Memorial Day

On the actual holiday we slept in (for us that is 7:00), had a real good breakfast, read stories, and then around lunch time we pack a bunch of good food and headed to a local park.  The parks around here are great, but they don't have swings.  None of them.  It's some liability issue for Brigham City.  Any way, with croissant sandwiched, potato straws, a ton of cut up fresh fruit and dip, juice, and cookies we settled in for a fun afternoon.  Of course Jefferson took one look at the park, saw all the kids, and forgot entirely about eating.  Typical.  It was a nice sunny day.  A great day to relax and be with family.

This is our attempt at a family picture.  Pretty close. P.S.-You can always tell when Jason dresses Addison.  We'll just say that it's eclectic and leave it at that.

Jefferson has more fun going up the slide instead of down it.

Addison on her first trip down a slide.  It wasn't very fast- I didn't generate much speed on the spiral slide- but I think she liked it.

Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day Weekend: Part 2

On Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend we went to a cafe and had a wonderful breakfast.  Jefferson actually ate everything including his fruit.  It was really funny because as the waitress was walking away from our table Jefferson yelled out to her, "..and I want some BACON!"  It was pretty comical.  That kid loves his pig.  After breakfast we hopped on TRAX (another favorite of Jefferson's) and we went to the new City Creek Center.  Holy Cow, that place is awesome.  So many stores and good places to eat.  They have really fun fountains and streams.  It was so nice.  We went to the Disney store and got each child a prize to remember the trip by and we wandered the masses of stores.  I got a really cute dress at H&M that was originally 34.99 for 7.98.  A steal!!

We journeyed back to our hotel, ate lunch, then checked out.  We were going to go visit the cemetery, but as we were packing the car the heavens opened and poured down.  Instead we headed to Hill Air Force Base and the flight museum.  Jefferson was insistent on seeing a plane painted like a tiger.  This was as close as we got, but he didn't mind at all.  He thought it was great.

We walked all around- it is a really great place, and free too!  Right as we were finishing up at the museum it stopped raining so we heading further in to the base and went to the air show.  Jefferson was hoping so bad that he could "fly" a helicopter.  And as luck would have it, the first aircraft we came upon was a helicopter.  He was so excited!

Here's Jason and Jeffers getting ready to tour an Air Force plane.  It was cold and windy so Addison and I stayed bundled up and behind the scenes.

People were jumping out of airplanes...

...and tons of planes were doing trick runs.  They were so cool.  I am amazed at the people that have the guts to do those things.  As for me...no thank you.

We walked around for a long time, got posters and stickers, toured a lot of different air craft, watched a lot of planes fly, and then we were done.  The Air Force jets started flying and Jefferson had had enough.  Quite frankly so had I.  They were extremely loud and Jefferson was crying because it really scared him.  We headed out, got a Jamba Juice, and headed home.

It was a really fun day-minus the cold.  It made going home really nice.  We snuggled up and relaxed enjoying our warm home.

Memorial Day Weekend: Part 1

Over Memorial Day Weekend we were supposed to go camping in Yellowstone, but due to a snow storm we altered our plans and headed for Salt Lake and had tons of fun for a couple of days.  One of my friends recently blogged about remembering the perfect moments and how fun it is just to sit back and have fun without worrying about naps and all the stuff that comes with the little ones.  This weekend was one of those times.  It was just perfect and great.

We started out by going to "This is the Place Heritage Park" on Friday.  It was the last day of the baby animal petting zoo.  Jefferson is just in love with animals, all animals.  When I told him where we were going he was so excited and said, "And I can TOUCH the animals?" It was great.  First he rode the horse.  He was so proud and happy that he did it all on his own.  We did eventually go back and let him ride another one before we left.

He loves sheep, more on that later.

Here we are with the sheep, goats, and pigs.  You know, goats kind of get a bad deal, but the goats there were actually so beautiful.  I wanted to take the baby one home.  Addison was so good all day.  She had such wide eyes at all the new things she was seeing.

Jefferson just kept following the baby pig around trying to feed it.  What he was trying to feed it, I'm not sure.

The ducks would not cooperate.  Every time he got close they would run away from him.  Jason was trying to teach him to be slow, but he was just too excited and kept running at them.

We rode the train three times so he could ride in each compartment.

His most favorite part was feeding the sheep.  I wish we had sound with this picture because he was laughing hysterically the whole time.  I so enjoy seeing him have these wonderful kind of experiences.  He also got to retrieve newly laid eggs out of the hen house.   He also got the pet gigantic rabbits, chicks, and roosters.  There were reindeer, cows, steer, and a shy donkey.  It was just great!

After lunch and checking in at the hotel we went to Temple Square.

We had fun walking around talking to the sister missionaries, playing in the fountains, touring the buildings, and looking at all the flowers.

We walked over to the Church History Museum that has a really neat play center upstairs for little kids.  This is me and Jefferson playing dress up and learning a new dance.  You have to be willing to be silly to help your children experience new and fun things- at least that is what I tell myself when the other adults are looking at me like I'm crazy.

After a delicious dinner at The Spaghetti Factory we went swimming, or as Jefferson says, "We went pooling"  He was so excited to wear his sharks and he did great.  He just wanted to swim back and forth, back and forth.  This was Addi's first dip in the pool and it looks like we have another water bug in the fam.  She just loved splashing and bouncing.  The temp. was perfect for the slightly cool evening.

Such a great day.  The kids slept wonderfully that night due to all the adventures we had. Jefferson was just so blissfully happy all day because of all the great things we did.  He still talks about feeding the sheep and riding the horse.  So glad we went.  More on Day 2 at a later date.

The Mind of a 4 Year Old

This is a conversation that I had with Jefferson the other day.  It cracked me up and made me feel a little left out.


Jefferson:  Mama, my name is Jefferson Thomas.
Me: That's right.
Jefferson: Mama, what's your name?
Me: Kara Thomas
Jefferson:  No, it's Kara Percy because you have green eyes!


Some where along the way Jefferson has come to the conclusion that his last name is Thomas because Thomas the train is blue and He, Daddy, and Addison all have blue eyes- resulting in the last name of Thomas.  However, since Mama has green eyes she is not a Thomas, but a Percy because obviously, Percy is green.


Interesting.