Saturday Afternoon

On Saturday, we wanted to stop by Thanksgiving Point because it was the last day that our pass was valid.  We went to the Farm Country first and it was packed.  More than packed.  The line went out the door and around the corner and so far that we couldn't even see the end.  Well, we weren't going to spend all day in line, so we went to the Children's Gardens instead (they are never crowded).  The boys loved playing on this rope jungle gym.

Bridger up at the top:

Saxon right in the middle:

And Dalton at the bottom, wishing we would let him climb up...

After we came home, we drove up to Crystal Hot Springs again with Mike.

We had one pass left and we decided to use it since it wasn't going to be too warm out.

It's not as fun to sit in a hot pool when it's hot outside.

Me and baby Dalton painted out toenails green.

I was painting mine and he sat on my lap and gave me his little toes.

So I painted them green.

He's very proud of his green little piggies.

It was a really gorgeous day out.  We all got a little sunburned.

At the end, Mike even bought Saxon a pass to go down the slide.

He was in heaven.

He went over and over until it was time to go.

On the way home we stopped by this famous ice cream place in Ogden called "Farr better" or something like that.  They had a ton of flavors and my boys picked "play-doh" flavor.  It had the brightest colors and I figured that it was probably just vanilla.  I tasted Bubby's and it was really gross.  It tasted like play-doh.  So gross.  Mike thought I was being dramatic so he tasted it.  Yep, play-doh.  Dalton got coconut though and it was amazing!

 (cait. create. etsy listing)

"Hush little baby..." has always been one of my favorite lullabies.

My mom taught it to me, and now I sing it to my kids.

We sing a lot of lullabies at my house trying to get my kids in bed.

Last night, I put all of my kids to bed and told them not to come out for anything less than the room burning down.

Saxon asked "So, if we think the house is burning down we can come out?"

"No, you have to actually see flames.  Good-night".  And I shut the door.

Five minutes later..."MOM!"

I peek in there "Bridger is pretty sure he saw flames..." 

Later, once Saxon and Dalton had been snuggled to sleep, I sat on my bed snuggling Bridger and singing "Hush little baby..."  They call it the "Knockingbird song" LOL.

After I sang every verse, and got to the end, Bridger said, "Thanks mom.  Now can you sing the Avengers Theme Song.  That's my favorite."

"Umm...I don't think I know the Avengers song?"

"Everyone knows it...Saxon knows it...Dad knows it...you don't even know it?"

"We could go watch it on TV so you can know it." 

Apparently I have some things to learn.

In the mean time, I sang "Hush little baby..." about a dozen more times.

Grandpa Sonnenberg's 90th

On Sunday afternoon, we had my Grandpa Sonnenberg's 90th Birthday Party!

My Dad came into town to surprise them.

They started to cry when they saw him, so he said he considered the trip a success.

Dalton made himself at home on the window seat, and Saxon and Bridger found some friends and explored the house.

Singing Happy Birthday to Grandpa...

Love this picture!

We had a really sweet program to honor Grandpa.

All of his kids that were there stood up to say something about him.

Some of the great-grandkids performed, and at the end, my cousin Renee's daughter Allison play "I am a child of God" on the guitar while all of the great-grandkids sang.  

At first Saxon refused but Pops said he'd give him a dollar.

Saxon said "I already have a dollar." (he found one somewhere?)

Pops said "I'll give you two."

So Saxon joined the group (in the back of course.)

Then Bridger said "I'll go for two dollars."

Pops agreed and so Bridger joined Saxon in the back of the group.

Me and my kids with Grandpa.

Grandma and Grandpa Sonnenberg and my family:

Gregor and Joy with Grandma and Grandpa:

I love the picture of Grandpa and Gregor.  They are like two peas in a pod.  Grandpa is always reminding Gregor to remember who he is named after (Gregor John).

Grandpa --->Dean--->Gregor...can you tell they're related :)

Saxon and Bridger helping Grandma open her present that they brought her and Baby Dalton spinning in the chair:

Grandma and I in our Surrealist skirts!

I wanted to make sure to get a picture with Grandma and Baby Dalton since he is named after her.

Aunt Joan was in town too which was really fun.

After the party, we all sat around listening to Aunt Joan, Uncle Brent, and my Dad tell stories.  I was so funny!  We've all heard the story about Grandma running over the cat, but I guess Uncle Brent was the one who had to scrap it off the driveway and throw it away.  I loved Grandpa's reaction too.  He said "You just threw it away?  You didn't bury it?"  I don't know if he thought Brent should have buried it, or if he was just surprised because they had so many buried pets out back that Grandma once set they had a pet cemetery.

Then Uncle Jim text Grandpa to say that his favorite memory was all of their trips to Florida, esp. the one where they left Brent at the gas station.

My Dad said that they left him at church once and didn't realize it until another member of the ward called and said "Did you know you left Dean at church."  And Grandpa replied "We did?  Oh.  Well, could you just bring him home then?"

Aunt Joan talked about how they were always poking holes in the basement ceiling with the pool cues. Then Brent brought up how they lost the hamster once and every so often it would peek through the holes in the basement ceiling and everyone would shout "There it is!" but no one could get it because it was between levels of the house.  Then one day Grandma found it in the box of Wheaties and said it was so fat from eating Wheaties all day every day.

