More fun in St. George

So for the last week I said that we went to all our favorite spots, but we also tried out a couple of new places that we loved. A friend of my mom's told us about a place called jumping jacks that was like the kangaroo zoo up in North Salt Lake. So we decided to give it a try and the kids loved it!


Check out Rylynn's yawn in this picture, this place definitely wore her out!

There were also little rides to go on and Carter was loving these. Whenever Nana would put the money in a ton of kids would jump on out of nowhere to snag a free ride. Gotta love mooching!


Even Nana went on a couple slides with us. We jumped around in this big castle too and unfortunately a little kid was jumping right next to Nana's giant diamond ring and he jumped into it and gashed his head. Seriously that thing is a weapon:) Poor kid.


These places are so fun, and I have to admit that they are quite the workout for me. Hiking up those slides towing two kids sure catches up to me. Now you all know how out of shape I really am!

Another place that we found was a brand new water park in Washington, UT. It was so much fun and it was mostly indoors so we didn't have to worry as much about getting burned up.

They had a huge kiddie pool that had two slides, a giant bucket that filled up with water and poured out on the pool, and all sorts of things to climb on. Carter and Rylynn just love shallow pools because they can run around and feel completely safe while swimming. Rylynn loved just falling back free fall into the water over and over again.

This is where the big bucket dumps on you and where you climb up to get to the slides.

One of the slides. Carter loved going all together. I look a little scary in this picture.

This is where the pool opens up to the outside in a lazy river. The kids loved this too.

Rylynn going down the slide all by herself. She was so brave in the water this summer.

This is the baby area. These are jumpy swings in the water. I think it was a cool idea, but Carter got freezing cold while he was in it so it wasn't his favorite. You would never guess that by his big smile though, he is such a happy kid in the water.

Thanks for all the fun adventures Nana and Papa!! We miss you and love you tons!

Catching up

I never got around to blogging about the end of our summer vacations because we were so busy moving around, so here are some catch up pictures. Before we left Salt Lake, we had a really fun family picnic with Garrett's family. Rylynn and Carter had so much fun catching up with their cousins Brayden and Logan.

Grandpa was really great at keeping Carter out of trouble!

Rylynn just loves her aunt Erika.

Garrett, Auntie, and Matt came up with lots of fun games for the kids including the train and dragging the kids around on the big blanket.

It was hours of entertainment! Then the next day Granny took the kids and me to lunch and toys R us and spoiled them rotten. Here is Rylynn proudly displaying some of her new presents.

I got a few presents of my own at the Mommy Toys R us AKA Maceys! Thanks Granny and Grandpa we had so much fun this summer!

After we left Granny's and Grandpa's we headed back down to St. George for one last visit before flying home. So we had to hit all our fave restaurants one more time, Cafe Rio, In and Out, and the kids favorite Chuckarama! Then we also had to go to all our favorite parks for the last time. This time we got to take Daddy to the fountain park. It was lots of fun until Carter's swimming diaper erupted with diarrhea. Needless to say that ended the fun and we decided to leave.

Carter held his own in the fountain even when the big water was shooting out of the middle, he got so brave by the end of the summer!

Rylynn and Carter walking through the river side of the park. This part is all chlorinated water and goes on forever, it is the coolest place!

Carter loved to lie down like he was taking a bath.

Rylynn marching through like she owns the place. Gotta love the hands on the hips!


Climbing the rock walls

Playing tag

We're home!

Sorry I haven't posted forever, but I have been holed up reading Breaking Dawn for the last few days since we got home. Yes we got home finally! We flew in Friday the 1st of August and as planned, I brought my kids home, put them to bed and then went to the midnight release of Breaking Dawn with some girlfriends! Don't look too closely, because I look really gross, I had been traveling since 9 am and this was at midnight!

Anyway, that night I only stayed up until 4am reading! So needless to say I have been really tired and going crazy unpacking from our three month vacation, but we are really excited to be home. Now we just need to get Daddy to come home! He had to stay and finish working so he will be home on the 16th. We can't wait! I will post all the updates soon. By the way, LOVED Breaking Dawn!!!!

Family Reunion at Zions

Last weekend we went to a family reunion for my mom's side of the family; the Allreds. We had a blast. My mom and Grandma picked out this awesome ranch to stay at called Zion Ponderosa Ranch. We got our own cabin with tons of rooms and we all stayed together. It was so much fun to see my cousins and their kids. Unfortunately Garrett and I and my parents were the only ones who made it from my family, but I guess that's how it goes when gas is $4.35 a gallon!

