Lagoon trip

We aren't doing a vacation this year, so we sandwiched in going to the Lagoon in the middle of the week. Tuesday night we drove to Payson and stayed the night with some friends, then Wednesday (yesterday) we went with those same friends and spent the day at the Lagoon. We've never taken our kids to the Lagoon before and the most of a ride they have ever been on before is the quarter rides outside of Walmart. We weren't sure how much they would like it or not. Tom absolutely loved it, even some of the bigger, more "scary" rides (scary for kids). Charlie liked most of them, but the Bat ride he wasn't too fond of and when we were on the Tidal Wave he asked me if the first time I went on that ride if I was scared - he was a little scared and not really sure he liked that ride. He loved all the little kiddie rides. Becca wasn't much of a fan of the rides. The picture of her in the airplane ride is one of the few rides she went on, and I was afraid she was going to try to bail out (good thing the seatbelts sinch down nice and tight). When the ride first started she almost started crying, then she looked like she was trying to decide if she liked the ride or not. By the time the ride was over she was more than ready to get out and was not happy that it took so long for the ride attendant to come undo her seatbelt.
Going to Lagoon A Beach in the afternoon was a very nice way to get out of the heat for a while. It was in the 90's and humid - so not St. George hot, but hot enough that the water felt very nice. The boys loved going down the water slides and I enjoyed that I finally got something to do. Being 8 months pregnant I didn't go on many rides - the pioneer log ride, the tidal wave and Puff (the little kids roller coaster that goes around 3 times for total of 30 seconds). So it was nice to go in the water and splash around and play with the kids.
After the Beach we went on more rides for and hour or two more and then by 7:30 pm we packed up to head home - we drove back to St. George. It really was a quick trip up and back, but it was lots of fun and worth the drive. We borrowed my sister Debbie's car - a Toyota Corolla, definitely not a family car, but worked very well on saving gas - I think it cost us about half of what our mini van would have cost to fill with gas.

Love my Freedom

First, I have to say thank you to Summer from Summer Time Designs for this free "Freedom Kit" digital scrapbook paper. I can't believe she designs these wonderful kits and then lets people download for free - but I'm glad - she has cute stuff. She had lots of cute embellishments, but I guess I'm too simplistic to figure out how to use them in a layout - I usually stick to one or two papers and pictures and words. So it's not that I don't like using embellishments, I just don't know how.
The only 4th of July pictures I could were from 2005, I guess I need to take more pictures on the 4th.
Recently I've been reading books about George Washington "The Real George Washington" and "The Making of George Washington". It's been fascinating to learn more about the "father of our country". Truly, if we could have more leaders like George Washington our country would be better for it. Washington was a man of values and principles and didn't do things for his own gain. He was very strict in obeying the constitution and not doing anything to go against it. He was a driving force in getting the constitution to be just and fair. Washington was God fearing and gave all credit to God for everything - he was such a humble man. He did not want to be president, he felt there had to be others more qualified to lead the new country, but finally submitted to the will of the people. They recognized what a great leader he was.
Reading these books has given me a greater appreciation for our country and for the sacrifices that were made to establish our country. It has also made clear to me my responsibility in being a more informed and active citizen. I want to read and study the constitution to gain a better understanding of the foundation of our country.
Here is a quote from Washington's inaugural address "no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand (God) which conducts the affairs of men, more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency." And I think this statement still holds true for us today - we are kept free by the hand of God and if we fail to acknowledge this there will come a day that we will no longer be free.

Tom's Birthday

Tom's birthday was last Sunday. He turned the big four, but he is already saying that he is "four and a quarter" - always wanting to be older and bigger. The sepia toned scrap page is a letter to Tom. I saw this idea - to write a letter to each child on their birthday, and thought it was a good idea. Tom is the first one I have done this for, but I hope to do it for each of my children each year.
Tom was so cute - he was so excited about everything. He loved the cake that I made for him - a tractor-dirt cake, every boy's dream cake. His response was "that's the cake I always wanted". This is my first time being creative with a birthday cake. The reason I did it is because the kids always see the cakes at the grocery store and look at all of them, trying to decide which one they would want for their birthday, but I just refuse to pay so much for a cake. The dirt cake was easy, I just crumbled up some cookies and put it on top and then added the little tractors I got at the $1 store. The other thing Tom got really excited about was the pack of gum he got as one of his gifts - he hugged it when he opened it. Tom is funny with gum. He chews one piece of gum for about 5 minutes, then adds another piece, then another, maybe throws away the big wad and withing in 1 hour has consumed all his gum. Of course, he did share some with Charlie, but I was still surprised at how quickly they went through all 5 packs of gum.
Since Tom's birthday was on a Sunday we did some stuff on Saturday to celebrate - mostly at Charlie's request. He said that we couldn't do anything fun on Sunday for Tom's birthday so we needed to do it on Saturday. Tom chose to go to a movie. Jeremy took the boys to "Wall E". I didn't go because I knew Becca wouldn't sit through 5 minutes of it, so there was no need to even try, so we went gift shopping and then made Tom's cake.
The reason it says "Chuck E Cheese" on the bottom of Tom's birthday letter as one of the names that he is called is because he insists on us calling him Chuck E Cheese. I'm not sure why this started, but one day he announced that his name was now Chuck E Cheese and periodically this is the only thing he responds to. He is always asking me how to spell it and now when he spells it on his own he says "c h u c k e e s e" and thinks he spelled the whole word.