Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

Another stop we made on our trip to Utah was to the Dinosaur museum. The museum was celebrating it's 9th birthday so we were able to do some fun extra things for FREE like... face painting, making a craft, fly fishing and feeding the cardboard cutout dinosaur. We also made a fossil and saw a 3D movie about Dinosaurs. We had a great day at the museum.Emma's face painting choice.

Brandon's "water dinosaur".

Jake's choice.

THE T-REX!!!!

The museum had a lot of hands on exhibits. Here the kids are building their own dinosaur. Then they were pretending to be a dinosaur.

Brandon and the baby dinosaur.Jake and the giant prehistoric shark. Emma and Brandon were too afraid to go near the shark.

The wooley mammoth a.k.a " Manny". The kids loved the Ice Age section of the museum.

If you ever get a chance to go to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point I highly recommend it.

Summers Family Photo Shoot 2009

These are the lastest photos of the kids, our little family, Matt and I and Matt's extended family. Enjoy.

What do you think of this photo of Brandon? I think it is adorable but, should I pick a different one with his hands not in his mouth?

4th of July and Beyond...there are 3 posts so keep reading...

We went to Richfield, Utah for the 4th of July which seems to be somewhat of a tradition the last few years. We always have a great time visiting with Matt's family and enjoying small town Utah. Richfield has a parade on the 4th of July and fireworks in the evening. Here are just a few pictures from the parade. This is the boys with a tractor in the parade. My city kids love this country stuff.

A parade wouldn't be complete without candy. The kids would run out into the street to collect the candy as fast as they could. They not only had competition from their cousins but also from the kids sitting next to us.

Ahhhh, the face of satisfaction when returning from the hunt with candy.

This is the a picture of the gang that sat out in the hot sun to watch a few tractors, dairy princesses and very few floats go by while having candy flung at them. Don't we all look excited?

Later in the week we went to Northen Utah. Snowville and Tremonton to be exact to visit Matt's grandparents. The next picture is Grandma Edna Morgan from Snowville. We had a nice time visiting and even left with some stuffed animals.

Next stop, Tremonton to visit Grandma and Grandpa Summers. Notice the wheat in the field behind their house. The kids took turns mowing their yard on the riding lawnmower. YEEHAW! They also found a stray dog and played with it most of the time they were there. They named it Diesel. Maybe one day they will have a dog. MAYBE. The kids and I spent some time with my Aunt Linda from Lindon Utah. We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Tempe open house. It is in West Jordon. It was beautiful as expected and really neat for all of us to experience. Jake's favorite part was the baptistry. Apparently, it was Brandon's too because he kept asking to see the "cows" again.This is my cousin Marlie Reed (Linda's daughter) with her boys Jackson and Wesley. She flew in from Colorado to visit her brother Steve and his family who flew in from Virginia. Have I confused you yet? It was fun to visit with everyone at Aunt Linda's house.
Steve and Jenny Nelson with Houston and Brady.

Trip to Utah- Capitol Reef National Park

On July 3rd we went with Matt's family to Capitol Reef National Park. First, we had a nice picnic in this beautiful area complete with deer wondering around. It was so great.

Then we got ready to go on our hike to a natural bridge called Hickman Bridge. Here is Jake with his pick for a walking stick. Are you kidding me? We had to make some adjustments to his walking stick. He ended up ditching it half way on the hike anyway. This is the Hickman bridge we hiked to. It was a mile hike up to the bridge. Brandon actually did really well. This is him pretending to be Matt on the hike with his hat and backpack.

This is the family at Hickman bridge. Emma and I were really not enjoying ourselves. I am not a hiker and apparently my daughter takes after me. Jake had a blast.

This is just a view of what we saw while hiking. It was very pretty. It was a fun day to spend with the family. Thanks to Tandy and Mel (Matt's sister) for organizing everything for the day.

Trip to Utah- Cove Fort

Our first stop was to Cove Fort just off I-15 and I-70. This is the fort President Hinckley's grandfather built. The first picture is the front gate/door of the fort. The picture is not centered very well because the cute little old missionary took it.

These are the original doors to the fort. This is a tree that has been here the whole time the fort has been. The missionaries told us how old it was but I have since forgotten. I am guessing 100+ years. You can also see a little of the inside of the fort.

This is the cantraption they would put the horse and oxen in to shoe them.

This is a plow they used.

The kids in the barn by an old salt lick by their feet. Please notice Brandon's pose.

The pioneer kids would play this game. You try to keep the metal part of the wagon wheel going as long as you can by pushing it with the metal stick.

This is all of us in front of a covered wagon. Shortly after we got to the fort there was a huge dust storm which you can kind of see in some of the pictures. Then it started raining a little. By the time our tour was over my car was a muddy mess.

We had a fun time at cove fort and I am sure we will go back again some day to do it all over again.

Choir performance and School Awards

Emma has been in the school choir all year and they finally had their concert the week before school was out. (Yes, I know I am about 2 weeks behind schedule, leave me alone I am enjoying my summer.) Anyway the choir only sang about 7 songs and they were all great. This is Emma and her choir/music teacher Ms. Cazzaza.


Emma played the tabano for one of the songs. She had fun doing that too.

At the awards assembly Emma received Principal's Honor Roll for straight A's again for the 3rd time. She kept straight A's all year long. She got a Good Attendance award and a certificate for participating in the spelling bee.

Jake received Principal's Honor Roll as well and kept straight A's all year long too. He got a Great Attendance award and a certificate for participating in the spelling bee.

I am not sure where I got such smart kids. They must get it from their dad.

Always of course if Emma and Jake are getting their pictures taken then Brandon wants his picture taken too. So here he is... Sadly, I actually had him pose for this picture. He does this move a lot around the house. I am sure I would throw my back out if I attempted such a thing.

Fun day with the family

Saturday we took the kids to Bass Pro Shops. All summer they are having FREE workshops and FREE activities like, shooting, fishing, and archery to name a few on Saturday and Sunday. The kids had a great time and also got a FREE picture taken. They had to stand in front of this back drop and pretend to hold up their "catch". Then 2 days later I was able to download their super imposed picture with the fish. Funny thing is...fishing is the one outdoor sport we actually don't do. But I still think the pictures are cute.

Sadly these are the only pictures I got of the adventure to Bass Pro Shops because once again I forgot my camera. After we left Bass Pro Shops we went to the MGM Grand hotel and casino to see the MGM lions. We got there just in time for feeding time. The people feeding the lions would throw the meat on the windows of their cage so we could watch the lions lick or eat the food off the window. I can't decide if that was gross or cool. The kids enjoyed the quick trip.

Again their are no photos of this event because I still did not have my camera. I will try to do better next time.