The Croft Invasion: Baseball and Drive-ins

This is a mash up of a few different days and the things we did, One night we went to the drive-in to see Bourne Legacy. It was a pretty good movie but it was even better that we could go with JJ and my whole family too! It's a good thing we weren't planning on stating for the second movie since the rain started when the credits started rolling. Brian, Spencer and Braeden got comfy in the back of their car, while my mom and dad sat outside.

 

Braeden had to get a picture with JJ since they were both wearing orange which is Braeden's favorite color (if you couldn't tell)

 



 

My mom got such a cute picture of JJ and I in the back of our car, that we had to grab Justin to get a family picture too.

One of my favorite pictures of our little family, can't wait to get some more pictures taken soon too!

 



 

These next few pictures are from the day my family arrived. We went over to Leonard and Sue Looney's house and had a dinner of home made ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. After dinner my mom showed off her newest creations for JJ, first the darling grey vest she crocheted.

 

Her second project were baby bibs made from old shirts, and shorts. You can't see it in the picture but the bib is made from one of Braeden's old button down shirts.

 

One of our other adventures was to go to downtown Salt Lake and go to City Creek to look around. City Creek is really nice looking but most of the shops are way too pricey for the everyday shopper. To cool off in the hot sun we played in the fountain... well we tried to get JJ to touch it but he wasn't as interested in it as I  thought.

In the middle of the week we took the opportunity to go to a Salt Lake Bee's game with Leonard and Sue Looney. While the players were warming up we noticed that Peter Bourjos was playing for the Bee's! we were thrilled to watch him play since he normally plays with the Angels in California.

 



 

 

UP NEXT: BRIGHAM CITY 

The Croft Invasion: Planetarium & Family Fun Bike

We started our next day of adventures by meeting up with Justin for lunch, at In-n-Out. My little brothers had to come to In-n-Out while they were here.

 

 Here's a little back story... In our house we never grew up eating hamburgers, even though my dad likes them. When Brian started working at Burger King he had one and soon after Spencer was converted. Braeden is quite the picky eater and while my family was here in March he was somehow coerced into eating a burger (In-n-Out of course) and he liked it! surprised? we were too. A few months ago I decided I was going to make hamburgers for Justin for dinner, he loves them but I was still not convinced. I promised I would try one and I did... It is still not my favorite but they aren't as bad as I thought, so after 21 years of holding out I can no longer say I haven't had a hamburger. What better place to have a fast food burger than In-n-Out?

 

 

 

After our boating adventures we decided to take it easy by going to the Clark Planetarium in the Gateway Mall. The Planetarium isn't huge but we definitely had lots of free fun!

 

 

JJ was very interested in this ball (I have no idea what it's actually called) He loved watching the light move all around.

 

My brothers and I discovered that we could shock each other with our hands on the ball. We had WAY too much fun with this ball.

 

This was an exhibit where balls were moving on tracks through loops, twists and ringing bells on the way down.  There was even a part showing how you could make balls move upward on a track with a spinning motion.

 

Spencer and Braeden jumping on "Mars"

 

Brian walking on the "Moon"

 

The thinkers on "Mars"

 

JJ's first time on the Moon!

 

JJ visited Mars too!

 

After the planetarium the boys went to see 'Paranorman' and my mom and I went shopping (of course) Later on we met up for some lunch and ice cream. I discovered a chocolate ice cream cone dipped in butterscotch, YUM. JJ has become more interested in food lately and couldn't help but try and get a bite of Grandpa's ice cream.

 

This is JJ leaning in to give Grandma a hug and kiss, which he did over and over again. (Grandma totally loved it!)

 

I couldn't help but add this picture even though his face is cut off, he has gotten more goofy lately! this kid totally cracks me up!

 

 

Our next adventure was the Family Fun Bike in downtown salt lake. This is a 7 person bike where all of the pedals are configured so that you travel straight even though you are sitting in a circle. This was really fun! we biked around temple square in the street, and had our picture taken by quite a few people.

 

This is what the pedals look like. Our guide/driver told us that there are 2 bikes here in Salt Lake and the bikes were made in Germany.

 

It was such a beautiful day and the temple looks so gorgeous against the clear blue sky.

 

 

Our last stop of the day was Rodizio Brazillian Grill in Trolley Square. If you have never been to a place like this before let me tell you a little bit about it. This place is Man-Heaven! The only thing that would make it more manly is TV's with sports on. There is a buffet salad bar and unlimited appetizers, although the main event is the meat. The meat is served table side on a sword, yep a sword. The meat is cooked in a giant rotisserie, brought around piping hot, and you can have all you want until you need to be rolled out the door.

