Minnatonka Cave!

For the Gibson/Thatcher Reunion we got to walk through Minnetonka Cave down by Bear Lake, it was a lot of fun, the kids actually really enjoyed it!

Here is the family, just outside of Minnetonka Cave, it was so cold down there I think they said it stays at 40 degrees year round.

This is the only touching rock you can touch, it was slimy and cold

Dad and Emmy, she had to bring her best friends..."Binki and Blanket!"

Trying to get pictures in the cave was almost impossible, nothing would show up behind us, so here is Brody with some crazy kids behind!!

Brenchley Family Reunion!

We had so much fun with my extended family at Cherry Hill swim resort in Kaysville, it is such a fun little water park for kids. Here is Brody, quite the fish, he'd jump in and just wiggle like a little tadpole, without coming up for air, trying to swim...no strokes involved just wiggled, he is fearless with goggles on!

Emmy is so sensitive to suncreen when it gets in her eyes, look doesn't that just make your own eyes water.

Emmy with Uncle Matt, getting thrown up in the air!

After Cherry Hill that following Monday we went to Bear Lake for the kids to play and have fun, here is Emmy, giving me one of her "sour" faces!

Here is my little "poser!" Just kidding I only wish he would sit and do cute faces like this all the time, this is rare!

Eye Update and...Do we have a "little gamer?"

Here's our "Sue Sue" it's like 11:00 a.m. she is still in her p.j's! But besides that she is wearing Brody's glasses he got from yet another eye Dr. visit! she put them on all by herself can you tell?

Here's our little man, giving me the thumbs up sign, and wearing his cool shades, his eyes are dilated under them! Well we got the okay from Dr. Smith, but we were still nervous about his left eye, because to us it really looks crooked and after a month hasn't improved. If anything it seems to be getting a little worse. So Dan took him to Dr. Seeholzer and the diagnosis was similar, but he told us there is a slight problem and sent us home with a Rx for glasses. he says the left eye is somewhat farsighted, so it doesn't see as well as the right, and since the right is dominant the left drifts in, he did tell us he doesn't work with kids very much so if the glasses doesn't fix it in 5wks he might refer us to SLC. We felt relieved that finally a professional had noticed it does drift. We were still concerned the doctor really didn't no for sure what to do, so we are going to go back and talk with Dr. smith to see what he says. So either we take him to a 3rd doctor who really deals with children and lazy eyes, or he gets glasses.

Brody was babysat by his big cousin Jade, and she has a phone you can play some really fun games, so after she left I remembered I bought this gamer when we were in Texas, it is just that little device there and you plug it into your t.v. it has hundreds of Nintendo games, like duck hunt, mario bro's,pacman, donkey gong, contra...etc pretty fun for us oldy goldies right!! any way I taught Brody how to use it and he is obsessed, he will totally be a gamer, needless to say the Wii or x-box will probably not be in our home!!

Dad trying to help Brody play "Excite Bike"!

Odgen Dinosaur Park

Visit to the Ogden Dino Park, It is absolutely adorable and fun, and awesome...and a little scary! There is a place to mine for gold, an excavation room, an area upstairs that has life size Dino's behind a "Jurassic Park-like" high-voltage fence, that actually move and make noises!

This is the excavation center, where you could see fossils, and dinosaur bones, it was neat! There a bunch of little paths you can follow, which take you to different enormous dinosaur statues, and they make noises but don't move. Brodyn was so nervous walking outside amongst the noisy Dino's, he was scared, he started crying and saying "let's go mom!" It was a bit too real for him, but after a little bit he got used to it. I had to carry both my kids, because they were both nervous of the dinosaurs.

Emmy playing outside at the little Dino park, it was so fun. It started to rain, huge droplets, we had to run into the visitor section, and our hair and clothes were damp. Brody and Emmy weren't happy about the rain. They were bawling by the time we made it inside.

