Museum Day

Awhile back I bought a year pass to the Arizona Museum for Youth.  It's a small, but highly interactive museum in downtown Mesa and it's perfect for my kids ages right now.  They absolutely love it there!  The pass has been worth every penny because we go ALL the time.  It's a perfect place for my kids to go let out energy, play, learn, and do arts and crafts.  If anyone ever wants to come with us, I can get one person besides us in for free!

Grocery Shopping

My favorite princesses

Zoo day

I took my kids to the zoo yesterday.  Our pass expires on the 28th of this month, so I wanted to go one more time.  It wasn't crowded, the weather was an absolute perfect 65 degrees, and my kids were surprisingly good.  Overall it was a really relaxing day at the zoo.  (Until Kate threw an enormous tantrum in the gift shop- but I'm trying to forget about that part.)

Max was really fun to watch at the zoo that day.  He tried to make all the animal sounds, and everything green and scaly was an "alligator".  He is obsessed with alligators right now.  I'm sad that our zoo doesn't have any!  He loved every animal except for the lion.  He was so afraid of it!

We did one thing we've never done at the zoo before, and that was a camel ride!  I let Kate go all by herself and she did awesome!  She was so brave.  When I asked her how it was she said "lumpy".

It was so much fun, and I love every time we go to the zoo.  I may need to renew that pass again...

Daily project catch up

Well the Utah trip and then sickness threw a huge wrench in my 365 project. I missed a lot. Here are some that I haven't posted here.

Daydreamer

Serious Artist

Tiny hero

Love

Why??

Daddy Daughter date

Giggle

Gilbert Temple at dusk

Dolly Doctor

iPad camping

First night in a big boy bed

Pocket full of sunshine

"The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house on the cold, cold wet day"

Valentines Day

Valentines Day was wonderful this year! Here's a run down of how it went!

I had laid out the kids gifts from me so they would see them when they woke up. I made them fleece blankets and flannel pjs.   They saw them, snuggled in their blankets for a bit, then I made our traditional holiday pancakes.  I tried to dye them pink, but I was out of pink food coloring, so they were purple this year.  Then I went one step further and tried to make them look like hearts.  They weren't very cute, but Kate really liked them so that's all that matters. 

Then I loaded up the kids in the car because we had a few errands to run at the mall.  While we were there I decided on a whim that we were going to go into Build-a-Bear and make some stuffed animals.  The kids were SO excited!  Kate loved it of course, but it was so fun to see Max get into it.

Kate picked out a bunny, and Max picked a dog.  This was very impromptu- so all these pics are with my iphone.

Such a big boy making his dog!

Kate's turn.  She named her bunny "Rollerskate".

After they were stuffed, the kids took them over to the bathing station to make sure they were clean and brushed.  Then I let them buy 1 out fit for each of their creations.

The finished results!  "Rollerskate" and "Doggie"!

Later that day these beautiful flowers were delivered to my door! 

I got Dustin some new jeans and lots of candy.  Kate drew him a "hulk smash" card.  Dustin gave Max a Shake and Go car, and Kate a pot of gerber daisies.  She was so excited to get flowers too!

We ordered pizza that night and hung out as a family.  When the kids went to bed I put them in their new jammies.

It was a perfect day!

Utah

A couple weekends ago we took a trip to Utah.  We haven't been there in over 3 years because:

1) its a 12 hour drive
2) we have kids that hate long drives

But my brother got a part in BYU's Phantom of the Opera and I haven't seen him in any of his shows since high school, and I hadn't seen any of my family up there for 3 years- so we were way overdue for a visit.  We braved it and made the loooooong drive up to Orem, UT.  We drove up Feb 1st, and came home on the 4th.  It was a really fast trip but we ended up squeezing in seeing just about all my relatives that live up there even if it was only for a little bit.

We stayed at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi.  Right next to our hotel was a Museum of Ancient History.  We had some time to kill in the morning, so we went and played over there!

It was such a cute museum and the kids just went crazy over it.  They had so many dinosaur bones, a huge water and sand table play area, and big sandboxes where the kids could excavate bones. 

That night was Phantom of the Opera.  We dropped my kids off at my cousin Tasha's house.  Turns out I hadn't seen Tasha since my wedding.  Almost 9 years ago!  What?  Crazy how time flies.  I'm glad I got to see her and that she was available to watch my littles.  They had a great time!  Thanks again Tasha!  Sorry we couldn't hang out any longer :(  Hopefully it will be sooner than 9 years before I see you again!

(pictures from Tasha's blog)

We made it the the show in the nick of time.  Andy had to guide us in with directions 8 minutes before the show with us running through BYU campus in the middle of winter with no jackets!  But we did make it, and the show was AMAZING.  BYU had a budget of $250,000 to put this on, so they did not skimp on set or costumes.  The actors were wonderful, and I just loved every minute.  Andy played Monsier Leferve, which is the opera owner at the beginning that the other two opera owners purchase the opera house from.  He was very good, and had the most speaking parts out of anyone in the play  (it's mostly sung), after his big scene he was in all the ensemble scenes. 

A lot of my Bottema family was able to make it to the show as well.  Aunt Sherri was there, my family came up (minus Jen and Alex) as well as my cousins Bryce, Amanda, Ron, Elaine, Kim and TJ.  It was a mini reunion there at the show.   Hopefully we can organize a real reunion sometime soon.

The next morning we were able to see catch breakfast with Ron and Elaine before they headed down to Cedar City. 

That afternoon was the Superbowl so we headed up to Toelle to watch the big game at TJ and Kim's house! 

I was able to see my cousins Rachel, Natalie, Khristen and Jared!  I'm so glad we got to see them!

Kim's always the perfect little hostess.

 

The girls chatted through most of the game, and we got in a few rounds of Scattergories during the power outage! 

I'm so glad I got to see most everyone even if it was very briefly.  I'm glad Kate and Max got to meet their second cousins!  Alyssa (Tasha's daughter), Maliah, Anna and Henry (Elaine's kids) and Jackson and Emma (Kim's kids).  They had so much fun playing with all of them!  I wish we lived closer to you all so they could grow up close like we did.  So...everyone move to AZ because we hate the snow!  ;)

It was a lot of fun and we hope it won't be too long before we see everyone again!