Hogle Zoo

We decided to go to the Hogle Zoo on Monday July 5th, since Ryan didn't have to work. There were a lot more people there than we thought there would be but it didn't seem any worse than when there are 100 schools with kindergarteners walking around.

A smile from one monkey to another...

We squeezed in this little corner just in time to watch the elephant show with Baby Zuri.

She sure was cute.

By the end of the day we were hot and tired but one stop at 7 Eleven for slurpies and the kids were ready for a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was a good day.

July 4th Fun

We went to Erika and Doug's Saturday night to celebrate the 4th, even though it was actually the 3rd. First we took the kids swimming. I was a little nervous because they don't allow floaty's or noodles and Austin uses a noodle to swim. But my fears were unnecessary.

It looks like those swim lessons have paid off! Austin had a blast diving under the water and kicking. He did great!

All the other kids had a lot of fun too with their cousins.

After a BBQ it was time for fireworks. It was amazing how cold it was that night. We actually needed to wrap up in blankets to keep warm.

I love taking pictures of fireworks with my camera. Here's Eden and Austin with sparklers.

Beautiful Butterfly

Eden went to her cousin Katy's birthday party last Friday at Jumpin' Jacks. She came home with this beautiful butterfly painted all over her face.

Too bad she didn't get to wear it long. She changed into her suit and we all went to the Payson Pool to swim with the Mickelsen's and Dillon's. The face paint came right off. But it sure was pretty while it lasted.

Good Music

I guess I'm not the only one that enjoys listening to Cameron play the piano.

She said Peter hopped up on the piano and made himself comfortable. Every time she needed to reach for a key he conveniently moved his tail.

Dallin's A Genius

We've been having a problem lately with ants getting into the cat's food dish in our laundry room. I usually get a few ants in there in the summer time and was wondering how bad it would get now that we had the cat's food in there. It got worse than I thought. Dallin was great about changing the cat's food at night and squishing the little buggers but he was also telling me that we needed to do something about it. I suspect he wasn't enjoying the nightly chore. I was clueless as to what to do about it, though. Then one night, after cleaning up more ants, he came to me and said, "I know how to solve the ant problem." He then gave me an elaborate description of how we could fill a bowl with water and put the cat's food in a smaller bowl then balance it on some tubes inside the bigger bowl with water. I kind of looked at him like "that's way to complicated" but something about the bowl of water sounded like a good idea. So I put the cats food in a smaller dish and placed it inside a larger dish with water and waited to see what happened. The next day there were two dead ants in the water. The day after that no ants and I haven't seen an ant ever since. Holy Cow! My son is a genius!

Seven Peaks

Because we haven't been busy enough we decided to go to Seven Peaks on Monday June 21. Actually, the kids had free passes from school that were going to expire. We were joined by the Mickelsens, the Dillons, and the Haroldsens. It was so fun to spend the day with some of our dearest friends.

Little Eleanore is a doll. She's got more spunk than a teenager. I can't wait to see her then!

The tubes were fun for more than just riding down the slides.

Austin fell asleep around 5 pm, which is about when I wanted to head home but the kids were begging to go on a few more slides so we stayed. When I finally told Dallin and Cameron they had to return the tubes it took them 45 min. We didn't leave until 6:30 pm so Austin ended up with an hour and a half nap. Man was I jealous!

A Week With The Cousins

Monday June 14 Grandma and Grandpa led the kids on a hike to the Grotto. It's their favorite place to take visiting family.

Since I had never been there before myself I didn't plan for the kids to get wet so I told them not to get in the water. Some of them weren't very happy with me about that.

The rest of the week was jam packed with activities. We spent one night in Park City with Steve and Dani and Deb and Stu. We went bowling on Wednesday and boating on Friday. We saw Toy Story 3 in 3D, went to the Spanish Fork pool, and had lots of play dates with cousins. I thought I was tired on Sunday but when I came out of my room and saw my kids sprawled out on the living room floor, lying on pillows, with no TV on I realized it wasn't just me. It was an exhausting week. But the kids were so thrilled to get to spend so much time with their cousins.

On Saturday June 12th we all met at Ryan's uncle's house for a family get together. The cousins played games and ran around outside while the adults played Catch Phrase and visited.

That morning Aunt Joy ran her first marathon! Way to go Joy! She was a little tired afterwards. I love this picture of her and Eden snuggling on the beanbag.