Part Two

The next stop on our adventures in Utah Was a trip to the Mauldin family's house. We were good friends with them during our time at BYU Hawaii and have managed to visit each other on several occasions through out the last six years. Our kids are all about the same age- except they have a fourth and of course we do not, but their fourth is too little still to be missing a buddy. They have one son, Peyton, Who is Kiera's age and I think he was feeling a little left out because of all the girl stuff going on. Hopefully they can continue to develop a friendship over the years.

Kyle and Amanda are so amazing! They both still look as great as they did in college, they are super generous and extremely kind. Kyle is quite the handy man and built his kids a fort- Fort Mauldin- as it happens to be called. My kids have began laying plans to have their own built in our back yard ever since they saw it. Unfortunately, Kai is not so handy with a hammer and nails, so we might have to recruit Kyle to build Fort Davis.

Notice the bare feet in this picture. I guess you can take the kids out of Hawaii,

but you can't take Hawaii out of the kids.

We also got to visit with another one of our long time friends Pualei and her new husband and her two really cute step sons. Pualei is another BYUH alum that we have been fortunate enough to see through out the long years since college. Amanda and Kyle invited them over to dinner as well so we could have a mini reunion. Pualei also looks as great as she did in college. She is beautiful and happy and sweet and now has a happy family of four. Her two girls and her two step sons. It was so fun to be together again

Fort Mauldin!
Courtney and Cambria

Malachi and Aubrey on their first date: Notice Aubrey is driving.

Kiera loving the motorized toys.

Bubba in shear heaven. He was on this thing almost all night.

After awhile he didn't so much help anymore.

Remember that wiggly tooth Cambria wanted me to take a picture of at Temple Square? Well, she lost it at the Mauldin's house. The kids were brushing their teeth (sad to say I think they were all swapping toothbrushes as well to see whose they like better) and she brushed the little tooth right out of her mouth! There was surprisingly a lot of blood but that just seemed to add to the excitement! This makes number three for Cmabria and they have all been on the bottom of her mouth. I think I can already tell that she is going to need braces because there is a lot of crowding going on in that little mouth of hers!

You can already see that the permanent tooth was growing up behind the baby tooth.

I always though that was weird.

She's got the tooth in the bag and got one dollar for it that night.

Next Stop: Dinosaur Museum.

We also had to make a stop at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. We'd only attended the museum once before, but it quickly became a favorite and occupied many a conversation through out the year. We were very happy to go back and very happy that

Aunt Libbie gets a good discount!
Cambria and Malachi had a blast. Kiera on the other hand has seen Night At The Museum one too many times to feel safe. Too make matters worse, upon entering the museum you immediately see a fossil display of a giant T-Rex and what do I have to say?
"Oh, look it's Rexy!"
Insensitivity to my children's emotional state is usually not my style and those of you who have seen the movie understand what I am talking about. In any case, that brought the museum to life for Kiera in a whole different way. She spent most of her time hiding in the stroller basket with her hands firmly planted over her eyes.

Cambria and Bubba feigning fear

Luckily the museum had a few saving graces in the eyes of my second child, namely the erosion table and the plastic dino action figure toys. She spent a good hour at the erosion table and then a good amount of time with the dino toys.

Malachi and Cambria were brave enough to explore other exhibits.

Saving Grace #1

Saving Grace#2

Bubba giving his new friend a hug.

Bubba trying to become more like his new friend.

Cambria getting her hands dirty at the fossil rubbing station.

Malachi drawing at the fossil rubbing station

Build your own dino!

One of the reasons for Kiera's fear: Big Bruce.

Another reason for Kiera's fear, the Mammoth The mean old human skeletons are

spearing the poor mammoth, Manny.

Archaeological dig site- this was actually another saving grace for Kiera.

We had a great time. And would you believe there is still more to blog about?

Stay tuned for part three!