Happy Thanksgiving!

We took full advantage of G's full week off from school and spent time together as a family doing extra fun activities over the Thanksgiving break.  First, we celebrated all that we are thankful for with our church family.  I forgot the camera so I don't have any pics but G1 performed in the talent show.  She likes to be on stage and since it was in front of people she has known her whole life she had a great time.  Then, despite warnings of a blizzard being on its way, we headed South.  First stop was our hotel.  It had a water park instead of a regular pool.  It was pretty awesome for the kids.  A shallow area and toy for the boys to hang out on and three other pools and a big water slide for G1.  That kid loves to swim and is quite a little fish!  Both boys love the water too so we all had a great time playing.



G2 cruising around in the shallow pool. 

  Next we headed over to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.  The kids love the exhibits on the main floor. 

W working construction.

Playing at the market.  I think this was her favorite area.  There were quite a few "older" kids in here and they had quite the imaginations and a lot of fun!

 I cannot get the pic of G2 at his favorite station to upload but they had this really cool area with balls and all sorts of tunnels, tracks, and wind to play with the balls in.  I think this was my fav station too.  G2 and I spent A LOT of time here and we both had a lot of fun!

Since the weather was still looking clear, we decided to head up to the Heber Valley Railroad for a ride on the North Pole Express.  G1 was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing while the boys were just super excited to get to ride in a passenger car.  Don't let W's facial expressions fool you---he WAS having a good time (he just refuses to smile at the camera lately!)

Waiting for departure on The North Pole Express

We were served cookies and hot chocolate on the way to the North Pole.  Then we had a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.  All the kids were REALLY excited!  And G1's apprehensions melted away!!  All three of the kids were anxious to talk to Santa.  G2 was NOT into Mrs. Claus at all and would scoot away from her when she tried to talk to him and would give her this hilarious look.  Good thing Mrs. Claus has a great sense of humor!


Kozmo Kids with Santa Claus @ the North Pole

The train ride was filled with caroling, stories, opportunities for the kids to talk/sing into a microphone, and just fun time together as a family.  We got a few chuckles out of the kids Christmas lists:

G1: a bunny rabbit---yes, a live rabbit.  Parents unite---live animals are NOT allowed on Santa's sleigh! 

W: Shamu and a yellow engine--are we running a zoo around here?  I'm cool with a yellow engine though.

G2: an engine---Phew---no animal requests from this little guy yet!

Also--G1 is wondering what Mrs. Claus' first name is.  She is voting for Arlene. Maybe I'll have to start a blog poll on this most interesting question.



To add to the ambiance of our trip to the North Pole, Mother Nature let loose the blizzard we had been warned about and it was gorgeous outside the windows.  Not so cool while we were driving back down to the city in minimal visibility.  Lots of safe, slow drivers and not one accident or slide off on the 50 mile drive down the canyon!  We finished off our mini vacation with another swim at the water park and then headed home to spend the holiday with the rest of our family (the pups of course!)! 

We spent Thanksgiving day quietly at our house with a meal with all the fixings and some Macy's parade watching.  Friday, we braved 12 degree weather and watched the light parade downtown.  Then on Saturday we celebrated the holiday with friends at their family get together.  Another great meal and fun time talking and playing games.  This Thanksgiving season, I am once again reminded of how truly blessed we are in so many ways.  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!







Snow fun....

He said he wanted to play outside in the snow and he went and got himself "dressed". 

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

In August, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was in our town building a home for a local family.  I have watched this show only a few times, with most of my viewing in the last several years being the credits rolling as I prepare to watch Desperate Housewives (a guilty pleasure of mine to watch this show!)  But, with this being a fairly small community, the celebrities in town for the taping of the show brought with it a lot of excitement and a ton of news coverage in the local paper and on the news each evening (Jillian Harris--former Bachelorette was even in town--OK,OK, so all my trashy shows are out in the open now!!  Anyway, I would have loved to run into her!)!!  We took special interest in the show because of the excitement about a national show coming to town as well as several of the kids in the family (the Marshall-Spreier family) chosen to have the house built for them go to G's school.  We do not know them personally, but a lot of my mom friends do know them and they tell me the family is incredibly deserving of this amazing gift they were given.  They are a family that is super active in the community even though they have had some rough luck over the past several years.  The kids and I went down to experience the process one afternoon---although the motivation of the whole excursion was so they could ride the city bus to the taping location!  Well, while we were there, they actually taped a scene and that was pretty fun to watch (we were way in the back, no chance of us being on TV thankfully!).  Ty Pennington, the hunky host of the show, was out for our viewing pleasure, the crowd was screaming, booms and cameras were swinging around---needless to say, it was hard not to be excited!  The whole local media coverage and buzz around town was pretty cool---even though our town has some oddities, this experience showed that it is also has a lot of heart!

You can see some of the booms that were being used for filming.  Pretty cool!

Ty Pennington in the back of the truck in the blue plaid shirt. 
He was literally throwing things out of the truck for volunteers to catch and run into the house to decorate.  Notice the pillow in the air.

The finished Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
 Not sure if you will be able to tell on the show that is aired, but this home really does fit into the wonderfully eclectic University area neighborhood

The show is set to air on Sunday November 7th, on ABC, 8/7 central.  If you do watch well, I think it makes it much more interesting to know some of the stories from behind the scenes---life changes for other people who never expected Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to affect their life!

**our neighbor's brother's flower shop did all the floral arrangements for the home that you will see.  One of his employees happens to also be the service coordinator that worked with W for three years in the Infant-Toddler program (hope you followed that one!)  We are really excited for Mandy (a social worker by day!) to have all of her beautiful flower arrangements on national television!!!  Also, my neighbor went in the home to help her brother place all the flower arrangements.  While she was there, they had her help with some taping scenes--we will be looking for her during the show!

**a previous playgroup Mom peer of mine met and fell in love with one of the shows producers while taping was going on.  She is planning on getting married to him soon!