Brandon's Golden Birthday

This last weekend was Brandon's 29th birthday on August 29th. So it was his Golden Birthday and I wanted to do something special. I decided to surprise him with a trip to Chicago for the weekend. He didn't know for a long time where we were going, unfortunately I looked up some things to do in Chicago on his computer and didn't erase the search bar. It was such a fun trip and so much fun to just have time together and be able to go out and do things on our schedule.

(Navy Pier)

I took tons of pictures. The city is gorgeous with so many picture taking opportunities.

(Field Museum)
Most of the mueseums were really cool. The only thing I don't think I would ever recommend seeing is the water fountain. Not that cool. We bought a city pass and were able to go where we wanted to. My favorite thing was riding bikes and biking up and down the coast line. The beaches are beautiful there, who knew?! I could have spent an entire day just playing at the beach and it was so close to where we stayed.

(Northshore Drive)

(Shedd Aquarium)
We saw how the trainers train the dolphins and the whales here. There were some amazing and some kind of gross looking fish here.

(The Lego Store)

We had to stop here to get something for the boys. Really this is such a fun store, I could have spent longer in there too.

(Millenial Park)

Home of the famous Bean. There was the coolest water fountain there that looked like a person spitting water out of her mouth. It was a fun place to cool off after walking around all morning.

Willis Tower (Sears Tower)
We went up into the Willis Tower and the John Hancock tower. The views from there were amazing. You can see all of Chicago from there. The clear box was at the top of the sears tower and it was a little unnerving to look down and have nothing underneath you.

(Chicago Tribune)

On the outside of this building there are pieces from all over the world. It was so cool to walk around and see all the different places these things came from.

We loved being in Chicago. What a fun city. I just couldn't believe that we hadn't gone there sooner. Definitely a place that we would love to go to again.

Olivia's Five Finger Deal, Missing Teeth, and The Kalamazoo Air Zoo

A story I forgot to tell from our trip to Utah was Olivia's little fiive finger deal. We went to the BYU bookstore while we there and walked around and got a few things. They had these little purses that were just the right size for Olivia to get at apparently. She was in her stroller the entire time, and she also was wearing a jacket that day. We paid for the things that we wanted and then went to go see Great Grandma Bishop at the nursing home. I was holding Olivia and talking with Grandma when all of the sudden Olivia reaches down inside her jacket into the sleeve of her jacket and whips out this little coin purse. She was so incredibly proud of her little find. I was incredibly shocked by it. I have no idea when or how she got this. We called Brandon's dad and asked him to go pay for it. Luckily it wasn't some priceless item. Nonetheless she is being watched closer when we go to the BYU Bookstore:)

After me begging him not to touch his loose tooth until after family pictures. He wiggled it out bad enough the night before that it had to come out, go figure! So now he has lost his first top front tooth and the other one is going to be out any day as well.

This last weekend we went with some friends of our to Kalamazoo and went to the Air Zoo there. We got there friday night and just spent our time swimming at the hotel. The kids love being in the water and are gaining more confidence in their swimming abilities. They all crashed pretty hard. In the morning, which was early morning Olivia woke up with no intent on going back to sleep I found the boys sleeping like this. These boys are either being best friends and playing so well together, or trying to strangle each other. So it's nice to see this, even if they had no intention of sleeping like this.

The Girl who would not sleep!

Saturday we spend our day at the Air Zoo. The kids had a blast! It's a mix of amuement rides and history all in one. The thing I loved most was hearing Logan continually tell anyone who would listen that both of his great grandpa's fought in WWII with so much pride. Brandon told him about his Great Grandpa Bishop who recieved a purple heart for his bravery. There was so much history in this place and it was so much fun to be there and learn.

The kids went on this Zero Gravity ride around 20 times each. Porter would get off of it and run and get back in the line. Luckily the lines were short so he was able to ride it as much as he wanted.

There were a few simulation rides there. One was a Fighter Jet Simulation that Logan and I went on together. He flew us around and spun us in circles, and crashed into the ground. It wasn't until the end of the ride that I realized I could switch the pilot. Another one was flying on a rocket to the international space station.

The kids all went on this airplane time too many times to keep track of. There was also a hot air balloon ride that spun in a circle.

It was such a great little get away. We're realizing that we are having our lasts here in Michigan. It's bitter sweet. I can't wait to move onto the next phase of our lives but we have made some amazing friends here and have for the most part enjoyed it here. It's almost a scarey/exciting feeling to feel that by next year we can start to settle down and stay somewhere longer than 3 years.

