The Zoo!

Some friends of mine decided that we needed to take a trip down to the Phoenix Zoo with our kids. So on February 15th (I know, I'm slow in getting to this) we loaded into 2 minivans and headed down there. Conner and I rode with Mackenzie's crew and Jenny and Whitley followed in the other van. A couple of interesting things happened when we first got there. Makenzie and I were getting our kids and strollers out of the van and waiting for the other girls to do the same. We were standing in 2 parking spots and some other car stopped and wanted to get in one of the spots. Even though there were seriously tons of other spaces available we gathered all of our stuff and kids into one spot. We assumed the incoming vehicle would take the spot we just emptied out of, but no. It just sat there waiting and we just stood there staring until they pulled into the spot we were still standing in! We couldn't believe it, we cleared out a spot just for them and it wasn't good enough, they HAD to have the spot we were in which was of course right next to the other one. We, being sane people, gathered everyone up again and moved to the other spot while we waited. But its one of those moments when you really want to go back in time and change things. I would really like that moment back and keep standing there so the crazy lady wouldn't get to park there, although she may have just run us over instead. Clearly, I'm still amazed by her stupidity and rudeness. The other interesting thing though was when we were walking into the zoo we saw a nice little polygamist family. One husband, FOUR wives, and two children. I'm just so surprised that there were more wives than kids. I'm sure plenty of kids were still at home or something, but if you are going to drive all the way to Phoenix you would think you would bring more kids.

But after all that excitement it was on to the animals. We took about 12 pictures to try and get all the kids looking and this was the only one that Conner was even looking forward in. The rest he was either turned around or had just walked right out of the picture.

This was one of the few times Conner actually looked at an animal, here he is checking out the tiger.

He looks so inquisitive, doesn't he?

The second group picture went a little better. There's everyone starting with Sara Grace, Emiline, James, Conner, Sophi, Morgan, and Jackson

Here's a good example of Conner at the zoo. Look closely and right next to his face is the rhino resting. For the life of me I couldn't get Conner to look over at the rhino, he just did his own thing like look at birds that we could see anyday. Here there is some little deer like animal, but I don't remember what it actually was.

At least he was aware enough of this animal to let the guy know where it was. I was actually really proud of Conner pointing because I had recently read an article on the importance of pointing at his age and although he occasionally pointed to things he didn't do it near often enough. So for a couple of weeks I had been working on teaching him to point and he caught on really fast. Apparently the problem was simply us being bad examples and not pointing to things ourselves, but he's got it down now.

Gotta love those colorful butts.

Here's the kids admiring the monkey butts, or in Conner's case, enjoying climbing on something.

Mackenzie has this awesome stroller that can also be used as a bike trailer and its big enough for 3 kids.

Makenzie and her kids

Turtles in love

Sophi got a little too excited at lunch and somehow took a nose dive into the dirt and got quite a mouthful.

 The zoo has a Little People play area that is super cute and was Conner's favorite part.

He's been around animals plenty of times and has never been afraid, but for some reason when the kids got to go pet the cows he just stayed behind his stroller 20 feet away. It was very uncharacteric of him, but cute.

This was one of the few times Jackson got out of his stroller. I couldn't believe how content that kid was to sit in his stroller for hours, I was jealous.

Another favorite part for Conner was climbing on the tractor. Everyone else went off to the petting zoo but we had to stick with the tractor for an extra 20 minutes or so.

Eventually we made it to the petting zoo. Conner didn't act frightened at all but this was as close as he got to anything. He just kept going from one animal to look at it and then quickly move on to another. It might have helped if I had shown him how to pet them or something, but if he didn't care then I certainly saw no need to do it either.

Sara Grace, on the other hand, loved the goats.

Just hanging out in the strollers.

At this moment all the kids are enjoying the zebra but Conners making a beeline to some stairs. And that is a statue of a zebra you see, the real ones are behind him.

Gotta love naptime after a fun day. This nap didn't actually last very long, Conner can't get comfortable in his forward facing car seat since it doesn't recline enough to sleep. But the next day was great because he slept in an extra hour and then took a four hour nap to make up for it.

The zoo turned out to be pretty fun and the kids were very well behaved for not getting naps until much later than usual. Conner was a little young to enjoy the animals but he still had fun being there and getting to run around outside for hours.



Quad Ride

We have been storing Cade's parents' quad in our garage for months and finally decided to take advantage of it a couple of weeks ago. I told Cade to make sure it would be short because I figured Conner would get bored of it and then be really cranky when we were miles from our car. We went up to Mingus Mountain. We put Conner in between us so it wasn't so windy on his face and I figured it would be too hard to drive and hold a baby safely. Even though he couldn't see or move much, Conner just LOVED it.

Here he is getting all ready to go.

We came to a dead end after about 20 minutes and I figured we should let Conner walk around a little before we kept going but as soon as I tried to take him off he just had a fit. So we kept going. By the time we got to our destination he was at least willing to get off for a few pictures.

But then he was happy to get right back on. I think he could have ridden that thing for hours. But Cade and I had already arranged to take him to a sitter while we went to a Sundogs game so we only had about an hour and a half. On our way back to the car, that crazy kid just fell asleep! I don't get babies, if you have a quiet phone conversation on the other side of the house they wake up screaming from their naps, but yet they can fall asleep while riding such a loud quad on a bumpy road! Conner already loved climbing on the quad when we were in the garage, but now everytime he sees it he freaks out to get on it and I'm starting to have to put him in the car from the other side so that we can avoid the meltdown.

