The Twins are 4

Logan and Liam celebrated their fourth birthday a week early at the Children's Museum in St Paul, one of their favorite placed. The museum provided this delicious chocolate cake.

Logan was super happy and glad to be there.

As was Liam.

Little brother, Kellan, really didn't know what was going on but partook in all the festivities.

Each had a row of four candles to blow out.

Logan had one more to go. So he really does have a girl friend.

Then it was time to open the "PRESENTS". Very happy with the stash.

One thing with twins is that they have duplicate packaging.

Baseball mitt for Logan and a bat and ball for Liam so the baseball game is going on.

Other things they got were clothes; their favorite were the button down shirts.

After that it was museum time. They had to earn their keep by "Swabbing the deck". It was pretty clean when they got done.

Grampa Smentek was supervising and even the cousins wanted to help.

This is Dorothy's house that was sucked up into a tornado. Liam was spinning it faster and faster.

On to the water activities. Plug the holes!!!

On to the boat races. Oh no! There is a barricade in the way. We had a lot of fun with the boys

Chubby boys

We joined the Smentek's and Barnhardt's at the Regal to See the movie "Toy Story 3". What a great movie. All came over for Pizza and ice cream and our famous homemade "Hot Fudge Sauce". The two newest grand kids are just super big, chubby boys. Take a look for yourself at Kellan and Calvin.

Side by side.

Kellan was having a great day and smilling a lot.

What happened to Lorelei?

Lorelei came over for a visit yesterday with her brothers and sister and I noticed something different. At first I thought she got in a fight with Gretchen. She lost another tooth. Say "Sassafras". So cute.

Miscellaneous Utah photos

The Utah mountains had just received a fresh layer of snow, just for us Minnesotans, since we have not had much snow for several winters. And we were not that much below the snow line, but it was at times hot and steamy. We had lunch at the Golden Corral and just happened to pick a table next to the desserts, especially the ice cream machine. Ellie had difficulty eating her lunch. She said, "With that ice cream machine being so close, I can't stop thinking about it." So we eventually gave in and she had a cone and a bowl. She regained her appetite. It's a miracle.

One of the rare moments he did not have his pacifier.

I also had a birthday while visiting Kyle and Tiffany and fam, but I did not want to make any big deal about it. You know, it is just another day anyway. So this was my birthday cake.

Again, I had to wear the birthday hat. Hey, wait a minute! Why didn't Charlie have to wear it and I did?

Since Tiffany is the proud owner of a Vegemite juicer machine (or what ever you call it), she made leftover chocolate cake smoothies for everyone. Mmm, Mmm Good. Oops, I spilled.

Not to worry. I can handle this.

Slurp slurp. Almost done.

See what a good smoothie slurper-upper I am. Cheese.Hi Grampa! It is so funny at times because Charlie would crawl over to you, climb up your pant leg, look up with a sad puppy dog look and you knew what he wanted. Translate: pick me up before I scream.

We played outside on the patio and drew chalk drawings all over the fence. We do this each time we visit. Charlie likes the fresh air.

One morning was movie morning. Ellie watched a movie on Gramma's computer with headphones. It was " Happily Never After". But it was kind of scary so she wanted the earphones off so we could hear the scary parts. Erik watched "The Incredibles" on a portable DVD player

Ellie felt like a big girl.

Group photo before we left. See you next time on Skype.

A day at the fountains

We were kind of bored one afternoon and decided to drive to the Gateway out door shopping center in Salt Lake. There is a central park plaza there that was put in for the 2002 SLC Olympics. It is built of triangular stone slabs with holes. Through the holes squirts water. For most of the time the water squirts out the holes randomly, so you may get hit and you may not. You will be surprised. We were wondering why there were so many teenagers playing in the water fully clothed and asked somebody. They told us they were waiting for the music. Then all of a sudden the Olympic theme song started playing and the water was no longer squirting randomly but it was synchronized to the music. With crescendos the water volume and height increased and really blasted those standing in the middle. Looked like great fun for the young at heart. Good thing we had the kids' swim suits already in place and let them at it. As soon as the music was over the teens disappeared.
Cautiously they approach. What's going to happen? Are we going to get squirted from that hole or not?

Erik decided to stand over a hole to see what would happen. Nothing right now. Ellie on the other hand was dancing and bouncing her way thought the plaza getting blasted now and again and having a ball.

Then it was time to put the baby in the mix. He liked the water on the stones. But I was concerned that he would happen to put his face over one of the water outlets and get water shoved up his nose. Didn't happen so he was okay.

But Charlie just loved it. And all the girls around him were going "ga-ga" over him.

Here he is coming in from one of his swims. "I want to do this again, Mom!"

Here is a little fountain action for you.

A day at the park

We wanted to have some time at the park with the kids. Soooo, we went to the park on the Jordan River.
First it was off to feed the ducks. That was fine until the aggressive and territorial geese showed up and started hissing at us and all the ducks. They wanted all the Honey Nut Cheerios for themselves. Some of the ducks moved to anther spot and got fed but that lasted only a few minutes, when Mr. and Mrs. Goose and family took over that spot too.

Off to the park for kids. Charlie wanted in on the fun too.

Three at once. It would not be fun to have more than this.

I am King of the Jungle Gym.

This is my GQ look.

We spent a lot of time swinging and actually hogged the swings from others. But the kids loved it. I could get Erik really laughing.

Look how high I am going.

With the help of "Aunt" Kjersten, Ellie climbed up and over the ladder.

Eventually Charlie got a bit of a turn on the swing. Great fun.

It was rather hot that day, even with fresh snow on the mountains and we took a break in the shade of a tree. The funnest thing happened there. Ellie, without any prompting decided to hold an entire Sunday Primary class. She had an opening, songs, prayers, she even tried to teach us a brand new, just made up on the spot, song. She told the story of why we have the world and about Adam and Eve. Then she went on to tell the story of Nephi and Laban and the Brass Plates. She did not miss a beat. I do have it on film but it is several hundred megabytes and can't be posted. Even Erik got his turn leading some songs. Then we decided to go home.