Q4 Kid Dates

Kid dates are important to us, but we kind of dropped off this quarter, then jumped in and did a bunch of kid date type things. We had some leftover money in that budget and I wanted to use it for the purpose it was intended, meaning spending quality time with our children. We were able to squeeze in some fun activities before the end of the year: 

I took Caleb and Lucy on a date together and then took Lydia and Austin on a date together. It worked out great for me to be able to spend some time with each of the kids. 

Mom, Caleb, and Lucy went bowling and then got ice cream at the new Thanksgiving Point Ice Age Creamery. 

Mom, Austin, and Lydia went Ice Skating and got burgers and hot chocolate at In-N-Out. (We tried to go skiing at a little ski-hill with a magic carpet, but they didn't have enough snow.) 

Mom, Dad, and Lydia went to the wedding reception of Brenna Millward and her new husband. We ate treats, danced on the dance floor, and generally just enjoyed the blissfully happy atmosphere.

Dad and Austin went to McDonalds to get breakfast sandwiches. 

Mom, Lucy, and Caleb went to the Traverse Mountain Outlets to see the giant tree and explore their gingerbread house display. 

We ALL went to see Moana at the SCERA theater. 

David and Caleb went on their own. (Because Caleb had a birthday party conflict at the time that we wanted to go, and also because we were babysitting Juniper and Sylvie and this way we swapped off staying home with the baby.) 


Shantel and Leah took Lydia, Austin, Lucy, AND Juniper, Audrey, Ellie, and Anderson. 

When we went for the magic show in October, the kids saw a poster for Moana2 and decided right then that they wanted to come back together to watch Moana in the Grand Theater. It was super fun and we will definitely be coming back for more movies here. (Especially because my favorite Garden Theater just went out of business, I am so sad!) 

We love these kids and are grateful for the time and the means to do these fun kid dates with them. 

Bowling with the Walkers - Grandpa's Christmas/Birthday

So I have to preface this post by saying, I didn't take any other pictures than these. And by the pictures, you'd think that it was just our little family that went bowling and that we invited my dad to come with us. But that is not the true story. The real story goes: For Christmas, we gave my dad a coupon to go bowling with us. But then, come May, when we still hadn't used it - we decided to invite the whole family to come bowling for his birthday! All of my siblings were there (all 5 of us, plus all of our spouses where applicable), and all of the grandkids. My mom and dad were both there and we took up several lanes at the Morgan Bowling Alley. It was SUCH a fun afternoon with everyone. WHY didn't I get more pictures? WHY?  

I'll just say that I love my family and I love that we are able to do things like this together. 

And here are a couple of the cute pictures that we did catch: 

My dad is a wonderful Grandpa and he had almost as much fun bowling with these kids as they did with him. We are lucky to have him, and lucky to have such a wonderful family to spend time with. 

Some things I love about my dad: 

1. He's incredibly kind, patient, loving, and giving. 

2. He makes me laugh because he's so funny. 

3. He was always a cool dad, and growing up my friends and I liked to hang out with him all the time.

4. He can fix basically anything and he never gets impatient or frustrated when we are all constantly coming to him for help. 

5. He is a great husband to my mom, and I'm grateful for his example of marriage. 

6. He goes to the temple regularly and bears his testimony of Jesus Christ frequently. 

7. He loves his family, and shows it through his words and actions. 

8. He sometimes worries about his introvertedness and awkwardness (I inherited these things from him), but he's the most sincere, wonderful person - you can't help but love him.

We love you Grandpa! Happy Birthday (and Merry Christmas!) 

Staycation 2013: Bowling (Part 4)

As you can see, we wanted to have as much fun on our little staycation as possible - and we were determined to utilize our pass of all passes as often as we could. One of the many activities covered by our passes was bowling. Both David and I love bowling, so we were excited to go and try it out. The bowling center was in Sandy and it was a little ghetto. Seriously, you walk in and there is this giant empty room with a little sign at the back with an arrow pointing you to the bowling lanes. The actual lanes weren't too bad - but they definitely weren't super classy. Our shoe rentals were $3.50 each (or something like that), which turned our "free bowling" into "not-so-free bowling." I think that next time we go bowling, we'll probably just go here in Lehi and use the gas money on paying for the games (and hope that the shoe rentals are a little bit less). Regardless, we had a great time! 

I bowled one of my best games ever - 163! Are you impressed? I am impressed.  

We took turns helping Lydia bowl and had a fun time together. By the end she was getting a little grumpy, but we all had a good time. 

Sidenote; I would love love love to someday own my own bowling shoes. Not that I want to be a professional bowler - but I just think the idea of owning my own bowling shoes would be so awesome. Something classic and traditional, while still being really pretty. It would be SO awesome. Someday. 

(Something like these, these, or these would be so fun!)