Happy Birthday Daddy!

It was Kevin's birthday last week. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Kevin and the boys ready to open his presents	A Monster Truck!	Putting the truck together
Zachary is excited too	Chasing the truck outside	Zachary laughing at the boys being chased by the truck
What are you doing, Mom?	Okay, I've had enough!	Happy Birthday to You!

Hooray for cake and ice cream!
Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!

Ryan's Dream

Last week Ryan woke up crying in the middle of the night. I went in to find out what was wrong and he was mumbling something. I couldn't figure out what it was, probably because he was still partially asleep (and so was I for that matter.). I scooped him up and tried to calm him down, but nothing seemed to work. He didn't want me to rock him or sing to him or lay down by him. He just kept sitting in my lap mumbling something about "ake". I kept asking him if he had an ache in his legs or his arms or anywhere, but kept crying and telling me no. I told him that I didn't know how to help him unless I knew what was wrong. He finally calmed down enough to tell me that "someone took my an ake." What? I had to have him repeat it several times before my sleepy brain finally registered - "Someone took your pancake?" "Yes!" he replied sadly. I gave him a kiss and hug and told him that no took his pancake and that I would make him some in the morning. He crawled off my lap and went right back to sleep. Poor little guy. I would be sad too if someone had taken my pancake.

Matthew's Dream

This dream is more on the scale of wishful thinking.

Matthew: Mom, why don't we go to any car races?

Mom: You mean like the NASCAR races on TV?

Matthew: Yeah.

Mom: Because we don't have a big race track in Utah.

Matthew: Well, I have an idea. We will stay in our house and not move and then when everyone else moves we'll knock down their houses and build a big race track so we can watch the cars. Actually, we'll drive the cars and I will ride in a car with dad because I have a helmet and Ryan might have to wait because he doesn't have a helmet yet but when he does he can ride in a car too.

Mom: Sounds like a great plan.

Matthew: Yes, it is.

4th of July Weekend

This was a busy week for our family. Here is a quick recap of our weekend.

We started at the Hogal Zoo. It was military appreciation day so we got to see all the military families and a lot of military vehicles.	Matthew doesn't quite measure up to the smaller zoo animals but he is one wild and crazy boy.	Ryan loved seeing the monkeys -another group of animals that appreciate going crazy and climbing over everything. He is our little monkey.
Ryan and Matthew went over to see this large elephant statue and right as he was getting next to it...the elephant made a funny trombone sound and it scared Ryan. You can see him running away.	Grandma and Grandpa Tuft came with us and showed us the Bird show. It was great. The boys really loved the birds flying so close.	Here you see Matthew striking a pose at the bird show.
Ryan enjoyed the bird show...but he decided to be a show of his own until it started.	Of course the train ride was the favorite of all the activities. Here is Zach with Dad.	Amy and the boys had to sit in the front of the train. Matthew told us his favorite part was the train.
Here is Ryan with his aunt and cousins in Perry for a little firework fun	Dad was in charge of the fireworks and Matthew was having too much fun.	This was the first year our children weren't afraid of fireworks. It was great!

Are you ever having so much fun that you forget to take pictures? We do. Here are some of the fun things we did, but we forgot to take pictures. We had our traditional fourth of July Chicken with Grandpa and Grandma Tuft. We played on Grandma and Grandpa Tams' waterside and with their squirt toys. Matthew, Ryan, and Dad went camping in the backyard...and they all survived a night of sleeping in a tent. We enjoyed the traditional Perry fourth of July breakfast and parade. Great food, short and entertaining parade, with lots and lots of candy. I'm not sure how but Perry even had an F-16 flyover for breakfast. It was a lot of fun and most important it was a great way to celebrate our country's birthday.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Yesterday we were able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house with Grandma and Grandpa Tuft and Great-Grandma Tuft. The temple was beautiful and the boys did really well for most of it. They especially enjoyed watching the video about temples at the beginning of the tour. When the video showed some of the rooms inside Matthew commented that it looked like a school. We thought that was pretty close to the truth. Matthew and Ryan also liked seeing the baptismal font, so much so that Amy had to do a quick grab before Ryan was down the stairs into the water. Both Matthew and Ryan liked pointing out pictures of Jesus on the walls and finding the colors reflected in the beautiful chandeliers. Ryan got a little antsy toward the end and wanted to get down to touch everything "by myself," but overall it was a good experience and the boys really enjoyed it. Zachary did great in the stroller and didn't complain until the very end, but we think that was because we were all having cookies that he wasn't allowed to taste. We had a lot of fun with the grandparents and it was wonderful to have great-grandma with us. We hope to visit again soon.