Mamma Mia, 1/2 Marathon's, Dinosaur Museums, and $2 Tuesdays.

Mamma Mia-Ladies Night Out

Thursday night, the Cox ladies all gathered to enjoy a ladies night out. We went to Mamma Mia, which was a hit, and then to Hires to chat about random topics that included synchronized swimming, politics and Paris Hilton. It's always a fun time with the Cox ladies.

Race Day-Provo 1/2 Marathon

Next up, Kathy and family came to visit for a couple of days. She came to run the Provo Half Marathon with me. She was there to support me when I hit mile 11-I curse the 2.1 miles that looped to the finish in the Riverwoods shopping area!!

Dinosaur Museum

Kathy and I took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum while Lo and Chad headed to South Mountain to get in a golf game. The kids literally ran from one exhibit to the next, unfortunately for us, they ran in different directions.

We have had a couple of FUN weeks full of family visits and hope for many more to come.

$2 Tuesdays at the Children's Discovery Gardens

Drew, Sommey and I enjoyed a fun day in the sun on Wednesday. Notice the llama(I think it's a llama) in the window taking aim at the two cute and oblivious kiddos splashing their way around Noah's ark. Note to self: other people are aware of $2 Tuesdays -the proof is in the next picture.

Even amidst the million people participating in our day at the Discovery Gardens, we had a great time. There was a lot for the kids to see and do. Sadly, my camera ran out of power, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked of our fun day.

Visitors, VICTORY, and Birthday Parties

We had a fun-filled week that started on Monday night. Kristin and Makaila came to stay the week with us and we kept our days full of activities. Some of our adventures included a visit to the Capital, Temple Square, an attempted hike to Bridal Veil Falls, BYU Museum of Art, Hogle Zoo, a Birthday party, and a peaceful stroll down the Jordan River parkway. Lindsay and Calvin also stayed over Saturday night and celebrated Drew's #5 Birthday with us.

AND THE FUN BEGINS:

TUESDAY- We headed to the Capital, which I somehow managed to get zero pictures of and then later that night went up to Cabela's where the kids enjoyed looking around and then shot some guns for a bit.

WEDNESDAY-We attempted to hike up to Bridal Veil Falls, but due to my neglectful news watching, I was unaware of the fire in the canyon. No one was allowed up the canyon trail because of the fire, so we let the kids play on a nearby playground and took some pictures by the river. We actually ended up going to the BYU Museum of Art which was fun to see again. They have some amazing art there. THURSDAY- We saw the sights at Temple Square. Drew took this picture of all of us at the Joseph Smith Building. He is all about taking pictures lately and did a pretty darn good job with this shot.

Sommer and Makaila looking pretty amongst the flowers.

We walked around the gardens and also stopped by the Church History Museum where we all loved the cute, and hands on, I am a Child of God exhibit. Joseph seems to have an uneasy look on his face. Perhaps he was expressing concern for his sheep.FRIDAY- We enjoyed a day at Hogle Zoo. We had a VERY hot, train, carousel, and animal filled day.

SATURDAY- AUGUST 2, Drew's Birthday. We had a little pizza, pinata, cake, and were finally victorious and found the little Train Station, we have attempted to visit 3 times previously, open for visitors.

Kristin and Makaila gave Drew a cool watch and Calvin and Lindsay brought a Pinata. The kids loved taking turns with the bat and were very happy when Droozer finally knocked the candy out.

Drew had taken 400 pictures by the 2nd day of his camera ownership. I will have to post some of the pictures he has been capturing on his cool orange camera. Some of the shots he has taken are hilarious.

SUNDAY- Sunday morning Kristin, Makaila, Lindsay and Calvin headed back to Denver. We loved their visit and look forward to seeing them again soon.

Lo was in the ALBQ for a friend's wedding and missed Birthday party #1 ,so when he arrived home in the early afternoon we had Birthday party #2. Grandpa and Mimi and Mardi brought some cool gifts and we all enjoyed a BBQ and more yummy Birthday cake. Drew was a BIG fan of the Birthday party repeat.

