Barn BBQ

I am in charge of the activities for our ward. Our August activity was a Ward BBQ at the Foulger-Pratt Barn. I think it went pretty well with the exception of the humidity and the meat not cooking fast enough, but everyone got fed in the end. We had a great turn out. The best for a ward activity in a long time. We were also lucky enough to have a new convert with a unique talent. She is a clown. We were able to have Toodles the Clown entertain us at the barn. The kids loved it. She kept them so entertained that the adults were able to eat in peace.

Some of the kids weren't so sure about the whole clown thing.

Most of them were fine though and really enjoyed the show.

Tade was hit hard by the humidity, but he didn't care that he was dripping with sweat.

Toodles made balloon animals for everyone. Here she is making a dog for Tade.

Our grilling crew.

Lets Eat!

Towards the end we had a little flare up. It was all good though because everyone had eaten at this point and these were just the leftovers.

Jake was entertaining the kids out back with soccer.

Seth found an over sized play pen to hang out in.

Coming to a Close

As the summer came to a close I tried to find some final activities to end on. So last Friday, our last weekday of freedom, we headed to Bounce U. It's a bounce play house sort of place. They had two hours of preschool open bounce. Kids 5 and under got to bounce all their energy out. We went with Coleman, Anna, and Celeste our good friends from when Tade did his 3 year old preschool. Tade and Coleman took off from the moment we entered and didn't stop until it was time to go. Seth on the other hand took a lot longer to warm up to things. Pretty much in the last half hour he decided he wanted to have fun.

Seth was very apprehensive at the beginning. I put him in one of the bounce things and all he wanted to do was get back out.

There were a few things he found to do. As long as his feet stayed on non bouncy ground he was ok.

He shoots!...but didn't even come close to the basket. Seth didn't mind though.

This was Tade's favorite thing. He would climb to the top of this web tunnel then slide down a massive bounce slide. He kept doing it over and over again. Tade definitely has skills when it comes to climbing.

This was Seth's favorite thing. Air would blow up and the ball would hover then he'd hit it.

I must say he had pretty good aim and hit it almost every time.

Seth helped Tade by reloading the balls or just knocking them off because he thought it was funny.

In the middle of bounce time they set up a snack for the kids. I have never seen Tade eat so fast. All he wanted to do was get back out and bounce, but I told him he had to eat first.

You had to pay to play air hockey so Seth found another way to have fun with the table. He just used one of the balls from baseball.

You can tell by the smile on his face that he was having fun playing his own made up game.

With about 30 minutes left Seth finally decided he wanted to try things out.

Once he was in he had a blast.

He climbed and bounced all over the place.

There was an obstacle course where he would climb up and then slide down. Seth was so proud of climbing up all by himself.

My worn out boys at the end of the day. They had so much fun.

Wrapping Up Utah

I am finally at the end of blogging our trip to Utah. We had such a full two weeks. It has taken a while to post everything, but we are coming to a close with pictures of Tade with his Wangberg cousins. He loved having kids to play with every moment of every day we were there. I don't think a day has gone by since we've been home that he hasn't asked to go back to Utah to see his cousins.

Tade, Aiden, and Matthew having fun in the sun.

I came up stairs one afternoon and this is what I found. Seth and Aiden had found the Oreos and licked the icing out of several of them. They were having a grand time.

Seth loves dogs and was very happy to find that Grandma and Grandpa Wangberg had a dog named Sable.

Sable was well loved while we were there.

Poor dog. She was a good sport though.

The one meal they all ate and loved.

Madison was once again being a terrific cousin to Seth.

It was a great vacation. Tade and Seth are so lucky to have such great cousins. They fought over Tade the whole time. He of course loved all the attention.

Discovery Gateway

Our final day in Utah was spent in Salt Lake at Discovery Gateway, a children's museum. We went with cousins from both sides of the family. There were so many things for the kids to do as you can tell by all the pictures I took. It's a great place because everything is hands on and is great for creative play.

We started with the construction zone.

Seth tried driving a car, but gave up quickly when it didn't go anywhere. He wants the real thing.

There was a farm/garden area the kids could play in. I think Seth is harvesting onions.

Then he spotted the horse and it's carrots. He was so happy that the horse stood still to eat his carrot.

Ride 'em cowboy.

Here Seth is shopping in the grocery store. He tried eating the plastic strawberries.

Seth was helping Amy check out. I think he's a little confused as to what needs to be scanned and where you scan it. He sure felt special doing the things the grown ups do at the real grocery store.

Seth had two favorite areas. The water station was one of them. He played here for half the time we were at Discovery Gateway.

Tade had so much fun hanging out with Brielle again after the reunion.

Seth's favorite boat was the pirate ship. I was very surprised by how dry he stayed.

This wall had nothing on the ones we climbed earlier in the trip, but they were fun all the same.

Once he got up he always had a hard time getting back down. The flip flops sure didn't help.

Out on the roof was a helicopter. Seth was too nervous to get in, but didn't mind standing there staring at it forever.

Tade and Brie on the other hand wouldn't get out of the helicopter. Brie was trying to get him to pose for the picture.

Another center - connecting tubes to roll a ball through.

Banging on musical mini surfboards or at least that's what they look like.

This was Seth other favorite activity. When you first enter there is a ball center. This part of it has tubes that suck the ball up when you put the ball in the hole. It's just like the drive thru window at the bank when the container gets sucked up the tube. Every time Seth would open up the tube to put the ball in his hair would get wind blown.

He could seriously have spent all day in this spot playing.