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures done last week. This was no small task on us or the photographer to get everyone to look at her and to look somewhat normal in these pictures. They turned out pretty good. Here are a few of my favorites.

Laziness or a Way of Life

The other day I cleaned out my wallet and, and as I usually do I divided my money into 3 piles and let my kids put it into their piggy banks. I've started making Porter and Logan put 10% away for tithing, and I kind of use this money as an irregular allowance. As Logan was putting his money away he asked me why he needed to save it. I told him he needed to save for college and a mission. After thinking about this for awhile he said, "What will you do if you don't have any money?" I told him I thought we would be okay. He thought for another minute then proudly said, "I Know! You could get a wheel chair and sit outside with a bucket for people to put money in!" He was so proud that he came up with this great idea!

Do you think he's been to Detroit too long?

Our Utah Trip 2010

Once again, we made it out to Utah to spend 3 weeks of full of fun. One of the first few days we met up with our friends the Arrhenius' at the Thanksgiving Point petting farm. It's a inexpensive place that the kids really like. They were able to ride horses, feed the cows, horses, and other animals that didn't bite. We were so glad that we went and saw them. It has felt like forever since we last saw the Arrhenius family they were in Utah 3 weeks before us.
My sister and I took our kids over to the carnival to enjoy the heat, dizziness, and the people who only come out when the carnival is in town. My kids loved spending so much time with "cousins." Every day, that's all they ever wanted to do was play with them.

Nate and Jami and their kids came the next night, and the kids all loved seeing each other. It's so fun to have cousins all around the same age that my kids can all play with.

Uncle Sky is another hot item that all of the neices and nephews love playing with him. The boys started a water fight with him and loved having him chase them and get them drenched.

Since all of my siblings were in town we decided to throw my mom a surprise 60th birthday party a few months early. She was completely surprised and not at all happy that we had moved her turning 60 up a few months. She was a good sport about it, and we all had a lot of fun spending time with family and friends that we don't get to see very often.

I love the 24th of July in Utah. It's a great holiday, and after driving back to Michigan I am once again so thankful I was not a pioneer and didn't have to walk that far.

We took some cousin pictures, and as my mom said we needed to catch them in the moment. Olivia was dead tired and didn't wake up the entire time we were there at the park.

Porter turned 5 while we were there.

I was able to see my life savers from Iowa as well. It turned out that Lisa had a family reunion while I was there, and we all were able to get together for lunch. It was a short visit, but so good to see these girls and their cute kids. Life is always more fun when you have good friends to go through it with.

And then the major reason for a 2nd trip out to Utah was my brother getting married. I cannot tell you how excited that he and Hailey found each other. They did the wedding dinner the night before with family and close friends. Brandon flew in late that night, and then we went to the Mt. Timpanogas temple to see them get married. I love weddings!

Hailey looked gorgeous, and the reception was beautiful too. I told Logan and Porter that they were going to see Hailey and think she was so beautiful in her wedding dress. Later that night, I asked if they thought she looked beautiful Logan said, "I didn't think her dress was beautiful, I thought her smile was!" The kids all loved being able to play and dance together. It was a great weekend.

Porter and Camdyn shared a birthday cake day so Brandon and his parents could see some of his birthday celebrations. Grandma Bishop made a quilt for Porter, and he absolutely just loves it.

Monday, we spent the day at Payson Lakes with Brandon's family. Evan, Whitney and Chad came up from Vegas, and Holly came down from Salt Lake. It was good to have everyone together. The kids all wanted to be on the lake the entire time in the kayaks, so the adults pretty much took turns giving them rides. Porter and Chad tried catching ducks. Porter wanted to "fire one up and eat it." I think Chad just wanted to catch one.

Then that night we went and did dinner in the park and birthday cake for my Dad's birthday.

We also went boating with our good friends the Finlayson's. Whenever we come to Utah they have something fun for us to do with them. This time, it was a new tube to go in the water with. Brandon was able to roll the tube in the water, and the last time he did it crashed pretty hard and hurt his ribs. A bad storm hit right after Finney pulled the kids in the boat, and we had a scary few minutes until we got back to shore.

Well are you tired from reading this?? We did lots of other fun things that I didn't take pictures of like: going out to eat, babysitting chickens, jumping on trampolines, climbing trees, exploring and lots and lots of visiting and just hanging out. We had a great time!