Visit from the Michigan Clowards

We have had a really fun week with my dad, Coleen, Jake, and Isaac.  They have been visiting us from Michigan.  We will be really sad to see them go!  We have tried to show them a better time than Ryan, which is very hard to do!  ;)  We took the boys paint balling, went to Boondocks, the zoo, Lagoon, the aquarium, Tucanos (they've never been!), and more paint balling.

This weekend we went to Lagoon.  We had such a great time.  I hadn't been there for 12 years.  I was most excited to see Jayce's reaction to all the rides.  It was her first time riding a roller coaster.  She was acting so nonchalant.  The very first ride she went on was the white roller coaster.  She was acting like it was no big deal as we went up the big hill.  She had no idea what she was getting herself into.  I looked at her as we went down and it was so funny.  She was so freaked out!  She was barely tall enough to ride and it was a little scary because it seemed like she was slipping out of the seat.  I held onto her as tight as I could the whole time.  When we got off she was as white as a ghost and she said, "That was awesome!"

She rode the next roller coaster with Grandpa.  She already had a taste of what it would be like.  He said she was bent over squeezing his leg!  He made her sit up so she wouldn't miss the whole thing.  I think it's so funny because she tries to act so brave.

It's hard to tell, but Blake, Seth, Jake, Isaac, and Brooks are on this ride.  Blake was squished between Seth and Man Child.  Jake's phone fell out, but amazingly enough, the worker found it.

Jayce rode the Odyssey with Grandma.  She had control of the steering and she kept making Grandma get soaked!

Log ride-  I was trying to get all of our heads in the picture...Oh well.

It was my dad and Coleen's 20th anniversary on July 4th!

I had Monday off work so we went to the aquarium in Sandy.  We loved it!  I would definitely recommend it.  They just got a new penguin exibit.  They were so cute and smart.  They came right up to the glass and were kind of playing with us.  They would swim really fast and sort of launch themselves onto a rock.

Poor little Jayce hit her head pretty hard in the Engman's basement.  She had a killer goose egg.

One thing I don't have pictures of from this trip was all the paint balling.  Blake, Seth, Jacob, Isaac, and sometimes Brooks went paint balling several times.  Blake has become obsessed!  It's all he talks about.  He's going to miss his best paint balling buddies!

Cul-de-sac of Fire and Other Fourth of July Festivities

This may not look like much, but we had the most amazing Cul-de-sac of Fire ever!  My dad, the pyro, had a lot of fun blowing things up with Seth.  They taped 2 packs of sparklers together and lit them and they exploded.  After that they went to the store and bought a bunch more sparklers.  It never worked quite the same again, but they were giddy all night.  We had a lot of fun doing fireworks with our family and neighbors.  It was sad that Ryan, Emily, and the kids weren't there.  They used to host the best illegal fireworks parties.

Jayce is a pyro like her dad and grandpa.  She kept trying to pick up the fireworks and hold them until she got grounded from all fireworks and sparklers!

I made Coley wear a festive flower!

The day before everybody went to Boondocks.  Jayce was so happy that she could ride the bumper boats by herself.  She sprayed all of the boys!

The Zoo

This Saturday Jayce, Claire and I went to the zoo with Grandpa Brent, Grandma Coleen, the Engmans (minus Seth), Sami, and Katie.  It was so much fun.  The best part was the bird show.  Doran didn't like it very much.  He grabbed the map and pointed to the parking lot and said, "That's where I want to go next to find our car!"  Jayce had a great time, though.

The new baby elephant (not pictured) was soooo cute!  This elephant with Katie is 50 year old.  It is the oldest elephant in North America.

Jayce had a bloody nose all day at the zoo.  She looked a little silly walking around with toilet paper up her nose all day.

I tried to make little pasty white baby girl wear a sunhat, but she wouldn't hear of it.  She kept taking it off.  Jayce said really loudly, "Mom, you shouldn't force her to wear things that she doesn't like.  You should let her be her own person."  There were a few people around that were laughing at her.  Right you are Jayce, except when the poor little thing gets a sunburn every time she ventures out into the sun!