Hogle Zoo

Saturday (the 17th) we took the kids to Hogle Zoo up in Salt Lake City. It's been years since we went there last. Some of my kids had never been to a zoo, so it was really exciting for them.

One of the first things we did was go into the "Nature's Nightmares" greenhouse. There were skunks, scorpions, bugs, a vulture, & free-flying bats. I can't believe we actually walked underneath bats. SCARY! (Thank heavens they were sleeping.)

Taya especially loved the elephants. We watched a little elephant show & everything. She was so cute watching them.

We walked all over the zoo & looked at lots of animals. It wasn't until we found the small monkey pens that Bladen got into seeing the animals. One monkey got right up next to the glass with him & his mouth dropped open like he'd just discovered a treasure! He was SO amazed at the animals. He was definitely a monkey lover.

Bladen got excited for the wild cats too. I love how his eyes get big when he's excited about something.

Korbyn & Taya loved each other at the zoo. They stayed together for most of the day.

Taya is missing her daddy, so she was attached to Justin. She walked around the entire zoo holding on to his shirt. It was SO cute. Thank you Justin for putting up with her. It meant the world to both of us.

All 4 kids were up against the glass at the gorilla pen & the gorilla came right up to the window & looked at them. They LOVED that.

Bladen didn't last long before he was sound asleep in his stroller. Poor little guy. We exhausted him in that hot sun.

Korbyn is such a crack up & my brother will kill me for posting these next two pictures of his son. . . but he reminds me of Justin SO MUCH!! SO FUNNY!

The last thing we did was ride the train around the zoo. The girls were SO excited about it.

Bladen was happy to be with his Baba.

And like usual, Korbyn was just cute.

FUN DAY! I love my family.

SURPRISE!!!

Trek & I found out today. . .

that the 5th little Potter is on it's way.

(*MADE IN GERMANY*)

SURPRISE!!!

Toy Story 3

Friday we took the kids to see Toy Story 3. You know you've been out of the states a while when it costs you $30 to go see the 1st matinee of the day. They made me pay for BLADEN!!! I can't believe how expensive movies are these days. But we survived & ended up having a blast! Cari & Korbyn & Mimi came too! We took up an entire row. It was SO COOL! The movie was adorable (like all the Toy Story movies are). Bladen fought with me the entire time wanting up, then down, then in his seat, then behind me, etc. He was all over the place. But I finally got him to fall asleep at about the 3/4 mark of the movie. And yes, I bawled at the end just like the rest of the world. Great movie. Go see it!

Time for Haircuts

It's so nice having "Aunties" that do hair. Cadence has been dying to get her hair & bangs cut so when Cari showed up at dinner with her cutting supplies, Cadence was thrilled. We basically just trimmed her up & gave her some swoop bangs which are adorable on her!

At first Taya was thrilled to be getting her very first haircut.

But then when Cari pulled out the scissors, the tears started to flow. I don't know what she thought was going to happen, but she was not a happy camper.

But Cari is a pro & she ran to her purse & pulled out a sucker. That calmed Taya right down. She LOVES suckers. She just sat & ate it the entire time we did her hair. It was the perfect prize!

I was the terrified one when it came to Taya's hair. Her hair has the most beautiful curl to it & it killed me to think we might cut that curl off for good. Cari was awesome though. She just evened it out & all the sweet curls remained intact.

Taya was proud of her new haircut!

There wasn't much to do to Lorien's hair. We just trimmed off the dead ends & evened it out a bit. But she enjoyed having her hair done & was happy to have Cari be the one to do it.

Bladen's haircut was the most dramatic of the night. This was his very first haircut & I was really sad to see his curls go, but boy does he look better now. His hair was SO long & people were calling him a girl which was driving me nuts, so it was time.

Just like Taya, we had to bribe him to hold still with a sucker. He never bit the sucker, but he had it completely sucked away into oblivion within minutes. Poor Cari was cutting as fast as she could.

Boy did it turn out cute. He looks like a little boy now. Trek loves it. He says that Bladen is now "clean cut & handsome!" What a cute little guy!

Thank you Cari for doing such an amazing job on the kids' hair. They all look great!

Swimming with Cousins

You have to love cousins! My kids didn't even really know what cousins were until we got here to UT & they've decided that cousins are the best thing ever! Thursday we had some cousins come over to swim. Cari brought Korbyn (who is my kids only real cousin right now) & MY cousin Zach came with his wife Jessica & their son Jaxon & daughter Shaylie. We had SO MUCH FUN! Zach was so sweet to bring us a couple of pizzas & Crazy Bread from Little Caesars. "Pizza Pizza!" "Yum Yum!"

After lunch we broke out the pool & the slippin' slide. These kids could play all day in the sun. I love it.

They had a blast together. Zach would get in the pool with them & swing them around & play Ring Around the Rosie. They totally LOVED Zach. He was adorable with them.

Zach is a cop for Spanish Fork & he came in his patrol car, so he gave my kids a chance to turn on the lights & siren & play with all the fun buttons.

Then he let them each take a turn saying something into the walkie talkie so they could hear it come out of the car stereo. They thought that was SO cool.

Taya wanted to wear his policeman hat. Silly girl. So cute.

It was a super fun afternoon. I love cousins!