Hill Air force Base

 The other day we decided to head up North to go to the Hill Air force Base. We were joined by some of our cousins from Alaska, which was a real treat. It's only about 40 minutes away from our house and well worth the drive! There is a huge area outside where there are a ton of air crafts, helicopters, missiles...

 Inside there are two huge bunkers of old planes, bombers and helicopters. There is also a children interactive area, where we eneded up staying most of the time with all the kids. They all got to dress up in different army, airforce and military attire, which of course they all loved.

 There were a couple similaters, computer games and other activities the children could try out and play on.

 Thank goodness for patted chairs where Jeana and I could rest and chat. We discussed the most important topic, planning a trip to Disneyland. Yes, we know where our priorities are! (That's your reminder Jeana! Get those tickets!! :)) And by the way, CUTE hair-do!

And how could I end this post without including this little gem of a photo! Look how adorable little Nathan is in his air force gear. Too cute!

Father's Day Singing Time

We did an extra special singing time in primary today all about our dad's! It's a fun activity, but it does need a week or so of planning.
I went around after church a few Sunday's ago and took pictures of about 15 dad's hands. I also asked them their two favorite Primary songs (so we wouldn't get duplicates!) You could print out all the hand shots but I just took my laptop to church and showed the children that way. (It was cheaper!) They could guess whose hands they thought they were and then I would give hints like their favorite song or something about his children.
I was surprised how many children guessed their own dad's hands so quickly. Very observant!

A friend of mine told me another cute idea she has done before, which I'll probably do next year. She asked a bunch of dad's to meet outside the primary room and the dad's held up a huge sheet, so you could only see their shoes and part of their pants. The kids had to guess which legs belonged to which dad. And then he would tell his favorite song and the group would sing it.
It just came to me maybe I'd have that dad wear a crown and robe and sit on a huge chair (thrown like) and the children would sing to him. Fun!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Father's Day Gifts

For Father's Day the kids and put these together, thanks to Pinterest for another great (and easy) idea!!The top picture I printed as a 5x7 and placed it in a cool vintage frame for Scott.

The bottom one is in a 8x10 frame. I do need to redo the shaded pictures, but ran out of time. Cute concept, just wasn't executed the way I wanted. Regardless, Scott will love it!

The boys also made these salt dough paper weight's. One says, "Dad Rocks" made with small rocks. Another has a heart on it with rocks all around it and the last one has a hand print.

The boys and I thought of a couple other cute things to do for Scott, but we'll see if I have time to actually accomplish it!

Happy Father's Day!!

Boys Portraits, oh my!

A couple days ago we headed to Wheeler Farm to get the boys portraits done. The ones I have hanging on the wall near the stairs are 2 years old. Hello! A tad bit behind. We will do family pictures in November after the baby comes.

The boys all did real well poising for me, but I was a little surprised when I got home to see some of these, especially the ones of Will. He looks like I'm about to send him off on his mission. Holy Smokes he's getting older and older by the minute! And handsome!

I haven't even put these pictures threw photo shop to tweak some of the lighting yet, I am just thrilled on how good they all turned out.

As were walking out the door 3 of the boys look at me and say something on the lines of, you're not going to wear that are you? Cute that they would know I would have a nicer outfit on, hair done with some make-up on.



Mouth-Watering Food

 On our last subway ride in New York we headed to one of the best restaurants in the city. Great food and even better desserts!

 This is what I ordered for brunch, BLAT (bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado sandwich) with cilantro mayonnaise. So, so, so good.

 Aleigh had been dreaming of waffles for several days so the dessert she chose was perfect! Two mini waffles with ice cream on top drizzled with chocolate sauce. YUM!

 Angie's burger was beyond mouthwatering!

 I order the Melting Chocolate truffle heart cake and shake. It was delicious!

Which restaurant was this? No other than Max Brenner Chocolatier restaurant, a must for anyone visiting NYC!

Museum of Natural History

 On our last day (sniff, sniff) in The Big Apple we headed out to the Museum of Natural History. We rode the subway again, which was much easier with the Queen of the Subway Miss Aleigh. She total got the hang of it.

