Sometimes You Just Need a Break...

A break from winter, that is. We decided we needed 'something' to help us get through our LAST COLD WINTER, and decided 'that something' would be the Wisconsin Dells. We found a sweet deal, thanks to Amy, for the Chula Vista hotel at the dells and had a blast at the huge indoor water park they have. We had a ton of fun playing with Kennedy in the water and to our surprise our little girl is quite the TOUGH little girl. We thought she would get mad and start crying if she got too wet, but she ended up going down slides by herself, going underwater, and even tried a little swimming. She had a BLAST and we did too. Just being in swimsuits, acting like it was summer, was very therapeutic for us all. We are looking for another good deal so we can head there again before we leave Iowa. :)

On her way to the water park.  She loved carrying her life jacket.

The hotel had a ton of stuffed animals all around and Kennedy loved saying hi to them.  It was pretty funny hearing her try to say caribou, elk, buffalo, etc.   I think she made daddy proud.

Blowing kisses to the caribou!!!  It was hard to get anywhere fast with this girl.  She loved exploring EVERYTHING!!!

Getting a little payback!!!

Probably her favorite part about the park - the guns that shoot water!

She even went down this slide a couple times by herself and never once cried!!!  We were amazed!!!  We wish we could have gotten a picture, but we needed one more set of hands.

She made friends with a few little kids her age, but the best was when she roped the lifeguard into playing ball with her.  We saw this lifeguard later that day and Kennedy stopped and stared at her and then blew the lifeguard a kiss.  It was pretty cute!!!

Some of the smaller waterslides.

We couldn't get a picture of the large waterslides because they all go outdoors, but they were pretty sweet.  Brent and I had a lot of fun taking turns on them.

The lazy river.  We played bumper tubes a lot and Kennedy had a blast saying 'bumper' every time we would bump into each other. 

We realized we hadn't been to a hotel with Kennedy since she was 1 month old.  As you can see in the pics...she loved every bit of it - all new territory to explore!

Wisconsin Dells...we hope to be back soon!!!

Gotta Love Days Off...

A week ago today, Brent had the day off of school for Martin Luther King Jr. so we were pretty excited, but unfortunately Kennedy came home from church pretty sick the day before. We debated on whether or not we should go join in some sledding fun because of Kennedy, but decided to work out a compromise. She stayed in the nice warm car with some tunes going while we headed up the hill. She didn't seem to mind too much, but I think she was a little sad she missed out on the sledding. The girl LOVES snow!!! I'm sure we will be going again soon so she can get her fix!!! P.S. Were not bad parents...right???

Ipod Junkie

Kennedy just checking out the newest version of FARM AID (some new tunes my bro. sent to help out with shortage of good music in the midwest) She's got quite the bed head in the second picture - she's starting early with the punk look :)

New Years 2009

For New Years it is a tradition in my family to go to the cabin and spend the night. Even though we were there for less than 24 hours it was worth it. We had a lot of fun spending time with the fam. Kennedy was quite the grump because she's not used to so much commotion, but luckily she was so exhausted from all the fun, that she slept right through all the celebrations (something that never happens) All the fun was quickly over, after only staying a week, and we left for Iowa New Years night to beat a storm - clear roads the whole way home :)

Watch out cousins....its loaded!

Body Worlds

We also found out that Body Worlds was in Salt Lake the time we were there, so we spent an afternoon looking at THE AMAZING BODY. Seriously, after going there and seeing what the body does, how could you not believe in a god. Brent had a blast talking with Scott in medical foreign language, so I pretty ignored them, but I had a lot fun too. My favorite part was seeing the growth of a baby (kind of sad - not sure how you could support abortion after seeing it), sections of an obese person, and all the nerves in the body. It is amazing to me how spectacular the body is and how much it does just on its own.

Christmas Morning

We are not early risers and we value Kennedy's sleep, so we had christmas morning at around 9:00 when she woke up.  It was awesome!!!  We loved having our christmas with just our little family and we enjoyed letting Kennedy open all her presents slow so she was able to play with them.  Pretty much she received one main present, a little people farm, and the rest was just little things that she loves.  She loves balloons, smarties (treats for being a good eater), cell phones, crayons, and books....so that's what she got.  Not too bad when a 50 cent balloon will be the most exciting present she gets.  I wonder how long that will last???

Surprise!!!

Neither one of our families knew that we were coming back to Utah for Christmas and it was hard work keeping it a secret.  The first person who found out was my sister, Janelle, who caught us staying at my parents house while they were in St. George.  Good thing she found out it was us before she called the cops :)  Seriously!  We then surprised Gram, Brents family on Christmas Eve, and then my family on Christmas day (we scared the pants off my parents - it was great!).  We had a blast and it was nice not to hide the secret anymore.  We had a great christmas (minus the drive) with both our families and it was SO good to see everyone!! P.S. Hold on...picture overload!

Kennedy loved playing with all of Grams singing stuffed animals.  Rudolph was her favorite!!!

Kennedy's buddy - cousin Heidi

Cousin Luke and Kennedy playing ball.  This girl can't get enough!!!  I think we have a basketball player on our hands :)

Singing Christmas carols at Brent's sisters house

Dogs... another one of Kennedy's passions.

Of course Uncle B gets to play the donkey in the manger scene.

My mom and dad

My oldest bro Kent and his wife Shelly

Grandma Pat gave Kennedy her first doll.  

Kennedys favorite older cousins - Courtney and Lexi!!!  Thanks for the babysitting guys :)

And of course, you can't forget the other member of our family.