Lagoon With Boo.....

Okay...WARNING! This is once again a VERY LONG post. I probably should have separtated it into 3-4 different posts but I personally like to keep the whole "Event" in one.

Our Little "BOO" is not so little anymore. She is now FIVE YEARS OLD and I can't hardly believe it!!! I remember when she was born and the many hours I spent holding her, rocking her, comforting her, and just loving her! We share such a close bond together. I absolutely ADORE this little girl and feel so blessed to be her grandma.

When a birthday comes around for one of our grandchildren we try to brainstorm and come up with a special place to spend the day with them. Something new and unique that they have not done before. A place where we can spend some quality time with them, make new memories, and enjoy each others company. Howie and I decided to take Karah to Lagoon for our grandparent outing with her. WHAT FUN!

We met Boo at the little park area outside of Lagoon....

We always start our day off with a picture of the grandchild

we are going to be playing with.

Each year Lyssi gets to jump in a picture or two with us.

I love this girl.....She is in KINDERGARTEN NOW!!!!!

Of coarse Lyss need to get her fill of Papa Howie "FUN" before she goes back home with her mom. Howie loves to spin around and around with the grandkids until they are laughing so hard that they can hardly breath. I love the look on Lyssi's face as she is holding on for dear life.

As Howie is parking the car "Boo" finishes up her food...

This girl was HUNGRY!!!

All smiles as we get ready to go into "Magoon"

The fun is about to BEGIN!!!

Our initial plan was to start off by getting some old fashioned pictures taken at the Pioneer Village and then we would go on some rides-

BUT .....
When Boo saw the boats she really wanted to ride them first.

It is amazing to me how these simple little rides can bring so much joy to these small kids... Boring to me! But fun to watch all of the parents and grandparents frantically snapping pictures as their child floated by. I was one of them :)

Karah also enjoyed the rocket ships....

As the man tried to help her out, after the ride had stopped, she informed him that she was FIVE years old so she could do it all by herself. He said, "Well, I guess I've been told!" So funny.

After these first two rides I thought to myself "this is going to be one LONG day" It was extremely HOT and the rides just seemed to go on and on. I guess Howie was thinking along the same lines as me because as soon as Boo stepped off the rocket ship ride he talked her into going on the TIDAL WAVE! I was so afraid that if we took her on this BIG ride at the first of the day that she would be too terrified to go on any other ride in the park after that and we would have wasted all that money for nothing. I thought she would be terrified going up that high.

NOT SO!!!!

Karah LOVED it and wanted to go on it again as soon as we got off. We quickly discovered that she was a DARE DEVIL! YEAH!!!!!

As we headed over to Pioneer Village we found that they have animals there at Lagoon. I had no idea! We saw tigers and some other animals cages. If we had taken the train ride we could have seen more but we decided not to.

We fed the swan instead.

It would dive down so far into the water to retrieve the food we threw to it.

PIONEER VILLAGE....

Once at Pioneer Village we headed to the photography studio. They chose clothes for us to dress in.

Karah was so concerned because her dress was not MODEST!

She had the lady pin it up to fit her better.

She really liked the soft boa they let her wear.

One of our group shots.....

My crazy husband....


My smiley saloon girl.....

The studio was soooo hot so we decided to head over for some yummy iceream. Boy did that ever hit the spot! Howie always loves to eat his "toothpaste icecream" Mint chocolate chip!

We looked around briefly at the shops

(mostly because they had fans inside to cool us off)

Then headed to wait in the long line for the Log Run ride.

Howie insisted on sitting in the back of the log. He was too scared to get his hair wet or something like that! What a WIMP :) :) :)

This was by far the lamest ride we went on all day long! We waited for at least 45 minutes and the ride lasts maybe 2 at the very most. We barely got wet (except for some splashing done by me) but at least it cooled us off a bit. I will never wait in that line for this ride AGAIN! NEVER!

Karah spent the majority of the day between rides hanging onto Papa Howie's neck.

Steve is such a great sport when it comes to the grandkids. He will do ANYTHING to make them happy. Even if he is exhausted, hot and worn out. Doesn't matter! (And the kids know it!)

She has him wrapped around her little finger!

Lagoona Beach was full to capacity so as Howie stood in line Boo rode some nearby rides.

LAGOONA BEACH.......

Our silly girl.....

They finally let us into the waterpark and we quickly got ready so we could COOL OFF! I swear it was at least 100 degrees that day. At least it felt that hot!

