family reunion: take 2

We have come to an end of the Finch reunion. Sunday we all had dinner together before Claire left for home. After we said good bye, we went to the Payson band concert. My dad picked up our grandparents and we all enjoyed a night in the park and watermelon at Grandma's.

Today we pulled out the pool and the hose for our homemade water park. Max does not like cold water so Papa hooked the hose to the water heater.

We had a great time and ate two jack's cheese sticks for lunch. I don't think life gets much better than this.

Well...I could get better if the JJARL family could have been there. We miss you and talked a lot about how much we admire what you are doing and all of our plans to come see you. Love you and can't wait until you are with us again.

the bean museum

A few years ago Curtis found this bug and turned it in to the Bean Museum. He said he is not sure this is the same bug but it is the same species.

Thursday afternoon Max, Curtis, Claire, Kari and I went to the Bean Museum because we thought it might be a fun place for Max and we wanted to see Curtis' bug.

We spent most of our time looking at the mounts. Max fount the samples of fur types. I'll I could think was what germs are probably all over those - but he loved it.

It is more a learning center rather than the fun center we were looking for.

So... We started having fun with the camera.

As it turns out, the Bean Museum does a live animal show every week night at 7:30. I'm sure we will go one of these nights. Thanks Claire and Kari, we had a great time with you.

Finch Fam reunion

The reunion was held in Saint George this year. We met on Thursday at the hotel and planned out our weekend. This is how it went:

Thursday: Dinner at the Mongolian BBQ.

The workers started offering money for the kids. We insisted they were not for sale. They kept feeding the kids and made them origami. It was a really fun/crazy meal.

We had a good laugh over the fortunes we got. A lot of "Treasures".

Then it was off to Tuacahn for the Footloose play. Turns out a boy I went to school with was the lead. It was over 110 degrees and before the play started, dad laid on the grass to cool off and the babies climbed right on. They love Papa. We arrived back at the hotel around 11:30. It was a hot night and we ended up hitting the showers for a little refresher before heading to bed.
Friday: We started out in the pool. The kids had a great time. Max does NOT like to be splashed. He had a hard time enjoying the coolness of the pool.

After some coxing from Papa...Tyler, Lindsey, Curtis and I held a chicken fight. We were laughing so hard. Lindsey receintly broke her hand so we decided we should fight one handed. It was not going anywhere so Curtis got board and dumped me off.

After the pool, we ate sandwiches in the park and Papa sugested we go see the new Harry potter movie. On the way to the theater, our AC went out. 115 degrees out side and no relefe. Curtis opted out of the movie to take our car to a mechanic. They wanted $1200 to fix it. We decied to bare the heat. We put Max in my moms car so he wouldn't over heat. After that, We just hitched rides with everyone else.
That night we called in our order to Cafe Rio. We all cramed into a hotel room to eat together. It was so good, I really would have finished off my awesome salad but we had tickets to another show at Tuacahn.
Amanda babysat for us this time so Curtis and I could enjoy the show without interuption. This time we watched Annie. Bailey and Kennedy loved it...They also loved the mist at the top of the stairs.
Curtis and I decided to get an early start in the morning to escape the heat. We left at 5am and it was still 81 degrees. It was only after we reached Cedar City, we finally cooled down. Max was sweet and slept most of the way home.
After we reached Payson, Papa called to tell us the reunion is headed to Mapleton for the rest of the weekend. I'm so excited it's not over yet! We still need to play some seriouse Games.

Walk at the lake

We went for a walk around the lake the other day and these are the things we found.

This guy was asleep.

Another Beautiful day at the lake.

Weed

Yes, you are a weed. You can't fool me. Your yellow bloom is beautiful and summer-ish but I know whats going on underneath all of that. You are infecting my lawn and in a few days you will want the wind to blow to spread your seed. You will spread your root deep and strong so no matter how many times I try to pull you out, you will just come back again. So that is why you have to go. Your beauty will only get you so far.

Scottish fest

This past weekend, Payson celebrated with the Scottish Festival. We walked over to the park to check it out. It seems like we do the same thing every year...Walk to the park, notice all the strange things, walk back home.
I decided to post all of the high lights so all of you who think this event sounds like a good idea, can keep thinking that.
This is ginger beer. I tried ginger about 5 years ago. Awful stuff.
I think the biggest disappointment of the festival is that it has some how been morphed to a medieval/gypsies day in the park. I spend most of my time trying to figure out how this following is tied to Scotland, bagpipes, Khyber toss - oh wait...CLAN. That's it.
We did find it funny that the longest line in the park was for Meat pies.

Thanksgiving point

Today we went to the farm at thanksgiving point. We thought it would be a good idea to give Max some exposure to fenced in animals. He had a great time. We weighed him and his stroller to equal 5 new born lbs - the scale is off by 30 lbs. Curtis weighed at much as a goat and a kid. The stroller, provided by thanksgiving point - we forgot ours, had a few mystery stains so we mostly used it to carry the diaper bag.

Child, Prop, Camera...I can't resist.

This is about as "hands on" as we let him get.

Our pass included your choice of a pony ride or a buggy ride. We chose the Buggy and Max made spit bubbles the whole time. It's his new thing.
After a few hot hours in the sun, we went to the water tower plaza for some great treats and air conditioning. Kari and Max found a mirror, Max thinks he's really funny.
Another great outing. Just an FYI, Thanksgiving point will be doing the $2 Tuesdays again starting the first Tuesday in August. This means $2 admission for the gardens and the dinosaur museum (usually $10). I'm sure the farm is $2 too but even on a normal day, it is only $3.50. $2 Tuesday only runs through August so don't miss out.