Finish swimming, 7 Peaks, birthday!

Yep, today is my 41th birthday (but HUGE thanks to brother John who called and said, "Happy 29th birthday! It sure it weird to now have THREE sisters older than me!" - he is #5 out of 6 kids).
I think the next year will be dedicated to living well (and calmly and simply).
No pictures of the birthday-pumpkin pie - but Ashley did a great solo of singing Happy Birthday while she ate ice cream!
But here are some more things we have been doing this week! (tomorrow is Moo's birthday, so I wanted to give him his own post).
Blessed seester Heather came to see me this week. We left the girls with a sitter and took the boys on our annual trips to Wally World and D.I. I got these AWESOME test tubes for only $1! Entertainment value: about 10 hours so far.

Then we went down to Provo on Friday to go to 7 Peaks.  Josh worked hard (analyzing data from the latest test). We chatted, played and had fun, then went to the park. FUN!!

And here is the great present my sweetie got me for my birthday: a mini-tablet! So I can do all my Relief Society stuff while I am right there! HEhehe, he is so smart and wonderful. Thanks love!

Happy birthday to me! And thanks to my wonderful mom for birthing me. I love you Mom!

Swmming, dinosaurs, cousins

Swimming lessons started this week. Josh was home, so he got to take Moo for the first "parent and me" class (yah! And then I could take pictures!). The girls are MUCH better at following directions and general swimming this year.

On Wednesday, we loaded up in the Herrings (awesome) 12-peoples van and headed to the Ogden Dinosaur Park! (there were TWO whole spots left over).

Bugs (aka "School Bus Driver") using her fancy phone to get us directions:

A good time was had by all. (I am not sure about the dinosaurs or birds that were chased all over)

 Getting eaten by a dinosaur (check out the background)

 You could dig for fossils

 Or sluice for gold

The girls wanted to do every single photo op:

 First there was one:

 Then two:

 Then hopefully three!

 The sign says "Worlds Most Dangerous Creatures." Everyone is making their "scary face."

The inside museum was pretty cool with LOTS of things to touch:

 And Saturday, Aunt Danell and favorite cousins Cass, Austin and Braxton came to play in our cool pool and check out the art festival. And the girls went shopping -yah! AND Josh and Danell took all the kids to the pool and I got to take a nap ALONE!! (after I got send home from the funeral because Tracy said I was too sick to serve food). ALONE TIME!! THANK YOU!!!

Make up + Moo

Oh, you knew it was coming:

The girls discovered Moo will sit still long enough to get make up on him!
Josh got to be home for a WHOLE night and day! But he was a sickie with a cold and yuckies. So he and Ellie (who has a bad allergy coughing day) stayed home from church. THEN he CALLED in SICK! So he gets to spend a whole nother night at home!! Here he is playing Monopoly Jr. with the girls during quiet time:

Best daddy EVER!!!

We now (heart) 7 Peaks

So you remember the girls now TOTALLY (heart) Lagoon (they love roller coasters)? Well today, in an attempt to give Josh some quiet sleeping time, we motored on down to Provo. Heather and I did some delightful fruit price-matching with only the Moo-Man.
Then we all got ready and headed to 7 Peaks! (which was actually open.) As we drove toward it the girls started yelling "we want to go there!"
It was pretty freaking fun.
First we did the wave pool: VERY POPULAR

Then we did the lazy river. VERY POPULAR

Then we did the kiddie pool with little slides. VERY POPULAR. Thank you Aunt Holly for your extra pair of arms! And thanks Uncle Jason and Aunt Heather for showing us all the cool places to visit!

Also note: Moo has been swimming before - A LOT. When he was in the little floatie - he leaned right back and had this "ahh summer" expression on his face. Here he is, doing the same thing, on the towels:

Cute-ness! We want to keep you little man!

Grinding flours and hair cuts!

So I was all ambitions a few nights ago (remember Josh is gone at night) and updated my flours. I grinded (is that a word?) these things into flour with my spiffy new grinder: buckwheat, millet, oatmeal, teff and quiona (stinky!).

I have recipes that call for all these flours, so I am ready to bake some more!
Also, since we got permission for the big hair cut - we took all the kiddos to get their hairs cut. Ash cut off about 3 inches, Ellie got a trim and now Moo looks like a little boy!