What Pioneers and Waffles Have in Common

 A few days ago, McKenzie randomly asked, "Mom, what's the next holiday?"  I answered that Pioneer Day was coming up.  "Can we have chocolate waffles?" she eagerly asked.

"What do chocolate waffles have to do with pioneers?" I wanted to know.

Without missing a beat, Kenzie answered, "Those waffles are special, just like the pioneers are special!"  

I got a kick out of that, and so in honor of the pioneers, we had chocolate waffles for dinner!

Happy Pioneer Day!

Chocolate Mousse

Daddy's chocolate mousse was a hit with this little guy!

Seven Peaks

 If you're up for a game of Where's Waldo, you can try and spot McKenzie hanging onto the ropes to the right of the green serpent head.  Yesterday Daddy had the day off, so we took the kiddos to Seven Peaks as our mini-vacation for the summer. (We brought the super old camera in case it was stolen, hence the lack of great pictures.)

They were so excited!  We only went down one water slide, let them play in the wave pool and kiddie area a few times, and rode the lazy river for awhile, but we were all exhausted afterwards.  Kenzie and Parker have each asked several times today if we're going back, but Mommy and Daddy can only reply we still haven't recovered from yesterday!

City Creek

Today we had a picnic with Daddy, which always makes the kiddos happy.  (Yes, I realize Daddy is not pictured, but he really was there.  Also, I was there in a lawn chair!) After his lunch break, Daddy had to return to work.  It seemed sad to just drive all the way back home without him, so we drove over to City Creek to check out the new mall before coming back to pick him up.

 I am not a shopper, so really we just came to see the fountains.

They didn't disappoint!  There was even a little "show" to music on the hour.  The kids were not as impressed with the show as I thought they would be - it was far more fun just to stick their hands and feet in the water.

Riding the escalators and walking over the bridge above the street were also highlights for the kids.  (Again, here's McKenzie on a 90 degree day wearing her sweater! I really don't know what to make of that.)

We also counted the fish in the pond.  We made it out of the parking garage with 1 minute to spare on our free hour of parking - so we managed to tour a very expensive shopping locale for free.  To celebrate, we spent that dollar instead on some Reese's Pieces in the vending machine by Daddy's office.  I'm so glad my kids are still young enough to claim, "This was the best day ever!" when that's all we did!

Float Preview

 I really dislike parades in my old age.  For my 13th birthday, or somewhere around there, I did actually request to go see the Rose Parade in Portland.  Now that I live in Utah, however, I find them to be quite the nuisance.  For whatever reason, people feel the need to camp out in downtown Salt Lake (a place I would not care to be after dark) for days, risking life and limb, just to get a seat for the annual Days of '47 Parade.  (This same problem occurs even with the dinky Riverton parade, though - people start strapping their lawn chairs to street signs a week in advance!)  

 

Anyways, since I have no interest in sleeping on the sidewalks for several days, we simply look at the floats ahead of time and then avoid the downtown area at all costs.  Kenzie really liked this Madagascar float.

 Parker insisted I take his picture by this bizarre spiderweb one. 

 Here's my favorite - the banana split float.  The cherries even rotated around.

 

A marching band marched around for awhile - Parker bobbed his head and really seemed to enjoy it, but Kenzie kept her ears plugged!

Parker was so excited to see Alex the Lion from Madagascar!  He ran right up and gave him a high-five on those huge paws.  (Kenzie, on the other hand, hid behind me!)  Both kids seemed to enjoy it, but I could only get Parker to leave willingly by promising him lunch!

The Hottest Week Ever

This week my mom and grandma came to visit - just in time for our AC to break.  Also, the entire week set records for heat.  It was at least 100 each day, I think 102 or 103 officially.  It was 87 in the house.  I slept with ice packs and tried really hard to not become a crazy pregnant woman.  (No one has dared tell me if I was successful or not, but I hope so!)

 However, the kiddos had swim lessons each morning which kept them cool.  They were so pleased to have an audience.

 Brave Kenzie jumping off the diving board! 

 Thursday we couldn't take the house anymore, so we went to the aquarium.  Parker loves the idea of putting his hand in the water, but he's not about to touch the rays.

 McKenzie was so happy to touch a starfish!  (Notice the sweater?  She was the only one not complaining about the temperatures inside the house, and whenever we went out to a cool restaurant to eat she immediately complained she was cold!)

 Parker wanted to use my camera to take a picture of the otters.  I thought this turned out kind of neat, in a very abstract way.

 He then instructed Kenzie to sit on the frog and he took her picture.  Funny kid.

 More cooling off with ice cream!  We stopped at Macey's...

...because for years now Chris and I have joked my mom would love the Kong Cone.  She was as impressed as we'd hoped she'd be!  The best part of Thursday, though, was coming home to find out the AC part had come in!  It was so exciting to watch the thermostat slowly inch down, and when it finally dipped under 80 we all cheered!  Ironically, the weather forecast calls for much cooler temperatures as the heat wave has ended.  I won't complain, though!

Planetarium

 Yesterday we spent the day with a long-time reader of the blog, Jeanne, and her hubby, Ryan.  (That sounded official, didn't it?)  They made a stop on their long road trip from Oregon just to run around the back yard and play freeze tag and frisbee with Kenzie and Parker.  (At least, that's what Kenzie and Parker assumed.)

 Anyways, we did make it to the planetarium at one point.  At first Parker wasn't too sure about this water vapor, but they both loved touching a "cloud" after awhile.

 Here we had a little friendly competition to see who could get the light bulbs to light up the fastest.  The funny part was, no one could... the switch was off! 

Pretending they're from Mars.

 And our moon picture. 

The kids wanted to watch the 3D documentary about the Arctic.  Parker was kind of funny saying, "These glasses are too big!" quite a lot.  Then they helped themselves to most of Jeanne and Ryan's popcorn - they were good sports to come hang out with my goofy kids!