I keep forgetting how grown up Boo is.

She insisted on getting herself dressed,

putting on her own sunscreen,


My BIG girl!


This place was absolutely SWAMPED with people....

But once we got on our tubes and laid back to enjoy the ride the crowd did not matter at all. It was so refreshing and relaxing. I could do this all day long! Especially with Karah snuggling up to me like she did when she was young. She rode the entire way around the Lazy River snuggled up on my chest! Aaaaaaaaahhhh! relaxing! I think she almost went to sleep. I know I almost did!

She makes me feel so loved!

Papa's ride was probably a lot more fun with all of his sound effects and his crashing into the walls!

As I saw these two come around the corner I thought to myself how blessed I am to have them in my life. Both give me so much love and acceptance. I love spending time with the two of them!

Karah is usually not too comfortable in the water. Still a bit scared. She DID NOT want her own tube. But once she found out that she could actually touch the ground in this Lazy River Ride she decided she wanted to be our "motor" and pull us around.

She was all giggles as she tried to manuever us around all of the other tubes in the area. Everyone we passed would say something like "WOW you guys have it made!" or "How do you rate? Your own private MOTOR!" or " Hey come over here and pull me!" The one I liked the most was from a man who asked her "How much money do you charge for your motor service" She kind of laughed and then when we had traveled down the river a bit she said to me...."Grandma T, am I suppose to get money for pulling you?" I said, "NO WAY MAN! You owe it to your old granny to spoil her!" She laughed, waited a second and said "That's what I thought!"

Look at the concentration on her face as she turned the corner. She was so careful not to let us get under the waterfalls or anywhere that she would get wet herself. HONESTLY she pulled us around for about an hour. Sometimes both of us together. We would ask if she wanted a ride or wanted to stop and she said NO! She loved it!

We finally talked her into going down some small slides in the kiddie section. At first she was quite scared but soon got the hang of it and was able to do it on her own.

She had fun dragging us around from slide to slide

And just simply splashing in the water.

She is trying to get me wet!

HEY!!!!Watch it!

She had a great time playing in the water.....
While Papa Howie cooled off in the shade....

We had an enjoyable time at Lagoona Beach....

We had played so long in the water that our hands and feet were shriveled up like prunes!

Time for FOOD!

One of Karah's favorite foods are Sweet Peas from Costco. She can spend hours splitting them open to get to the sweet peas inside. I personally like to eat the entire thing but Boo will take her time and make her own little pile of peas to munch on, after much work of opening them up.

I love Boo's dark eyelashes and her cute little curls....

While Papa took a well deserved nap Karah entertained me with her magic show....

See video above..... You won't believe your eyes :)

We were trying to get Papa Howie to wake up. She styled his hair.... tried to sing to him and then we got the idea to put PEAS in his ears. Just the thought of that woke him up instantly. Then we had to have a big talk with her about only putting things in your ear that are the size of your elbow. What was I thinking?!? I could just see her going home and putting small objects in her sister's ear or something. And then when asked where she got the idea to do it, she would have to reply....MY GRANDMA T!

NOT A GOOD IDEA!

She was excited to see that her chicken strip could be put in Papa's ear because "LOOK IT"S AS BIG AS MY ELBOW!"

When I asked Karah what she thought of Lagoon, her response was "AWESOME POSSUM!" Cute video that shows her darling personality. I love her to pieces.

We rested in the shade for a while to wait for our food to settle. We had a beautiful spot next to a flower bed and Karah kept picking the flowers so that she could play the "You love me....You love me more" game as each petal was plucked. She is adorable!

Time to change and go on more rides....

MORE FUN RIDES.....

I LOVED THIS RIDE.....LOTS OF FUN!

Once strapped in it takes you to the very top of the ride and then you fall, twist, spin and fall some more. She was all giggles.... So was Howie and I!

Once again Boo is perched up high atop Papa Howie!

This Dragonfly ride was also a really fun one.

I think she laughed the most on this ride. We got to go on alot of these rides with her and I was amazed at how much fun they really were. I especially loved sitting right in front of her so that I could hear her giggles and excitement during the ride. SHE LOVED IT!

This car ride was a fun one to watch. She thought she was totally in control of the car. Not realizing the tracks are what kept her on the road.

She was concentrating so much at each curve or turn in the road.

