The Tangrens

Every time we went to the BYU bookstore (which was 3 times in the weeks leading up to Christmas) he'd say "Remember when we went there?" And I would tell him that we didn't go there because they were closed when we wanted to then ask him if he wanted to go. He DID. So we put it on our list and it was the number one thing to do on our list.

So on Monday morning we called BYU Cosmic Bowling to make sure they were open and low and behold they were not so we headed to Fat Cats in Provo for some afternoon bowling.

Hyrum was soo excited

It was Noah's first time in bowling shoes and he was really excited. First he needed a little help

But before long he was grabbing his ball (6lbs!!!) and carrying it to the lane by himself.

He loved it.

A great time was had by all!
Yeah pretty obvious that we don't bowl a whole lot.

The next day we headed to the Springville Museum of art and to the new library. Every time I go to the art museum I wonder why we don't go more often. It is seriously the best kept secret in Utah county. And it's FREE!! Although they ask for donations. Even the boys enjoyed it. They didn't take as much time as Derek and I would have being alone but still it was so great. Since we moved down here nearly three years ago this is the first time Derek has been and that is a crying shame. I plan to change that.

Our new library opened at the end of October and Derek hadn't been there yet either. Since we'd been once we gave him the tour. It is state of the art and big and beautiful. Checking out your books is crazy. You just put your stack down on this pad and they all just appear on the computer screen. Checked out! We spent the rest of the day reading the new books we borrowed. I love library day. Another place we should go more often.

On Wednesday we decided to try a movie at the movie theater near us. We decided on Puss in Boots. It's a mid run movie theater that charges 3 instead of 5 or 6 dollars. Since we were saving so much on tickets and since we were on vacation we decided to splurge on popcorn. We were a little nervous how Noah would do since the last time we went to a movie he only sat for 15 -20 minutes. He did GREAT! He would have sat through the entire whole movie happily eating his popcorn had Hyrum not had to bug out a few times.

Thursday was our Salt Lake City day. We headed up to Discovery Gateway children's museum where we met our old neighbors and played a bit.

The last time we were here Noah was 5 months old so this was a VERY different experience for him.

When we were talking about going to the art museum Hyrum was ecstatic talking about the plastic tube and the pipe cleaners. It took us awhile to figure out he thought we were going to the Gateway museum and upstairs they have this air tube that you can fly muffin papers joined together with pipe cleaners. Of all the things he could remember about this amazing museum he remembers that. I was surprised. And he spent a lot of time there.

Noah also found something familiar.

While Hyrum figured out gears.

Then we went to the food court in the City Creek development. It is going to be so nice when it's done. We parked in a brand new parking garage. ( have you ever smelled the new smell in a parking garage? it was a first for me ) We checked out the waterfall outside the windows of the food court on the way out. Sooo pretty.

Then because we were there and could we went to the Church History and Art museum. Hyrum was a grump because he wanted to go home but Noah was all about it. He steered the ship toward the promised land.

Jotted a few words down on the "golden plates"

and planted a few vegetables

before he met up with his big brother to give him a ride around town.

Then rested in the shadow of a friend

Then we hit the tabernacle and south visitors center on temple square to see the pipe organ ( we told Hyrum it was like the Count's counting pipe organ) and the little model of the temple. ( Hyrum loves seeing the little oxen surrounding the baptistery )

After that we decided to go see Derek's aunt and uncle to deliver their Christmas gift but when we called we found out that they had left to go down to Arizona the day before. Fail. Especially since their gift is perishable and will have perished by the time they get back. Great.

The next day was the playing with friends day. We were watching Hyrum's ( and Noah's ) best friends in the neighborhood, Alan and Tyler Mejia( and their baby sister Joy), while their parents went on a way over due date . It was on the list to play with them on our vacation. They had the best time and before we knew it three hours had passed.

The next day they invited us to their house for a little New Years Celebrating we that's just what we did. We had pizza and played board and video games and all around had a great time.

We ended with a little blueberry boy bait and frothy hot chocolate made by the hot chocolate maker given to me by my boys.

Then we did crackers and poppers and had the boys in bed by midnight eastern standard time. Then Derek and I toasted the New Year at midnight mountain standard time.