Summer Adventures 2011 part 2

As previously mentioned, the summer so far has been pretty busy, what with the arrival of kid #4 and all.  The hardest part of all of it has been trying to keep the kids entertained while running on 4 or less hours of sleep and keeping a newborn fed, clean and happy at the same time. Don't get me wrong, we spend lots of days at home playing in the plastic pool in the back yard and renting Redbox movies but these are some of the things the kids have been able to do so far.

We spent a day at the Hogle Zoo a few weeks ago.  I wanted the kids to have it fresh in their head so they could compare it to the San Diego Zoo.  The local aquarium is a favorite too but I don't have any pics (too dark in there).



Paige is a little water-baby.  She loves putting on her swimsuit, playing in any body of water, and being wet.  The Gateway Mall in downtown Salt Lake has a splash pad that she loves.  She gets so excited I have to remind her to slow down so she doesn't run into anyone or slip and fall. 

And then there was Cameron... He on the other hand, hates getting wet.  He will toy with the idea but if anyone splashes him, that's it, he is done.  While Paige was in Heaven, Cameron stayed dry with Max.

Whitney and Ashton decided to have a niece and nephew sleep-over one weekend.  The kids loved it and so did we.  It was really nice to have some peace and quiet and the kids had a BLAST! 

The kids went crazy rolling down the grass hill.  They were super itchy afterward.  Now they know why MOM never lets them do that.

Braiden and Uncle Ashton.

We celebrated all the July birthdays on July 31st when my grandma happened to be in town.  My sister Bonnie and her daughter Abby's birthday is the 30th and Baylees b-day is the 28th.  Max also met Grandma Lundberg for the first time.

The girls took Bonnie out for a night of shopping and eating for her b-day.  We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (on National Cheesecake Day, by the way). We very much enjoyed  the cheesecake...oh and hanging out was fun too.

Summer Adventure 2011

School starts in 2 weeks.  The summer is almost over...I have mixed feelings about this.  It's most definitely time for the kids to go back to school.  They are bored and possibly getting dumber by the second with all the Nintendo DS and Sponge Bob they are currently taking in.  I have been on maternity leave all summer which I also have mixed feelings about.  Its been great to be home with my kids since, as a working mom, I don't get to do much of this.  However, since the very reason I am home with them keeps me very much on my toes, it has also been hard to be home.

I have had to think of every activity possible to try to keep them busy and entertained and keep myself sane.  We have done swimming lessons, dance camp, scout camp, the local zoo, the local aquarium, multiple trips to various parks, splash pads, McDonald's play places, and mall food courts and they seem generally satisfied with their activities this summer. 

And of course, since I am home we had to take advantage of this time and take a family trip to California to visit our very favorite place.  We decided to also throw in Sea World and San Diego Zoo while we were there.  Are we crazy for doing all this with a 5 week old baby?  Yes, a little.  It was not easy but we made it work and we had a really good time.   Think of it this way...we braved D-land on Christmas Day.  I dare say that after that we are able to do anything.  It takes colossal patience and a good attitude.  Both of which I had 93.4% of the time...good enough.

For me, a trip where the kids get to see fun and educational things while laughing and learning and spending time together as a family while we also avoided any major disasters along the way = a successful adventure.

After a couple days in the car our first stop for fun was the San Diego Zoo.  I remember this zoo from field trips in elementary school and I wanted my kids to see that there are zoos that are way bigger than the Hogle Zoo.  We had a good time despite the miles of uphill walking and the extremely humid climate.  Ugh! 

If you ask the kids they will probably tell you that what they remember about the zoo is bouncing on the giant trampolines.  Paige was even doing flips on these things.  Personally, my favorite part was the giraffes and the merekats.





The next day was Sea World.  We headed straight to the Shamu Show and the kids braved the very front "soak zone" row while Eric and I hung with the baby in the safe and dry zone.  All I can truly recall from that day was that it was stinking HOT!  The kids got nice and wet from the Shamu Show but Eric and I remained toasty.



I really think that this is the only picture I have with all 4 of my kids in it so far.  Its not easy to round up all 4 of them but this backdrop at Sea World was picture worthy.  Oh and I have to mention that Cameron is a goofball.



