A Visit to the Aquarium

We finally made it to the new aquarium. I wanted to go before S turned 3 and we finally made it! I'm glad we missed out on the crazy, busy days when it first opened. It wasn't busy and we were able to go with some friends. I, personally, loved it. S liked it, but wasn't super into it. My absolute favorite was the shark tank! Watching all the sea life swim just left me feeling very peaceful. I wouldn't mind going back and spending more time there. We saw the penguins run and that was super cute. I tried to pet a sting ray and it startled the sting ray, which startled me (and it continues to startle S when she thinks about it). I thought it was really interesting. I've always been fascinated by sea life. I remember always looking at the pictures of whales and sharks in the National Geographic magazines we'd get when I was growing up. Someday I'd love to see a whale breaching. Anyway...afterwards we had lunch together at Ikea. It was a fun time!

Crossing the rope bridge

Our cute little penguin

Some more, cute penguins

This picture of this crab turned out so clear I had to share it.

Hello Turtle!

Selfie at the shark tank

A silhoutte of S and I at the shark tank with a fun
view of a sting ray

Ridin' the waves

Nathan's co-worker invited him and a couple other co-workers and their families to ride wave runners. Since it was near my brother we asked his family to watch S while we went. She had a great time there (swinging, jumping on the trampoline, playing with the dog, writing with markers), but she would have loved playing in the water and sand, too. Maybe next time??

It was my first experience riding/driving a wave runner and I was a little nervous since I'm a little nervous in the water to begin with. The first time out I rode behind Nathan. I knew he would take care of me if anything happened and he wouldn't do anything crazy with me on the back. It did kind of remind me of riding a motorcycle with him. I liked it. There was a little wind, but there weren't big waves. The second time out I took the driver's seat and the more I drove, the more I loved it! It was still a little scary, but that kinda made it more fun ;-) There may have been some screaming/squealing involved.

We only went out twice, but it was still fun. It was sunny and warm and relaxing. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of us on the wave runners, but here are a few from the experience.

We also drove by the Ogden Temple, the night
before it was dedicated. Sadly, we didn't
make it to the open house, but I was
glad to at least see it in person.

Honors and Awards

The first awards were for my in-laws. Each of them received the Silver Beaver, the highest honor a BSA council can award. Grandpa has served for many years in Boy Scouts and Grandma in Cub Scouts. They give dedicated and selfless service and I am grateful for their examples. 

We had a family dinner after the ceremony and all those who wore their scout uniforms gathered for a picture. Of the seven boys in the family, all of them earned their Eagle Scout! Pretty impressive...

Next was my cousin, Roy, who retired after 30 years of service in the Air Force. I'm glad I was able to be there to support him and his family. His dad also served in the Air Force and one of his daughters just finished basic training. I'm grateful for those willing to serve our country in the armed forces.

Roy's wife and 3 daughters were also given an award.

The event was held at the Hill Aerospace Museum. S and I
enjoyed looking at all the airplanes and helicopters.

And last, but by no means least, Nathan was awarded his Wood Badge for scouting. He attended the camp last summer and has worked on his tickets since then. It takes quite a bit of time and effort to achieve. I'm proud of him!

Go Daddy (from our little cheezer!)

And one last picture of us while we were out on a Sunday drive.

Little girl update

S had one potty success in the last...well, I don't want to think about how long it's been :)  This success was mostly due to my efforts, she really didn't want to use the potty, but I managed to get her there in time. Still, it was cause for great rejoicing in our home!! She got to have a sucker and call Daddy to tell him the good news (plus Mommy may have done some dancing and whooping).

Here you see the effects of the sucker...

I've also been excited that she has learned how to pedal her tricycle, or bike, as we call it. I wanted to share some video of her pedaling and of her dancing with her daddy, but it doesn't play once it's uploaded so I'll have to look into that further :l

We've got shelves!

On Labor Day Nathan finished the shelves he's been building in our cold storage room. He also hung the door to the room. It looks so great! The space is utilized so much better. I've been adding to our food storage, but still haven't filled up all the space. It just feels good to have food stored and know we have that supply to rely on if we needed it for whatever reason.

Camping

We've been wanting to go camping with Nathan's brother and their family and we finally found a time that worked for both of us. We just went overnight in American Fork Canyon, but we had so much fun. It was great to be together and in the beautiful canyon where the leaves are beginning to change.

Nathan helping with hot dog roasting

Cousins (not an easy task to get them both
smiling at the same time)

He wanted to hold S's hand as they walked
back to our campsite. What a cutie!

Me and my cutie pie

All the cuties together

Before we went home we stopped at Tibble Fork Reservoir
and let the kids play in the mud--they loved it!

But, before we even got home our little
one was asleep