Selena Gomez

Around a month ago Wayne called me from work and asked what I thought about him buying tickets for the girls to go and see Selena Gomez in concert. I was so excited and told him that he would be the best dad ever if he were to do that. Wayne asked if I wanted to take them and although I would have loved to I thought what a great daddy/daughter date this would make.  So once again I was forced to keep a huge secret from the girls.

On September 6th Wayne sat the girls down on the couch. We once again had the video camera ready and Wayne asked the girls a few questions and while I was holding the ticket in my hand I showed the girls the that they were going to the Selena Gomez concert. Let's just say that the reaction was the one I had expected on our trip to Disney Land. Screams of excitement, acts of craziness, shortness of breath and faces of disbelief were all present and we got it all on tape.

After a long day at school the girls came home, got their homework done and put on some stylin concert attire. I drove the girls up to SLC to Wayne's work where he would take over from there. On the way we listened to Selena's new cd (who else) to get in the mood.

We got to Wayne's work (waited for what seemed like forever) switched cars and they were off. Since Ty was not able to go to the concert he and I had an awesome mommy/son date at Trafalga. I got updates through out the night of all the fun.

 sitting out side the Maverick center

 Found their seats!!!

 It was just a little loud

 Megan singing along lol

 Selena Gomez hits the stage

The girls had a blast and i think Wayne may have experienced some hearing loss, but it was all worth it.

Ty and I ended up going to the Mayan for dinner and then headed to Trafalga in Lehi for some rock climbing, laser tag, mini golf and go carts. What more could a little guy ask for!

Disneyland!!!

Wayne and I decided back in April that we would take the kids to Disneyland for the first time. I had a whole month to prepare. We decided that we would make it a surprise seeing that this was their first time going. I put together a cute movie that we would play on the way to Disneyland that would let them in on our little secret. Wayne and I talked about it many times to make sure the execution was flawless.
  The day we left I had the van packed and ready to go so that all we had to do is get the kids up and go. When we finally were on our way Wayne pulled off the side of the road to let the kids watch the movie and so we could get it on video. As the movie started coming to an end I was gearing up for the excited screams that I new would come. Unfortunately that is not what I got. It was probably the worst "surprise your going to Disneyland" reaction I have ever seen. Not one scream of excitement! Not one yell of Disneyland! Nothing! To be honest it was hard for me to keep this secret for a whole month and I was in a state of shock (for the lack of a better word) that I didn't get the reaction I wanted. Oh well maybe next time!

The kids did great during the 9 hour long car ride to CA. We ended up staying with Wayne's cousin Brad and his wife Linda's house. It was so fun being able so spend some time with them. When we arrived they took us to this great little restaurant for dinner. Afterwards Brad and Wayne went to a movie and Linda and I went home with the kids and had a great conversation.

  The next day we headed to Disneyland. I thought with it being a Sunday it wasn't going to be very busy, but that is what my silly Utah brain thought. It wasn't slammed, but we did have to wait in line for 20-30 min for each ride (which I hear isn't bad). Since I was the only veteran of the group (yep it was Wayne's first time too!) I was the leader of the pack. As we were standing in line for the first ride Wayne decided to take a picture of us in every line for every ride through out the four days we were to spent there.

Our first ride in Disneyland was the jungle boat ride

If I mentioned everything we did while at Disneyland this post would be forever long, so I am just going to show lots of pictures and put some captions under them.

 Waiting in line for the buzz lightyear ride (Ty's favorite)

 Watch out! Ty is driving this car

 Our first Disney character sighting

 Love this pic. Ty is shooting in almost every picture

 Kaitlyn meeting her favorite Disney character. She was star struck! All she could do is nod and smile when Tinkerbell would ask her a question. It was totally worth the long wait.

 We took a day off from Disney Land and took a tour around CA

Kaitlyn found this starfish on a rock.

Went to the Grauman's Chinese theater were the girls found Johnny Depp

 We visited the L.A. temple

 Megan, Hannah, Kaitlyn and Ty

 Family photo op

 The kids first time seeing the ocean

Ty won! He lasted the longest when it came to eating a ginormous sundae

The kids were so brave to get in their swimsuits and get into the water cause it was so cold!

Wayne is such a good daddy to get into the water with his babies.

We had a blast! I was hard to say good-bye to beautiful CA, but our 5 days were up. We couldn't have asked for better accommodations. Brad, Linda and their girls were the best. We can't wait to go back and spend some more time discovering CA and spending time with the Smith family and making memories.

Fishing & Grandpa

So it has become some what of a tradition that my dad takes the grand kids fishing before school starts. Well this year it didn't quite happen before school, but we got around to it. This year my kids were the only ones who were able to go, but we were lucky enough to have Aunt Karri and her super sweet roommate Holly come.

The lake that was chosen this time was Matt Warner up in Northern Utah. Being 4 hours away, my dad suggested that we go up the night before and camp out. Well if you know me you know that I am not a big lover of the outdoors especially when it comes to camping. So my dad suggested that he would take the girls up camping and Wayne and I would bring Ty up the next day. I thought that sounded fair, so I took the girls to Karri's house around 8pm and got them into the my dad's truck and they were off.

The next morning Wayne and I had to do a few thing before we left, so we ended up getting a late start and got up to Matt Warner around 2pm and just as my dad and the girls were headed out (yep, they had been up since 7 am fishing and they were done).  Ty hadn't been able to do any fishing yet, so we ended up taking the girls and heading to the lake while grandpa and aunt Karri headed to the Mountain man rendezvous.

Megan and Kaitlyn let us know where we needed to set up and how to set up the poles and how to cast them into the lake (apparently they didn't know that both their parents have fished before). 

We decided to go on the other side of the lake due to the fact that in the 5 hours grandpa spent fishing that morning they didn't catch a thing. So to the other side of the lake we went. We set up and I cast the first line out into the water. It's amazing that even tho I haven't been fishing in like 20 years casting out the first line was like riding a bike. I guess there are somethings you never forget. Within 20 minutes there was a bite on the line and I reeled in a monster trout.

and then Kaitlyn reeled in hers



and then Ty reeled in his, but he wouldn't  touch it lol

and last but not least Megan reeled in hers.

After spending 4 hours fishing we caught 4 big trout and were given one from a guy fishing near by.

In hind sight we probably should have caught and released cause I don't eat fish.

Although we (Wayne, Ty  and I) didn't get to fish with grandpa and aunt Karri we had a great time as a family.