Slide

When we moved into our house in Syracuse there were no steps off our sliding glass door. It just led to a little balcony. One of our first orders of business was to build a deck and put stairs on it. I really wanted a slide off the deck, however, we were short on cash so I was okay with not having one.

Right before we finished the deck our friends from Logan called and said they had a slide they were getting rid of and if we wanted it. Of course I wanted it! It wasn't quite long enough to go off the deck. Cody and I were trying to figure out what to hook the slide to and also what we were going to do with our old railing on our "balcony." It ended up that if we turned the railing the slide fit just right onto that. We screwed the old decking on top of the railing and we had a slide. The plan was to use the railing as stairs and they they could play in the shade underneath.

(Before shot. Wasn't my little Ty a cutie! Thank goodness those diapers are gone!)

It worked out pretty well, but it was hard to climb up. Paige loves to go down the slide but it is just hard for her to get up there. She is constantly asking Cody and I to lift her up so she can go down the slide. This weekend we finally remedied the situation.

We decided to make a rock wall climbing area (which we haven't finished) and then put a railing on. Last night we put the rock wall together and then today we figured out a railing and went and bought everything and made it.

Our kids are now loving it. Paige is even going up the rails by herself. She actually has something to grab onto to pull herself up. We had a really hard time getting them to come inside tonight. Hopefully they will keep enjoying it and not get bored with it.

Dinosaur Park

It was such a nice day today that we couldn't just stay home! I took all three kids by myself to the dinosaur park in Ogden. We had a really good time. They were all so good to stay with me and not wander off.

The dinosaurs were really neat and both Ty and Paige were excited until we got up really close to them. They are really large.

In this picture I had to coax Ty to come close to the dinosaur to take his picture. He did not want to get close. I finally went and touched it and showed him that it wasn't real. He finally stood somewhat close to it. As you can see, Paige wouldn't come close. She stayed back and cried until I went and picked her up and carried her past the dinosaur.

Ty insisted on carrying the map the whole way until we got to the park and slides. He had it open and his nose stuck in it the whole time.

I finally coaxed Paige to get in a picture when I showed her the baby dinosaur. However, none of the kids would look at me.

They had a spot for the kids to dig dinosaur bones that Ty and Paige really liked. They also had a museum where you could see the bones for a bunch of dinosaurs.

We had a really great day. I realized tonight as I came inside that we had not been inside the house all day except to eat dinner. It was really nice to be able to spend the day outside!