temple tour & petting farm

On July 11th our family toured the Oquirrh Mountain temple in the Daybreak area of South Jordan. Traffic was crazy and we arrived a few minutes late for our tour, but the main problem was that we had to wake Buddy so he was a bit grouchy at first. That's why we all look crappy in the family photo and Christian won't even look at the camera, but I wanted it taken because I knew it would be dark by the time the tour finished.


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Buddy cheered up and actually loved the tour! Of course, I think the kids' favorite part was the cookies at the end, but they each seemed really interested and excited about seeing the inside of a temple.



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They loved this fountain and all the lights on the outside.

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The funny part was that even though we were surrounded by to-die-for marble floors, dreamy crystal chandeliers and breathtaking wall murals, every time we came through a room with plastic carpet protector matting Christian would point to it and comment, "This a special room!" I have to give it to the kid, it was shiny and had a pretty diamond texture to it and I'm sure it looked extra fancy to him since he'd never seen it before :)

On the 14th I decided since it was only supposed to get up to 76 degrees (and then the temps would soar into the nineties) that I would take the kids to Carver's Cove Petting Farm in Eden. We'd never been before and I'd been meaning to go there for years! When Sarah heard I was going, she asked if her family could come too (of course--yes!!!) so we also invited Joy's family and mom to make it a family event. Soon after we got there, the owner handed Faith this baby goat.

(Sorry for the glowy photo effects on all of these, I think my lens had something smeared on it. Of course, the kids are always playing with it so it ususally does, but it seemed worse this day.)





Grandma and Sierra couldn't resist that fuzzy little head.




Christian looks a little surprised that the donkey is eating the molasses coated corn he offered.






There were llamas,

and sheep.
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Don't Alaura (in the red) and Celeste (in the pink) look adorable in their cowgirl hats? Noah wore a straw hat, red bandana kerchief, & a cow print vest. You can see a bit of him on the left of this one and the llama pic above. Cute!!

We were all enamored with this little foal.

Then the kids got to hold a kitten

and a bunny.

There were also pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, cows, and dogs.

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Finally, the moment that they had been waiting for came--the horse ride! Buddy desperately wanted to go first, but I knew if he did that he would throw a fit because he couldn't have more turns so I tried to hold him off until the end. Faith rode first and is quite the horsewoman. She really wants her own horse, but I told her that she would have to settle for riding lessons.

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Christian kept shouting, "I next! I next!" so my plan was foiled and I let him follow his sister. He LOVED it and was especially happy to feed the horse an apple wedge at the end of the ride. As I feared, almost immediately after his turn, he stared throwing a fit because he wanted another ride, so I just left him lying, stomach down, in the dirt, kicking and screaming, and went to feed the goats again.

After a good ten minute cry, he picked himself up and joined us. I had them pose on the tractor
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and the buggy, but Christian got really upset with me that I wouldn't make them "Go!" I guess his mood hadn't fully recovered since it was past naptime.

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Just before we left we saw that the baby bunnies had come out of their dirt tunnels, so we took a peek at them.

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It was such a fun place that the kids have already asked several times for a return trip, and I'll have to be sure to make it a yearly occurrence.

That night when Tony got home, he had a surprise for the kids-- firework snakes. They loved watching those gross little things grow!

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Seeing those snakes brought back memories for me of when I was young and doing them with the Peterson kids (my dad's half brothers and sisters). I kneeled in the aftermath and ruined some brand new pants mom had bought me for school. I haven't thought fondly of those things ever since!