Tate's 4th Birthday!

Tate turned 4 this year, crazy! His birthday is on July 30th, but for the longest time when you would ask him when his birthday is he would say June 9th cuz that's Halle and Austin's birthday so might as well be his too, right? He finally got the July 30th thing down and was excited when his turn for a birthday rolled around.

We decided to take a trip to SLC for the celebration. We usually stay at the Little America over Christmas break with the Topham family, but that didn't happen this year and the boys were kinda disappointed cuz they love the pool there so we stayed there for a night. We spent lots of time in the water and the kids had a blast.

It took Halle a while to get used to the water but after that she loved it and couldn't get enough.

The boys had fun jumping in and practicing their cannon balls. It was a big deal that Tate would jump in by himself, that's a pretty brave thing for him to do. Not quite comfortable enough to do it without the arm floaties though:)

The next morning we headed for the zoo. Tate was so funny. We picked up a zoo map that has pictures of the animals and where they are at. He kept saying to Kurtis, "Let me see the map". Then he would look at it and say, "For my birthday let's go see the giraffes" or whatever animal was next on the map. He was pretty excited.

We started the zoo trip off with the train ride.

Halle didn't enjoy the train at first. Didn't help that we were sitting in the seat with the speaker on it and it was blaring in our ears. She warmed up to it though.

Gotta get a picture on the elephant. Halle wouldn't have anything to do with this elephant, it was way to loud for her!

Can't miss the carousel either. Halle and Tate were both holding on pretty tight at first!
Is this a having fun or scared face?

We liked seeing the baby elephant but we really missed that the penguins are gone for a while. They're so funny to watch! Maybe next time.

Poor Tate couldn't quite make it up on the rhino for the picture:)

Austin really wanted to get some pictures of these sheep to show my Dad. It wouldn't turn it's head at all and to me it looked almost dead:)

It was Jurassic Park time at the zoo so there were lots of dinosaurs all around. They looked pretty real...Halle didn't like those either:) Tate would cover his ears every time we walked by one, even though they weren't very loud at all.

That next Saturday, on Tate's actual birthday, we spent a few hours at the pool then had the family over for cake and ice cream.

Here's Halle and cousin Maddox, or "Maggox" as Tate calls him. Pretty cute kiddos!

Tate was excited to open presents. Over the 4th of July when my niece stayed with us she asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he told her "sixty dollars and a squirt gun that shoots". Don't know where that came from but it made us laugh. He got the squirt gun, but I didn't think giving him sixty dollars in cash would be a great idea. Instead he got a new Cars 2 Wii game that he was super excited about. He also got a t-ball set and a Super Why game. He loves the show Super Why and I have to admit I give that show 95% of the credit for him knowing all his letters:)

Maddox is such a cutie!
Tate carefully picked out his cake from Jubilee. We only looked through the whole book at least three times before he decided on the Cars cake. He kept saying "thank you, thank you for the Cars cake Mom!" And it was so funny to watch him blow the candles out. You woulda thought they were trick candles. He needed a lesson in blowing them out beforehand. He turns his lips up so he was totally missing the flames. It took a while but he finally got them out!

Happy Birthday Tate! We love you and how you make us laugh all the time! Here's to another great year!