Utah Family Fun Spots

Is anyone else out there alarmed at how expensive it is to take your family anywhere these days? Well desperate times call for desperate measures and I just can't handle being cooped up indoors 7 days a week so we have been venturing out to some of Utah's family hot spots and we haven't been disappointed. The dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point was a hit with Saylor. Mostly because there is a lot of minorly-messy hands-on stuff.The Tracy Aviary was also fun, but it is all outdoors so I don't recommend going there when it is 40 degrees like we did. There were a lot of interesting birds to see and Saylor loved chasing the stray ducks and peacocks. I really like the Living Planet Aquarium as well. It is really small, but what they lack in quantity they make up for in quality. We went with my sister and her daughter Gabby--they had a great time!!
When all else fails, and you only have a buck in your pocket, I have found that you can't go wrong with an ice cream cone and playland at McDonalds!!! I would love to hear if any of you locals have local fun spots that your kiddies enjoy!

There is only one person in our family who is not sick of Winter!!

Eagar

Snow was lucky enough to have the first week of February off (yikes! Am I really a month behind blogging?!) so we decided there was no better place to go than to visit Snow's family in Eagar. The thing that we LOVE about Eagar is that it is away from everything. When you go for a visit you can't help but relax because that is all there is to do. I got to catch up on some reading, we got to see some movies in the theater (gasp!), we went shooting, and for those of you laughing right now I shot big guns and I have good aim!!! The weather was gorgeous and Saylor was thriving because she had a grandma, grandad, and uncle who wanted only to play with her. We caught some high school basketball games -GoElks!, and even went tubing. Snow's mom breeds dogs and Saylor was in heaven playing with the latest litter. We had a really great time and we are thankful for the hospitality we are always shown when we visit.

A Last Piece of Christmas Cheer

I know that the Holidays have long-since past, but I couldn't resist sharing one last thing. To get us into the Christmas spirit, Snow downloaded a bunch of Christmas music onto his IPOD and we listened to it whenever we went anywhere as a family. We soon found that Saylor had a favorite. It wasn't Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, or even jingle bells...it was Taylor Swift's version of "Last Christmas" Here is Saylor doing a little performance of her favorite "carol." She knows all the verses as well but I thought I would spare you the extended performance. Aren't her dance moves cute?!

Merry Christmas

We were a little late getting the tree up this year on account of our trip to Mexico the first week of December. We were also a bit delayed when we found that our water heater was leaking and had flooded the basement! Saylor was so excited when we finally got the house looking festive. The only hard part was that Saylor wanted to add all the ornaments to her toy collection instead of putting them on the tree.

We decided to do our own thing for Christmas Eve for the first time. After dinner we made cookies for Santa, wrote/drew a Thank-you note to Santa, and read the Nativity from the bible. We also opened our Rudolph's (gift bags decorated like reindeer containing pajamas from Snow's Mom) and donned our new PJ's. It was such a cozy evening at home.

Saylor was so excited about Santa this year which was really fun. She was delighted to find that he had taken some bites of the cookies she left him, and even more excited to find the pet frogs that he brought her. It was a pretty magical Christmas!

Our Early Christmas Present

Snow and I gave ourselves a pretty sweet Christmas present this year--we went on a Mexican Riviera Cruise. Honestly it was a necessity because Snow needed to remember what time-off felt like and I needed to spend some quality time with my hubby. We went on the trip with some friends from Tucson: Patrick and Erica. We had the best time! We visited Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo and I seriously think I could live in Mexico. At our first stop in Puerta Vallarta, we went snorkeling, kayaking, and exploring a private beach. We also sampled some killer fish tacos. At Mazatlan we did a canopy adventure where we rode zip lines all across this jungle area--it was awesome. I know something like that is totally out of character for me, and no I didn't sample the regional agave tequila before doing it--it was scary at first, but we all ended up loving it.Our taxi driver took us to this awesome restaurant where the four of us ate for 10 bucks--again, I could live in Mexico. In Cabo we visited Lover's beach and did a little more snorkeling. This time Snow and I had shrimp tacos and they were delicioso. I know you guys are wondering why we were so excited about the food when we were on a cruise gaining 2 pounds a day. All I can say is that we have been missing Tucson's authentic Mexican food so we couldn't resist sampling the local fair. We also had plenty of time for games of Settlers of Cataan and Killer Bunnies. We got our groove on in the dance club, played a few game shows, did some sunning, and a lot of eating. Snow's big disappointment was when he barely missed winning a medal in the on-board putting contest. His defeat was especially bitter because the winner had gotten into the final round by cheating. Luckily he was able to console himself by winning the spelling bee!!! My only regret is that our camera ran out of battery halfway through the trip. We got a disposable one, but even photoshop could not rescue the photos that piece of trash produced! Anyway, we had an amazing time--I hope Santa delivers the same gift next year!

Happy 3rd Birthday Saylor

Ok I am really behind on my blogging, but I thought I would share some of the exciting things that happened for us in November and December. Saylor turned 3 on November 22. Snow and I took her to a jumping castle place the night before to celebrate. She was completely fearless and as you can tell, did not slow down long enough for me to take a decent picture!
The actual day of her birthday was an eventful one for my family because my sister, Jan got married. Congrats Jan and Danny!! We still had cake and ice cream for Saylor with her grandparents, aunts and uncles.I can't believe my baby is 3! She is such a sweet smart girl and we are so proud of her!