Happy Birthday, Mike!

We had a fun Sunday dinner at my parents' house to celebrate Mike's 29th birthday!

Sam looks a little grumpy in this first picture

 Yay, cake!

 The kids helping Mike to blow out the candles

 The girls also wanted to help Mike open his presents

 This is the present Nora made fore Mike - it's a picture she drew of a spider

A close-up 

 

Little "helper" Evie

Happy birthday!

Sushi Night

Before Beth and Reece headed to Switzerland for Reece's internship, Mike wanted us all to go out to a sushi restaurant that he and his co-workers like to go to. I'll admit I'm not a huge sushi fan (for some reason the seaweed just tastes so strong to me) but there were some there that I really enjoyed. We did the all-you-can eat dinner special, and took turns picking out which rolls to try.

I liked the paper lanterns they had there

 The guys

 The gals

Teddy Bear Picnic

Today the zoo was having a special event  - the Teddy Bear Picnic. Every child who brought a teddy bear could get a discount on their ticket, and they had some special activities set up. Here are the kids with their bears.

 One of the stations was where you could pick out a Hogle Zoo ribbon and get a bow around your bear's neck.

 Then there were a couple of other stations, hosted by scrapbooking stores, that had some crafts for the kids to do. At this first one, the girls made flower bookmarks, with an animal stamped in the center.

 At the next one, they got to pick a card to make, and help glue the pieces for the design on and stamp them.

 Woo hoo! Riding the t-rex.

 Riding the carousel again - Evie insisted on riding the bald eagle again

 I helped Sam take a ride on a bear

 Nora picked the kangaroo

 They were giving out free samples of pie - yum! Evie got a treat from the diaper bag.

 Nora in the rainforest garden

 It was feeding time for a lot of animals in the small animal building

 Cute Sam always finds plenty of things to point out to us

 We took a break for our picnic lunch

 The girls and I went on a train ride while Sam and Daddy hung out together

 Hehe. I guess this is why you shouldn't ask your kids to smile and say "I love the zoo!"

 Little bug and her puppy backpack. 

She is getting better about letting me hold the tail (leash). The first few times I tried this with her, I put it on and she immediately lied down on the ground and refused to get up. She mostly cooperated with it today. It sure helped her to not run off every 5 seconds!

iFLY Utah

For his birthday last year, Reece and Beth gave Mike a gift certificate to iFLY Utah. They are located in Ogden, and have an indoor wind tunnel which simulates skydiving. On Saturday, we went so Mike could try it out.

the kids came too, to watch Daddy fly 

 This is a picture looking down into the wind tunnel

 Everyone who was flying took a class, and then got ready to fly. Here is Mike all suited up.

 Here are some pictures of Mike's turn flying. The kids had a fun time watching him! Nora kept jumping in the waiting area and then finally said "Why is this not working?" Hehe. She thought she would fly too.

And a video:

 

I had another video too, but for some reason Blogger can't seem to upload it.

Here is a picture of someone else flying in the wind tunnel

 Mike got a certificate when he was all done. He said it was a lot of fun, and very intense!

 There were brightly painted horse statues all over downtown Ogden, and the girls had fun looking out the window for them. This is the one that was by where we were parked.