Day Out at Children's Discovery Gateway

I love living so close to the Gateway in downtown SLC. Good restaurants, movie theater, water fountain on HOT HOT days, and good shopping. My boys vote unamimously that Discovery Gateway is the best thing there. I do get a little irritated EVERY single time I go there because sometimes it seems as if all I do is "stroller dodge". I mean come on mommies (I am a mommie too), but they have signs everywhere throughout the museum that say "Stroller Parking". Sometimes I wonder if it's stroller day every time I go there, that if you bring your stroller you get 50% off your admission. Let's just say it's a popular mommy hangout with young ones/babies, even though this is not the greatest place for kids who are so young that they need to be in strollers. (In my opinion. Gage always loves the Beehive the most, where kiddos get plastics balls and do all kinds of things with them like placing them in high pressured air compartments and watch they be sucked up through these tubes that go up to the ceiling, etc. There are so many things to do there, let me share some activities. (I only pictured a small fraction of the many fun things to do there).

The Beehive




The Construction Zone



Rockwall Climbing



The Small Child Area ** That my boys shouldn't be in!



Science



Dress Up/Pretend Play



**Note: My boys hate pretend play, but this area is so cute. There is a farm (with a life size horse to sit on & garden, chickens/eggs, etc., a grocery store, a house, mailboxes, lots of outfits, and police cars, firetrucks to ride around, gas station, water area with rivers & fish to play with. (the water area is always so packed with kiddos) There is also a theater there with costumes where you can perform plays like "Where the Wild Things Are"

Building with Giant Foam Legos



Fun with Magnets



Fun with Gears Magnetic Wall




Create "Pipe Routes" for balls to travel through magnetic wall




Sit in actual INTERMOUNTAIN Life Flight Helicopter


Life Flight control tower/desk



Communication



Be on the News


Cartoon Making



We had a fun day out at Gateway, but Gage insisted on wearing shoes on the small side for him, so he got very cranky and ended up with bloody blisters on the backs of both heels.

Luv, Tif

Boyz with Faux Hawks and wearing Ecko Unltd.

I am obsessed with faux hawks ever since Gage lost his curls. I actually got Jon to let me attempt a faux hawk on his hair. I could have done much better with a hair dryer and lots of hair spray. Jon's hair is very floppy and way to long in this picture, so it looks kinds of funny. I love these pictures, they make me laugh. I just noticed in the picture that they all just happened to be wearing the same brand of shirts too! (Not planned)




luv, Tif

Gage's 1st day of the 2nd Year of Special Education Preschool

I am so happy that Gage gets another full school year of Special Ed Preschool. He goes on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9-11:30, the bus picks him up at 8:00 (I am not a fan of 1 hour on the bus to AND from school, that is why I pick him up from school, 2 hours is too long). He attends Washington Elementary School, which is about 4 miles away. He has his own locker out in the hallway with his cute little name on it. I love his teacher Monica, his Speech Therapist Amy and the 2 aides. This year Gage has 8 kiddos in his class and I am very happy that 2 of them talk well and are at Preschool for other reasons. Last year Gage was quite the "mute" around class until they started making him ask for things before he was given them.... then he started this "growl talking" stuff that made his teachers laugh! We noticed alot of speech improvement over the summer, so I hope this language explosion keeps going so he will be caught up by the time Kindergarten starts. Gage's class schedule each day consists of: Greeting/Large group, Small Group work boxes, work time (free choice), Clean up (Review), Snack, Student choice story time, Music and Movement, Outside Play, Go Home!

Park City ~The Canyons~ Get-Together

So I was in charge of planning & securing a location for our family get together this year. I found a pretty cool 4 bedroom joint out at the Canyon's Ski Resort (Park City). We brought Brock's friend Andrew "Warner" Dent with us, and yes, it was a Warner Reunion and Drew's middle name really is Warner, so it seemed very fitting to bring him! lol :)





I was the most excited to go out to the Park City Mountain Resort and do the Alpine Slide - so were the boys. But first of all, Dani Taylor took family pictures of individual families and full family shots. She did a fantastic job. (Getting my boys to smile and Gage to actually look at the camera is like pulling teeth)

So we get to (PCMR) and we were excited because we got to ride the ski lift up the mountain - it went soooooooo slow. Then at the top of the mountain we were given an Alpine sled to drag over to the 4 tracks. There were 2 slow tracks and 2 fast tracks... guess which ones we chose??? Slow - no joke. So Brock and Drew went down together on the 2 slow tracks. Only I made the mistake of going before Brock (Gage with me). I had no idea what to expect but was warned to not go too fast because you could flip off the track. I was only being responsible... but according to Brock, I was going too SLOW! I was screamed at by Brock the entire time going down the mountain because he wanted to go FASTER. I swear, the adventurous/daring level of a 9-year old boy is amazing. So we get to the bottom of the mountain and Brock was nearly in tears because I ruined the ride for him!! The little ungreatful stinker. Needless to say I took them back the next day to go down the Alpine Slide (yet again) so I could redeem myself and also to let the boys go down the fast track. Yes, I did redeem myself, and the boys had a great time going down the more fast & scary tracks.







We also went out to the Olympic Park and watched skiiers down off the ski jumps and land in the pool - it was so rad!


Ski Jumper movie

We played alot of games out at the condo like soda tasting,a hidden Idol, which Wes found on top of the hotwater heater downstairs. It was the box that my Harajuku Lovers Perfume "G" (Gwen Stefani) came in. It was the coolest box and very fitting, because everyone was told to find a hidden "Idol" and Gwen is my idol. We also had a funny hat competition,






fashion show with Brock and Drew as the judges (see movie)




The results are in........... The Winner of the Fashion Show is Shane! And he wins a $25 Hagen Daaz gift certificate out at the Gateway!



the Newlywed Game = hosted by Shane (TMI at this game), etc. We all had fun. There were 2 great pools and 2 hottubs that the boys loved although it was a little chilly up in the mountains!

Jon and I took the family out to Main Street Pizza and Noodle, they make the best Pizzas I've ever had, especially their cheese pizza. Jon and I always have to order the Tequila Lime Chicken Pasta too - it is to die for!







The carpet in the condo was a little on the filthy side so Jon called the owner because he just happened to have his carpet cleaning truck out there, and basically told him that he would clean the entire thing, and if he was impressed by what a great job he did, then to send a check out. Jon gave him a great deal! It's Wes & Becca's turn next year! Best of Luck!





Luv, tif