Dinosaur park and Hike at Baer Creek

The pictures aren't totally in order, but last week we went to the Eccles dinosaur park in Ogden and the boys thought it was the coolest thing ever. This Saturday Eric had to go to a scout training campout, so since he was gone I took the boys on a hike in the morning. They loved finding acorns, climbing on rocks, playing in the water and acting like dinosaurs. Two successful weekend activities.

Fort

Here are the plans I made up for the fort that I wanted in our yard.

I'd say they are pretty detailed and very precise. NOT. I made them up myself and it is obvious. I just took what I liked from other forts I found online. I didn't take pictures all along the way, but I took a few here and there. The cutest part was how Oliver brought out his tools and helped me all along the way. Our neighbor came over to help a lot too. The only thing we have left to do is paint it.

And here is the finished version. Minus the paint. The boys totally love it.

And Teddy likes his swing lately.

 

Birthday celebrations

For my birthday this year, Eric threw me a little birthday party on Friday night and it was a lot of fun. I made a cake for myself and although it didn't turn out quite like it was in my mind, it still was pretty good. I did a 5 layer cake that was huge and took forever to make. It had alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla with a lemon layer on top. The inside frosting was raspberry buttercream made from fresh raspberries. The outside was a chocolate buttercream frosting. If I could do it again, I'd have done it all with the raspberry frosting. It was too good. And no chocolate cake either. All vanilla. For the outside, I had planned on making a bunch of random chocolate shapes. After doing a few randoms, I decided to make shapes of things I like. Looking at the pictures you'll find that I like my family, traveling, Florida, Utah, and the beach.

Eric got me the only thing that I have wanted for a year. A chest freezer! It is so perfect. And it is new and got delivered right to me! I love it.

The other thing he got me was a visit for the four of us to the trampoline place called Sky. It is right near our house, but I haven't ever been there (but I've always thought it sounded fun). And fun it was! The whole place (which used to be a Petsmart so it is big) is full of trampolines. They have a section for dodgeball, pretending you are on a skateboard and doing a halfpipe, basketball, tricks and flips, and just a really long trampoline section. It was so fun and tiring that the boys both slept in til 8 the next day.

The last part of celebrating was going to go see the play The Little Mermaid at one of the community theaters. My friend Kirsten was playing Ursula and she did a great job. We brought Oliver along too and he loved it, especially Flounder. Saturday we also went to Golden Corral and that was delicious. It was a great birthday weekend.

 

 

Deck #2 and Cranes

Remember this deck? I told you I was working on this one and would give you some after pictures of this one too. I sanded it down a bunch and put on a fresh coat. Looking back, I should have bought the paint that wasn't transparent because not all of the previous paint sanded off. But I still think it looks much better now than it did before. Bright and not peeling. The true test that shows it is better is that they boys like to hang out on it since it is shiny and new.

 

 

 

If you look at the top of the stairs at the pillar/railing on the right, for some reason wasps like to make nests in there. The nests are usually small and not a problem. Well, yesterday Teddy grabbed the pole to start going down the stairs and was swarmed by a bunch of wasps and stung right below his eye. There were around 12 wasps. Then we played outside for a bit and I checked and there were 20. All the other doors were locked so we had to run past. I told Oliver to run past them at the top of the stairs and he did and they still flew over and stung him on his leg through his pants! Poor kids. Eric ran to the store and bought wasp killer and sprayed them late last night. This morning I found over 40 dead wasps and the nest that was inside the pole was bigger than the size of my palm! Glad to have those gone. (the last picture is the day after)

Then there is my other project that I have been working on for a quite a while. My "it's dark outside so I can't work on the deck anymore" project or "I just need to watch some TV while the kids are asleep" project. My thousand cranes project. And no, I don't get a wish for making this. I guess you only get the wish if someone else makes and gives you a thousand cranes. And I don't plan on giving this away any time soon.

Can you see the empty spot where it goes?

 The greatest part was that I finished these cranes and both decks on the same day. It was a very successful day in my opinion. Also, Eric's parents got two alpacas just for fun. They are pretty funny looking and Oliver calls them the long necks. I always think he is referring to The Land Before Time and then I remember. They do have pretty long necks.