October '11

In October, John and I went away for a weekend.  We left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa, and went to Park city.  We stayed at a very nice hotel called the Zermatt.

It was a nice relaxing weekend of going out to eat, a little exploring, massages, and swimming in the Hot springs!  What a nice break from our normal chaos!

Later on in October, John's Mom came over from Ireland for a visit.  We decided that it would be fun to take the kids to the Zoo with her.

Sean loved the animals!  He wanted to get right in there with them.

 This is the only picture that I got Colin to stand in willingly!

 John's favorite animal is the Eagle!

It was a cold trip, but it was fun for all of us.  The kids have been begging to go to the zoo for a long time!

 Halloween was fun with Nana there!  And the kids looked great in their costumes.  Erin was a Wolf (which I made), Devin was Darth Vader, Colin was Bat man, and Sean was Tigger.

 Now without masks!

 Sean was this Tigger by default.  I had a cute lion costume that I had tried on him maybe a month earlier, and when I went to put it on him for Halloween, it was too small!!!!  Thank goodness I had this Tigger costume!!!!!  It just goes to show how fast they grow.  He was 11 months old.

Erin's Baptism

On March 6th, Erin was baptized. what an exciting day! I can't believe we have a child old enough to be baptized! I had these pictures taken of her in the baptism dress I made for her. It was a really nice day. We had a lot of my family and a few family friends come, and John's Mom flew in from Ireland just to be there! It was so great to have everyone come.

While John's Mom was here we took a couple of day trips. One of them was to the Gateway Children's museum in Salt Lake City. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their time there. I even enjoyed it there. They had all sorts of fun things for them to do. There was a store where they could cashier, make sandwiches, or just go shopping. They had a farm where they could plant and harvest crops, ride a horse, or collect eggs. They had a ton of science experiments that the big kids could do, and a news and weather station where you could read the news or see yourself on the green screen. There was also a helicopter that they could go inside. I highly recommend children's museums. I've been to one before, but this one is excellent. We all enjoyed ourselves. John's Mom loves convertible cars, so John though it would be great to borrow a convertible car from our very generous neighbor, and take her for a ride. They all had a great time. We also went to the aquarium in Draper. Yes, Utah has an Aquarium even though we're completely landlocked. It's not huge, but it was still fun. My favorite part was this huge Octopus. She was very active! Every time I've seen an octopus at aquarium, their hiding, not out in the open like this. I found out later that I wasn't supposed to take pictures with a flash. Oops!

On the 14th of March, we celebrated John's birthday. I took him out for dinner and a movie on Saturday, and then we had a family dinner and Cheese Cake on Sunday. It was a nice relaxing day. Happy Birthday John! We love you!