Vegas!

For Fall break we headed with my parents to Las Vegas for some fun and sun! We picked the kids up from school on Tuesday and headed on down. I forgot how long the drive was mostly because I did not prepare adequately for the kids to be entertained :/ As soon as we arrived they were beyond excited to be there. While I know this video is sideways it was just to cute not to post...you can blame Tim ;)

The kids had a blast swimming in the giant pool and jumping from hot tub to hot tub. Aaron was also a fan of the music playing and when a good beat came on he was next to the speaker dancing away.

They had various activities throughout our stay and the kids loved bingo! Each of them even won a small treat prize.

Later that day we headed to the Bass Pro Shop. I had read online that it was a fun place to visit and sure enough it was! The kids loved looking at the giant aquariums filled with all kinds of fish. You can see how big Ava is grinning from the back :)

Love Ian's fish face

The next day we spend the day playing at the pool! The boys went under the waterfall with Grandpa a million times. And they of course loved showing their skills in jumping.

We also had plenty of time to chill and relax in the various hammocks throughout the resort. Hunter refused to share his hammock with anyone.

Vegas isn't Vegas with out a stop at M&M world! We also went to Hersey's World which was pretty awesome! The boys were in heaven eating and looking at all that candy! So was I :)

We returned that evening to made spaghetti dinner and then headed for an evening swim. Ava had fun exploring our rooms and mostly stealing Hunter's shoes. After swimming we headed down to enjoy an outdoor movie at the resort of Wreck It Ralph. 

The resort was beautiful and before we knew it, it was time to head back home.

Thankfully the kids slept majority of the way home :) Thanks for the great time!

Cornbelly's & Aaron's 4th birthday

This girl truly is FaBOOlous! Her big personality is coming out more and more each day. She is not timid or quiet but a feisty little one. Who we love to dress up!

Yes this picture is a little blurry but they are running so fast! It also resembles a good portion of our days around here. Ava taking something she shouldn't have or that the boys had -in this case she managed to get a hold of both the boys toothbrushes. You think she would quietly hid in the bathroom or somewhere and chew away but no. She waddles out shows the boys what she has and then runs away giggling. Don't worry no one was harmed when taking this picture.

We love dressing her up! Special thanks to Aunt Pam for the dalmatian outfit!

She also loves the water and has recently discovered the dogs bowl. Needless to say the dog bowl has been moved behind closed doors!

She definitely keeps us on our toes.

October also means Cornbelly's! One of our favorite events where one day just is never enough.

The kids mining for gemstones -our favorite attraction there!

It is also where this boy loves to celebrate his birthday! After a good kick off from school to prepare him for his birthday weekend he was set to party!

Mining, Slides, Wagon rides, rock climbing, pumpkin picking, corn mazes, corn box, the options are endless.

After a fun filled day at Cornbelly's we headed home to enjoy chicken crepes for dinner. Aaron decided he didn't want a cake that year (although I did make halloween spider cupcakes for school) he wanted ice cream! So I let him get a small instead of a mini ;)

Even I got to escape this week for a witches night out at Gardner Village! 

What else could we do Sunday but continue to celebrate this boy turning 4!

It was a beautiful day and these boys came over to celebrate! I looked out the window to check on them in the backyard and they were all laying down staring at the clouds. So sweet :)

While we could probably go to Cornbelly's everyday...occasionally we take a break and hit the zoo with friends :)

September in a nutshell :)

September was a blur! The kids were in school and we lived and breathed soccer 4 days a week...and loved every minute of it!

I am not sure if Utah County is the same as other areas but it seems if your child has not picked and dedicated themselves to a specific sport by age three you're behind the game. Ian likes a lot of sports which is great but in Utah County you have to pick one and live and breathe it 24/7. The one sport Ian doesn't care for is soccer but his best friend was playing and he decided he wanted to play too! I was so impressed most of the kids he is playing with have been playing since they were three...you know when Ian hated it! Turns out Ian loves soccer and is really good! He was not afraid to get in after the ball and even made a few goals this season -we are so proud of him! 

Our favorite treat no bake healthy granola balls! It has now become a staple item in our home that must always be stocked in the refrigerator. But seriously they are so good! I got the recipe from one of my favorite food blogs melskitchen.com! All of the soccer kids love them!

Since Ian was playing soccer Aaron of course wanted to play soccer too! So...

Yep- Aaron is pretty good too! His first goal... sure it was in the wrong goal but he's three who cares! Soccer four days a week as been great -we have also found a lot of little boys getting a little shut eye here and there.

