Weekend Surprises

How is it possible that Memorial Weekend 2013 is already here?  It seems like it was just barely Christmas!  Well, regardless, we are having an excellent long holiday weekend - hope you all are too.

 

We started our week with a fun family night out to our favorite Mexican restaurant - mmm, mmm good!  The nice lady that owns it discovered that Sam loves olives and she brought him out his own special silver bowl full of olives.  Oh, does Martha have a special place in our hearts!

 

After dinner we played some games - good family fun!

 

Then finally, the weekend arrived.  We headed up to the cabin on Friday night and started our weekend of relaxation.  Mom and dad set an alarm for Saturday morning and got us up early - - to head out for a nice drive (so they told us anyway).  Well we did take a drive . . . . and guess where we ended up?  Our favorite historic railroad to see and ride Thomas the train.  We remembered that Thomas comes to Utah every Memorial weekend, but those sneaky parents told us that they had to work on Friday and that we had sadly missed Thomas this year.  Who knew that Thomas stayed the whole weekend?  Apparently the parents did - and we had tickets for the first train on Saturday morning.

 

So we spent the morning with Thomas and his friends, including Sir Topham Hatt.  

 

Here we are just after boarding the train, waiting for our ride to start.  These are a couple of super happy boys!

 

This is a picture of me during our ride.  (I was pretending to be a very excited, very very cute puppy dog!)

 

And here's Sam - check out that smile.  Only train rides can make us smile like this.  Ok, maybe train rides and chocolate.

 

I know this picture is a little dark inside the car, but look at that beautiful scenery that we get to ride past on this train.  And we might just mention, that the majority of Memorial weekends tend to be cold and/or rainy around here - but this was a BEAUTIFUL weekend!

 

Here we are with daddy in front of steam engine #618.  He's an old engine that has been beautifully restored.

 

And here we are with mom in front of Thomas.  We had a great morning/afternoon.  We headed out for some more yummy Mexican food in Midway and then . . . .

 

 . . . . headed back up to the cabin.  The marshmallow shooters are always a huge hit.  I would have to honestly say though, that this particular weekend I ate more marshmallows than I actually shot. 

 

We were also excited to get our rock shops open and ready for the summer.  This is me at my shop - "The Broken Rod".  I drive a hard bargain.

 

Here's Sam at his store - "Sam's Rock Shop".  He's giving his speech about the store and the things he has available to sell.  

 

We got to sleep in Sunday morning and had a truly relaxing morning.  Here is me and Sam playing with Fort West.  It was fun!



 

 We always try to get in a game of football at the cabin too.  We're working on catching and throwing . . . . and doing pretty darn good at it too.  Oh, we're also getting pretty darn good at climbing down the hill to fetch the ball when we miss it too.

Ah -  a great, relaxing and enjoyable weekend was had by all!

 

 Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Sam here.  This is a picture of me on a hike.  I always seem to find great sticks that look like animal horns/antlers. 

 

 And here I am posing for some pictures for mom.  I can strike quite the pose!

 

 And here I am tonight after we got back home.  We had a lovely dinner on the back patio and played and played and played.  I got my golf clubs (from Santa) out and got to practicing.  Ahh - who loves summer more than me? 

 

 Sam out! 

Movies, Movies, and More Movies

We have some movies/videos for you this week.  But first up - we went to the movies recently and saw The Croods.  It was really a great show with a great message.  We loved it.  Here we are getting ready for the movie to start.

I got the chance to do a second state report at school this spring.  I chose Michigan.  Here I am giving my report. 

Then it was my week for our spring program.  We uploaded two videos for you.

First - Purple People Eaters:

Second - Everybody Has a Laughing Place:

It was a great week for me.  I earned second place in both the art festival and the young author festival.  My book is titled The Lost Pythons and is completely written and illustrated by yours truly.  My art is a shaving cream painting of an underwater fish scene.  I am very excited and happy about my winnings and very proud of my hard work! 

Here I am with my teacher, Mrs. Bollard.  She's been great - and it's been a great year!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - we got a few of my videos from my spring program uploaded for you.  Enjoy!

