Summer Activities

We've done a lot of fun things already this summer.

We have a little garden in a barrel that Tyler likes to help me with. He helped me plant the tomatoes and herbs and he likes to help me water it. Sometimes, he waters it by himself when I don't know he's doing it, so we hope our plants survive all the drowning they are being subjected to!


The Zoo!!

We renewed our annual pass to the zoo, so you can count on us going there a lot again this year. The boys definitely love it and they are ready to go whenever I drop the "Z" word!

We took a yummy lunch with us on this trip, and boy, does Brayden LOVE watermelon! He definitely gets that trait from me!

We rode the Conservation Carousel and Tyler picked out the peacock for us all to ride on. This was Brayden's first ride on the carousel.

Brayden made friends with a nice goat in the African Kraal. He really like to feel the fur and was mostly very gentle.

Tyler made friends with a bird named Vanessa in the Lorikeet Adventure. She only has one foot and often gets looked over by other visitors, but Tyler really latched on to her and asks to go visit her again.

We sure love the zoo and look forward to lots of fun days there all year. We get one free person in with us every time we go, so if you want to go, just let me know!

The Museum

Kevin (Brian's brother) and family have an annual pass to the Museum of Nature and Science. They let us use their free passes and we met them there one afternoon.

Next to the life-size paintings of dinosaurs, these kids look pretty small! I'm glad those dinosaurs aren't really around, otherwise, there are 6 tasty snacks right there!!

Brian found this mammoth puppet to entertain Brayden and he latched on to it all afternoon! He loved it! He thought it was hilarious when Brian made him talk. I wonder where we can find a mammoth puppet to buy....?

Tyler dug up fossils in the Discovery zone. Maybe we have a little paleontologist on our hands?


We've had lots of fun adventures already this summer (don't forget to check the 2 other blog post I made this morning!) and we have a lot more yet to come!

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day Weekend with Brian's family doing many fun activities!! Join me for a picture journey through our adventures!

We were meeting the family at the Sand Dunes to go camping. The boys were very helpful to Brian in getting us ready to go.

We had so much fun camping! We were able to drive straight there (no overturned butane tankers this year). We ate good food, had campfires and we didn't have any coyotes or cactus spikes of doom. It was definitely an improvement on last year.

I think Tyler likes camping, especially when it's with his cousins.

We spent the day at the Sand Dunes. It was a beautiful day to be out. The kids had a blast and only got a little cold.

Brayden loved the feel of the wet sand. He apparently like the taste, too because he ate at least a few fistfuls of sand!

Our campground had a hot springs pool so we all had fun playing in the warm water for the evening. This was a more natural area of the pool with a waterfall coming down behind us.

Tyler really like the little slide that came down from the top of the hill where the main pool is. He, Katie and Josh kept sliding down over and over and over again. It was a difficult task to get them to leave! We camped one last night before driving back to the Springs.

After the Sand Dunes, we all hosed off at Brian's Mom's house before our next activity for the weekend. You don't think Tyler and Josh have fun together, do you?


We all drove up to the Flying W Ranch, which is a chuck wagon dinner show with a little town to explore. Here's a look at all our fun!
Tyler is good at looking like he's in trouble, don't you think?

So what if it's true? Cooking is better than ironing!

We all piled on the little train, which the kids just loved! It went around the little track twice, starting and ending in this little mining tunnel, but also going outside around the beautiful trees and red rocks.

All the Spotts grandsons. Good looking bunch, don't cha think?

This was a steep climb up to the top of the mountain when you're wearing a skirt and pulling the toddler up with you!

The view of the Springs was beautiful! (Aren't my boys handsome?)

All the kids were ready to eat after the hike up the mountain. The food was excellent and the show was very enjoyable. We had such a great time!

The next day we went to lunch at Fargo's Pizza, a restaurant with great pizza and old west decor.

After lunch, we spent a couple hours at the park before driving home. We had such a great time and Tyler hasn't stopped talking about it since.

Stephenie Meyer

Melissa and I were fortunate enough to attend Stephenie Meyer's signing of The Host, her new book. She's the author of the incredible delicious Twilight series.
This is us at the signing. We were waiting for the Q&A to start and we decided we needed to document that we were there!

This is the woman herself! It was cool to hear her talk about her work and her family. She has such a creative mind.

We had ticket #732 and #733 out of about 800 tickets. So we had to wait a. long. time. It was a fun evening just to spend together. It was kind of relaxing, actually. I had no kids with me and it was just me and my sister (and 800 other people.). The employees had written sticky notes for everyone's book with the correct spelling of names so that Steph knew what to write. She saw mine and asked me if I was Steph (yes) and "who's Brian?" "My husband." "He reads with you?" she asked. "Yep! He's a fan of yours, but he stayed home with the kids so I could come." "Awwww, what a sweet husband!" I think he's awfully sweet myself. So after 3 hours of waiting, Brian and I are now the proud owners of a signed copy of The Host (which is an excellent book, btw. I highly recommend it!).