Last Leg Home

The rest of our road trip home, we stopped whenever we saw something "interesting." Like the worlds biggest corn palace and a Native American archeological dig site. The corn palace had pictures on the sides all made of thousands of ears of corn. The inside was a gym. Not quite as cool as the outside. 

The dig site was pretty interesting although it helped me to realize how much I don't want to be an archeologist. That stuff would be soooo boring. :) After seeing the dig site they had a sandbox the kids could dig through to find an plastic arrowhead that they could trade in for a real arrowhead. it was pretty cool.  

This is Liam and Fox trying to look like a fat guy like in the drawing. 

Storybook Island

Another place we stopped at on the way home was Storybook Island in South Dakota. This was another place I remembered fondly from my childhood family vacation and it didn't disappoint. There were so many fun characters to see, and things to play on and in. They even had a magic show that Fox got to participate in! Such a fun time.  

Mount Rushmore 2014

A few days after Sierra and Erik's wedding we made the long trip back home to Iowa. Luckily, this time, we decided not to rush through it, like we usually do, but decided to make it a fun experience for us. First we decided to hit Mount Rushmore. It added about 2 hours onto our trip, but was well worth it. The black hills are amazing, and it was something new to see and do. The best part is that when I was younger around Liam and Emma's age I still remember going on a family trip to see Mount Rushmore and some of the other things we did on our way home, so I know that there's a chance my kids will remember this trip :)

Here's the Thing

Alright, here's the thing, friends,

I have to vent for two seconds before I go on with trying to catch up on this blog.

My four year old...almost 5....(wow. hu. really close to five. sad face.) talks non-stop. No. But for reals. NON-STOP. And he doesn't really care most of the time if anyone is listening. Like, as in, I tune him out a fair percentage of time, which kind of makes me a bad mom, unless you were around it 24/7 then you would understand. The thing is when I do listen to him, he's hilarious. But, really, it starts to give me a headache after an hour or two of listening.

Anywho, here are some gems just from today--
(Oh, and let me add in that for some reason he uses a drawl with a lot of his words. I'm not sure how or why, but he does, and it makes his stuff that make funnier. Words like hair and well become two syllables Ha-yir and We-yellll and real drawn out)

"Moosestache. Moosestache. You get a moosestache by eating mooses....You get a cowstache by eating cows. You get a pigstache by eating pigs...."

"Mom, here's my other lego. Why didn't you give it to me?"
"I didn't see it, Fox."
"Yeah, but it was here all along!"
"Ugh, I'm going to sell you to the circus." (great parenting, I know.)
"Then drive me there, Mom."
"....."
"And I'll go and sleep in the lion's ha-yir, but I'll get out before he wakes up and tries to eat me. I would want to live at the circus...."
(Let me note here that very little of this was said snottily or punkish (except the "it was here all along"). The rest very matter of fact/nonchalant.)

After "exercising" for a bit he grabs his water bottle and breathing heavily says
"Mom, I have to drink this to get more en-ner-gee" he takes a swig, "Mom I can fe-yel it turning hot in my stomach. It's turning to blood! Blood gives you en-ner-gee."

If you think I write all of his sentences starting with "Mom," just to show who he's talking to or whatever, you're wrong. He literally starts 75% of his sentences with that word.

And as for "We-yell." I have started to use the phrase, "No. No We-yell. You can't We-yell your way out of this." He's going to be a lawyer or something, 'cause he has an argument for everything.

Its like this ALL DAY LONG. Okay, that's all the venting time I have. My little piranha, ten month old needs me. Teething. eck. (Or whatever it is because no teeth are actually showing up...)  

Sierra and Erik's Wedding

I keep thinking, 'Wait, I know I have other pictures, where are they?' They're on Tony's phone. So sometime, probably 3 or 4 months down the road, I'll be doing a post of "random pictures from Tony's phone"...again. 

Sierra and Erik's wedding was pretty great. Lots of stress and craziness planning it, but lots of fun and happiness when it was going on. 

 First off let me say that I LOVE this first picture and the last picture. I want them both hanging on my wall somewhere. This first one melts my heart. I love my Grammy. And the last one the kids have touched many temples and they wanted to add Timp to their list. 

Second off Sierra had grilled cheese, tomato soup, cupcakes and cotton candy at her "Snow White-ish" themed reception. What could be cooler. 

It was an exciting time at the temple with all of my siblings. One of those things that makes you super grateful and joyful. We were all there!  And it was fantastic. 

I'm real glad that Sierra is happy. And I'm real happy that Erik is part of our family. 

Grammy Pugh's Carnival 2014

I swear I'm going to get caught up one day. Any who,

Once again, while we were in Utah we put on Grammy Pugh's carnival. It was crazy because we were also trying to plan and prepare Sierra and Erik's wedding, but after it was all over and done, I was tired and sore, but it was good, just like every other year. Hey, at least this year I didn't cry. Others did, but I didn't, so it's all good. :)

It was a hoopla of a good time. We had face painting (which the black stained my kids' face which was actually pretty sweet, because Fox had tiger stripes and a blackish-blue nose for like a week), and all the other usual games and food and treats. We had SO many people. Seriously the pictures don't even do it justice. The place was packed and there were large lines at almost every game. It was crazy, but everyone loved it and Grammy got to be the bell of the ball, so it was all well worth it. 

Utah Museums

While in Utah we got to go to a few museums. My mom and dad got a grandparents pass to all the Thanksgiving Point museums so we got to hit up a few of those. 

First we went to the museum of natural curiosity.  It was awesome, but we only got to see a bit of it because there were so many people there. We will wait until the excitement of a new museum dies down a bit before we go again. 

We went to the new Bean Museum but this was the only good picture I got. hehehe. Side note: So, it's real fun when you tell your kids that you are going to the Bean Museum and they have no idea what you are talking about, because then you can tell them you are going to look at black beans and pinto beans and all sorts of jelly beans...and they believe you!! Luckily they were still good sports and went happy to the Bean Museum and then were pleasantly surprised when there were no beans at all.   

We also went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was fantastic and this is the only picture I got. Because for some reason I was not very good a taking pictures this time.