This is my cousin Jenny with her new baby Kaleb. What a cutie!

The first night we were there we had a family line dance. We had an awesome instructor and danced to a lot of songs. I was very impressed with my family's dancing abilities! I luckily got out of dancing because Rylynn wanted to go over to the petting zoo. Any of you who know me well knows that I am not the greatest dancer! Rylynn loved the petting zoo. They had chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, horses, and rabbits.

After the dancing we had a big bonfire and roasted marshmallows. Somehow in the confusion of unpacking all the food we lost the marshmallows though so it was a little hard at first. Luckily our awesome group leader(the dance instructor) had some and gave them to us to use, then my dad found the big bag after all.

The next day was the family olympics which I was in charge of running! It was a daunting task but someone had to do it:) My mom and I came up with the games and it was a lot of fun! We split up into six teams of four for the competition!

We had a watermelon eating contest.

Three-legged race


Tug of war which was by far the most competive! Can ya tell?

And my favorite, a game my mom and I just made up where you have to bob for an orange in a bucket of water and place the orange on a spoon without using your hands, then run down to the opposite line and back without dropping the orange. The catch is if you drop the orange while running you have to pick it up without using your hands. My cousin Paul is the only one who dropped it and he had a mouth full of dirt to show for it. He is a great sport! We all got soaked on this one and then the next two games involved water balloons so in the end it turned into a huge water fight which was nice since it was so hot!


This is what Carter did the entire olympics, eat leftover watermelon, drop it in the dirt, pick it up and eat it some more. He even talked his cousin into joining him. That kid lives for food!

After the olympics we headed off to the pool to cool down. It was a huge pool with two water slides. The kids had a blast, and it was fun for the parents too!

Cute Kaleb hangin out in the sun.

That night we had a patriotic dinner put on by Grandma Allred in honor of my Grandpa.

After dinner, we sang patriotic songs, watched wedding videos from cousins that got married this summer, watched a memorial movie for my cousin that past away this summer, and watched a movie of an internship my cousin had in St. Lucia. Then we had a tribute to my grandpa where all the aunts shared stories of their father and the cousins shared stories of grandpa.

Grandma shared a few stories of her own and gave us each a booklet of stories and pictures from their life as well as a dvd. It was a very special night.

The whole gang on the last day. We had a blast!

I've lost all faith

Before you panic, I mean in movies! I went to the new Batman movie last night and it was so disappointing. I don't know maybe it is just because I am a mother now and cannot handle anything scary or violent, but seriously it was so depressing. I was all excited because the last movie I saw in the theater was Harry Potter last summer and I got a babysitter and everything. Then I swear the last 35 minutes I was just waiting for it to end since it had about 4 different endings. I was also appalled, sorry if you do this, by the parents who thought it would be a good idea to take their 2 and 4 and 6 year olds to this very dark and very violent PG-13 movie!!! Am I the only one who thinks that is terrible?! Anyway, the bottom line is I have really lost all faith in movies. I rent movies on net flicks because I can pay 5 dollars a month and see the movies that I know I will like. When you go to the theater it is always a gamble and it is way too expensive. I know I sound like an old maid, but I really used to love going to movies!! Anyway that is my rant for the week. By the way, if you didn't catch from the subtle comments, I do not recommend the new Batman! I do have to admit however, that I will be seeing Twilight the day it comes out:)

Happy birthday Papa!

We got to go back to the cabin for one more week and while we were there we celebrated my Dad's birthday! My mom and I planned a big surprise since we knew he would be alone down in St. George on his actual birthday. My brother was in Utah for his wife's family reunion, so we arranged it so they would drop in on Sunday and surprise him and we could all celebrate together. It was a little hard convincing Papa to hang around until they got there because he wanted to leave that day and get back home before Monday. But my mom and I are good at making up excuses, so he stuck around till they arrived and we all had a great time!

My mom made his favorite enchiladas and I made him a german chocolate cake which is also a fave! The kids had so much fun and all day before my brother got there, Rylynn kept asking if she could sing Happy Birthday yet!

