Kudos to "City Deals"!

I had bought some coupons from "Citydeals.com" for 50% off the regular price admission to "Jumpin' Jacks" and a couple other places, and realized yesterday that they were going to expire in 2 weeks. So I decided on the spur of the moment to take the kids for a day out on the town!

Jumpin' Jacks has about 6 jumping gyms which both children and adults can jump in. We have never been there before, and I didn't even know it existed till I found the coupons. Its close to our house just West of Jordan Landing. I lasted about 3 slides down, but the kids played for hours.

We left for lunch to the "Red Rooster Waffle House" (with another 50 % off coupon I got from City Deals.) The kids loved the food, and it looked like we were going to have a good day! Yeah mom!

Keala and Tristan show off their acrobatic skills. These two just never stopped!

Tristan did all sorts of flips and twists... he was in smiles all day long!

When we signed up for the day at "Jumpin' Jack's " we were informed that they had a reptile show in the evening. I didn't think much of it but asked the kids if they wanted to go and they did. So here we are!

Our host, Shane, had a great way of keeping the kids interested and involved. He was very instructional and encouraged the kids to always be courious and try to learn by reading books and asking adults lots of questions. He had a dialogue he seemed to follow, adding a lot of jokes that kept everyone laughing. I was really impressed.

His first animal was a 'cute, fuzzy'... tarantula! The kids were entranced from the beginning!And then he pulled out a scorpion and I thought I was going to die! So he proceeds to take it out of its box and PUT IT IN HIS MOUTH! Hello! (Granted the whole time he's talking the animals in the boxes are thumping around so hard that we are wondering whats coming next!

Look at how curious these kids faces were. I laughed so hard at their expressions!

He waves this lizard over the kids heads and they started to squeal. I was laughing my head off! He shows the kids how long its tongue is. It licked Marina in the forehead from 9 inches away!

I caught this photo on accident, but that how animated Shane was through the whole presentation.

He kept reminding the kids to read about animals in books and be careful with all animals. He asked them a lot of questions and really kept them involved.



A few of the kids came up to help hold the animals...



And then Shane made more jokes, asking the kids "do we wear turtles on our head?"
No! But thanks for the demo though!





This turtle was 85 lbs. He described how we should stay clear of all reptiles if at all possible.
Good instruction... (now that all the kids want to grow up to be just like him!)







I've never seen these kids more focused; the show was an hour long!




Keala volunteered, (she has no fear!) He flattered her with how pretty she is! Ha!
(Just what she needs... more flattery in her life!)







Kai was so aprehensive, I didn't think he would volunteer at all.
I thought Keala was so brave! Until....





He brought out the gloves! That made her nervous!
But he teased he that she would be protected all the way up to her elbows!




Look at her eyes! I couldn't get this in focus, but its priceless!

Shane helps show her how to hold the snake. I was impressed she didn't run away!

I think the kids were pretty warmed up with the other animals he brought out first. If this had been the first I think the room would have cleared in 3 seconds.

(Of course, I was ready to bolt after the scorpion! Creeeepy!)

Look how proud she is! Then Shane takes off her gloves and goes to show her she can hold it with her bare hands and she was gone! She went and sat back down and wouldn't come back up and I couldn't stop laughing for 5 minutes! Thats my girl!

He got other siblings involved to hold more pythons. Their faces were adorable!

Shane informed us that more humans have died from plants than from snakes that constrict.

He said they still bite him sometimes but not often enough to be a problem.

Just as Tristan, Marina, and Kai got up to hold the 20 foot python, my camera's battery died! I'm sorry! (My husband already lectured me about that!) But the kids had a blast! After the show he left the python on the floor for people to touch and brought back out the 85 lb turtle. It walked all over the floor through the kids and parents. It was the coolest show and one of our best days this summer so far! Thank you City Deals! And thank you Jumpin' Jacks!

Mt. Timpanogos Cave

Last weekend we took the kids and their cousins up American Fork Canyon for an overnight camping trip.

The kids begged us to pull them in the trailer once around the parkinglot. Friday night G'ma Joan and G'pa Bill came up and had dinner with us. Austin came too, originally planning on staying, but after seeing how small our tent was, he went home with the grandparents after dinner.

We didn't have a campsite reserved so we bummed off a 'group' campsite who happened to be the American Fork 3rd Ward. They had a Ward camping party and let our kids play the games and activities that they had for all their kids. Wow, we had a lot of fun!

The next morning Brent dragged us up Mt. Timpanogos! After the awful nights sleep I had with my son rolling over all of us (in addition to my insomnia) I almost opted out of the hike. But after a few short arguments and '5th degrees' (from my loving spouse!) I was conned into going!

We had so much fun though! Mom was a little nervous about the kids falling off the trail. But they did a good job following rules and we made sure to take everything extra S-L-O-W!

Looking over the edge was quite a thrill! We could see the parkinglot down below the whole way up! But closer to the top we could see the Alpine/American Fork Valley. It was cool!

Keala and Marina were our best hikers! They walked slow, didn't complain, drank enough water and did a great job! Big thumbs up Keala!

We stopped to eat snacks and rest as often as we could. Tristan had a hard time with that. He had a goal in mind and he wanted to challenge it! But we dragged him back to our pace and tried to make sure everyone was drinking enough water and staying positive!

Staying positive was a little hard for Kai though~! He had the worst attitude, and dragged his feet complaining the whole way. Those are the odds! One of the kids was bound to be the 'bummer'! This bathroom is right at the top, and says "Last Chance"! We are at the entrance of the cave!

The cave was beautiful and a cool relief from the 100 degree weather outside! We brought up our jackets because they said it was so cold and I was glad we did! The tour was an hour long!

The kids were absolutely enthralled with the inside of the cave and the different rock formations.

Tristan and Marina shared a flashlight and actually stayed with the group for once!

Brent had been so hot from the hike that he never put on his jacket (... so I wore it!)

This rock formation was called the beating heart and is 5 1/2 feet long and weighs about 2 tons they said. They turned off all the lights and had a red light shine behind it in beating patterns.

Our Ranger who guided us through the tour was great with all the kids we had in our group. (I thought MY kids were annoying!) I finally scouled at some kid to stop shining his flashlight in our eyes! Hello! ('Monster Mom' is what they call me!)

Of course my husband thinks he's funny. It was so dark in there I had no idea what I was taking a picture of until after I took it. All my photos of Brent are silly poses... of course!

The walls were so close in some parts I felt like I was walking through a womb! Creepy!

This rock formation was called the 'St Bernard'! So cute! I was really impressed with all the caverns they took us through and the variety of rock variations. Pretty awesome stuff!

On the way out the exit we had a few more pictures. We yelled at Tristan the whole day to take off his stinkin' jacket in the 100 degree heat, but I guess this was his way of being 'COOL'!

The End!

Swimmin' with the Homies!

Our cousins, Tristan and Marina, are visiting this summer for a few weeks. Here's Marina, her brother was at scout camp today. The rest of the photos are all the Barney kids, Smith kids, and my kids!

Here come the diving sequences! These kids have no fear! Today was a first for many of them diving off the high dives or down water slides!

Doug reminded Merri its ok to take off the goggles out of the water. So cute!

Good job Eden! She just kept jumping and jumping and jumping!

Keala showing off her underwater skills!

The End!