Sunday

We left the Taylor house early to catch a sacrament meeting and then head to Tooele to visit my sweet grandma. Before we left, I snapped a few final pics so the boys could remember the fun they had at the "Taylor Fun House"(that is what we call it). They bought the best little house. The entire downstairs is nothing but a party zone! So much fun. They have a large theatre room with the projection screen and the works, a fun game room with the pool table, foozball combo and a really fun play room as well. The kids could have spent the entire four days just hanging out in this space and they would have been happy campers!

In front of the GIANT fish tank!

One thing I thought was funny is that the Taylor boys sleep shirtless at night, so my boys thought they needed to do that as well. When we got back from the play, I went in to check on them and all four of them were sleeping without their shirts. I know this might seem like a normal thing to most people, but I am a a huge pajama freak. I LOVE kids in jammies. I love looking at my boys fast asleep in their little scooby doo or space jammies, anything like that, so the boys had never heard of this shirtless sleeping before! Anyway, I've talked them back into wearing both the tops and bottoms of their pajamas since we've been home (Lewis got some sort of bug bite on his chest and that sealed the deal) but I took these pictures to remember how funny I thought those boys looked as they were playing in their fun NEW pajamas Sunday morning.


The rest of our Sunday was a little depressing. We stopped to see my 96 year old Grandma at the rest home in Tooele. She is not doing well at all. The last time we went she was still her lively, fun, happy self! Just 9 months have passed and she couldn't even stay awake for our visit. She really didn't have a clue who we were and after we left, when my mom got there, she asked if 'Stephanie and the boys had come to visit' and she said, "No. No one ever comes to visit me." We had brought her a beautiful bouquet of flowers for her birthday and kept trying to get her to smell them (she loves flowers) and she would comment and say how much she liked them, but then fall right back to sleep. Each time we would wake her up (the nurses persisted that we do this to "stimulate" her), she would say, "Well for heaven's sake!" One of her cute little phrases and we would be so excited that she would chat with us but then her eyes would glaze over and she would stare off and then fall asleep. Finally we just sat and held her hand for a little bit. It was sooooo heart wrenching to see this decline in her spirit. She really wants to just go. The sad thing about it is, being at a nursing home, those nurses will be able to keep her alive much longer than if she were just at home. What kind of life is it to be stuck in such a miserable place? Oh, if only we lived closer to her. I would like to think that we could visit her at least a few times a week, be something for her to look forward to. I think she is just too far gone now. It was a very sad event and I hope that she will soon get her wish to be with our grandpa again very soon. We didn't take any pictures this time, it didn't seem appropriate. Here are some photos of the last time we were there (in November) and how her sweet personality and vigor was still with her. Had I known that would be the last time to get a glimpse of that grandma, the one I knew and adored all of my growing up, I would have snapped a million more pictures. I miss this lady!

One Last Hoo-Raw!

We sort of fell off the blogging planet this past week. With my first day to report back to school being tomorrow, we decided to spend last Wednesday through Sunday with friends in Salt Lake City for ONE LAST HOO-RAW! I have heard a lot of people use this expression lately. It is definitely that time of the season. Bittersweet, when we realize the sunset is closing in on our summer fun. We definitely made the right choice when we decided to spend our last vacation of the summer with Chris and Lisa and their family. They were AWESOME! Our agenda included fun things like: Lagoon, The Gateway, movies, a play at Sundance, shopping and dining out at some of the BEST restaurants Salt Lake has to offer. Hanging out at the Taylor house was a blast too. My boys and their boys get along like peas in the pod-not one fight, argument or disagreement the entire four days! Just pure fun and excitement. Here is a little breakdown of our good time:

Thursday at Lagoon:
The last time we were at Lagoon was about 3 years ago and we spent most of the time on the kiddie rides which was just fine with me! It was such a blast and I took a million pictures of my sweet little boys riding things like The Flying Aces, Kiddie Boats and Puff the Magic Dragon kiddie roller coaster. This year, they were all about being TALL enough to ride the major stuff! We started off the morning waiting in the 30 minute line for WICKED! It was just that-wicked! Conner was terrified. Last year at Disneyland, he was fearless. This ride really freaked him out! Luckily, it doesn't last too long so he survived. He was back to his fearless self on all the other rides of the day and although he didn't want to admit it-he really did want to ride some of those 'baby rides.' We could tell by the way he was eying them when we walked by. Steve and Chris decided to send Lisa and me and the two older boys to do some of the scarier rides near the kiddie rides so that Roman and Conner could be indulged a little without having to try and fake not liking those baby rides. It worked out pretty good. We met up with them later at the kiddie bumper cars (which Lewis and Christian really looked intrigued by, but wouldn't admit it). Steve said something that made a lot of sense. He said, "They are trying to grow up too fast. They won't be small enough to fit on these rides for much longer." We tried to make the kiddie rides seem just as cool as the others, but Lewis and Christian weren't buying it so it was back to the scary rides for us all. After lunch and just when it was getting a little too hot, we took advantage of Lagoon-a-Beach, the water park within the amusement park. I really didn't want to (my phobia of public showers and how I loathe what I look like in a swimsuit were major factors)but it was so blasted hot, it actually ended up being quite nice. Steve's favorite rides of the day were actually the water slides at Lagoon-a-Beach. My favorite ride was the Tidal Wave. Conner really liked the Collasus and Lewis claims that the "Cliffhanger" is his favorite! It is a crazy ride that suspends you upside down (for longer than I can tolerate) and then once it flips you back up, you're blasted in the face with a huge spray of water. When I saw my little Lewis on this ride, I seriously got nervous for him. I didn't think he would like it, but it ended up being his favorite and he waited in line for it twice. Overall, this Lagoon day was awesome. It couldn't have been any better actually. Just a relaxing, fun and thrilling day! Check out our pics below.
SIDE NOTE: I am having some technical difficulties with getting this slide show to work with my post so I had to do it as a seperate post below. I have wasted so much time fiddling with this problemo that now I'm going to have to finish this little re-cap of our vacation the next time I sit down to blog, so stay tuned! I know you will all be on the EDGE of your seat!:)

Our Lagoon Day