Kenzie is 12!

For Kenzie's 12th birthday yesterday, she decided to eat dinner at Chuck a Rama.  We waited outside for a few minutes for Daddy to meet us after work. (Notice Cameron and Parker both wore some orange in honor of their sister's favorite color.)

Kenzie was super excited to have a slushee, some cornbread, and later a taco salad.  Unlike Parker, she did not want the waitresses to sing to her, so we kept quiet about her birthday.

Back at home with all of her presents!

 She was so happy to get five billion owls, more Lego Friends, some art stuff and some tsum tsums.  This is her last year before she's officially a teenager!  Ahhh!

Red Butte Gardens

For weeks now I have been asking Kenzers how she would like to celebrate her birthday.  She couldn't think of anything that particularly excited her until she heard about Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake.  She is really into gardens lately. 

The boys are not as excited about gardens.  Parker was a good sport, and he still enjoyed navigating with the map, but he wasn't nearly as eager as Kenzie.

Cameron heard our destination this morning and said, "I hate the gardens.  Can I sit in my stroller?"  That made me laugh a bit.  There were a lot of steep inclines, so I'm sure I would have wound up carrying him a lot if we didn't have the stroller.  As it was, we were all out of breath a few times!

We took the tram ride around so we didn't have to keep walking.  Kenzie was having a great time still.

Cameron pouting on the tram.  "I miss Dad!" he said.  (Dad is more fun and would not subject him to this, I guess!)  He did perk up once the tram passed a little waterfall and some statues of animals.

 The boys finally enjoyed the Children's Garden area, with little mazes to walk through and tiny alcoves and some fountains.

 Kenzie crossing a little stone path.  The rest of these are pictures Kenzie took: 

 Kenzie said she had fun, and even Parker admitted it was more interesting than he'd expected.  Cameron was just excited to eat a snack and go home!

Parker the Magnificent

I'm always amused on days I receive a ticket for something in our house.  Tonight the Amazing Parker put on a magic show for us.  We had to deposit our tickets on a chair in the hall, and then take our assigned seats for the show.

This kid cracks me up.  I am so glad he got this magic set for Christmas last year.  

Cameron eagerly volunteered to be Parker's helper.  As Cameron goes to pick a crayon, he tells us, "He can read minds!"  

There were quite a few tricks, and he did pretty well, with only a few flubs of showing us more than we should have seen.  

The apprentice after the show!

Museum of Natural Curiosity

Here they are having fun turning the big water wheel.  As we pulled into the parking lot of the Museum of Natural Curiosity this morning, Parker exclaimed, "Curiosity?  Oh, that's me!  I'm going to enjoy this place.  I have a lot of questions."  Truer words have never been spoken.

Having fun watching everything fall over on the earthquake table.

Cam Buddy pushing buttons and making the fountain shoot water.

Enjoying the wind speeds of 84 mph in the wind tunnel! (Well, it's at 54 in the picture, but it got up to 84!)

Parker using the zip line.  I couldn't get a picture of his face, but he grinned the whole way.

Walking around outside in the gardens.  Cameron and Parker were yelling, "I'm the king of the world!" because they had climbed the hill a few feet.  Whatever makes them happy!

Checking out the pond.  The boys were extra happy that summer vacation is back on track, since last week we didn't do a whole lot while Kenzie was gone at Girls Camp.  They sure missed her.  Parker greeted her at the door on Saturday with an orange soda, a tiny toy he'd picked out for her, and a note saying, "Welcome home."  

All the fish were clustered where they are fed, which looked kind of neat.

 Kenzers always enjoys a good spot to sit and rest! 

 I thought this one was cute.  They had fun exploring the caves, the hedge maze, and then some play structures back inside with rope bridges.  Now it's back to the rest of our Monday chores, but it was a fun morning out!

Worn Out

Here's proof the kids can't keep up with their parents!  I took this picture Sunday morning because I thought it was cute.  We had fun, but it was quite tiring!  We made pancakes and then packed up to head home.