With this much concentration she will make an awesome driver when she turns 16. Her mother on the other hand was so distracted when she was learning to drive. April was more concerned about what was going on everywhere BUT THE ROAD! "Pretty horse....Neat Car.... Cute boy walking down the road" WHATEVER she could look at (besides the road) April did!!!! She cracked me up!

This airplane ride was also fun to watch Boo on. I loved how she was interacting with the other "Pilot" of the plane. She seemed like she was totally flirting with him. NO KIDDING!

He was showing her the controls and how the plane worked....

They had a little conversation between the two of them before the planes took off. Not sure what was said but it was probably something like..... Hey, my daddy is a pilot. Thanks for the tips but I have been in a REAL plane's cockpit. I know all of this stuff already! I could teach you a few tips myself. Hey and by the way.... My name is Karah and I will be ready to date in about 11 years! Want my phone number?"

She took her eyes off the cute boy in front of her long enough to give us a little wave goodbye as she sped away! Before long she will be waving goodbye and flying off in the sunset with some guy...... Oh man I can't think of that . I want her to stay little FOREVER! I love this age!

Karah wanted to go on the BIG COLOSUS Roller Coaster but they wouldn't let her. In fact all of the really FUN rides (the grownup ones) she was about 2 inches too short. She was quite disappointed. She would walk up to the front and get on her tippy toes, hoping they wouldn't notice, but each time the worker would look down at her feet and send us a way. BUMMER! We did however take her over to the kiddie rollercoaster and it was whipping around pretty fast.

She looked quite concerned and hung onto the rail in front of her with both hands.

I think she was "white knuckling"it the entire ride.

Almost every shot I got of her was with this scared look on her face.

The only smile was a BLURRY one!

She loved it! In fact this was taken after she got off. She was running, jumping and skipping to me so that she could tell me how much fun she had. Looks like she is flying in the air!

She would go up to each sign to make sure she fit in the height guidelines for the ride. Next year she will be just the right size for all of the adult rides. That will be FUN! But for now she will have to stick with the kiddie rides.

The Merry-Go -Round was one of our last rides of the night.

She really wanted to ride the pony.

I think she looks so grown up in this shot....

During the ride she kept stroking the horses head and saying, "Good job, You are doing a good job!" as he went up and down and around and around. Merry-Go-Rounds seem to go on forever to me. Not too much of a fan. But it was fun to sit next to my granddaughter and watch her excitement. She is a doll!

By now the sun had set and we were really winding down and getting ready to call it a night. A trip to Lagoon is NEVER complete without a stuffed animal from the booth games.

I decided to play the squirt gun race game against about 10 other players and I won! I had no doubt I would win :) :) :) The guy next to me was talking smack and saying how NO ONE CAN BEAT HIM! Well this ole grandma "Schooled him" that's for sure! I left him in the dust.

The thing that touched me most about this picture is the sweet spirit of my granddaughter. As I gave the Tweety Bird to her as a gift she immediatly said, "I think I will give this to my little sister. Lyss did not get to come and have fun at Lagoon like I did and I think this Tweety will make her really happy!" I told you......SHE IS A DOLL! Very Sweet one at that!!!

As we walked over to the Sky Ride I looked back and saw this! Boo reaching up to pick the leaves on the tree. I wish I could have found some pictures from 2 years ago when we took Karah on her birthday date with us. I have a shot of her doing the exact thing. She was giggling so hard (back then) each time she would pass a tree that I thought Papa Howie's shoulders may get wet! (If you know what I mean.) Luckily she had a diaper on back then :)

To see her giggling as she reached up high to this tree brought back so many memories of the fun times we have had with this little girl and how fast she is growing up.

During the Sky Ride we enjoyed some good ole fashioned Cotton Candy.

Here she is trying to immitate her daddy. He can put sooo much in his mouth at once. It is absolutely amazing! She is getting there, Shawn. You are teaching her well :) Although Cotton candy is a little different than MARSHMELLOWS !

She is now showing off her blue tongue....

You look like a lizard, Boo

As we waited in line for our last ride of the night, the Sky Scraper or Ferris Wheel as it use to be called, Boo was telling me all about these leaves. She told me about why they had little bite marks in them.

She informed me.... "Little creatures have been visiting this bush" "I can tell because they left some evidence" "Look carefully, Grandma T at the leaves and you can see that some creatures have been very hungry" "They bite all around the edges but never in the middle of the leaf." I asked her what kind of creatures and she said, "Creatures like beatles, caterpillars, grasshoppers and aphids"

Where does she get this from? WHO GAVE HER PERMISSION TO GROW UP?!?!?!