Even Ava is loving soccer!

The last game of the season was beautiful the rain had just cleared and the sky was covered in rainbows.

In other news Ava turned 15 months! I have no idea how but she is just growing up so fast! As you can see from the photo she is growing like crazy! She used to be barely in the 10th percentile of everything. Not anymore :( She is loud and definitely has a mind of her own!

She loves the camera...and always gives you a cheese followed by a smile.

She loves dancing

There is no such thing as too many books. Downside is she tends to like the same book read to her for about a week. Her current favorite "where's my daddy" and "Colors." Both flap books. The more flaps the better.

We have also had a lot of other creatures around our house. Yes -tarantulas! This one was on my front porch and about the size of my entire hand. Don't worry they have been all over our neighborhood -I do my best to stay indoors right now. 

We celebrated grandma's birthday! Tim made a nice fish dinner for her and grandma made her own birthday cake -peach pie! The boys loved it!

That pretty much sums up September! With a lot of random parties in between :)

Hope everyone else is enjoying the fall weather as much as we are....minus the spiders!

Hinkley's Visit

On Friday morning Nan flew out and the boys headed out camping. It was the father and sons campout that weekend so Ava and I enjoyed a nice and quiet evening in. Keeping to girls night, we were luck enough to have Aunt April and cousin Gracie stop by for a visit! Don't worry they stayed the night so the boys were able to visit as well ;)

Ava absolutely loved playing with Aunt April and Gracie. She would wobble right on over to Aunt April, sit on her lap, and grab her feet to play this game.

The next morning the boys went straight from their campsite to their soccer games.  While we enjoyed lounging around the house and catching up on some much needed sleep. Later that afternoon we all headed out with our friends for a little boating adventure on Utah Lake. Ava loved sitting and cuddling with Aunt April.

 I just love everyone of these kids! They have all become the best of friends! With all their blondness they don't look like they could be related at all ;)

We all had so much fun. Hunter and Gracie did a little kneeboarding and the rest of us enjoyed swimming in the lake. 

I cannot count how many times Aaron jumped into the lake. It was a little chilly but not too bad. Boating on the 5th of September...no one can complain about that!

We decided it was a little too cold for Ava. She would not let her toes touch the water. 

So Ava played inside the boat and like to try and take over as the driver.

Sweet little Aspen took this picture of Aunt April with Ava and I just love it! It was so great to visit even if it was fast! Hopefully we will be seeing them again soon :)

Nan visits!

Nana came out for a quick visit just the beginning of September and the kids were anxious to take her everywhere! The deal was school first then play later. First stop was the museum of natural curiosity! Aaron had been begging to do the ropes course and technically he is not old enough yet (you have to be four). Pretty close though. So with Nana there Tim figured he would be able to take him -so we rounded his age up ;)  Ian left Nana in his dust and ran through the course. Aaron was a little hesitant at first but warmed up fast. Now that is all we hear about....daily! This museum has easily become one of our favorite places in Utah County!

Next up the dinosaur museum!

There are apparently 13 gnomes hiding in this museum?! Well we found one of them! We were still pretty proud of ourselves.

Next stop the zoo!

Aaron's favorite thing to do at the zoo is ride the carousel. Ava decided she was not a fan anymore. She used to love it :( She was ok when she road with Aaron though.

 We ended up heading to the zoo without Ian. Thankfully Nana found him a spider monkey shirt and arrowhead necklace so he did not seem to mind at all. We have been to the zoo quite a few times this summer. When walking though the gift shop nana found a cute polar bear for Ava. A few minutes later Ava had pulled a fluffy white striped tiger from the shelf and was happily cuddling them both. In case you were not aware Ava loves all things white and fluffy! It was so cute we ended up getting the tiger for her. The tiger currently lives in her bed along with a few other white and fluffy animals.

 While daddy had fun having another person in the house that actually enjoys colorful food we were not big fans. We tried our best to put on a happy face (as Ian is showing) but we just had double helpings of dessert that night!

So Thursday night we headed to Food Truck Thursday. We have never been before but it is quite popular here in Utah County so we thought we would give it a try. We discovered a couple things... the food was delicious! The desserts were over priced and overrated. But the kids enjoyed the desserts.

That night was Nana's last night so we decided to tie dye some shirts. 

I'll be honest Tim and I were surprised how amazing the shirts turned out. By the time we started tie dying the shirts it was so dark outside you could not tell which colors you were using. As you can see they turned out great!

We are now the tie-dye family :) 

Thanks for visiting Nana- hopefully we will be seeing you again soon!