Thomas the Tank Engine

Friday night we took the kids for a ride on Thomas the Train in Heber. Thomas is only here during Memorial weekend and were have been looking forward to this for quite a while. Every morning cute Caleb would wake up and put an "X" on his school calender counting down to the big day to ride Thomas. Last year I took him and he loved it! I knew that I had to do it again this year. It is really affordable $16 a person and that includes the train ride and all of the activities. I'll be sad when my kids aren't into Thomas anymore! It's fun to see their faces light up when they wee Thomas. If you have never done this with your kids and they are into trains, you need to do it! It's just too cute!

Caleb's cousin Parker came with us as our "Special Helper." Caleb loves spending time with him!

Caleb loved being around all of the Thomas the Train engines and his friends at the station!

When we first arrived, we got right on our train. We were so grateful that it didn't rain on us. It was a little chilly but not too bad.

Caleb has always wanted to sit in a caboose.

Caleb and the same engineer that drove Thomas last year.

After the train rides we enjoyed all of the activities that are included in the price. Both of the kids got their temporary tattoos on their cheeks. Caleb wanted to keep his on "forever" but, mean mom made him wash it off today for church.

Izzy looks sweet with Rosie the train on her cheek.

The gift shop was full of fun Thomas toys.

He loved this cool Lego display of trains! It was pretty cool!



You can't have a Thomas event without a bunch of train tables set up for the kids to play with. Izzy loves Thomas too.

Caleb doing what he does best!

It was fun for the kids to meet Sir Topham Hat.

Izzy loved the little miniature horses at the small petting zoo. Caleb was afraid to go near them. It was cute to see her yelling at them. She was excited to see them!

The kids loved the train suckers to finish off the event!

Check out this video. It is so cute!

Goodbye Thomas! We love you!

California Here We Come!

Last Wednesday we headed down to Los Angeles for B's brothers ALS Hoopfest event. We decided to drive instead of fly so we packed into B's car and took off to sunny California. The kids were amazing the entire way to and from California! All I have to say is thank goodness for DVD players!

Caleb was content with his movies. As long as he was watching them he didn't make a sound. He only asked when we would be there twice. How cool is that?

Even though Izzy couldn't have the headphones on, she was completely happy just watching the movies without sound.

We made the trip in two days on our way down. We stopped in Vegas for the night. It's always fun to walk around the shops in Vegas.

These are just some fun pictures of Izzy playing with dad.

One of the days we went to Santa Barbara for the afternoon after the Hoopfest event. That is the coolest city! It is so beautiful and has a romantic feel to it. There is a cool outdoor mall and lots of fun places to eat. We ate a cute pizza place on main street. I had never been there before. I definitely want to go back there again and spend more time there!

Izzy loves not being in a highchair. She was happy here until she fell of the chair and split her lip. Lesson learned, huh?

After a long day at Hoopfest, Caleb was exhausted and was ready for bed.

This is my princess posing for us at the cool outdoor mall.

After a fun 4 days in California it was time to make the trek back home. We wanted to break it up into two days like before. We went to church that morning, had lunch, then headed on the road. Again, the kids were perfect and once we got to St. George to stop for the night, B wanted to go all the way home in one day. So we did it! I would've never thought that my kids would last in the car for 10+ hours but they were great! Yay! What a fun quick trip!

Izzy at McDonald's on our way home.

Legoland!

While we were in California for Hoopfest, we went to Legoland. My sister Kim had free passes for us to use. With the 98 degree weather in the valley, we looked forward to spending an afternoon on the coast at a fun amusement park. We had never been there before. We had a fun afternoon!

Caleb was able to go on every ride. This park is mainly for kids ages 2-12.

Caleb loved driving this fun Lego boat. He pushed the gas and steered. He thought he was pretty neat!

There wasn't many rides for Izzy to go on but, she enjoyed wandering around and checking out all of the Lego sculptures.

We had some fun caricatures done on the kids. They turned out so cute! Izzy's was a little hula girl dancing on the beach. This matches her Hawaiian room theme.


Caleb's, of course, is an train engineer. We thought this was cute and we had to laugh when we saw the little gap between his teeth in the drawing.

They have the FUNNEST water area were the kids ran around in the spraying water. There is also a huge jungle gym with shooting water. My kids would've stayed in the water area all day.

How sweet!

I love going on rides with Caleb! He gets so excited. I just love this age!

My little night in shining armor.


Look how cool these Lego statues are!

The fun thing about Legoland is that almost everything is made out of Legos. It's pretty amazing!

This is my favorite picture! Both Caleb and Izzy love Thomas the Train. You can imagine their eyes when they saw this.

Isn't Bob the Builder cool?

So I have to say that is you go to California and you don't want to do Disneyland or you want to do more fun stuff while on your visit, you need to go here! This park is so clean and the lines weren't long. Caleb can't stop talking about Legoland. This definitely won't be our last visit! Thanks Kim for the tickets!

Dreams Don't Die Hoopfest 2008

This was the 4th annual Hoopfest for ALS honoring Brandon's brother Ernie. This has been a fun tradition that the family started about a year after Ernie passed away. Ernie had a passion for basketball and coached many in the sport. He was loved by so many! This is an amazing fundraiser for ALS. Money is raised with registration to play on teams, concessions, food, and a silent auction. All of which were donated by many supporters. It seems like each year Hoopfest gets bigger and bigger. It is something that many look forward to every year. Many have said that they will continue to support the cause. I'm not sure how much we raised last weekend from the event but, I'm sure it was alot because of the great turn out. This is also a fun way to get together and support Ernie's family. We hardly ever get to see them because they live in Calabassas California. We love you Cheryl, Alexis, Katie, Seth, Brian, and Daniel! I know Ernie would be honored!

We love hangin' with Uncle Rolf (B's brother)

Izzy loves "Papa!"

Caleb loved this cool basketball thrower. He enjoyed watching shots being made than being shot back out. Doesn't he look sweet in this big shirt?

The kids love watching daddy play basketball!

Brandon with his dad and brothers

(Eric, B, Del, Rolf, and Mark)