Dinosoar Museum

March 2nd was the legislative night at the Dinosaur Museum. This was the best Activity in all of the years we've been going. We had so much fun! Garett was totally into this wind tube. He would laugh and laugh as he watched things fly up through it.

He also had fun climbing through some tunnels all by himself.
We have gotten a picture with this little dino every year we've gone. It's fun to see how much the kids change year over year.

Oh, and there's Grace. She spent most of the time wandering around with her cousins so we didn't get many pictures of her. I can't believe they're both actually looking and smiling!

Ben and most of the older siblings spent their time at the museum on a gnome hunt! That's right, the Thanksgiving Point Museum has hidden a plethora of tiny gnomes throughout the museum. Some little figurines hidden in the dinosaur bones, others tiny little camouflaged paintings on the walls. By the end, and with a little help from some staff members, they found about 80% of them. Some of them were so well hidden, even looking right at them with a staff member showing them it was hard to pick them out.

At the end of the night we went to their 3D movie, BUGS. It was kind of cool and creepy at the same time.

Garett struggled sitting through it, and Grace cried at the end when the Preying Mantis ate the pretty Butterfly.

G & G

The best of friends...sometimes. Other times, not so much. Here is a sweet shot where they were both actually sharing!

Sometimes, life just gets overwhelming and you just have to give in.
Please, wake up happy and loving each other again! They really do love each other, but are both fairly territorial. They like to have their own set of toys when they play and don't like any crossing over of the toys. It's fun to watch them play and we're having fun teaching them to share and take good care of each other.

Kyle's Mission Call

Kyle, Ben's brother, got his mission call in February. We were all so excited!

Here is Aly (Kyle's girlfriend who we LOVE!), Grace, and Kyle.

Garett practicing.....17 more years buddy.
The anticipation was so exciting. Kyle and Ben are like best friends, so Kyle let him peek at it before anyone else saw. (Thanks Kyle!) Nobody guessed this right, but he was called to serve in the Georgia, Atlanta North mission! He leaves June 2nd. We are so proud of you Kyle!
We also celebrated Grandpa Harper's birthday that night. Cinderella, I mean Grace, got to help open his presents. Grandpa has been great to us. He is always willing to help out and offer advice. We really appreciate and love him. Happy B-Day Pops!

My Birthday

The last day of our Phoenix trip was my Birthday. It was an awesome day! I woke up to the house decorated by Michelle!

We did a little shopping at an outlet Mall. Ben was really cute and kept popping out of stores with presents for me. I got a new outfit and some pretty jewelry. The kids had a lot of fun riding the rides and hanging out with family.



Then we went to a little lake in Mesa by the ASU campus. We were going to rent paddle boats, but they didn't have any so we ended up playing some games in the park,

and having roasted hot dogs for lunch.

It was the perfect birthday present to have the rain stop for our last day there!

We then headed to the Mesa Temple. It kind of pops out of this little neighborhood. Very unassuming as temples go. We went inside the visitor center and talked to the missionaries. Garett kept pointing to Jesus. I think they're friends.

We got a family picture in front of the temple. (don't know why there's a black strip across the bottom, sorry!)

Uncle Todd and Garett were matching that day. My kids LOVE Uncle Todd! It was great to have him on the trip with us.

We finished the day off by going to a really fun restaurant called San Tan Flats outside of QueensCreek. We ate some yummy food (the ribs rivaled Texas Roadhouse), and even got to roast marshmallows right by our table thanks to the fire that kept us warm.

Here's Garett practicing to be a cowboy.

Yee Haw!

Me, Garett, Grace, Ben, Todd, Logan, Jack, and Michelle.

There was a man there drawing Charicatures. We've never had one done together, so we gave it a try.

I think it turned out pretty good!

Our Blue Plate Specials turned out pretty good too!

We ended the day with Birthday cake. Thanks Shell! It really was one of the best birthdays ever, and a really awesome trip!

Our Phoenix Trip

We decided to take a trip down to Phoenix to visit my sister Michelle in February. We headed down Wednesday the 17th and stayed in St. George for the night. The next day we left Ben and Todd, who had come with us, in St. George for the yearly golf trip my Dad is kind enough to put together. While they played, I headed south with two kids and a long drive ahead of us! They both did really well and we made it to Michelle's by dinner time. It was so fun to see her and Logan. Jack was on his way up to St. George to golf with everyone else so we missed him. They just moved into a new home and it was so cute! She was a way awesome hostess and we did lots of fun things.

On Friday we started by having a picnic in the park with my friend Emily and her kids. I didn't take any pics but we had a fun time talking, watching the kids play and most of all enjoying the beautiful weather! It was a gorgeous day! After nap time we headed over to Freestone Park. They had some fun rides for the kids.

Here's Logan, Michelle and Grace

Garett enjoyed his little ride too!
I got to ride on the train with the kids. It went all the way around the park and was a lot of fun!

After the park we headed to Joanne's to get some fabric for our weekend project. I haven't taken pictures, but we made lots of different fabric flowers that week. They turned out really cute!

On Saturday we had grand plans to go to the Renaissance fair, but got rained out. :( We ended up going to Toys R Us and wandering around for a while and then went home. After nap time we decided to do something totally different. We went to a pottery painting place and painted our own special plates! Growing up my family had an old blue plate the the birthday person got to eat off of. We called it the Blue Plate Special. I decided to continue the tradition and make an updated version.

Jack, Ben, and Todd got in late Saturday night. It was Todd's first time seeing Michelle's family since he got home from his mission. It was a great reunion!

Sunday it rained again, so after church we BBQ'd in the back yard instead of at the park. Then we played some games and sat around watching the Olympics.

Garett decided climbing in the pantry was a good rainy day activity.

Monday was still pretty rainy so we ended up at this really cool place. I'm not sure, but I think it was called Jack's Place. They had a pizza buffet that was pretty good. Then the fun part was picking which theme room you were going to eat your pizza in. We ate in the movie room and watched Night at the Museum. There were a few other options like the sports room, a cafe and a jungle room too. We then did some miniature golf there. It was a pretty shabby course but we had it mostly to ourselves, so it was fun!

Grace had fun the first few holes, but that quickly gave way to boredom.

She and Logan decided to create their own fun.

Then she got a few golf tips from Dad.

My sibling: Todd, me and Michelle.

We made poor Garett stay in the stroller the whole time! He finally fell asleep with 4 holes left.

Sweet Kid

I just love these two guys! Nothing in the world makes me happier!

Happy Valentines Day!

We had a really fun Valentines Day! We made heart-shaped envelopes and left each other love notes throughout the week. I made some really cute V-day decorations, like a heart-shaped wreath! We made some yummy sugar cookies! Garett and Nala especially enjoyed them.

See? What a happy boy!
Ben and I actually went on a wonderful date! We went to dinner with three other couples to Texas Roadhouse (our favorite!) and then went to the church for the Elders Quorum dance. It was fun to dance and hold each other for an evening. We haven't done that in years! We felt like we were at a throw-back region dance or something. It really made us feel youthful and strengthened our love. It was a wonderful Valentines Day!