Little No-No's

So anyone who knows us has heard me talking about Noah and how he has been in the "terrible two's" since he was one, and I am not joking here.  He has been such a difficult child these last two years I am actually surprised that I have made it through raising him so far.  Everyone also told me that one day he will grow out of it, I truthfully didn't believe anyone, I hoped but also didn't hope because I didn't want to be disappointed.

 I am happy to say that I think that the "terrible two's" are finally a thing of the past.  Now I am not saying that he is perfect now, but the temper tantrums have slowed down he is better at controlling himself and he is such a delight to be around (well most of the time).  He is so much fun to spend one on one time with and he is turning into quite the little lover, he comes up to me out of the blue and gives me a kiss and says, "I love you mommy", it is enough to melt my heart. 

Because he is now so much easier to deal with I am finally at a place that I find myself getting baby hungry, this is a very new feeling for me one I haven't experience before.  I really really want to have a baby but we will be waiting a little while longer before we start trying.  I think I had to wait till I knew I could handle it and there was no way I would of been able to deal with a new born and Noah when he was being so awful all of the time.    I also can't believe that my baby is 3 1/2 he isn't a baby anymore, there is no baby left in him he is all little boy. 

I didn't start this post to talk about that, I just went on a little tangent there, back to what I was going to talk about.  Two weeks ago we had a little snow storm, the snow didn't last longer than a day or so but Noah went outside to play and he wanted to go sledding, it was a nice day to be outside but because of how our house is positioned we still had snow.  So Noah went sledding in his clothes, and had a blast doing so.  He is such a determined little thing, when he sets his mind on something you better watch out. 

I'm telling you this is the way to go sledding, its not cold you can stay outside forever and you don't have to take off a million layers when your done.

Natural History Museum

So back on Valentines day Jason had taken the day off work so we had the whole day to spend together we decided to take the boys to the new Natural History Museum up near the U of U.  The only reason the boys were excited about it was because I told them that there were dinosaurs there, and that sold them.  I just have to comment on the outside of the building it is very modern and beautiful, at least I thought it was.

We headed in and Noah kept trying to make a beeline for the dinosaurs, I had to keep his interest in all the other cool things that there were to see.  If I remember right there were 4 different floors and each floor focused on something different.  The favorite was definitely the dinosaur bones, and it was fun to learn a little more about them like how to tell what bones are real and which ones are casts made from real bones. 

This room was fun and had creatures like bugs and snakes.  If you crawled in those caves you could see a snake in one area and another animal I don't remember.

Ashton's foot

It was a great outing and I would actually love to go back without the boys so that we can actually check things out instead of having to keep moving so that the children don't get bored and break something. 
Ashton was an awesome little bug

Not a great picture but the only one I got of all of us together that day.

Noah was tired of walking, he needed to take a break

Checking out the weather stuff on the roof of the museum

What were we thinking??

So I got a text message Monday morning about 7:30 in the morning from my friend Korie, she was needing a vacation and was going to take her boys to St. George for a couple of days, she asked if I wanted to go.  Now my first instinct was that's crazy I can't do that and there is no way Jason would go for that.  But I was also still half asleep when I got the message, so I called her about an hour later and we were talking and I realized that I really did want to go and I could go there really wasn't anything stopping me from packing up the boys and heading out of town for a few days.  So I called Jason and asked if he cared if I went and he didn't, so I started packing.  I got us all packed and ready to go in about an hour. 

Korie  came and got us and we all piled in her minivan, and we headed off, we had to make a stop to get her wallet from her mom but then we were on our way.  We had to stop in Spanish Fork and get gas, but then the plan was to try to make it Fillmore and stop at the Maverick there that has a playground and eat lunch and let the boys play and get some energy out.  We made it had lunch and had our first injury of the trip, Noah was going down the slide and there was a bigger drop and he went head first in the rocks.  He just needed a little love and he was better.

We made it to St. George and were able to find a great deal on a hotel that had an indoor pool.  All Korie's boys were talking about was going swimming. We headed to dinner at the Pizza Factory, and then it was back to the hotel for some swimming.  They had so much fun swimming and making lots of noise.  I felt a little bad about all the  noise they were making because the pool was in the hotel lobby, you could see the front desk from the pool, but I guess they have to expect some noise right! 

It was a little rough getting all the boys to want to settle down to go to sleep the first night, Ashton and Ethan were sleeping on the floor in some sleeping bags, they kept talking and being silly, finally we got them asleep, It wasn't a great night sleep and it reminds me why I DO NOT SLEEP WITH MY CHILDREN, Noah tossed and turned all night long.  We managed to all get ready and head to breakfast, I have to give the hotel props for there free continental breakfast it was really good, they had a huge variety of stuff from eggs, sausage, pancakes, hash browns, waffles, oatmeal, to cold cereal, toast, bagels, etc.  It was delicious and a great way to start out a day.

 We packed up our room and checked out and headed to Las Vegas, we thought it would be fun to go and see the tigers and stuff at Caesars Palace, and then check out some other fun stuff.  Well it was a good idea and would of been better had we stuck to the original plan.  We got there and decided to park at New York New York, and walk the strip, why we thought the kids could walk the strip I just don't know, we made it only a couple of hotels down before we had to stop and eat, Mason hadn't eaten breakfast so he was crying cause he was hungry, we got him some food, Ashton wasn't hungry, Noah wanted fries, and there was no way I was eating yet I was still full from breakfast.  Once they were done eating we could go on our way, we went to the M&M store, the boys had fun  with that then it was time to move on, this is where we started to run into problems.  We had a ways to go to get to Caesars Palace, we tried walking it but the boys quickly ran out of steam and we maybe could of made it there but there was no way would of made it back to the car.  So we cut our losses and decided to head back.  It was all a little overwhelming with the 5 boys and trying to keep them all contained and together and listening and walking with all the people there were on the strip.  We briefly considered staying the night in Vegas, but then decided we had enough and wanted to go back to St George.

 I think this was the highlight for Ashton, he was so excited to see bumblebee, he went right up and wanted a picture, Noah on the other hand hide behind me and when bumblebee tried to get him to come into the picture he hid his face in my back. 

 We made it back to St George and needed to find a hotel to stay at, we ended up at the Best Western Coral Hills, it had been newly remodeled, and the room was great but the best part in my opinion was the pol area.  There was the main pool but then there was also a kiddie pool that was perfect for the smaller boys.  They had so much fun playing in the 1ft of water and I was totally enjoying sitting in the sunshine and not having to be in the pool. 

We thought that the boys were having so much fun by the pool that we didn't want to drag them to a restaurant so I went to the store and got the makings for sandwiches and stuff and then got Cafe Rio salads for Korie and I and we ate by the pool.  Well I ate by the pool with the 4 older boys, Zachery was not a happy boy so Korie stayed with him in the room.  The boys ate there dinner then headed back to the pool, well actually it was the hot tub(the water was barely warmer than the pool so it was more luke warm water) this time around, they stayed playing happy and content till they were hungry again and they all had a second sandwich, then it was back in the hot tub again. It was getting dark by the time I could convince them to go back to the room.  I didn't mind at all sitting there enjoying the warmth from the sun, watching them play. 

We got up made a few stops at the outlets, nothing exciting there, and had lunch at Red Robin before heading home.  I am so glad that Korie decided to go and let us tag along with them, it was a great trip.  The 4 older boys all were awesome, we had a few moments sometimes when things were crazy and loud but they all listened really well and behaved really good.  It wasn't a vacation for Korie and I but it was something different from our normal routines.  It felt good to be so spontaneous again like I use to be.