 

These are their Meat-Coma faces, we ate so much food!

 

UP NEXT: MORE CROFT INVASION!

 

Croft Invasion: A Day On The Lake

After our ATV adventures, lunch and a nap for the little one we got suited and sunscreened (although I was already fried) and headed down to Rockport Lake just down the mountain from the Hugie house.

 

 Braeden loved rocking the flag since it was orange (his favorite color is orange)

 

 

The boys took the boat out for a while before my mom and I joined in but the first to show off their skills for us was Spencer. He got up the first few times but was having a hard time staying up, and then it clicked and he was loving it.

 

This is Spencer's headshot, I don't think he even realized i was taking it.

 

 

I was up next, and was pretty nervous since I hadn't hit the water since the beginning of High School. Kim (Justin's dad) told me I needed to do a dive into the freezing cold water. That's what I'm doing in the top right picture I am preparing for my dive (can you tell I watched the Olympics?) I did pretty well on the wake board, although when Kim hit some waves I crashed hard.

 

 

Brian thought it would be cool to take a picture of the clouds reflected in his glasses, I think he just wanted a cool picture of him ;)

 

Next Brian decided to show off on the water skiis, he rocked it weaving inside and outside of the wake and showing off his one-handed riding skills.

 

The first pair on the tubes were Spencer and Braeden, as you can see in the top picture Spencer was much more excited. Braeden didn't look so sure of the whole thing and after even denied enjoying it at all.

 

He was happier once he was back on the boat, with his glasses on.

 

We even made a few seagull friends, and shared our bugle chips with them.

 

Our next pair on the tubes was Brian and Justin, who were psyched to crash and bump each other all over the lake. They had a ball out there trying to flip each other and Kim was enjoying whipping them outside the wake.

 

When Justin and I decided to try our hand at tubing he decided he wanted a kiss, notice the 90/10 effort split here...

 

Justin decided to show off by "surfing" on his tube, and then I decided to show off although I didn't last nearly as long as he did.

 

This is the picture they got of my massive wipeout!

 

Spencer decided to give tubing another try with Justin since he couldn't go fast enough paired with Braeden.

 

On our way to the beach Braeden decided to take a leisurely ride, since neither one of us wanted anything extreme. Braeden even admitted that he had fun, even though he didn't want to get back on after his first ride.

 

The boys dropped off Brian and I at the beach to head back to the house on the ATV so I could feed the baby. When we got back to the house there were pizza's waiting for us.

 

As soon as dark hit we went down to the fire pit and made smores, Brian developed a new technique of melting the chocolate on the cracker while roasting the marshmallow to toasty perfection. It tasted wonderful, although it got everywhere!

 

We had so much fun on the four wheelers, boat and making smores, and are so grateful to the Hugie's for letting us invade their house for a day!

 

 

The Croft Invasion

My family was able to come out to Utah for a week at the end of August to visit our family... let's face it they were here to smother JJ. We were excited to get out and explore since the last time they were in town JJ was only a month old. They drove the whole way here from Minnesota, although they took time to stop and visit our friends the Hawkes in Denver for some fun on the way.

 

 For their first full day we went up to The Hugie's house in Park City to explore there. First we rode 4 wheelers around Justin's dads house by Rockport Reservoir. On the first ride Justin and I rode together and my brothers Brian and Spencer each drove another ATV.

 

 

Pictured above is Spencer driving the blue ATV.

 

Justin and I rode together on the red ATV.

 

This was the view from the top of the mountain, isn't that incredible?

 

That's Brian in the front on the green ATV.

 

On our ride we saw a big buck, can you spot it in the picture? it's over on the left by the trees.

 

After returning from our first ride I told my mom about some awesome sun bleached wood Justin and I discovered on an ATV ride a couple weeks before. Since my mom and I are avid Do-it-your-self-ers we decided to go rescue the wood so it can be put to good crafting uses. (can you tell I'm addicted to Pinterest yet?)

 

We brought along my dad and brother Brian to help us haul the wood up on the ATV's, We got some great pieces and I so can't wait to make something AMAZING!

 

After eating lunch and playing around a bit, we took the boat our for a spin and went tubing, skiing and wake boarding.

 

UP NEXT: BOATING