Today was Jason's first day that he was able to wear his uniform to work. It is now official! He is Deputy Jason Little. . .that sounds kinda weird. I am going to have to get used to that one but we are so proud of him and are so happy that he is doing what he loves. They do a swearing in ceremony on Monday so I will post more pics then. Doesn't he look so handsome!:-) We love you!!!
As I was going through my photos I realized that I had totally forgotten to post about our visit to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. Last week while we were in Salt Lake for the week we spent half of a day in Ogden with Jason's mom, Kathie. She was able to go to the Treehouse Museum with us for a couple of hours and we had a lot of fun despite a little panic for a few minutes when we lost Bailee. Anyone that has been there before knows how many places there are for the kids to play and hide upstairs and downstairs. She was in the Treehouse and she came down with a chicken costume on. I told her that if she wanted to go and play on the firetruck she needed to go and hang the chicken costume back up first. She went up the Treehouse to hang it back up but never came back down. After about five minutes I went up to check on her thinking she just got sidetracked playing with something else. The costume was hanging up but she was no where to be seen. After Kathie and I frantically searched the entire building we could not find her anywhere so I got the help of the workers there. I guess this happens pretty often. Anyways, one of the workers eventually found her dressed down in the fireman's hat, jacket, boots, etc. sitting in the back of the firetruck. My heart was definetly pounding faster than it ever has before. Thank you Kathie for your help watching Brecken! After that fun ordeal we were able to enjoy the different stations. We made feather necklaces, traced dinosaurs onto paper, dressed up as animals and children from other countries, went down the tunnel slide (with a little push from Mom) and pretended to be a firefighter. We are definetly going to have to go back when we have a little more time to spend there. It was a really neat place!! Unfortunately Kathie had to work that night so we weren't able to spend much time together. We always seem to have a hard time getting to spend much time with her but hopefully our next trip up will allow for better circumstances. We love you Grandma Kathie!!
YEAH!!!!! Jason is finally done with the police academy!!! His last day was Wednesday. He finished at noon and got home about 5pm. To say that we are excited is an understatement! He has been in Sandy (4 hours away) since May 12 attending POST so that he could become a certified deputy for the Washington County Sherrif's Department. He has been working at the jail in booking since November as a civilian employee, but this will now enable him to make a little more money and be able to eventually go out on the street doing patrol. He has been able to come home each Friday night and leave again on Sunday afternoon which has made it a little more bearable. But the drive was very exhausting for him so he is grateful to be home for good. We missed him tremendously but are so proud of what he has accomplished!!!!
On Thursday of last week we were able to get together with my cousins, Amy and Nicole and their kids and spend several hours at Heritage Park in Cedar Hills. It was the coolest park ever! It had a river that ran through it with a tunnel and a bridge. There was lots of shade and overall it was a beautiful park. The kids had lots of fun but I had more fun getting to visit with my cousins. We don't get to see a lot of each other so every opportunity we get to see them is a cherished one. They always make me laugh and I have the best time when I am in their company. What a blessing it is to have such wonderful family!!
While in Salt Lake, we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with some friends of ours (Jason, Sherelle, Mackenzie and Zach Woodward) that we hadn't seen in close to 4years. They now live in Pleasant Grove so we are very excited to get to see them more often. Mackenzie is 3 months older than Bailee and Zach is five months older than Brecken so they got along great. Sherelle was so kind and cooked a fabulous dinner that was absolutely delicious! We ate and visited for a couple hours catching up on what has happened with each of our family's over the last several years. It was so neat to see everyone! Thanks again Woodward's for your kindness and hospitality!! We are so blessed to have such terrific friends!!!
Last Tuesday myself, my sister Andrea, Bailee, Brecken and Jason all got to go to Lagoon for the annual Harmons summer party. They sell discounted tickets making it very cheap to get in. We all had a blast!! We arrived at 11am and stayed until 10pm. We spent the entire day in the Kiddieland riding the small kids' rides. I always have more fun watching the kids and seeing how excited they are and what a good time they are having then going on the adult rides myself. About the most adult ride we did was the Tidal Wave. That definetly made me realize what a weak stomach I have and that my amusement park days are probably over. I do not do well when it comes to heights, roller coasters or free falling. Jason was able to come up and join us at 6pm after he got out of the academy for the day. It was nice because Harmons had rented 2 pavillions where they had free cotton candy, watermelon, brownies, drinks, chips, ice cream and popsicles, face painting, clowns that made balloon animals and a raffle. We were able to purchase hot dogs and hamburgers for .50-$2.00 so we didn't have to spend a fortune on food while we were there. My favorite part of the whole park was Lagoon A Beach. They have the Main Stream that is kind of like a lazy river where you can float on tubes around and around. It is so relaxing! I put Brecken on my lap and Andrea put Bailee on her lap and we spent quite a while just going in circles. They have an awesome pool area up above the lazy river where they have some cool slides for the small children to go down. Overall we had a great time and hope to be able to go back in the near future.
While in Salt Lake, we couldn't pass up going to the funnest place of all, Jungle Jim's. When we first arrived Brecken would only ride in the swings and the carousel, but by the time we were ready to leave he was riding every ride except the roller coaster. It takes time for him to warm up and let his fears subside but once he does he doesn't want the fun to stop.
Last Monday we decided to stop by Gardner Village and check out the petting zoo there. We were lucky enough to come on a day when they were letting the ponies give rides to the children. Bailee and Brecken were very excited and did not want to get off after the 5 minutes of riding. Bailee said she wished that we could have a pony for a pet. Too bad we don't live on a farm.:-)
We also stopped by the Museum of Natural History on the University of Utah campus on Monday. We happened to go on a free day so that made it extra nice. The kids loved to see all of the cool rocks and dinosaurs. Brecken was a little nervous with the big skeletons of the dinosaurs but it was fun to see the expressions on their faces when they saw such large animals. They have a great kid area where they can read books and watch TV programs to learn about dinosaurs, put together a large puzzle on the wall, play a matching memory game on the wall, dig for dinosaur bones and get your picture taken with a dinosaur. That was the funnest part of the whole museum! They were still a little too small to fully understand the whole history of it all.
This was just another one of our fun trips to Chuck E Cheese. This has become a tradition every time we are in Salt Lake. The kids have the best time!
