Lagoon part 2

Carousel love

I was cleaning out our camera to prepare for the birth of our little boy and I found some more pictures from Lagoon this summer that I wanted to share. More pictures with cousins!

Jeep ride

Nonna and Papa with Phin, Kate and Andrew

Lagoon...It's what fun is

Me, Kate and her puppy on the carousel

One of my favorite things to do in the summer growing up was spend the day at Lagoon. I am glad that my daughter has inherited that same trait. She loves Lagoon, and she thinks her Papa has the best job ever! We were fortunate to be able to come down to Lagoon a handful of times this summer. She loves being able to share a ride with a cousin. Kate's favorite rides include the train, and the carousel, just don't steal the only puppy they have, she will be sad if she has to ride a horse. She also loves all the shows and always asks to go to the show. Thanks Papa for always hooking us up and spending the morning with us when we go. 

Sharing ice cream with Papa and Nonna in Pioneer village

Sharing a stroller with cousin Aaron

Good thing Aaron was able to teach her a thing or two on this ride

 

We found the best ride ever. Phin and Kate would giggle and squeal so adorably as they rode this Jeep ride. The line was always long, but always worth the wait once these two got in their seats. 

My favorite picture of the entire season. I feel like this should be on a Lagoon billboard.

Kate was so full of excitement when we figured out she was tall enough for the small swing ride. And look at that bow in her curly blonde hair. Isn't she just adorable!

This was one of my favorite rides when I was little. Phin is very serious while Kate is happy to be along for the ride

Jazz summer league

In July Joe got tickets to the Jazz summer league. Tickets to these games are a fraction of what they cost during the season, so I had a hard time complaining. I told him he could buy whatever he wanted, but to not plan on buying any regular season tickets. He scored some excellent seats, and we had a great time going as a family. Each night 2 games were played, 3 nights total. Kate always lasted through the first game and usually half of the next game.

Each night we loved what they would hand out free to the first few thousand people. Kate loved the night she got glasses

Fun at the circus!

This past June we had a small circus roll into town. We decided to take advantage and let Kate experience her first circus. Before the circus parents could pay extra to have their children ride horses, camels, and even an elephant. I was suckered into letting Kate ride a little horse. She is obsessed with farm animals and was so happy to hold on while the horse walked in circles. It was worth every penny because she talked about how she rode a horse for weeks. I love getting to see life through her eyes.

 The craziest part of the show was the tigers and their crazy trainer. I would never ever turn my back to this cage full of huge tigers, who I imagine are hungry, but the trainer repeatedly did it. It was my favorite part of the show. I hope this guy has a good life insurance policy.

 We loved watched the big elephants do their tricks. 

Joe turns 32!

The love of my life turned 32 in May and we had to have a party to celebrate. One of Joe's favorite things to eat is seafood, which happens to be my least favorite food. Because I love him so much I  decided to throw him a seafood bake "white trash style". We ate in the garage, and without plates for the most part. Luckily my friend Marcy is an expert at seafood bakes and had a huge metal container built to cook such a feast, and she even helped do the cooking. Joe's parents, his brother John and sister Cheri were able to come as well as some of our friends. 

 On the seafood menu was lobster tail, crab, shrimp, clams, cooked with corn, and potatoes. We had pulled pork sandwiches for the non-seafood crowd.

 This was all that was left over after the feast, you can see the line to where the water and food was before, it truly was a feast. Joe said it was the best meal of his life! 

 And here the birthday boy is blowing out all 32 of his candles. My guess is that his wish was to have a seafood bake again for his 33 birthday.

Hummingbird Festival

At the end of May some residents in a local small town host a hummingbird festival where people who are certified to catch, band, track, and release hummingbirds gather. Sounds kinda nerdy but it was fun to see how they catch the hummingbirds harmlessly as they feed from the feeders measure and then put a band with a unique number on them. The information then goes in a registry where the birds migration can be tracked. We stayed for a short time, but by the end of the day they expected to track hundreds of different hummingbirds. What was super fun was once they did all their data entry they put the birds in a spectators hand and we were able to release it. Sometimes the birds would stick around for a few seconds before flying away. It was fun and Kate loved it!

Phoenix

I'm trying to get back on the blogging wagon, so I need to backtrack and post about a super fun trip we had to visit my brother Jeff in Phoenix in February. We were so happy to get away from the cold windy Idaho winter and head down to spend time with Jeff. My Dad planned a trip to Arizona for the same time, so it was a bonus to spend time with him too. Kate loves Jeff's dogs Diesel and Zoe. They are beautiful friendly boxers and one of them loves to give lip kisses, and Kate didn't mind the lip kisses from him, and all the attention he gave her.

We arrived late Friday night and went to our favorite BBQ joint called Joe's BBQ, we were too busy eating to take pictures. One thing we love about Arizona is the food. Saturday we ate at another BBQ place called Little Miss BBQ, it was also delicious and I dream of going back again.

 Joe and Jeff started Saturday early with a hike up Camelback mountain.

We went to a really fun train park that Kate loved. She loved climbing on big trains and small trains, and even working trains. I love this picture below because she looks so young compared to our last blog posts from Disney World.

The place also had a huge area for model trains set up. 

Uncle Jeff and Kate in a little train

We rode this little train around the park, when we weren't riding it Kate loved to wave to it

Our trip was cut short because of a funeral, we only spent about 36 hours in Arizona, but Jeff made sure we packed as much fun as possible in that small amount of time. We hope we can come visit again next winter!