The museum is huge and does not disappoint. It's a must for when you go to New York City. It was where the majority of the film, Night at the Museum, was filmed. It was cool to walk around and remember different areas and statues that was used in the movie with Ben Stiller. We went to the museum twice during the week. The first time we were only able to stay 30 minutes because it was closing. Thank goodness we went back again to see the rest of it. We watched a movie narrated by Whoopie Goldberg about stars and how the universe was created. It was pretty neat, but they did have a few facts that were incorrect. (Wink, wink!)

 Hey dum dum you want some gum gum? It was pretty cool to see this fun statue.

 The subway literally stopped right at the back entrance of the museum. We didn't have to climb stairs and walk around trying to find this place. At each stop they have the name of the stop in tile, but this stop seemed to be extra decorated. It was beautiful.

Freeze dried mice, a naked cowboy and The View

We headed downtown to the financial district and Wall Street area. We couldn't resist a photo with this famous bull!

We then headed to SoHo do do a little shopping, window shopping taht is! What a cute trendy little place. All the streets are cobblestone, so cute. We headed for Dash, the store owned by the Kardashians and several others. One stop that was a must was the Evolution Store. Oh. My. Goodness. This store is creepy, yucky and disgusting! My boys would of loved it!

 This store has very unique items for sale such as, baby sharks in bottles, frees dried mice, rats, squirrels and snakes, fossils, bones, shells, taxidermy, insects, minerals, jewelry and a bunch of other nasty stuff!

We walked through Washington Park, which was packed full of tourists, children, and performers. I love this arch, it's seen in so many television shows and movies! Also the water fountain area is in movies too. It was fun to see the children of New York splashing around in the water and having a fun time. It was another beautiful day with the perfect temp's.

 As we were heading back to our hotel we saw the Naked Cowboy! So many people stopped to get their photos with him. He would do a front shot with the ladies and then they would all turn around and the ladies would put their hands on his butt. Umm, grose!

Friday evening we had dinner reservations for The View the only revolving restaurant in all of Manhattan. It';s located on top of our hotel, The Marriott Marquis. The view was breath-taking. It turned so slowly, but id did make me dizzy. Pregnancy.

 The food was Divine and the dessert mouthwatering! So many components to build this chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream plate. So good! Another wonderufl night in NYC!

Ground Zero

 Friday morning we took the subway straight to Ground Zero. We knew this would be a definite highlight of our trip to New York. I've seen so many photos, video clips and news specials about what happened on September 11th, Ground Zero, the memorial, and Freedom Towers... but I knew it would be a whole new experience to see it in real life. And man it was!

We headed straight to the gift shop ticket store (we reserved tickets ahead of time, which are free, and a great idea if you are planning a trip in the near future!) The store is pretty small but full of photos and memorabilia of the Twin Towers. Instantly the photos and stories tugged at my heart and the tears began to flow. 
This piece of metal came from the rubble after the towers crumble down and the artist turned it into something extra special.

 Here is a huge photo of a fire fighter than had this image tattooed on his back to commemorate his fellow fire fighters that died on that tragic day. Not something I would do, but it was very impressive.

Here hung a huge material flag with all the names of the 3,000 people that were killed that day. There were also many huge posters of other countries mourning our loss a few days after September 11th. I don't remember seeing that on TV, so it was a nice reminder.

 We walked a couple of blocks away to where the self-guided tour began. There were two Memorial Pools in the exact spot and size of Towers One and Two. The  cascading water fall was beautiful to look at and to listen to. Around the perimeter were all the names of the fallen people of that fateful day.

 Across from one of the pools was this really cool modern building that will be the new Memorial museum. It was supposed to be completed by early 2012, but they were still working on. That will be a museum like no other, can't wait until that is completed.

 Here is the Survivor Tree which stood less than 30 feet away from the South Tower. It was the only living thing that survived after that day. Fire Fighters found it among the rubble and it was only an 8 foot stump. They moved it to a park and nursed it back to health and it grew to over 30 feet tall. After the North and South Pools were built they moved the tree back and it is supported by temporary wires until the roots take root again. When I touched this tree it was powerful, truly it was. Again, I was brought to tears. A silly little tree with so much meaning.

 On either side of the pools they are currently building the Freedom Towers, which will soon be the tallest buildings in the world.
I am so thankful for the opportunity to visit this site and show my respect to the almost 3,000 people, their families and New York City.