Then they started joking about cooking.  I guess Oma always made true German food...meat and potatoes.  Grandma also made German meat and potatoes for Grandpa.  Although about once a week she would make a tuna casserole.  They said that Grandpa would come home and tell Grandma how lovely dinner looked and then say "aren't the socks in town tonight?"  Then he would load up the boys in the car and head to the baseball field.  When Grandma would ask about dinner he would say, "Oh, we'll just grab a hot dog."  Then he would get to park by the exit because he's a doctor and needed an easy way out in case anyone called for him (he's a dentist) :)

Then my Dad brought up "creamed chipped beef".  He asked Grandma for the recipe and she didn't respond.  At first we thought she didn't hear, and then she said "why do you want that?  You never liked that!"  LOL.  He never did like it but he thought it would be funny to make for his family :)  Grandpa said that whenever Grandma would make "creamed chipped beef" everyone would go diving for the cereal.

One thing that really impressed me when everyone was talking about Grandma and Grandpa was how everyone kept saying "I always knew that Grandma and Grandpa wanted me."  It's hard to make middle children feel "really wanted" especially in large families.  I'm going to have to ask for some advice.  I love my children and hope they always feel "really wanted."

They also joked about driving to Florida in the station wagon and having other people try to count how many heads were in the car because there were so many kids.

Grandpa and I always joke that I am following his pattern (3 boys first).  He thinks I should have 7 like they did.  They started off in an apartment too and had all 3 of their boys in the little apartment.  Then they moved to a little house and then each house after that was bigger.

I can't remember any more of their stories, but if I think of them, I'll add them in because they were hilarious!

Me and my Dad.

I told him that the last picture of us together was probably from my wedding.

I forced Mike into this picture but I think it turned out good :)

Grandpa with me and Baby Dalton.

Dalton LOVED this balloon.  He kept throwing it.  At one point, he threw it and it started to go over the railing.  I tried to hit it back to us but it just went higher, then Grandma hit it, then Joan, and then it got caught in a breeze and went up on the roof.  Then it flew over the roof and back down the other side where Nate caught it and gave it back to Dalton.  He loved it!

Happy 90th Birthday Birthday Grandpa!  We LOVE you!

Day 6 of Spring Break

On Day 6 of Spring Break was going back to Crystal Hot Springs.

We went with Mike and some of our favorite neighbors.

Our neighbors have 3 boys like us, and all 3 the same ages.

It was perfect.

The boys played for hours and would have stayed all day if they could.

And we all got a little sunburned which felt good because it felt like summer is almost here.

The pool was hotter this time, and the air was hotter so we sat on the side a lot.

The boys went down the big slide and LOVED it!

They spent a lot of time in the cold pool too which was freezing!

Dalton has been getting better at his words too.

When we took him in the big pool he said "no, hot!"

He liked the cold pool better too!

After, we went to Cafe Rio and then got ice cream.

It was so fun because it took up almost the whole day and felt like a road trip.

On the way home we stopped at Nordstrom and my cousin Corey's girlfriend helped us pick some cool new shoes for Saxon for this summer.  He is soooo excited about them!

Nudie Baby

Day 4 of Spring Break:

Day 4 started out with Dalton pooping on the floor.

Then he touched it.

Then I put him in the sink while I went to scrub the floors.

When I came back in he had emptied a bottle of hand soap into the sink to make bubbles, and was brushing his teeth with Bridger's toothbrush.

This is the mean look I got when I turned off the water so it didn't overflow:

Luckily Mike saved the day by inviting us to lunch.

That was a "fun thing" on Day 4...lunch with Mike :)

Tulips

For Day 2 of Spring Break, we decided to go to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens.

I was hoping that with all of the warm weather, there would be some tulips.

There were!  It was so pretty!!!

We took pictures, rolled down the hill, saw the fish, and ran around.

Even baby Dalton walked the whole time.

That's a lot of walking for a little guy...I was really proud of him!

Saxon wanted to be the photographer for a while.

He did a pretty good job :)

It was the big camera so he had to look through the viewfinder.

Once we had made it all the way around the gardens, I let the boys roll down the big hill for a while.  Baby Dalton was trying so hard to copy the big boys.  He didn't quite get how to roll, but he did some great scooting down the hill.

Saxon and Bridger are best buddies.  I love that they are such good friends!  Saxon told me once that he knew Bridger in heaven and that they decided then to be best buddies.

Day 3 of Spring Break was the movies.

Nate had to work on Wednesday night, so Wednesday morning he took the boys outside to fly kites.  After he left for work I took the kids to see "The Secret World of Arrietty."  I felt very brave going to the movies by myself with the 3 boys.  It was a lot of work, but they were so excited to go to a real movie and get popcorn and sodas.  Luckily, we have a really great dollar theater across the street that even has dollar treats.  It was fun :)

Aviary

Since this week is Saxon's Spring Break, I decided that I want to try to do something fun everyday.  We'll see how it goes...

Day 1 of Spring Break:

Tracy Aviary in SLC

 Our pass of all passes work at the Aviary on Mondays, and since Monday was such a nice day, I wanted to go.  Luckily, Mike wanted to go too and that was a HUGE help.

It was a beautiful day out and the boys loved the birds.

We even made it in time for the bird show which was really cool.

The Amazon exhibit was indoors so the boys took a break on the bench:

Then they measured how big they were against the wingspan of an owl:

The wetlands:

Me and my cute boys:

Left: Dalton's favorite part of the day...the pelicans.  He loved watching the pelicans chase the ducks.

Right:  Dalton's least favorite part of the day...the free-roaming peacocks.  He is terrified of animals and this one got way too close.

The big boys loved the peacocks and chased them back around the park.

At the end of a fun adventure!