Logan turns 4

Like I said earlier, the theme was taken from the Mo Willems' book I'm Invited to a Party so it was a fancy, pool, costume party. Everyone was supposed to dress up but the invite was "too confusing" was their excuse.

Here is our family all dressed up for the occasion. We tried to do a game for each part of the party but I couldn't think of a fancy game so we had a cheesy photo booth kind of like prom for the fancy part.

For the costume part we did a donut eating contest. I was surprised that all the guys wanted to participate. They must like donuts.

We had a fish pond just because Logan loved the one at the Bountiful Park this Summer and that was his request for the party.






I didn't get a picture of the table but it had three different sections with food that corresponded to each part of the party.

Fancy - veggie garden pizzas, paper goods

Pool - cupcakes and Capri Suns

Costume - caramel apples and Halloweenies.

I could have done a lot more with this theme but for once I kept it simple (Tad please take note of that). It was fun and different.

Pumpkin Patch

We did the annual trek to the pumpkin patch where you have to take the obligatory cheesy pumpkin photos. Evan wasn't left out of this ritual either, such a trooper.

Here you go, I can officially celebrate Fall since I've posted my cheesy pumpkin patch photos.

Along for the trip this year was my Aunt Keri and Jacee. Jacee was all about finding the big pumpkins. Logan was mostly excited about the cart he couldn't push that Aunt Keri did most of the work pushing.

Logan and Jacee in the maze. An hour after this was taken a meltdown occured when Jacee had to go back home to Idaho. I got to hear all day how much he missed Jacee and when she is coming back to visit.

If you are reading this and in my neighborhood, I'd love to borrow your pumpkins for the neighborhood party tonight. Don't worry we'll put your name on the bottom and return to you after the party. Call and I'll pick them up before 4:00 today.

Zucchini Recipes

Our garden is just about done but we've had plenty of zucchini from our garden. I've tried a bunch of recipes and here are three that were good.

Summer Zucchini Pasta (pictured)- I left the mint out but all members of my family ate this and liked it.

Roasted Vegetable Minestrone - This makes tons so you could share or freeze some of it for later.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna - This really was the best of all three recipes. It makes tons and Tad took the leftovers to work all week and actually ate them. Groundbreaking! It tastes just like an Alfredo pasta not vegetables. It's amazing.

I also made a chocolate zucchini cake and zucchini bread with mini chocolate chips that was good but there are hundreds of those recipes you can find anywhere.

Mo Willems Books

A couple months ago I was on Banana Fudge Swirl, a photographer that started a kids blog, and Chenin recommended Mo Willems books. We still haven't read the one she recommended but have read at least a half dozen of his books. Logan's favorites are the Elephant & Piggie series books. His absolute favorite is I Am Invited to a Party. He loves it so much that his birthday party this weekend is going to be based after that book. So if you have kids you should check it out. It also helps to use silly voices for each character.

Little Getaway

We recently went on a little trip up to the Yellowstone/Grand Targhee area. We took my parents with us so we got a lot of family photos on the trip. We stopped off in Arimo to get another photo in front of this truck.

Then we did something you can't do in Utah. We took the chairlift to the top of Grand Targhee and Evan was allowed to ride (in UT you have to be 2 years old to ride). It was gorgeous at the top but there were swarms and swarms of lady bugs. Weird.


From this direction you can see the Tetons in the background.

Here is the view coming down on the chairlift. It had me a little freaked out with how steep it was. I would have preferred being on skis coming down than on this chair.

Tad and Logan did a little bit of boating at the cabin. Tad's very generous sister let us stay at her cabin and we had so much fun visiting with them and staying. Thanks. It was the end of September but it seriously felt like July up there with how warm it was in the mid 70s.

I also have to mention we stopped at the King's Discount Store in Driggs. Do you remember King's by Five Points Mall? It was awesome. They had so many cool toys and books. We'll definitely be stopping there every time we go visit.

Now on to Yellowstone. Logan was a little freaked out at some of the hot spots thinking a dragon was going to come out of them at any moment.

Also if you go to Yellowstone all the time I recommend going to the back of Old Faithful sometime when it erupts. We got wet from the steam and this little stream fills up with the run off from the geyser. I thought it was cool since I go to Yellowstone every year to see something new. Also we go to see the Beehive Geyser go off which only erupts every 9-16 hours. I don't have picture of either of these events.

This guy was just happy to have his diaper changed.






Cute boys!

Something brand new at Yellowstone is the Old Faithful NPS Visitor Facilities. The building is absolutely gorgeous and inside it houses all sorts of exhibits about Yellowstone. I think it's about time they had something like this. Logan was checking out the kid's section.








On the way home we went past Palisades Reservoir. The fall leaves in this area were AMAZING. Even though driving this way was an hour and a half longer it was worth it.








We also stopped at Bear Lake. Our favorite place is a beach at the Garden City Park. We'd heard all summer how high the water was. I couldn't believe it. We didn't go in the water because it was high so the boys had a light saber battle with some PVC pipes.

We got a few photos with lots of sun flare that I love. It was such a nice trip and I was very tempted to send Tad home with my parents and stay up there till my maternity leave was over. All ready can't wait till next Summer to visit Yellowstone.