The kids had a great time helping Papa blow out his candles too! Rylynn and Carter had a lot of fun with their cousin Thais. They especially love the new swings Nana put in this year for them. After the kids went to sleep we all stayed up way too late talking. My dad usually goes to sleep at 9:30 at the latest, and he lasted till 12:30am! Way to go Dad! Garrett and my dad were going to leave at 5:30 the next morning and Garrett fell asleep around 2am. It was so much fun to hang out together. I just love my family so much! I am so happy that we got to be here to celebrate with my Dad. We love you Papa!

Happy 4th!

We had a great day this fourth of July! First we drove down to Pleasant Grove and saw Garrett's brother's new house. It was great to see them again. Rylynn and Carter had fun seeing their cousins Brayden and Logan again. Then we headed to Seven Peaks water park for hours of sun and fun!

We loved the tube rides, but Rylynn's favorite was the one without the tubes where the water fills up in a giant tank behind you and then it rushes out and pushes you down the slide. She got so excited about it. I took the kids down the cave tunnel ride which is always fun with the smoke and the flashing lights. Daddy and uncle Clayton were brave enough to go down the straight down drop slides, but I was a wimp and watched the kids in the wave pool. I think that was Carter's favorite part. We stayed there until about 5:30, then headed back to Granny and Grandpa's house for a family bbq. It was great and we had a lot of fun. Rylynn and Carter's favorite part of dinner were the popsicles and the giant costco tub of licorice! After dinner aunt Erika bought some sparklers for Rylynn which was the highlight of the bbq! She had so much fun and was so brave with them. Sadly, on her last two (she held one in each hand), she burned her foot pretty badly and the party was over.

It was sad, and it was all my fault because she was barefoot, I know I am really smart. We were all barefoot and I burned my foot too, not as badly, but I don't recommend playing with sparklers barefoot for any of you that were considering it. After the accident Rylynn was burned out, no pun intended, and she and Carter both crashed for the night before the fireworks could start. I was amazed they lasted as long as they did since the water park really wore us all out. After the kids were asleep we sat on the balcony and watched three different fireworks shows. Garrett's dad lives on 12th Ave, so you can see the whole valley from their balcony. It is the best seat in the county! I wish I had more pics, but I couldn't take my camera on the water slides so these will have to do. I am so grateful to live in this country and for those heros who have given their lives to give us that freedom. I always think of my Grandpa on the 4th. He served in three wars and was a decorated hero. He was the most patriotic person I've ever known. I miss him and wish he was around to meet my kids and my husband. I am happy that I know someday he will meet them and I will see him again. Happy 4th everyone!

Fun at Granny and Grandpa's

This summer we have been bouncing back and forth between the cabin, my parent's house in St. George, and Garrett's dad's house in Salt Lake. It has been so much fun to see everyone. The kids love being at Granny and Grandpa's house because that means they get to see Daddy every night! They also love all the animals in the house. They have a cat named Nala, a big dog named Molly, and a giant goldfish. Garrett's sister is visiting too with her big dog named Dakota. So the house is very full! Carter is usually trying to ride on Molly's back like a horse. So I don't know how much Molly actually likes the kids, but they sure love her. Another fun thing at Granny's is the climbing tree. Every day around 5pm, the kids and I go out to the front yard and watch for daddy's car. The kids get so excited when he gets home and he has to hurry and change so they can climb all over him and run around outside. They love it when Daddy climbs the big tree and I hoist them up to sit with him. Rylynn loves swinging from the branches too!

One of their favorite things to do with Grandpa is to eat popcorn at night and watch Grandpa through pieces to the dogs. Carter gets so excited to see the dogs jump up and catch it in their mouths.

We are close to some of my cousins too so we have been able to visit them and hang out with their kids Mason and Max. We went to a place called Kangaroo Zoo with them that the kids loved! It is a huge place with tons of blow up bouncy castles and slides. I didn't get tons of pictures because we were too busy running around and sliding down giant slides. I did get a couple of Carter playing in the kid areas. We all had a blast!

There was a big concession stand at the kangaroo zoo so all the kids were quite hopped up on sugar. Carter a few times ran off for a couple minutes and everytime I would find him eating some kids food. One time, I came around a corner looking for him and I saw a mom handing out skittles to her kids and Carter was right there with all the other kids with his hand out to her waiting for his skittles. It was a little embarrassing and I was worried the other mother's didn't think I ever fed him! So I gave in and bought them some candy. Then they went missing for a minute again and I found them in a little room that they use for birthday parties enjoying their candy. I think they liked the room so much because they had teeny tables and chairs. They were from IKEA and so cute!

It was a great day!