The kiddos show off their loot on the way out of Sea World.
So long to Sea World for at least another 5 years or so.

 

Disneyland!!

(I mean, is there really any other reason to go to California, anyway??...jk) 

Day 1 at Disney was for California Adventure.  We did the new Little Mermaid ride which was great.  It is really cute and thankfully the wait wasn't terrible.  There was also the Ferris Wheel, Monsters Inc, Bugs Land, and the Tower of Terror for Braiden and Eric (Paige and I don't do Tower of Terror).




That night in the tram on the way to the car the kids were getting extremely slap happy.  I caught these pics while they were playing some silly game.  Its amazing how they can have so much energy after 10 hours at Disneyland.



Day 2 of Disney I didn't take many pictures but what I did take were real gems.  Don't the kids just look thrilled

Paige is finally tall enough to ride the Indiana Jones Ride.  These are a couple of pics I took of her expressions during the ride.  Needless to say, she was terrified and will probably never do it again. 

Day 3 was a combination of Disneyland and California Adventure trying to get every last thing in that we could.  The kids got their giant pickles (ew) and Cameron finally crashed about early evening.  I really wanted to crawl into that stroller and join him.



So WHAT WAS MAX DOING THIS WHOLE TIME?  See above.  Pretty much just sleeping, eating and pooping.  He has since developed a strong hate for his car seat after spending so much time in it.  He did pretty well, all things considered.  It is not easy to tote a newborn around like we did but it all worked  out.  At least I can positively say that I will never have to do it again.



The drive home was looooooooooong.

Swimming, Playing, Visiting= Summer 2010

 Now that the summer of 2010 is coming to a close and the cooler temps are setting in I need to re-cap the summer for the Erickson Family in one happy little post.  The pics speak for themselves but that never stopped me from commenting before!

~I posted this just because he is so stinkin cute~

~Summer consisted of lots of time spent with cousins and the back yard was very well used this year.  If there is water, they will come...and they will swim in it till they pass out.  I cant wait to bring these pictures back to torment them when they are teenagers.~

Since football is Braidens new love we took advantage of the opportunity to put him in a 1-day training clinic with some of the past and present BYU football players.  The clinic is sponsored by New Skin and was so fun for them.  We had to go all the way to St. George to do it since the Provo one filled up too fast so by 7 am it was about 85 degrees.  The picture on the left is Braiden with Jake Heaps (BYUs new QB) and on the right we have the pre-clinic pep talk.

Summer Fun

Last July we took a weekend and devoted it doing fun summer things...we just dont do enough of that. So we borrowed our good friends kids, Whitney and Kobe, who coincidentally are the exact ages of Paige and Braiden and are the best of friends and took them to the good old Hogle Zoo. I am a closet zoo fan. I really love taking my kids to the zoo becuase they LOVE the stinky animals and I LOVE seeing them wonder in amazement and them. We saw monkeys, elephants, giraffes, penguins, zebras, bears, a very pregnant and MeerKat and lots of very stinky birds and spiders. It was pretty fun and a welcomed break for Whitney and Kobe's mom.



That very same evening we took a field trip up to Park City and ate Mexican food and swam at our hotel (that is, until Kobe threw up in the pool which caused them to have to drain it. Needless to say, we hid. People were not very happy.) The next day we went to the Alpine Slides and took Paige and Cameron on the little roller coaster. They had a blast.

Today, its snowing outside and 25 degrees. Boy I already miss the summer. It will be back soon enough, I suppose and then I will be wishing for snow... I just cant be pleased.

PROOF!! Everything I touch does NOT die!

This summer I have been on a mission to transform my backyard from a pit of despair to a place where beauty and life abound. OK, I really just wanted to see if I could grow something. So here is the photographic evidence and yes these really were taken in my back yard!! ~I LOVE yellow roses and the pink edges make them twice as beautiful!~

~Poppies are not bad to look at either. These ones are little troopers. Nothing seems to kill them.~




~Gerber Daisies, although simple, have always made me think of summertime~


This Monster is not in my backyard but across the street (that's my house in the top right corner). This is the granddaddy of all scary looking weeds. I would hate to fall into that bad boy.

Thank you for humoring me.