Here is Cade with the treats we bought at the game.

And here is as picture of Conner sporting the bruise (minus the goose egg) he got at the sitter's that night. He loves doing the abslide after Cade does.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

My dear 100 year old grandma died a couple of weeks ago, just about 3 hours sooner than my grandpa died six years earlier, weird. So we took a trip to Sacramento for the funeral service. We used to go there every year to visit my grandparents and we know it will be the last time we will ever go back so we went to all the places we used to go one last time. I will let the many, many pictures tell the story.

Caryn, Carol Ann, R.J., Ashley, Grandma, cousin Barbara at the 100th birthday bash back in February

My parents, us, and the Jensens all shared the same flight out on Friday. It was pretty uneventful, thankfully Conner fell asleep halfway through so we didn't have to keep trying to entertain him in our tiny space.

The boys unknowingly lined up according to height to watch the airplanes at the airport

Carol Ann thought it was sooo funny that she gave Conner a messy, chocolate donut while he sat on my lap. Somehow, most of it ended up down my shirt.

Emma got to keep my parents company on the plane.

And Eli helped us to keep Conner occupied.

The first thing we did was go to FairyTale Town. The boys had a great time. Poor Emma said she thought it was going to be like Disneyland so she was pretty disappointed. This place doesn't have any rides, it just has things to run around on.

This kid loves slides, especially the Old Lady's Shoe slide.

What a funny looking chicken!

Conner also loved the Yellow Brick Road.

And who doesn't like posing in swiss cheese?

 King of the castle

This slide had a sign that said no lap riding. But after Conner went down on both Cade and Blake's laps we let him go down with Emma. Unfortunately his foot got caught between her and the slide and he was screaming by the time they got to the bottom. Now we understand the point of the sign.

Conner also loved this moving pipe thing.

The looks on Conner and Emma's faces describe pretty well how they each felt about the park.

After the park we went back to the hotel and then walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. It was delicious and so nice since they gave up our own little section to eat in.

Saturday morning my mom woke up very sick so we had to leave my parents at the hotel while the rest of us went to Sutter's Fort. John Sutter (I think) came to the area after abandoning his wife and children in some European country and got the land from the Mexican government to build his little settlement. He somehow got the Indians to be his slave and had a very prosperous trading business until the California gold rush. Then many of his workers left and much of his goods were stolen and the fort was no more.

Conner, Tyson, and Tyler reading up on the history facts.

Tyson and Conner getting an up close look at the cannons.

A couple of oxen

Who can resist holding a gun?

Here we are playing a game that was reminiscent of the time and I was very good at it.

All of us at the wall of the fort.

After Sutter's Fort it was time to head back to the hotel, get ready, and go to the funeral. Well it wasn't actually a funeral, more of a few remarks and dedicatory prayer at the cemetary. It was a small service due to the fact that my grandma outlived most of her friends and family.

My grandparents bought spots at the top of the wall.

Eli is such a gentleman.

Here is my grandpa's name plaque, my grandma's name will be added soon.

The whole gang - Blake, Ashley, Carol Ann, Jared, Mom, Dad, Caryn, Conner, Cade, R.J, Jen, Emma, Tyler, Tyson, and Eli

There were a bunch of gravestones from 1918, including this family that included "brother", "brother", and "mother". Thanks to my mom, I can tell you that in 1918 there was a worldwide flu pandemic that killed 50,000,000-100,000,000 people. It was strange because it affected the young, healthy adults more than the kids and elderly like most flus. Very sad.

And here we are at Vic's Ice Cream Parlor, a favorite stop of ours. They have the best ice cream and I'm so sad that I'll never get to enjoy it again.

Just check out that fabulous Sundae!

And the wonderful milkshakes that even include all the extra in the mixing cup.

A rare photo of my parents :)

Poor Tyson was so tired he fell asleep while chewing, literally. Check out that piece of hot dog in his mouth!

After lunch we headed over to my grandparent's neighborhood to see the old sights. We began with Barlin. My grandpa's family owned the area and when they sold it to be developed they got to name one of the streets. Barlin is named after my mom and her twin sister, Barbara and Linda.

Down the street is my grandparents old house, which looks exactly the same from the front yard.

From there we took the walk that we always went on with my grandma - down the street, over and around the freeway. Here we are at the entrance of the winding freeway overpass.

Still walking...

We always climbed up this part and snuck through the "woods" to beat my mom and grandma taking the boring sidewalk. It was really just a few trees now that I look at it. Apparently here I love you while everyone else rocks.

Who doesn't love a great big pile of leaves!

On Sunday morning R.J. and Jen had to head back home, but the rest of us drove out to see the Sacramento Temple. They keep a gate around it so this was as close as we could get.

After that Ashley and Blake had to head home and those of us who were left continued our sightseeing tour. Here we are in front of the house that my mom grew up in. We also drove by my dad's old house later but it was too dark for pictures.

We had to stop and feed the squirrels for old times sake as well.

The squirrels were a little bashful until our fast food arrived, then they started swarming around us.

Look at this crazy upside down tree. Emma is also upside down so she would fit in with the tree.

We also took a quick trip to visit with the Washburns. Kristen, Rick, Ryan, and Michelle came over with their families so we could all catch up. Here are the kids enjoying dessert.

And that was the end of our trip. We had a great time seeing everyone and everything and we will miss Sacramento and our grandparents. Cade even thought it looked like a nice place to live if we could afford it, except for the the fact that he thinks California is going to fall into the ocean :)