Vegas Baby!

Joe had some days off from work so we took the kids down to Vegas.

Here's a little sample of the fun we had:

Waiting for the Volcano at the Mirage...

Some "must-see's" on the kids' list...

the pirate boat at Treasure Island ~ the Excalibur castle

somewhere inside the Venetian....the girls LOVED the giant butterfly and huge flowers.

Circus Circus was a HUGE hit! Playing games, winning animals, and the circus acts.
Sam especially loved the group of African Acrobats and we were lucky to catch a couple of them after the show.

Fremont Street Experience...

It was fun to see the HUGE screen above the street but it was really loud!

It was awesome family fun and great to make a ton of inexpensive memories!

Our new favorite thing to do...

Hiking down in the Snake River Canyon is our new FAVORITE thing to do here in Twin Falls. We love to hike along the mile-long trail and seeing the pretty waterfalls, streams, different rocks, and the big Perrine Bridge.

Of course, no hike is complete without a photo shoot next to a little waterfall...

...unfortunately, Alice has quite the little attitude when we tell her to say "cheese"

so we have to take what we can get.

This part has been named "Rock City" by the kids.

And then comes the best part when we get to sprint to the flag where the bridge jumpers land when they parachute off the bridge.

Snow, Snow, Go Away...

We've had a lot of fun playing in the snow since we moved to Twin Falls...

Building snowmen together...

Having snowball fights with Daddy...

and sledding down the hills.

But we are SO ready for SPRING now!

Hopefully it gets here soon!

"Really Kitty Funny News" or...The Many Adventures of Kate and Sam

Kate's Birthday Bash!

Kate turned 6 a few weeks ago and we went back to Boise for a big family bash with LOTS of cousins, aunts and uncles, cousins, and good friends! She had so much fun and is finally starting to come out of her shell. She is naturally a very quiet (we try to avoid using the word "shy") person so we had a fun little worksheet for people to fill out about her to get to know her better. Here were her answers:

Favorite Color: all the colors of the rainbow

Favorite Food: healthy food

Favorite Treat: zingers

Favorite Movie: any Barbie movie

Favorite Hobbies: anything with coloring or art, singing, playing piano, dancing

Favorite thing about School: all of it

What she wants to be when she grows up: a fashion designer, a model, a mom, a teacher, a ballerina (Pretty ambitious!)

The beautiful princess castle cake

Kate has planned on having this cake almost a year ago when she saw it in a magazine and has talked about it ever since. She was so excited! Of course my good friend, Carlie, made it perfectly...complete with a moat and edible chocolate rocks!

Opening presents with help from her best friends Liv and Anna.

Then Daddy came in with a brilliantly wrapped present from Mom and Dad and the Grandmas and Grandpas....a new bike!

We ended the party taking turns swinging at the pinata. I think everyone made off with a pretty good haul of treats and trinkets! We all had lots of fun!

Our Day Trip to Utah - Part 2

Oops! I forgot to post Part 2 of our quick little Utah trip. But better late than never!

After the Dinosaur Museum and Ikea we took the kids over to Temple Square.

They loved seeing the big Salt Lake Temple. No matter how many times we told Alice

that it was the temple, she kept calling it a big princess castle.

We took them over to the Church History Museum for a little play time

in the newly remodeled children's exhibit. They had a lot of fun.

And we couldn't leave the museum without seeing the replica of the

statue of Moroni...or as Sammy says, "Moro-knife."

Kate loved having her own camera to document our little trip so she could

make her own scrapbook with her pictures.

She took this one... a view of the temple from the Christus.

OUR FOREVER FAMILY

All in all, we had a really fun little trip and enjoyed spending the day together.

Our Day Trip to Utah - Part 1

A few weeks ago we took the kids down to Utah on a day trip.

Our first stop was the Museum of Ancient Life

Dinosaur Museum in Lehi. They had a lot of fun learning about

the different dinosaurs, seeing the fossils, and taking lots of pictures.

YIKES!

Kate's reaction when she first heard the "dinosaur noises" over the speakers.

Sammy said, "It's okay. The dinosaurs are all stinked anyway."

Kate's first sight of her favorite dinosaur, T. Rex!

The Allosaurus and the "Alice-aurus"

Building mountains out of the sand at the erosion table.

This is their genuine reaction to the shark attack.

(Kate took this picture.)

Digging in the fossil beds.

Our second stop was to Ikea for shopping and some lunch...sorry no pictures of that though!