Cute little conversation with her.

The line was soooo slow so she also entertained herself by sneaking back into the bushes and then coming out as Little Red Riding Hood. I was suppose to be the big bad wolf but I don't think I was mean enough for her. She kept telling me that I needed to have a meaner voice and NOT TO SMILE! "The big bad wolf does NOT smile!" She was a crack up! Must have been all the sugar from the cotton candy.

We finally got on the spinning Sky Scraper.....

And enjoyed a look out over the valley with all of the lights.

It was a very long day and finally time to go to the hotel room.

BEST WESTERN COTTON TREE.....

I hope I got the name of the hotel we stayed at right. Our good and VERY nice friend, Randy Holman works at this hotel in North Salt Lake and got us an awesome room for the night. Thanks a ton Randy! It was wonderful!!!! If you are ever visiting Utah and need a great place to stay....THIS IS THE PLACE! By the way.... Their beds are so comfy and the pillows are the BEST! LOVED IT!

As we were walking through the halls to get to our room Karah mentioned that this place reminded her of her home in Germany. They lived in a temperary housing unit which was like a hotel.

She must have had it in her mind that someone lived there before we got there that night. As she looked around the room she was totally concerned about some items the "people" left behind. She called me over and said in a really serious voice, "Grandma T, There is something wrong here! The people left their ironing board in the closet and their can opener in the bathroom.

Okay I saw the ironing board, but I didn't understand why the hotel would have a can opener in the bathroom so I went in to take a look.....

I guess it kind of looks like a can opener. (This made me laugh a bit) She has never seen a coffee maker I guess. She was puzzled as to why someone would need a can opener in the bathroom because her mom uses theirs in the kitchen. "Who eats food when you are taking a bath!" she asked.

She had a comment about everything in the room.

She called to me, "Hurry grandma T, come in here and see the other pretty things in the bathroom".....

"They must have really wanted us to like this new place because the people made pretty flower shells here in the bathroom for us. I really want to live here now!"

"Come here and take a picture of this one, Grandma T"

"I really like this flower shell!"

After she said, "Oh no! There is a BIG problem.....The people must have been in a hurry to move! They even left their hangers in the closet! They are going to need them for their clothes!!!!" I thought it was time to explain to her about hotels. She was pretty concerned about the things that belonged to the "other people". I told her about how hotels are different from the apartments that she stayed in Germany. I did not realize she had never been in a hotel and to see that perspective was interesting. She was totally convinced that some people must have been in a big hurry moving out because they left so much behind.

She was excited to see that the hotel had a bed hidden in the couch like her apartment in Germany. She knew just how to make this turn into a bed!

She just needed some muscles from her Papa....

NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!

Who gave this girl sugar so late at night! She was pretty wired!

Jumping on the bed was not as fun as jumping on Papa Howie.

Out of the blue....Totally unexpected.....she yelled.....

PILLOW FIGHT!

She totally took me by surprise!

This girl can really fling a pillow.

There were tons to throw as well.

She CREAMED ME!

All out of pillows......Time for a movie!

Does this girl EVER get tired?

I could tell she was winding down when she was carefully separating out the popcorn during the movie. She had them catergorized! One pile for the big fluffy white ones.....One for the half popped ones and one pile for the cornels.....By the way, she DOES take after her mother!!!

By now I was totally ZONING out! I fell asleep before the movie ended and before BOO and Howie went to sleep.

Howie did tell me how cute she was once the lights went out. They were goofing off saying crazy things like- "Good night Oooby-Dooby-Scooby" "Good night inkle-binkle-stinkle" "good night amma- bamma-jamma" "Good night oooba-Jooba-Dooba"

And then he said there was SILENCE........


She was FINALLY alseep!

She seriously did not budge all night long.

She looks like an angel asleep.

Well she looks like one when she is awake as well!

I love this girl!

This hotel has the most amazing breakfast and Boo loved it all! I can't believe that she ate both plates of food and the entire apple for breakfast. It took her about two hours as we watched a movie that morning but she didn't stop eating the entire time. So FUNNY!

Howie was shocked that she could down that much food for such a little girl.

What a wonderful time spent with our oldest granddaughter. We made some pretty amazing memories and had a great time doing it! Happy fifth birthday, Boo. We love you a bunch!