Family staycation part 1

Since our trip to Disneyland was canceled, we've been trying to think of something inexpensive and close to home. We decided to enjoy local attractions and the company of the family at home.

On Thusday, we went to the Bountiful park to have a picnic. Tom, Laura, Sophie, joe's mom, john, and jamie all came. I marinated some Kalbi and everyone else brought drinks, treats, desserts, etc. Sophie and Al got to play at the playground (they probably had almost as much fun as they would've at Disneyland). The food was great, especially when we got to enjoy it with the family. After that, we visited grandma and grandpa for a littler bit. Joe and dad helped them with a little bit of yard work, and Alden showed off his kicking skills in their front yard. Then dad and Faye watched Sophie and Alden while the parents along with john and mom got to go to the movies. We hadn't been to the movies in the long time, so it was a good treat. After we picked up the kids, we went over to mom's house for a sleepover. We had somme food and turned on Iron Man. The kids fell asleep pretty quick, and so did joe and I.

Friday morning, the dads got to sleep in quite a bit. They don't usually get to because of work, so it was nice that they could just rest. The moms, however, were awaken by the kids,ha ha. Sophie woke Laura up at 7, and Alden woke me up at 8. Mom woke up sometime in between. We were planning to go swimming around noon at the Bubble, but we found out that it didn't open until 4pm. So while Tom and Joe played video games, mom, Laura, and I went to gateway to shop. We didn't end up buying anything there and it was getting pretty hot. W drove back to bountiful and went to tjmaxx. Laura got a diaper bag, and mom bought some arm floaties for the kids. We didn't get to the pool until 6. The water was pretty warm, and Alden did really well with swimming with just the arm floaties. Ellie was very content and happy in the water, and even though Sophie was tired, she had fun for the first little while. Alden didn't want to go home at all and wanted to keep swimming. We had to half force him to leave the water. Our original plan was to at out that night. We wanted to go to texas roadhouse, which apparently has peanuts, so we were gonna have dad and Faye babysit again. But Sophie was too tired, and it was pretty late after we got out of the pool, so we called it a night and came home after dropping by at dad's house.

Saturday, we met up at Cabela's to watch the fish being fed. They have a giant fish tank filled with freshwater fish, and they feed them with little goldfish everyday. After that, the kids got to feed the fish at a little pond, and they had so much fun together riding in a cart and looking at all the stuffed animals. For lunch, we decided to go to walmart since I had forgotten to bring extra diapers, so we just went to eat at McDonald's. Then we went to Thanksgiving point to go to the ancient history museum, aka the dinosaur museum. The kids had tons of fun. There was water sandbox and a regular sandbox that the kids spent forever in, and the exhibits were very interesting. I got a lot of pictures of Alden and Sophie together. For dinner, since we couldn't get a babysitter, we decided to go to Cheesecake factory. Turns out to be a great choice because everyone enjoyed their food, including Sophie and Alden. John and Jamie also came to join us for dinner.

Even though we didn't get to go to the magical place called Disneyland, we had so much fun together and didn't have to exhaust ourselves either. It turned out to be a good thing that we did't go because Sophie wasn't feeling so good, and Ellie would never haves survived the drive down to california.

I will upload the pictus later when it's more convenient (right now, I'm typing on the iPad while the kids are taking a nap).