The Zoo

We had a fun Friday (last week) at the zoo with Maren and Landon and their kids and Grandma June.  It was Gauge's birthday, what better excuse do you need to go to the zoo but a birthday for a two-year-old.  We ended up starting a little later than we had planned, but it all worked out in the end and we all had a good time.

Abbie playing with the masks in the gift shop while we waited for Maren and Landon.

Abbie loved this monkey and he sat there for a long time.  It was cute to watch her trying to get him to play with her.

Waiting for the elephant (or helaphanent if you ask Abbie) show. 

Elephant tricks.

Ashton watching the elephants intently.

Looking at the cheetah, we had good luck having a lot of animal up close for the little kids to see, they had such a good time.

What a bunch of monkeys. Brinlie, Abbie, Ashton, Gauge.

It was a really fun day.  We bought passes so we will be going back lots this coming year.  

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

I love this.

Princess Power

Abbie has discovered Disney Princesses and boy does she ever love them.  We brought Lexie's old dress-up trunk up from downstairs and Lexie showed Abbie how much fun it is to be a princess and did she ever figure that one out.  It's princess stuff almost everyday.  She loves anything that has to do with being a princess.  These have become the official shoes of choice, she doesn't cate that they don't match and are both for the same foot (or that there is a match for both of them in the trunk).  She just likes to wear them........... everywhere.  And she always want to wear her princess shirt.  It is too cute.

Two-wheelin'

Ashton got his first two-wheeler today.  He has been asking for one for ages and finally we found one that everyone could agree on.  He was so excited to go out and give it a try.  I think we are going to be spending even more time outside this summer (if that is even possible.)  And he managed to get his first skinned elbow from falling off today too.

Practice, practice, practice.....

"Painting" the sidewalk

I can't say that I came up with this idea on my own.  But when I saw it on a blog I frequent I knew we were going to have to give it a try.  This is the perfect summer activity, it involves water (but not to much) there is no mess left over (the water just evaporates away) and my kids would have done this all afternoon if I would have let them.  They had so much fun painting the ground and even though they got a little wet they were dry by the time we went back inside.  Who knew water and old paint brushes would be so much fun?

Abbie creating her masterpiece.

Ashton painting like crazy.

Car Wash

Jake took some time the other morning to wash our cars, he had Ashton and Abbie help him out.  It was fun to watch them together working to get the cars clean.

Jake showing Ashton where and how he was supposed to be cleaning.  

Abbie drying off the car, don't worry that this side was already done.  She was having a great time helping.   Jake showed great patience with the kids washing and rewashing the cars after they would get a side dirty that they had already cleaned.  It probably took way longer than if Jake would have done it himself but Abbie and Ashton had a great morning helping their dad.

I'm Bad

Ashton has been known to walk around the house singing random songs and the other night he came out of his room singing "Bad" by Michael Jackson.  I made him do it again so I could take his picture because it was so cute.

Idaho Falls

The kids and I made our first trip to Idaho Falls since Jake has started working up there.   He has finally found a place to live so we had somewhere to stay that wasn't costing us even more money, so we stayed with him in his new to him apartment.  We had a good time, wish we could have planned better and stayed even longer, but we did what we could with what time we had.  Saturday night we went "downtown" and walked around the snake river.  It was fun and they kids stayed far away from the running water so I didn't have to worry that much.  The water was very high because of spring runoff so the "falls" were really cool.

Love Ashton's pirate face in this one.

Yes I let my kids get right up to the edge as long as there was a fence there, I didn't let them put their hands and feet in like some other people we saw.  Can you say crazy, that water had to be freezing and it was going so fast.

We also went to the Tautphaus Zoo, in Idaho Falls.  And it is literally right in the middle of the city.  It seemed small to me, but the kids had a great time.  They had lots of animals but were missing some of the things I am used to seeing in a zoo, no giraffes, elephants or "big" monkeys.

We fed the ducks and watched while they fed the penguins.

We saw the smaller monkeys and the one kept "singing" to us and going round and round it's cage. It was funny.

They also had a place where you could go in and pet or brush goats, which Abbie and Ashton loved.

At one point we walked around the corner in search of they siberian tiger and this is what we saw.  For a second it takes your breath away until you realize that it isn't real and the real tiger is on the other side in his cage.

Ashton was sure that these boxes were straight from "Madagascar" and he went around telling me which character was in each box.

I loved that Lexie was able to have fun, but was still willing to help me out when I needed it.  She ran around and had as much fun as the younger kids, I was afraid that she would be too old for the zoo, but she wasn't.

We had so much fun, can't wait to go back on days when Jake isn't at work so he can have fun with us!!

Abbie's self portrait

Today I was attempting to take pictures of my niece, but she was having nothing to do with it.  While Kirsten was trying to calm her down, Abbie picked up the remote for my camera and started taking pictures of herself.  What can I say she is a natural.  Try and overlook her dirty face.  I also snapped a few of her playing just for fun.

Toes

Today we painted our toes.  This is the first time I have tried to paint Abbie's toes since she was a baby.  All last year she was too wiggly to get her toes painted.  Today she was so cute.  She held pretty still, the first time the brush touched her toes she claimed that it hurt and it took a few minutes to convince her that it didn't hurt but made her toes look pretty.  Once she was convinced she walked around saying "toes pretty" all night long.