Pioneer Day Fun

(originally published January 28th, 2016)

I took the kids down to Provo for their Pioneer Day Festival again last year, and it might have been the last time for us.  It was SO CROWDED.  The kids had fun, thank goodness, but the lines were very long and the crowds made kid-tracking difficult.  We invited a family in our ward to come with us, so having friends there definitely helped, though it meant there were even more children to keep track of.

Note: If you ever want your children to swear off root beer, challenge them to a root beer chugging contest.  These guys audibly groaned at the mention of root beer for weeks after this.  Maybe months.

Note 2: Luke was there. He was just in the stroller almost the entire time.  See aforementioned description of ridiculous crowds.

Cat's 2nd Softball Season

(originally published January 21st, 2016)

Soon after we got back from our big trip back east, Cat's softball team had their end-of-season cookout.

The team started practicing together toward the end of April and the first game was May 21st (and it was COLD and RAINY!).  Last year's coach had moved up with her daughter, so the team had a new coach.  Coach Steve was a very nice man and Cat got along with everyone really well.  One thing that made it even more fun this year was that two of her friends joined the same team.  Also, since they were given yellow shirts with black writing, we got to cheer for the Minions all season long.  Very cool.

Cat didn't get to do any pitching last year because the coach let the older girls play that position.  Cat was looking forward to being one of the older girls this year so that she could pitch, but the league changed the rules so that the coaches pitched to their own batters instead.  Oh well.

I'm scratching my head about it now, but I literally only took pictures during the first game of the season.  I really don't know why.  I suppose I kept thinking I would bring my camera to a game later on, and never did.  (Plus, it's hard to get good pictures of a softball game because of that darn chain link fence, although I am grateful for the fence...) But I do have a few pictures to share.

The team was pretty good and placed second overall in the regular season.  They would have had a good chance of winning the tournament except that it was double elimination, and the first two games were played while we were on our big trip back east.  Cat was one of the better players on the team so she missed those games, and the other two good players happened to be on vacation at the same time, so that timing was unfortunate.  The team lost both of those games.  But they had a great time playing together, and Cat has already started asking me when it will be time to sign up for softball again.

I made another softball cake to bring to the cookout and the girls and their siblings had a great time playing on the playground and then playing a game of water softball after dinner.

Pre-Pioneer Day Fun

(originally published January 14th, 2016)

The week before Pioneer Day we took the kids to Salt Lake for the Days of '47 Family Festival.  While trying to find the festival we ran into barriers for a parade, so we would try another street and have the same problem.  After a few attempts to go around the parade we gave up, parked, and watched the parade.  The floats were entertaining, but more entertaining for Ben and me were the inventive pronunciations the emcee used, and more entertaining for the kids were the characters who walked over to say hello.

Once the parade was over and we drove to Washington Square for the Family Festival on Washington Square, where we had fun trying out Pioneer-Era activities.  Ben was the most successful stilt-walker and stick-puller.  (Though technically he never got me off the ground.)  Jack managed to win a stick pull match against Eliza and was by far the most enthusiastic potato-sack-racer.

The most popular activity at the festival for our kids, and everyone else there, was building your own wooden items from The Home Depot.  The kids LOVED this and played with the trucks they made (the 3 younger) for a long time afterward, some of them even coloring them when we got home.  Cat made a bird house which turned out pretty great too.  Note to self: sign kids up for kid workshops at Home Depot.

As we walked back to the car the kids tried out some of the carnival games that were set up in that part of the park.  When I look at this picture I think, "With your powers combined..."

That night a babysitter took care of the younger three so Ben and I could take Cat back up to Salt Lake for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day concert.  It was Cat's first MoTab concert and it really was wonderful.  Laura Osnes was the featured soloist and she has an amazing voice.  The bulk of the concert was devoted to musical theater pieces, some of which were familiar to us, some of which weren't, but it was all fantastic.

Zoorassic Park

My kids go to a charter school that prefers to make its own rules.  So it doesn't begin or end its school year on the same days as the rest of our school district.  We finished school a day earlier than everyone else, so I thought that the following day, when everyone else would still be at school, would be the perfect day to take my kids to the zoo.  We would beat the mid-summer heat and avoid the school's-out crowds, right?  Wrong.  Although the weather was lovely, the zoo was pretty crowded with field trips.  Who knew?  But we had a great time anyway.

The zoo was in the midst of a special event called Zoorassic Park.  They had several full-sized (fake, in case you were wondering) dinosaurs scattered throughout the zoo, some of which made noises; some of which moved around in exciting, if not realistic, robotic fashion; and some of which sprayed water.  The kids loved spotting these during the day.

The new African Safari enclosure was really great.
See the giraffe?

Zebras and an ostrich.

Luke loved seeing all the animals!

I spy some sleeping lionesses...

and a sleeping monkey of some kind...

and some awake but definitely resting gorillas.

I don't remember now what animals were depicted on this wall.
I think orangutans.  But I'm not positive.
Whatever they are, Cat is bigger than an adult. 

When we arrived at the bird show, Jack and Eliza hopped
in a picture with a Peregrine Falcon. Cool!

The bird show was by far the highlight of the day.
It was so fun to see birds from around the world who had been
trained to fly from one side of the theater to the other.
The tropical birds talked and did tricks and were really funny.

See the eagle flying to the trainer?

Here's a parrot flying under the shade.

Eliza hopped in a picture with an injured Bald Eagle when the show
was over.  This one's name was Liberty.

When we were walking by the theater later on we could see the doves flying
around under the shade.  The birds get pretty close to the audience and it's
really cool.  We will definitely go to the bird show again next time we're at the zoo.

In the "Rocky Shores" area, Cat played with Luke in the simulated
Pacific tide pool.  She was really sweet with him.

And all of the kids enjoyed going down the slide
inside this lighthouse.  See Eliza waiting her turn at the top?

All of The Bigs fit in the eagle's nest.
I think Jack was pretending to be an eagle..?

The last dinosaur we saw was the T-Rex.  RUN!