Here is Emmy and Brody in front of Triceratops, she was cool, they were so nervous, I had Brody stick his hand in her mouth to feel her tongue so he would realize it wasn't real!

Brody with his nervous look. I think that was a Raptor. You can see how the Dinosaurs are staged in the shrubs and trees, as if they were in their natural environment. While walking along the paths you could hear Dinosaur noises played through the intercom system. It transported you back to the Dinosaur age... and was a little eerie, we got used to it and had a blast, we are going to go back again!

Zoo Time!

Dan and Emmy after riding the merry-go-round! Emmy loved it, she got stuck on the otter, (of all the not so cool animals), but she chose it!
Brodyn and Dan engrossed in watching the elephant, that elephant you see there is pregnant. Elephants are pregnant for 22 months, poor girls! Her little elephant is due this August! We will have to come back in the fall again to see the little guy or girl!

Brody being eaten by an alligator, and Uncle Brad trying to save him! When he got out of the mouth Brodyn said, "teeth are sharp mom!"

Brodyn, Emmy and cousin Dash, not as big as the gorilla!

Brody had to ride the rhino it is his favorite animal right now, and Emmy riding on her dinky little otter!!

Pirate Patch!

So we've noticed lately that Brodyn has a bit of a "Lazy Eye" on his left side, we just started noticing it about a month ago. Here he is after the eye Dr.'s appointment, he had his eye's checked and did so good! He even let aunt Stephanie take pictures of both eyes (aunt Stephanie works at the eye Dr.'s office)!He isn't color blind, and sees pretty well with both eyes. Dr. Smith said he has a wider bridge on his nose and that it makes it appear like the left eye is "Lazy"! so supposedly he is fine and normal, and his vision checks out okay.

I still think there might be something going on, because wide bridge or not, I never noticed it before and now I do, so I think we will give him a few months and see if there are any changes. In this picture it looks like his left eye is drifting inward, but he is not looking straight at the camera.

Needless to say, we might have to be a pirate in the future and wear a patch! "Arrrrgh!"

Happy Mother's Day Random Pictures

She looks a little grouchy here, but this is Isabeau Belle Banham. She is a little over a week old and she is absolutely beautiful, and so tiny, newborns are so fun and so little!! We call her "Baby Beau", we are so glad she is finally here...FINALLY!!

Since it is Mother's Day, I thought I'd put some random pictures up of my 'little rascals'. Here they are in their new sun hats, Brodyn had just put his on and Emmy's too, and came up to me and pointed to the the little white flower and said..."Put it on the right way mom!" He even got the Velcro under her chin strapped!

Here is my 'just woke up' sleepy head, he is wearing his reward he got at tumbling, it was parents day, which Nicole and I had no idea of course, so we didn't bring camera's so all we got were pictures on our cell phones, what is the point of camera phones they are horrible, so needless to say I didn't get any cute pictures of all the fun things he's learned and gets to play on at tumbling. But he is sure proud of his metal, he calls it something but I can't figure out what it even sounds like, but he shows it to everyone!! He has bed head in this picture, but man he is beautiful, I drive home with him in the backseat in his car seat and I tilt the rear-view mirror so I can watch him (Emmy is still facing backwards...safety first!!) and I just think, you are so beautiful...of course I am so on his team though! I'll be his biggest cheerleader..."of course he is the strongest, cutest, smartest, most funny, amazing little boy on this planet!!"

Here we are at Willow Park, Brody and LuLu are gorging themselves on suckers, and Emmy is just waiting for a taste, poor little sister, her sucker was in my purse, they had walked around this little house and parked it on the curb there, out of sight of our view from our picnic blanket, so we had to come find them and this is what we found!

This is Brody's favorite play-yard at Willow Park because it has this motorcycle how cool is this toy, and the little kid (in this case Eliza) who gets to have a ride in the little side caboose just gets rocked, when it is Emmy her head just bobs back and forth, like a little dashboard bobble head.