Excited to watch some movies on the car ride back.  We really had to play Tetris with the sleeping bags, and kept asking ourselves, "How did this all fit on the way here?"  The kids were good sports about being crammed in the back seat.  We only briefly stopped for gas and for the kids to use the restroom, and otherwise we just made good time back home to start laundry!  Another fun adventure for us!

Fancier Pictures of Bryce Canyon

I just take pictures with my phone now, since the camera on it is nicer than my actual camera.  Chris is the one with the nice camera, and he had fun taking some pictures during our trip that I wanted to post.  Here is our tipi at sunset.

 I thought this one was kind of other-worldly with the moon rising.  I had been looking forward to seeing lots of stars, since Bryce Canyon is a designated dark area for star viewing.  Of course, the moon was a Super Moon on Friday night, and then Saturday night it was cloudy!  Friday the moon was so bright we could see without a flashlight around our campsite even.  We looked at the moon through our telescope and it hurt our eyes!

 There really was a bit of space after the bench before the edge, although now this picture makes it seem like there wasn't.  The kids were good about always staying on the paths where there wasn't a railing.

 Even though these are beautiful pictures, we agreed the pictures don't do it justice!  

 Kenzie had her own camera out and was really enjoying herself.

 We liked the hoodoo that looked like a rook from chess.

 Natural Bridge. 

 One last picture from the rim.

This was our favorite picture, though!  Cam Buddy content to be outside and look around.

Sunset to Sunrise Point

 Saturday afternoon, we took the park's shuttle into the park to the more popular viewpoints for a little scenic hike from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point.

 The kids were so excited to ride the shuttle bus!

 Outside the Visitor's Center, waiting to catch the shuttle again.  They all were clinging on to Daddy like this, so I had to take a picture!

 Cameron was so tired that he fell asleep riding the shuttle, though.  When we reached our stop, I picked him up and he still didn't wake up.  His eyes were still closed and his head rolled around.  Other people exiting the shuttle with us sure thought he was cute.  

 Parker checking out the view with the binoculars I got for Christmas.  I only got to use them for about 20 seconds!

 The kids were hot and tired, so these are the poses I got during the half mile trek (which sure felt longer since Cameron whined to be carried the entire time.  He was not happy to have been woken up!).  Even juice boxes and snacks couldn't quite get him to "power up" like they usually do.

Kenzie wanted to go on the steep hike down into the canyon, but there was no way I was going to carry Cameron all the way back up!

 Walking back to the shuttle.  We wound up taking a slightly different path from the main one, which was nice to get us away from the crowds.  The people-watching was quite entertaining, however!  National Parks bring out all sorts of people apparently.  After this we had to head back to our campsite to eat dinner and let the kiddos decompress.  We had worn them out quite thoroughly!

Bryce Canyon - Bristlecone Pine Loop & Natural Bridge

 Saturday morning we headed out for a short hike (but at over 9,000 feet, it didn't feel short) on the Bristlecone Pine Loop at the very end of the park.  There were some beautiful views!

 Kenzie brought her camera and took lots of her own photos, too.  She was having a great time.

 We got a kick out of Parker as we first drove into view of some of the canyon.  "Wow, look at that scenery!" he exclaimed.

 I thought this was cute of everyone walking along the trail.  Cameron did pretty well, and only begged to be carried for a bit.

 Parker kept looking out into the distance and wanting to know if we could see where we live.  We live 250 miles away from Bryce Canyon, but Parker was pretty sure we should be able to see that far!

 It was a fun way to celebrate my birthday by hanging out with my family and seeing a place I had never been before.

 The Bristlecone Pines are pretty ugly.  This one, according to the sign, is over 1,600 years old.  Part of it is dead, but part is still going.

 Parker enjoying the view some more.

The kiddos at the Natural Bridge (Kenzie is almost obscuring it a bit).  Chris took better pictures of the scenery, so I'll have to post some of those separately.  I just took pictures of the kids, like always.  After this we headed back to the tipi for some lunch and a swim before returning!