Four Days of FUN

Hey there bloggy blog.  It was a fantastic four day weekend!

Friday, Libby called my mom on the phone and asked if she could sleep over.  Of course, my mom is such a good sport she said, "You bet!"  Gage, Lib, and Natty packed their own gear.  Gage had enough outfits stuffed into his backpack to last a whole week.  It was really cute.  Cord and I drove the kids out to drop them off and got to eat my parent's yummy left overs from their dinner at the Chinese Restaurant.  Bonus!  The three kids played games with Grandma and watched a movie.  They were in sleepover heaven.  Cord and I got ice cream and a movie and snuggled in the basement as we watched a show--uninterrupted!  Sweet.

Saturday, we quickly cleaned the whole house.  It went fast because the kiddies weren't here to mess it up in our wake.  Then, we met my folks and the children at the bike/walking trail in Riverdale.  The kids and Cord rode their bikes on the path along the river and I pushed Ollie in the stroller with my parents and the dogs.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  The river was sparkling with sections of ice covering it's banks.  It felt good to get out and exercise!  Afterward, we ate some lunch and ran a few errands.  Cord and Gage needed haircuts, so we stopped at the barber shop for a quick trim.  Cute little Gage kept falling asleep in the chair.  It was so funny.  His eyes would glaze over and his eyelids got heavy, then his head would droop down.  The barber had to basically hold Gage's head up and cut at the same time.  He was a sleepy, sleepy boy.

We got home in enough time for Cord and I to get ready for our date.  That's right!  A real date.  Cord gave me tickets to a show at the Desert Star Theater for Christmas and we got to use them Saturday Night.  Lorna and Brent came to our house to watch the children.  They brought gifts!  The kids each got a new puzzle and a spin top.  They worked on their puzzles and then Grandpa taught them how to spin their new tops.  Ollie even got a ball that he chased around the house.  It was such a treat to have such fun babysitters!  Libby asked a million times if Granny B and Grandpa were here yet.  She could hardly wait!  According to her it took "a million hours" for them to arrive.

Cord and I had a great time at our show.  It was a melodrama full of Boo's and Cheer's and silly jokes.  We got to laugh out loud and chuckle at the crazy plot.  We ate dinner at the theater and I even ordered an ice cream cone for dessert.  :)  We really had a lovely time!

After Church on Sunday we had an Eight is Great meeting for Libby.  She is going to be baptized this year.  What the?!  How did that happen?  It was so cute to sit by sweet Libby as she learned about the in's and out's of a baptism day.  She was acting like such a big girl.  We spent the rest of the evening relaxing.  I read my book for awhile.  It was so nice.  The kids were totally and completely exhausted from their back-to-back nights with grandparents, so we had a serious melt down before bed.  At one point in time all four kids were crying.  It was crazy.  I wanted to hide under the covers.  Instead, we gave them all a snack and sent them to bed!  They woke up much better the next morning.  Good thing.

Monday was like a "marathon of fun day!"  We started it off with breakfast at Chick-fil-a.  We met Dax, Monica, and Kayla there.  We ate yummy food and planned out our day.  We drove up to Midway to visit the Ice Castles.  We thought it opened at 12:00.  We were wrong.  It was actually 2:00.  So...we headed over to the Midway Cheese Factory to kill some time.  It was pretty lame, but we did get to sample a bit of cheese and make a lot of cut the cheese jokes and such.  :)

 

 

After the factory, we picked out a treat at the grocery store and walked around the main street for a few minutes.  We headed back to the Ice Castles and got VIP treatment with first access to the place.  There was a crazy long line, so we were totally excited about getting in first.  We had several minutes with the castles practically to ourselves.  The kids ran around and explored the icy caverns and snowy narrows.  I was impressed with the beauty of frozen water.  It is so simple, yet so magical!  Nat, Kayla and Gage ran off and got lost.  Grrrrrr.  It took awhile to locate them.  When Cord found Gage he was crying.  Gage keeps telling me, "Mom, I was at the Ice Castle ALONE."  Poor boy.  Nat and Kayla ditched him.  Natty and Kayla were located at the entrance booth.  The little turkeys.  At least all was well in the end.

 

After our explorations in the ice, we went to the Homestead and checked out the big crater.  I think we are going to have to go back and swim there.  I might have to leave the kids behind for that trip though.  The depth of the crater is like 60 feet.  It makes me nervous to think of the kids swimming there.  

We ate lunch/dinner across the street at the Zermott Hotel.  It is basically a little Switzerland.  The food was delicious.  The hotel is so beautiful.  The lobby had a great big fireplace and lots of comfortable sofas and chairs to lounge in.  We spent a bit of time there after dinner getting warm and relaxing. 


Then--YES THERE IS MORE-- we headed over to the Heber Valley Railroad to ride the Heber Creeper train.  The kids were excited to get on a real train.  It was dark outside, so it was hard to see the scenery.  Cord did open the window and let the kids stick their heads out.  They liked to feel the cold wind on their faces.  The stars were bright and big and beautiful.  We ate popcorn and drank hot chocolate.  The railroad hosts were all very nice.  There was a cute old man conductor that talked to everyone and some peppy high school girls that played games with the kids and danced with them.  We did the YMCA.  It was awesome.  ;)

After our ride, we were all exhausted!  We kept joking that maybe we should squeeze in a few rounds of bowling before we head home.  He, he, he...

~It really was a nice day and a great way to end our fun weekend~