"Hi, Geese!!"

Yesterday we spent the morning at Wheeler Farm, and James just loved seeing all the "anmals." The ones he like the most were the geese. In fact he chased them down for about 20 minutes, yelling "Hi, Geese!! Hi, Geese!!"

"Tyrannosaurus Rex, the mighty dinosaur..."

"...he was king in the age of dinosaurs. He was more fierce....than........(a whole bunch of dinosaurs' names)................to name a few."

Oh man, I learned this dinosaur song in elementary school and for the life of me I just cannot remember all the dinosaurs who were less fierce than the T. Rex! If anyone (particularly those who went to Oakwood with me and sang this exact song) knows how this goes, I would greatly appreciate it because it is driving me crazy!

In fact, as I recall, we sang a whole bunch of dinosaur songs for some program - one of them went like this "Listen to the chorus of the stegosaurus, and the something saurus down by the swamp.......what a noise...it's the boys (and the girls!) of the prehistoric animal brigade," and the other one that I can remember is "Elasmosaurus, elasmosaurus, the giant of the sea." Ah good times, isn't it fun to reminisce about elementary school?

Well, there really is a point to all this....today my boys and I went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point! It was so much fun, and James really enjoyed it! In fact his favorite part of the whole thing was this little room you walk through that is completely dark with millions of "stars" shining all around you. He was scared at first, but after we walked through it once we had to go back about five times. He also really liked the live fish that were in the little streams, and the model of the giant prehistoric shark.



My boys ventured dangerously close to this gigantic shark! James was actually mesmerized and sat in front of it forever, just staring at it.


There were lots of fun exhibits to look at. Imagine my disappointment, though, when I found out that the Elasmosaurus (you know, from the aforementioned elementary school song) isn't really classified as a dinosaur! Oh well, I'll get over it.


We saw lots of cool dinosaur bones, like this T-Rex! Makes me want to watch Jurassic Park or Night at the Museum...


MY favorite part was the humongous turtle. Apparently it was pretty much all intact when they found it, and is something like sixteen feet across. So cool!

Wheeler Farm

Today we went to Wheeler Farm. James wasn't sure about all the animals, but quite enjoyed chasing the ducks and the geese and "quacking" at them. What a beautiful, sunny day!

Rockpile Museum

While planning our little trip to Wyoming, I did a little research online to find out if there was anything fun to do (or anything at all to do) in Gillette. Well, pretty much the only thing I came up with was the Rockpile Museum - which sounds fascinating, no? Well, it turns out it really isn't a museum dedicated to rocks, it actually has some cool pioneer/cowboy artifacts. We went for a little while and it was actually kind of fun.

my boys in front of a cool sheepherder's wagon

in front of a doctor's buggy

our little cowboy

Daddy showing James how to ride a horse

we couldn't pass up this opportunity...

my favorite

a fun 4th

Happy 4th of July! We had a really fun day hanging out with family and friends. This morning my boys and I went hiking with my Dad, Annie, and Josh. We just did a short little hike up in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and it was really fun. James did so well riding in his carrier, and he was quite interested in the new surroundings.

Here are some pictures of our hike!

Just starting out

James held onto his hat most of the time

Our family

My brother

Me, Dad & Annie

All of us

It was also kind of an interesting day - while driving down the canyon there were all these paramedics and a life flight helicopter and news cameras, and we were wondering what had happened. Well, we soon found out - my sister was going hiking with her boyfriend today for a triple date, and he and his brothers were setting up for it this morning. His brother stayed up there to keep an eye on things while the guys picked up their dates, and he ended up falling off a cliff and getting injured really badly. So it was quite the day for my sister and her boyfriend. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family tonight.

We spent the rest of the day with my family (and the guys my sisters are dating) and had so much fun! We had a yummy barbecue and hung out for a long time.

Here is James in his 4th of July t-shirt I got for him at Target - you've gotta love the dollar section! James had a big day today - his first hike, and he pulled himself up to standing for the first time! Jonathan set him down in the crib so he could go empty the garbage, and James thought he was putting him down for a nap (which he actually did need....) and he got so angry that he cried and cried, and when I walked in the room he was standing up! What a strong boy. He has done it a couple more times today. I just can't believe how fast he is growing up!


James was super cuddly today, which was so much fun! Here he is with his Uncle Josh.


James and his new buddy Travis. At this point James was just exhausted, hence the blank look on his face.


For some reason, James just loves Rob and was cuddling with him so cute! He usually is not way cuddly for very long, especially with people he doesn't know as well - but he was so happy cuddling with Rob, it was way cute!


We hung out outside quite a bit and played some fun games - Bocce and "Goofy Golf" - it was a lot of fun. Here is James with his Grandma.


We were putting together the goals for goofy golf and Jonathan was getting creative...



Liz and Abby playing goofy golf -


We decided we'd better go see some fireworks, so Mom and Dad stayed home with the baby (who was finally sound asleep - yay!) while the rest of us went to the fireworks show at City Hall in Holladay. It was pretty funny, because Dad had heard something about the show being way short (he's the judge, so he works with all those official people...) - we found some grass down the street to sit on, and spread out our blankets and waited. Suddenly there were two or three fireworks, and then they just stopped. After like, ten seconds. We really thought it was over for a minute, because of what Dad said. We were all confused and talking about how lame that would be if it was really over - and all of a sudden the sprinklers came on! It was hilarious, all the people kinda screamed and jumped up really quickly. So, needless to say, we had to find somewhere else to go. We ended up just going right to the park by City Hall and there was plenty of room to sit, and there actually was a fireworks show - and it was really good! We had a lot of fun.

Abby and Rob

Liz and Travis

Me and Jonathan

Pretty much a really funny picture...

If you look closely you can see some fireworks in the background!

Some fireworks. I tried to take a bunch of pictures, and they pretty much just didn't turn out. Travis got some way good ones, though, cuz his camera has a fireworks setting! I'm jealous.

Liz, Travis, Josh, Jonathan and me