Fall Break and Happy 28th!

This past week Jackson had Fall Break. Don't really know why, seeing as that he just started school a little over a month ago, but we were happy about it anyway. Particularly because it landed right before my birthday! Since we hadn't really taken the kids anywhere since our vacation out in California over the summer, we decided that we were long overdue for some family fun and decided to take advantage of Jackson's break and get away. It wasn't a long trip at all but we had a ton of fun and it was a great way to celebrate my birthday! So where did we go....PROVO!! That's right, PROVO! Many of you might say, well that's not a vacation spot, but for us it was. Jared and I hadn't been back since many of the new BYU campus demolitions/additions and we were itching to see what campus now looked like:) So we packed our bags and headed down Friday afternoon.

Here we are at our hotel Friday afternoon. The kids were so excited because the hotel had a pool. I was barely able to get them to sit for these pics since they wanted to go swimming so bad! They had a great time, especially since it was a nice heated indoor pool! Even Alexis loved it tons, she stayed in with us for about a good half hour.
After swimming we headed out and drove around campus at night. It was so beautiful to see campus all lit up. We took the kids to the BYU Creamery for dinner and they loved it. I think their favorite part though were the huge sundaes they ordered after dinner! Nothing tops those BYU Creamery sundaes! Jared and I opted not to indulge our hunger there and instead ordered out from one of our favorite spots to eat, The Bombay House! So yummy, and true to form, it did not dissapoint. Even our kids loved the rice and the Nan bread we ordered. Good thing we don't have a Bombay House close to us because we would definitely be eating there all the time!

Afterwards we just came home and got into PJ's for a night of movies in bed! Don't these girls look so cute! Every time I see this pic it makes me want to snuggle with them!The next day, Saturday, was my actual Birthday! I turned 28 this year! My kids surprised me with presents all at the foot of my bed. Don't know how they stayed so quiet wrapping them in the morning with Jared, but they did because I was the last to wake up:) It was so much fun to see their excitement and of course I think I only opened about half the gifts because they wanted to "help" me open the presents. They sang Happy Birthday to me at the top of their lungs and after that it was off to a late brunch and back to BYU to actually go and walk around. One of the most astonishing things we noticed was that the DT dorms were gone!!! No more huge towers, just fiels and fields of grass! We noticed that the Morris Center was still there (that sure brought back memories of Sunday dinners there!!) but I was still in shock to see the first place I ever lived at BYU gone. Jared and I kept talking about all the memories we had at DT (he lived there too just a couple years before me) and had fun laughing about all the silly stuff we had done.

We kept walking around and here we are in front of the Clark Building. Jackson wanted to practice his photo taking abilities so we obliged and let him snap away. After much walking around and purchasing BYU paraphenlia for the kiddies, we were off to the new Alumni Center. It was so beautiful! Nice leather couches, a lovely layout, and just a beautiful tribute to President Hinckley. The entire time the kids kept saying they wanted a picture in front of the BYU cougar. We didn't make it up to the one up by the Marriott Center so when we saw this one in the Alumni center I thought it would be a perfect comprise! They sure were happy to get their picture by a BYU cougar!!

Here's us in front of the Alumni Center. That plaque over our heads is actually a time capsule that they put in when they built the building. I wonder what's in there...guess we'll have to wait until 2050 (I think that's when it said they were going to open it).

Well, our day didn't finish at BYU. Come on it's was my birthday and those who know me well know that I love to celebrate all day long!! So after our BYU fill we headed out to Thanksgiving Point for it's annual Cornbelly Corn Maze and Pumpkin Fest. It was so much fun!!

The kids and Jared started off by jumping on this huge inflated pillow. Jared said it was actualy a lot more fun than a tramp. The kids were laughing so hard the entire time they were on it:)
Then while I waited in line for another event they wanted to do they climbed all over this wooden train! That was heaven for Jackson, the train enthusiast in our family!
So in this pic you can see the cute new BYU sweater Mickey picked out!! She loved the baby Cougar pic and fell in love with the sweater as soon as she saw it. So much so that it was really not that cold but she refused to take it off:)
The kids racing away on pedal race cars! Look at Jackson go! He literally just took off and was passing people by right and left.

And this is how Mickey got around...with Daddy pushing from behind! What a nice Daddy:)
Continuing to be silly kids:)

Okay so when we found these slides I was so stoked! They looked like so much fun and since Mikaela doesn't like to go down any slides alone it was a perfect excuse for me to go down too!

Can you see my excitement!! Jared says he thinks I had more fun on these slides than the kids did!! Well, it was my birthday so I guess technically I was entitled to act like a kid:)

On our bumpy bumpy hayride!!

As the evening came to a close the Pumpkin Princess came out to read to the little kids and Mikaela loved it. Afterwards they were able to take a pic with her inside of her lit up carriage!
And of course I can't resist...I have to take a pic with the carriage too:) It was so pretty. Here we are sitting at the front pretending we're the coachmen.

After that we called it a night. We purchased cotton candy to end our day and a piece of pumpkin cake for me to celebrate one last time! The cake was delicious and the day/weekend was fabulous! We loaded the kids in the car after that and they were so tuckered out that all three of them crashed in 5 minutes! It was such a peaceful ride home that Jared and I actually got to talk! Thanks Jared for indulging me to no end on my Birthday. I love you tons! Untill next year:)