Family 'Staycation'

We decided to go on a little mini-vacation with the family last week. We just went down to SL and stayed over.
First we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. DD1 thought it was cool to be able to go inside a temple. DD2 mostly just loved climbing all the stairs and the water in the font! When we came out it was pouring rain so we had to make a run for the car!
Later we went to the Living Planet Aquarium. This is one of our favorite places to go. It isn't too big but they have lots of different animals. They had a new area with animals from South America like snakes, spiders, frogs, and piranhas! Then we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! Yummy!
When we got back to the hotel we went swimming in the pool. Both girls love the water and wanted to stay there all night! The next morning we played at the park that was by our old house. It was fun to reminisce- then we headed to the zoo! It was 'free military day' so it was super crowded, but we had a blast anyway! It was a fun little family 'stay-cation'!

Happy Happy Birthday

Today my baby turns 2! I know it is cliche, but time passes so quickly! She is just our little bug but she is growing up. She is very independent, wants to do everything that her big sister does, and she has an amazing vocabulary. She is hilarious, we are always laughing around her, but watch out for her temper, she can lose it very quickly! We are currently potty training and for her birthday she is getting a toddler bed, so in just a few short weeks she will officially not be my baby any more:( We love her tons and hope her birthday is great!

Lovin' Summer

Summer has not yet officially started, but we have been enjoying the warm weather! It all started about 2 weeks ago when we decided to purchase a trampoline - it has turned out to be a great investment! The kids will go out and play for hours, switching from the tramp to the sandbox, to the swings and back to the trampoline. Hopefully it will last all summer:) We have also been in the swimming pool and on the slip and slide quite a bit. My sister's little boy decided to just leave his suit here since they use them almost every time he comes over!

The miracle of life

We did something really cool this past month, we raised some caterpillars and released them when they turned into butterflies! It was so interesting to watch them change. I have done this before in my classroom so I thought that it would be fun to let the girls do it at home. As soon as we released them DD1 asked if we could get some more caterpillars! The caterpillars came in the mail and they were tiny, about the size of a chocolate sprinkle. They ate and grew for about 10 days, they were really fat and ugly, and then they turned into chrysallises. They stayed inside for about 10 more days and then we had 5 painted lady butterflies. We kept them inside for about 3 days to watch them eat and flutter around but then I felt sorry for them so we let them go. It was really fun and we will definitely get more caterpillars next spring!