Palmyra

The boys with their Great Grandma Jorgensen in the Sacred Grove.

Nate, Matt, Grandma Jorgensen, Jeanne, Jana

Dallin climbing the Hill Cumorah

The Most Awesome Place Ever (for kids)

While in NY visiting family, we went to the National Museum of Play. I took pictures of only about 1/4 of what we did. The place was enormous and packed with hands on imaginative play and learning stations for kids. It was so neat to see the ideas that went into this place, the creativity and detail was amazing. Some of the pictures I missed were the best places. We spent a lot of time on an airplane/cockpit, and at the theater... a stage with a curtain, little bleachers for the audience, switches to work the lights -all the perfect size for kids, they just go and play and pretend in their own way at their own pace. It was so fun to see!

Here is Dallin racing against another kid - watching the screen to see who the winner is.

We spent a long time in the "grocery store" Everything was miniature and plastic, but looked so realistic! Landen loved pushing the shopping cart around.

Dallin and Isaac at first were not interested. Then they found the scale. That was fun.

I lost Isaac for a moment. When I found him, he was pretending to be the cashier! He was helping other kids and loving it. The machine actually scans items, and prints out an actual receipt.

Dallin being the cashier for his cousins Lily and McKenna. You can kind of see the store in the background. The rule was pick five items, go to check out, put the items back, get 5 more. The kids had so much fun here.

A fun train ride.

In the fairytale land - Jack and the Beanstalk, and the Giant. Landen and Isaac are speaking into the speaker - your voice comes out loud and low and makes it seem like the giant is speaking.

Landen and the Bernstein Bears

Inside Bear Country - Dallin and Lily cooking at the restaurant

Landen and Dallin Dancing to the music, watching their moves on the screen.

Our family on the steps of Sesame Street. Landen played for a long time in Elmo's World.

This picture was at the end of our day -Can you tell?

Climb Like a Superhero

Another fun thing at the Museum of Play

Jana and Dawn

Even Grandma Jorgensen!

Isaac is a funny kid

The other day after lunch Isaac came up to me and said, "I'm going to take a nap." I said, "ok" and wondered if it were true. A few minutes later I found him like this. Asleep, on the floor, right next to a nice empty couch, with his soccer socks and shin guards on - soccer was starting in about 5 hours, I guess he was a little excited.

Jumping for Joy

We've been jumping for joy around here. We finally bought the much desired, long awaited trampoline. It has been so great to have. Everyone loves it, especially mom!

April Fools!

I have never really been big on April Fools day, but Dallin has claimed it as his favorite "holiday" so I decided to have some fun with it this year. I discovered my family is pretty easy to fool!

Nate poored his Cinnamon Life cereal in the morning only to find a different cereal coming out of the box. He said, "what the heck!" And stared at it a while till I exclaimed my "April Fools!" We all laughed.

For the kids, I fooled them with dinner: We had "dessert" first. They were delighted when I announced we were having Chocolate Strawberry pie for dinner! The hillarious thing was, they gobbled down probably five bites before thinking it tasted like meat and mashed potatoes. I made meatloaf in a pie pan, whipped potatoes and colored them with juice from beets. They loved it!

For Dessert - Chicken nuggets, peas and carrots, mashed potatoes w/ gravy.

Actually - Doughnuts, flavored tootsie rolls, and ice cream with carmel syrup

A rare occurance - Isaac smiling about his dinner.

Happy Birthday Dallin!

We had a great China Day for Dallin's birthday. He has had a passion for the country, it's people, language, and customs for a few months now. For his birthday he didn't hesitate to tell me what he wanted the theme to be. He wanted the China flag for his cake, and to do a scavenger hunt. Nate and I were happy that this year was going to be just a family party. :) We don't want the neighborhood thinking we're joining the communist party. Dallin definitely has his own mind and it is fun for us to see inside it sometimes.

The cake

Some of the presents and decorations. We had tangerines around the room which symbolize good luck for the Chinese at their new year celebrations. I also had balloons all over with Chinese characters written on them. Dallin loved it!

The scavenger hunt: They went around looking for clues to find fortune cookies, Chinese umbrellas, cards with Chinese characters and the English translation, and red envelopes with money inside. They really had a lot of fun.

I forgot to bring my camera, but we had a great dinner at Pei Wei, a Chinese restaurant of course, where we quickly gave up on chop sticks but loved the food. Even Isaac ate (a little). All this with Grandma and Grandpa here which made it extra fun and special. This one is definitely going down in the memory bank.

A big 7 year old! Happy Birthday Dallin!! We love you!