Hooray the Gardens are OPEN!!!!

So long-time blog readers will know that I am beyond obsessed with the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Since they have been closed for-e-ver (since November) newer readers may not yet know but will soon find out! :) I can't believe they opened Saturday and I have only been twice, even considering it was snowing today and I had to work. Maybe tomorrow if there is a break in the storm . . .Anyway, so Saturday morning we had an appraiser coming to the house (for our refi) so I thought it would be good timing to get the boys out of the house and out of daddy's hair for a little bit. This plan worked out fantastically well as my super-hubby (if cleaning is a super power and I SO think it is) got the entire house spic and span in the 2 hours we were gone. We met up with my parents and went to explore the children's discovery garden. This has been a fav destination of ours since the kiddos could walk but this year they have taken something I already adore and improved upon it! Can I get a woot woot!?!

See, the boys love it! They have added a "Nature Class room" section filling in the garden path where the children's garden adjoins the main gardens. Saturday was the grand opening so we got to play and make wooden nature necklaces. Here is Carter jumping across the logs:

And coming out the tunnel:


And both bubbas playing with "tree" blocks. Who knew? They loved these blocks, it was all we could do to pull them away from them. My dad and bro will be chopping down some trees next week and saving me some branches so we can have a little nature classroom in our backyard. :)
They also enjoyed the bear cave and lighthouse as always though we didn't have time for the mazes. And sad to report that the water based Noah's Ark will no longer have water :(. Too many parents ignoring the "swim diaper only" rule. Bummer, but there is so much fun to still do.
Any UVMOM moms looking for an excuse to come check this out--April's play group will be at the gardens! We'll be having an Easter egg hunt there as well, stay tuned for details. :)

A new Del taco (with a play place) opened next to Thanksgiving Point so we hit the grand opening for lunch. It was funny, they had clowns and the boys were so freaked out. I had to escort them to the other side of the clowns so they could go play. Carter never got over it (they had a bad experience on the Pinocchio ride) but Davis warmed up eventually. He walked out with a balloon hat and a Batman painted on his hand on top of his nature necklace--definitely a good day for Davey boy.

After nap time, which was ever so luxurious in my clean house, we caught up with my sister Hillary who works at the gardens and she got us the hook up on a golf cart. It was getting dark so it was a great way for a quick spin around my beloved gardens.

So you'd think that 2 ever so naughty boys would be enough for one household, but we are lucky enough to also have this little fellow:

Oscar-nut-nut. Isn't he adorable? Yes, that's what has kept him alive. He is our 3rd mini schnauzer, the one we were never going to get. We got Maxwell and he was going to be our only dog. A year later the owners of Max's parents (Maximus and Maizie) emailed me to let me know they just had puppies again. We realized how lonely Max was and decided to get him a dog, our silly little Maddy. That was definitely it for us until a friend of my sister's was giving away Oscar, already neutered and "trained" and Lowell fell in love. He is so Lowell's dog. Anywho . . .he is such a naughty little dog, and Lowell thinks that makes him all the more endearing. He not only gets into the trash, but he taught the other dogs to as well. So yesterday I was barely awake when I got a call from our sweet neighbor to tell me our white dog was out in the pasture behind both of our houses . . .with a cow chasing him. I ran outside in a robe and my bare feet trying to plead with him and then bribe him to come back under the fence. A board at the bottom of the fence had blown over and exposed a little area where the fence curls away from our house where he had slipped under. Being curled that way it was easier for him to get under than to come back and all the pleading and treats and trying to drag him were getting me nowhere. In the meantime a winter storm was threatening, wind was blowing my hair like crazy knotting it into the fence, and my feet were freezing! I called Lowell back from sacrament meeting (we don't bring the boys, there will be no more discussion about that) and he walked over to the fence and the stinky little dog just ran right under to him. I was so miffed, I just stormed inside. I'm glad he'd come for Lowell, but come on! I really was just glad he was safe, at one point he was barking at a horse and running around trying to bite his feet. The gentle horse was being kind and trying to avoid the crazy dog but I knew one misstep would be the end of my puppy and I would be watching it as it happened. Scary! Anywho, there's a story for you lest you think my boys are the only naughty ones. :0)