More July Fun

At the end of July we went to the MK Nature center one day and then the Zoo the next day.  Here are some pictures from those outings.

The Zoo

MK Nature Center

In the building at the MK Nature Center, there is

Zora's Birthday

Zora turned 1 years old on Wednesday, July 23.  We celebrated on Saturday evening by having a few friends over for dinner and cake & ice cream.  I was so excited to finally be able to do a girly party and make a fun birthday shirt with matching tutu.

The Cake...Chocolate cake with Strawberry icing.

I love our sweet girl.  She brings such a great, fun spirit into our home!

Family Vacation - Caliente Nevada and then home

On Friday, we headed over to Caliente, Nevada (my hometown) to stay with my parents for a few days before heading back to Boise. 

On Friday evening, we went to Kershaw Ryan State Park (about 3 miles from my parents house.  Andrew and the kids had fun swimming in their wading pond.  We hiked, visited and had a BBQ dinner.

My Mom and Zora

On Saturday we went to Cathedral George (about 20 miles from my parents house) and hiked down from Miller Point then we had fun exploring the caves and all the fun things to climb on.  It has been a really long time since we have done that. 

Hiking down from Miller Point.

My boys and one of my cousins kids that was in town as well.

My Dad with the boys.

Andrew climbing up a rope.

On Monday we drove back home to reality.  We had such a great vacation seeing all my family and different things.  My kids still talk about it and ask to go back to see certain things again.  Thank you to all of my family that let us stay with you! 

Family Vacation - Cedar City, Utah

After the museum at Thanksgiving Point, we headed down to Cedar City Utah to stay with my sister Marie and her family.  Their one boy was actually at Scout Camp and her two older girls left on Wednesday to go to girls camp, but we had fun with them and their two youngest girls (who are Keagan's age).

During the summer Cedar City has their Shakespear festival.  On most nights they have a free green show which is fun to go to.

We had fun climbing trees, swimming, playing at the playground and the kids enjoyed sleeping in their camp trailer each night.

On Thursday we decided to drive down to St. George and see the Temple.  After walking the grounds and and going into the visitor center it was time for a snack and water break.

After that we went to a very fun Children's museum.  They had all kids of theme rooms.  Here are a few of them:
The Auto repair spot.

 The farming room

Firefighter

At a fairytale room with a castle.

Family Vacation - Salt Lake City area

Andrew and I decided to turn the family reunion into a family vacation. After the reunion, we stayed in Salt Lake with my brother and his family for a couple more days.  The the night we first arrived in salt Lake (the day before the family reunion started) my brother Alma and his wife had a Smores bar.  It was so delicious.

 My boys and their cousin Oliver eating rock candy that Oliver and his family had made a week earlier.

On Monday, we took the kids cousin Bella with us on a train ride (the Traxx) to the Gateway Children's Museum.  My boys were so very excited to be riding on a train.

Here is one part of the children's museum.
Keagan

Deker

Bauer

That night, we went out to Gardner Village to walk around and feed the ducks. 

On Tuesday we went down to the Museum of Natural History (aka Dinasour museum).  That really isn't my thing, but all the boys loved it. 

Family Vacation in July - Family Reunion

We went on a nice long family vacation this summer.  I am going to divide it up into 4 posts. 

The first part of our vacation started with a family reunion with my side of the family in Salt Lake City.  All of my brothers and sisters and their families came which made for quite a crowd.  My parents rented 3 houses right next door to each other so that there would be plenty of room for everyone. 

We had so much fun visiting temple square, playing kickball, swimming, getting family pictures taken, having a talent show, talking and playing.  Here are just a couple of pictures to give you the highlights.

 Here are my kids with SOME of their cousins.  There are at least 10 missing.

Andrew and my brother-in-law Joe did a belly flop contest about 8 years ago.  Now when we are all swimming, it becomes something that they do again.

4th of July

The actual 4th of July was very low-key for us.  Andrew was not home home at all the day (he left the night before and got home on the 5th of July).  Normally I would have taken the kids to the parade, but with Zora having her surgery the day before, I wasn't sure how she would be feeling and knowing that she would at least need to have her regular naps, I decided it was best if we didn't go anywhere. 

To make the day fun for the boys, I bought a blow-up pool, set it up with a Slip N Slide and other water toys.  They played outside from mid-morning until I made them come in around 4:00.  I think that means that it was a success and that they had a great time.

The next day (the 5th of July) is when we did stuff to celebrate.  Andrew got home mid-morning.  For lunch we had these fun noodles.

Then that night we set off our own fireworks.  Our next door neighbors joined with us after a little bit and we had a really fun evening.

Zora's Surgery

Zora had been having problems with ear infections ever since her 6 month checkup.  The first two times we found out she had an ear infection was because I was taking her in for other things.  The first time was her 6 month well child check and the doctor noticed it.  The next time was the beginning of April when I took her in for pink eye and she had an ear infection again.  Then about the end of April Zora refused to nurse.  I took her in just to check and sure enough she had another ear infection.  Then in June she started to seem really off again so I took her in because of all her other infections and sure enough she had another double ear infection.  At that point we decided to get tubes in her ears.  We got into the Pediatric ENT doctor quickly and on July 3, she had surgery to put tubes in her ears and take out her adenoides.

Here is Zora her the little hospital gown.

Zora did really well with the waiting and the not eating.  But after a couple of hours of being awake she got pretty tired and fell asleep for Andrew before the surgery. 

She had a really hard time coming out of the anesthesia.  Thank goodness we had a great nurse and he let us take her home after a while.  It wasn't until we walked out of the room we were in that she calmed down. 

That afternoon was a hard one, especially with Andrew sleeping because he had to go to work that night.  But the next day she was a ton better.