The Catch-Up Post....the longest entry to date

We've been busy over the last couple of weeks and it's time to catch up and document some of our good times. The fun began with our neighbors new find: three homeless ducks that are sadly now down to only one.
I guess you could say our neighbor kids have, literally, loved them to death(sad, I know). They brought the remaining duck over for a visit and my kids were happy hanging out with it for a moment and perhaps loved it a bit too much as well.RODEOS
Next up were a couple of Rodeos: Fiesta Days in Spanish Fork on Monday night, and The Days of 47,on Tuesday night. Our seats at the Fiesta Days rodeo were right over the chutes. It was awesome to watch and hear the cowboys gear up for their event and have a bit of dirt hit your shoulder as the horses and bulls bucked their way out into the arena.

We headed to the The Days of 47 rodeo the next night and ended up leaving after the half -time show. I think we were a little tired after getting home late from the rodeo the night before. We still had a fun time and how often is it that you get the chance to see two Bison and a cowboy on top of a horse trailer???

SWIMMING LESSONS

Between ducks and rodeos, Drew was also becoming a pro at his swimming lessons at the Legacy Center. It was two weeks of swimming bliss and he passed with flying colors.

On the last day, his teacher made a train with the class in the water, which was an obvious winning combination for Drew. Can life really get any better??

TOUR of SALT LAKE CITY

Next up was our tourist day in Salt Lake City. Lo and I decided to head to Salt Lake on Saturday and check out some of the sites we haven't seen in a while. We started at the Capital.

We wanted to check out the renovations that were done over the last few years and it was really impressive.

Drew even managed to get in one of his sweet dance moves on the stairs.

After the Capital we headed to the Trax station to take a ride in the Free Zone and headed over to the city library, which I had not visited yet. Drew's face will give you an idea of how happy he was to be riding the Trax train.

We went up to the roof of the library to look out over the city. There were great places to sit down and some gardens that they keep up there..... Who knew?
We had a great time and the only thing we had to pay for that day was our lunch at Hires Big H and the $300 in gas for our 40 minute drive.

IDAHO

Our next destination was Idaho. We went up for the 24th Holiday and spent some time at Grandpa and Grandma Moss's house. Lo, Jake and Grandpa were MIA for most of the trip due to their many tee times at various golf courses in the area, but we managed to all have a great time together and on our own.The huge beach ball was a hit. Sommer and Drew fought over and played with the ball a lot.

We also went on a fun hike near Heise. It felt like it was 150 degrees that day, but we still enjoyed pretty scenery and yummy ice cream that rewarded us for our hiking efforts.
My Mom took us over to the gardens at the college where the kids ran around and we took some pictures.
On Saturday night and after a fun BBQ, Jake showed us all a great time. He has his pilot's license and reserved a plane for a couple of hours. He was nice enough to take us up for a little flight over Idaho. He even gave us a chance to try flying, which made me way too nervous.
Jake and I went up together and then he took Drew and Lo up together. Lo was A LOT braver than I was when it came to try flying the plane-he loved it. They said that Drew kept asking for his turn to try flying the plane. Notice Drew's cute little head peaking out behind Lo and Jake.
He looked so cute and smooth with his shades and head set. We all had such a fun time. I did get a bit sick right before we landed, but other than that I was good to go. Jake flew us over our house and my mom said that if we could have seen her, she was waving at us in our front yard. It was really fun time.
I got a couple shots of the plane as Jake took off with Lo and Drew. Thanks for a fun flight Jake!

FIREWORKS

After our fun flight, we headed over to opening night of the Dance Festival . We actually went over at the very end of the show so that we could see the fireworks. We ended up finding a spot right under the fireworks show. In fact, we were so close that they had to pause the show for a moment until we moved out of the way just a bit. So, if you were at the Dance Festival opening ceremonies, and wondered why the long pause in the fireworks, you can thank my neighbors and family for that. It was a great ending to a fun trip to Idaho and a busy and fun filled couple of weeks.