried a spray varnish, but I really don't think it would work out too well.
   Here are my 3 top favorites:      If you know Pam Sjostrom, you will appreciate this:

 Danny Devito and Kevin, from the office was this inspiration:
 This one is my favorite.  If you've watched the Cannon Ball Run movies, then you might recognize who his is patterned after.