First - What's More American:

Second - The Ice Cream Store:

Third - we learned a drama this year.  Enjoy Mr. Wolf and the Little Pigs.  I am Little Pig #3. 

A Little Wrapping Up . . . And Cleaning Up

 It was a great week of wrapping up Sam's birthday celebrations.  We also really got down and dirty with some much needed yard work. 

 

First up - Sam's actual Birthday Day - for his family activity (a tradition for part of our family birthday celebrations) he selected mini golfing.  It was a fairly windy afternoon but that ensured that the golf course was pretty empty.  Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy joined us and we had a great time.  Here's Sam teeing off.

 

Look at that putting form!

 

Here I am in front of the Haunted House.  Oh - fun!

 

 Then we headed back home for some birthday cake - homemade Oreo cake.  Yum!

 

 Sam's spring program was this week too.  We'll add a few videos later but for now, here are some pictures - Sam with one of his teachers, Miss Dawn.  We love Miss Dawn!

 

And here he is with Miss Rebecca - what a great year he has had at school!

 

Somehow the only picture of all the yard work we got from this weekend was this one - here we are helping daddy with a new gnome planter that mom picked up.  His name is Duncan and he's already friends with Blunkin' and Flip Flop from last year. 

 

Today we took some flowers to Grandma June's grave.  This is always an important tradition that we do on Mother's Day. 

 

Here we are with daddy.

 

 And finally -- a quick picture with mommy. 

 

 Sam Alert:  Hey everyone, Sam here.  Oh man, did I have a great birthday this year!  And I announced to mom and dad (with a BIG sigh) that when you turn five years old, you know everything!  It's true.  I don't feel much older, but I know a lot more than I did a year ago.  Here I am blowing out the candles on my cake.  I can't believe I have to wait another year for my next birthday.  But since I already know everything, it's just a matter of the numbers now. 

Sam out!

The Weekend of SAM

 Hi everyone - Sam here.  Well it was a good week . . . and an even better weekend.  The weekend was all about me!  More to come about that in a minute.  First up - our week.  It is spring in Utah and that means ever changing weather.  It snowed at our house this week - just a bit.  And even though it warmed right back up, the mornings are still a little chilly.  This is me and Mason coming down for breakfast all bundled up.

 

And here I am with my brother watching an episode of Curious George one evening before bedtime.

 

A couple of handsome boys . . . wouldn't you say?

 

 Here we are dancing around, getting our energy up for some serious house cleaning.

 

 I got to spend a big chunk of Saturday with my dad.  Here I am helping him work on a sprinkler.  The best way to see is from a top view.  Ah - that's one patient daddy!

 

And then today we started the multi-day celebration of my 5th birthday.  Yes, you read that correctly!  I'll be five tomorrow.  Finally!  Check out my super giant smile as I got up this morning and spied all of the birthday decorations and celebration paraphernalia. 

 

And my balloons - no birthday is complete without birthday balloons.  Just ask us - we'll set you straight.  (Note there are five balloons - five!)

 

My birthday dinner coincided with Cinco de Mayo so I asked mom to make tacos and guacamole.  Um, um, good!

 

Then we played some games - good times!

 

Then I got to open my family gifts tonight.  Mason got me a super fun Cars racing set.

 

Mom and dad got me some books, an ammonite . . . .

 

. . . . and a hot wheels track set.  Oh my - super super fun!

 

We decided to hold off on the special, made-to-order birthday cake until the actual day.  But mom had also made some Oreo Fluff - and let's just say it is absolutely amazing!!!!!  Think white chocolate pudding, cool whip, mini marshmallows, and oreos.  Oh my!  I licked my plate clean - no kidding!  Ok - more to come next week on the actual birthday day, but the run up to "the day" has been great!  Why not stretch it out?  It's even better that way!

 

Mason Alert:  Mason here - It sure is hard to watch your brother have a birthday.  But I'm working on it!  Anyway - I had been saving up a gift card to the toy store and finally got a chance to spend it this week.  I picked up this great pirate set and have been playing with it constantly. 

 

I do love my brother - Happy Birthday Sambo!