Children's Museum

Ever since we moved here they have been working on a new children's museum in Saint George. We have been anxiously awaiting the opening!  We went the first week and have been back several times.  The kids love it and the best part is that it is FREE!  Can't beat that!

The first room is a castle room!

 There's also a music room, science room, 

 arts and crafts room,

 farm, kitchen, and mail room.  This is a favorite for sure!

 My cute little chefs!

 My favorite room is the grocery store. It is so fun!  There are shopping lists, fake money and a whole store full of fake food. The kids love this room.

 This is the government/American History room. I've got some future presidents:)

 Here is Beckett's favorite room. He loves flying the airplane and getting decked out in the pilot costume. They also love the mechanic shop.

Beckett was too scared to sing alone in the hollywood room so Carter went up and joined him. They did a rousing rendition of the ABC song!

 Dallas was at home sleeping when I took the older kids the first time but he has come with me several time since. He loves the cow but he always tries to drink the water that squirts out of the utters.  He thinks it's the coolest water fountain ever invented.  I don't let him drink it!

 This is the chicken coop.

 Dallas is very happy being the passenger as his big brother pilots the plane.  Such a 4th child.

 Dallas usually bee lines for the mail truck as soon as we get up to the second floor.  I think we've got a driver on our hands!

A New Year, Another Road Trip

We had a couple days to wash clothes and repack before it was time to get back in the car and drive up North.  Marianne and my Mom had come to Provo to help Abby with her new baby over Christmas so we stopped in on our way up to say hello.  It was such a fun treat to see my Mom and for the kids to get to see their Nana!  We quickly got to see baby Ezra and then we took the kids over to the hotel to swim in the pool.  Then we went to Abby and Matt's ward with my Mom the next morning.  It was so hard to say goodbye to my Mom again but we were excited that she would be back to stay in only 5 months!

Next, we headed up to Drew and Terry's house so the kids could see them and have a small Christmas with them.  They of course got spoiled and had a great time opening even more presents!

We also celebrated Carter's birthday while we were there.  He got this cool Lego set from Granny and Grandpa along with some knight armor and some other fun things.

He chose to have his birthday lunch at the cheesecake factory and got his very own slice of cheesecake for a birthday cake!  This was the first year we had done Carter's main birthday celebration on his half birthday so we were a little worried he would be sad when we didn't get him more presents on his actual birthday but he was fine with it and said he for sure wants to do a half birthday celebration from now on.  I can't believe he is already 7!  He loves legos, math, and playing with his brother Beckett.  He still loves doing flips and is loving gymnastics with his friend Mathison.  He also loves learning Chinese in his dual immersion program.  Carter is excited to get baptized next year and is a great big brother.  We love our darling Cartchy!

On New Years Eve night we had a little game party with our little family and watched the fireworks from Granny and Grandpa's house.  We did our toasts at "midnight" and had lots of sparkly juice to ring in the New Year!

The next day we drove up to Layton to see the Albrechts since we were so close.  We had dinner with them and I made guacamole and Garrett made his pina coladas.  It was a great visit!

We love getting together and reminiscing about the good old Liberty Lake days.  We also got to see their beautiful new house which was fun.

Dallas spilled all over his clothes so he put on these hand me downs that Camden was giving to Beckett.  These shorts fit him perfectly as pants:)  The next day we headed back to Saint George and were very glad to get a little down time before school and work started up again.  It was a very full and very fun Christmas break!

Christmas in AZ

When we arrived in AZ the kids were so excited to see their cousins and aunts and uncles!  Beckett quickly became especially close with Uncle Brandon who he affectionately nicknamed Uncle Bumblebee:)

One of my main goals of visiting AZ was to eat at Portillos as many times as possible!  It was such a joy to introduce my kids to some of my favorite Chicago food.  They were huge fans, of course.

Dani rented Andrea's neighbor's house for us to stay in and it was perfect.  They had a fun backyard and we were right next door to Andrea's house where Brandon and Erica stayed.  Dallas loved exploring the backyard with his cousins.

Grandma provided lots of fun crafts and activities for the kids everyday.  

Dallas was especially loving the trampoline in the backyard.  Ours had been in the storage unit since we moved to UT so he hadn't ever gotten to jump on a big trampoline before.  After we got home, Garrett decided it was time to set ours up because the kids love it so much.

One of the fun craft activities was to make a gingerbread village.  Dallas was asleep during the creation but he certainly enjoyed eating the houses when he woke up!

They also had a pool in the backyard but it was way too cold, in my opinion, to swim. The kids all kept daring each other to jump in the pool so Carter took the challenge and dove off the diving board.  He got out almost immediately after:)

We did a big Christmas Eve dinner and then the cousins all acted out the Nativity together.  The next morning the kids woke up to their Santa presents.  Notice the stupid clear cereal containers in place of stockings.  I was so bugged that I had forgotten to pack stockings!

Luckily the kids didn't seem to mind since the buckets were full of goodies and fun things.

We did our annual clues that led the kids to their big Santa present and Beckett got to go first.

He was thrilled with his Jake and the Neverland Pirate Lego set!!

Dallas got lots of fun toys from Grandma and he was loving all the Christmas excitement.

Carter got a Lego Ninjago set he had been wanting for months.

Rylynn got an art supply kit that had oil pastels and oil and acrylic paints.  She has been wanting "real art supplies" all year so she was thrilled!

She got some canvases to paint on and she can't wait for Nana to come home from her mission so she can give her painting lessons.

Grandma and Erika also bought all the kids board games.  Rylynn got Yahtzee and we played it over and over during Christmas break. Carter got Sorry and that became a quick favorite too.

It didn't take long for the boys to have their Lego creations built!

We have never had a family picture taken with Garrett's family so we were determined to make it happen over Christmas!  Uncle B bought all the boys Seahawk jerseys so we decided to all match them.  Beckett was being super grumpy about taking the picture for some reason but at least we got a picture to document all these Halls.

On the drive home, we had to make one more stop at Portillos!

We drove home the Flagstaff way rather than the Vegas way so we got to stop and see these cool cave houses on the drive.  We also saw this beautiful sunset!  

Garrett did this drive between Seattle and Arizona several times throughout his childhood and he has a picture of him at Carter's age on this exact rock so we had to take a grown up version with the boys.  Carter and Beckett thought it was so cool that their Daddy had taken a picture on the exact same rock twenty years before:)