Birthdays and Bowling

We went birthday bowling for my bday today! 

 Cole loved it...

 and Ellie loved the music! She didn't stop dancing all night...

...even to bowl the ball :)

 To make a great night perfect, Ben made me cheesecake!!!

Ben invited a few of our good friends over to share the cheesecake...and make fun of me for my age :)

He also gave me a new camera!! He really outdid himself this year.

It was a perfect birthday!!

Utah (Week 2)

The kids and I had a blast this last week! We spent a few days at Maryn's house and a day at Mindy's house before we went to Park City for Green-Cation 2012.

Cole and Ellie feel right at home at Maryn's house. They love to play with Kam, Kenz, Emersyn and Edyn!! Ellie found a new love: the tramp! And the kids thought it was hilarious to feed the "neighbors"...the goats :)

Monday Maryn and Mindy took us to the Hogle Zoo. It was super hot but we still had a ton of fun! We rode the carousel, watched the bird show where a bird took a dollar from Cole :), and of course we had to ride the train!

Wednesday we spent the day at Mindy's house. Her house is as good as an amusement park for my kids :) But silly me, I didn't take a single pic! There are a ton of fun toys, lots of kids running around, and Brittyn's beauty shop where she does Ellie's hair and paints her nails. The best part for me was when Mindy and Brittyn took me to get a pedicure!!

Thursday we went to Park City. All of my siblings were able to make it! We had the entire Green family minus GG and Grandpa. It was really fun to be with everyone and just hang out. We played lots of games and did lots of swimming!

My kids favorite game was the candy bar game...evident by Ellie's chocolatey face :)

 Ryan even brought his boat to Jordanelle! Cole is always talking about Uncle Ryan's boat so this was a super exciting morning for him...even if he only got in the water for about 5 seconds because it was FREEZING!!

 Of  course we went to the Park City resort to ride the Alpine Slide. They wouldn't let me go because I'm prego and Ellie was sleeping on Mindy's lap, so Cole went with my brother Tyson. He had a blast, but I think he had as much fun on the kiddie rides :)

 Ellie and Taya rode the Space Train while the bigger kids rode the Alpine Slide. Then, after a lot of begging from Cole, Cole and Ellie got to ride the carousel and the airplane ride too. They were in heaven!!

 We made a stop at the Olympic Park to see the museum and some people ski jump into the swimming pool at the training grounds. The kids loved the bobsled!

 Here are all 20 grandkids in order! Can you believe how lucky we are?!

Ben flew back just in time for family pics and to stay one night. The next day we spent at Family Fun Day in Sandy with free food, face painting, and bounce houses! Then we made the LONG drive home to Iowa.

We had a blast in Utah with our family! It was nice to get a surprise vacation, and especially to get to spend it with our amazing families!!

Utah (Week 1)

We made a last minute surprise visit to Utah!

Ben ended up getting a week off while the doc he is working with went to a convention. So, I talked him into driving to Utah with us :) We were able to surprise his family on Memorial Day just in time to celebrate his Dad's birthday. It was a fun surprise!!

We spent most of the week with the Coombs family playing hard:

Memorial Day/Grandpa Bday BBQ

Frontrunner with Grandma and Grandpa to see the new City Creek Center

A morning with grandma that involved rollers and a movie in her bed :)

Dinosaur Park 

(We took home more than good memories here...Ellie took a skirt full of sand too!)

Ben was also able to go mountain biking a few times as well as golfing, and we got a few dates to the temple and to a movie! Ben's mom asked him if there was anything he DIDN'T do while he was here and he said "Yes...study!" Good thing for him he left today to go back to Iowa and he will have a week free of us to work and study. The kids and I get to stay for another week of fun!!