Dinosaur Park

I'm slowly coming to the end of my posts for April (finally). Just a couple more. Anyway, back on the 27th of April my mom & I took the boys to Dinosaur Park up in Ogden. We took Noah & Lincoln there eight months ago too, but poor Noah ended up being sick that day. So, ever since then I've been promising him that we'd go back sometime when he was feeling well and could have a fun time!

They both enjoyed running around looking at the more than 60 life-sized dinosaur sculptures that dot the 8 acre outdoor exhibit.

The T-Rex was a understandably a little intimidating for Lincoln, but Noah (who has a better understanding of "pretend") had no problem going right up to him and roaring back!


Lincoln is really into babies right now. So, any of the dinosaurs that were smaller were of course babies to him. At first he'd yell, "Look, Mom! A babysaurus!" (which I thought was super cute). Later he'd just do his cutsie voice and say, "Ooh, a baby! I like it!" like in this video clip:


Lincoln ended up being afraid of the dinosaur sounds they have playing through speakers around the outdoor exhibit (and it was actually amusing to see him starting to show fear of something since that's not a norm for him), so he was relieved to get to the playground area. There were no roaring dinosaur sounds there - and plenty of fun things for them to do!








My mom & Noah.

We found this little face cutout poster near the playground the last time that we visited, but I couldn't resist the photo opportunity again...and then we noticed that there was an area adjacent to the playground that had several of them! So, we snapped a bunch of pictures of the boys with their faces in them. They actually had a lot of fun doing it too! I'll include just a few. Here is Noah with his pet dino...

And here's Lincoln.

This one was by far my favorite! I think it's a combination of the boys' facial expressions and the fact that the cutouts were smaller, so they fit their little faces better. You can click on it to see it larger...

Noah as the "World's Most Dangerous Creature!"

Noah does like cowboy stuff. Yee-haw!

Once we were done with the playground and poster picture taking, we headed over to the pond to feed the fish and birds some old bread that I brought along...


Two really short clips of the boys feeding the fish and birds...




I didn't take any pictures of the indoor exhibits, but the highlight of those (for my boys) was the t-rex and triceratops family that are upstairs. They are motion activated and move and make noises. Pretty cool, so don't miss it if you take your kids there. Lincoln even warmed up to it after a while of being reassured that they wouldn't hurt us.

Thank you so much for coming with us, Mom! The boys love having you with us, and I always have more fun when you are there to share how cute & fun my boys are with me too!

Time for a luau...

Polynesian islands...sand, surf, tropical fruit & flowers, luaus. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Well, we missed out on all those first few things - but we did get to go to a luau! Emily, who learned Tahitian dance at college this semester, invited us to attend the annual luau at Utah State University back on April 23rd. My mom and I drove up together. We ate dinner (catered by Pounders Grill) with Emily's family, and then attended the show!

The Tahitian island dancers (especially Emily!) were obviously the highlight of the show for us, but there were several very enjoyable performances from many of the various islands. Here are just a couple pictures from one of the other islands...


And here are several photos of Emily and the other Tahitian dancers! Doesn't Emily look pretty?









Of course there was picture taking after the show too...here are the Tahitian dancers.

Here is a picture of Emily with her friend Maddy (who she's going to be rooming with next semester)...

That's right, Em...you have reason to be sassy. You were awesome!

Emily complying with my request for a posed picture...

A group shot of the dancers representing all of the different islands.

Emily and her mom.

(left to right: Melissa, Liz, Emily, Kayla) Friends/roommates of Emily's.

Me & Em.

And, for those of you that want to see Emily in action, here are a few video clips! I'll have to remember to show Josh when he gets back in a little over a year! :)



Thanks for inviting us, Em! We had a great time! Love ya!

EarthFest

April 22nd was Earth Day this year. Now, I will woefully admit that we don't normally celebrate that day, but we got to this year! My mom won two tickets on the radio, and then realized that she didn't know any of the bands...so she asked me if we would like to go while she watched the boys. Sweet! So, Mark and I enjoyed a real date that night. There were several hours of slated bands, but when Mark got off work we just headed out to dinner and over to the concert when we were done. We got there as the band Hey Monday was setting up. We enjoyed hearing them play, but even more we enjoyed hearing...Train! Now I wouldn't say that we are "fans" of Train, but I do really enjoy several of their songs - and Patrick Monahan is a really fantastic stage performer. We had a great time.

I'm pretty sure the last concert we went to was when we saw The Cure in Chicago 6 years ago, so it was fun to finally attend something like that together again...and the fact that the tickets (and babysitting!) were free was a huge added bonus! Thanks so much, Mom!

A little clip I took at the concert. Not exactly representative, but you get the idea...

Wheeler Farm

Back on 4/15 we took a trip to Wheeler Farm with my friend Kate and her daughter Anna. It was nice spring weather and we enjoyed meandering through the farm with the kids looking at the animals. Noah kept asking to see the "mean birds" (the geese), so this guy was the highlight of our trip for him.

I think this is such a cute "brothers" picture. Also, when we took this photo Kate said something about Anna that cracked me up. With that expression on her face, and those big sunglasses...she said Anna looked like a mini version of someone with a hangover. Ha! Nice.

Noah by the treehouse.

Anna & her mommy.

Linc.

This picture just about sums up my two year old...

Noah was so excited to get to wear his hat. It was really cute.

Sweet li'l Anna.

A quick shot of Anna & Noah on this old wagon...

...unfortunately Anna wasn't real thrilled with the idea of Noah putting his arm around her for a photo.

Noah in the saddle.

And then it was off to feed the birds.


And to cap off our excursion we enjoyed a little lunch together. Nothing like tiring the boys out, and bringing them home already fed and ready for naptime!