Family Fun Day; The Zoo

At the beginning of the summer we set up some Family Fun Days.  We are doing a lot of things this summer and not all of them include the kids.  We wanted to make sure that their summer was going to be as fun as the adults.  For our first planned day we went to the zoo.

We picked a good day to go.  It was overcast and there was a nice breeze for most of the day.  It even rained a little bit.  We got a ton of pictures of the kids!  Yay!

First real animals we saw was the elephants.  It was so much fun because the mama and the baby were out and trying to cool off.  They were throwing mud up and over themselves, digging in a water hole to make more mud.  It was really cute.

This one was eating the trees.  He was all stretched out when I went to take the picture but it delayed and so you get one of him eating. :0)

 There were dinosaurs all over the zoo.  Some of them even spit at you.  This one was set up just for pictures.  The kids were excited to sit on it.  Kate, not so much.

Thadd is my camera happy child.  He thought it was hilarious that he could put his head in the dinosaurs mouth.  What a kid!

The gorilla statue was right next to the dinosaur so we let the kids climb all over him too.  Kate was a little happier being in Thadd's arms than the gorillas.

Kate finally liked standing with her brothers and sisters for pictures.  Here she is even saying "cheese".

We were lucky enough to get in the front of the line for the bird show and be on the front row.  Some of the birds where so noisy.  Norma liked the parrots.  I love the blue.  The bird was not happy that Norma and I had walked over to get his picture.  He kept yelling at us.

Kate was just happy she had her blanket.

This is a sea eagle.  He was huge!  I loved his legs.  They were about as big as Kate's waist.  And look at those claws!

 This is a "toasted marshmallow" owl. :0)

 We had a ton of birds that flew in right over our heads.  You could feel the wind that they moved as they went over our heads.  It was a little scary having them that close.  Here is a "Harry Potter" owl.

 I can't remember what bird this is but it moved my hair as he flew over.

 My favorite was the bald eagle.  We got some amazing pictures.  They had the flag down in the background and I love these shots that we got.

 So cool, huh!  I love them!

Here is another good one of Thadd.  The was in a really good mood and had fun pretending that the rhino had got him.

 Kate was starting to get into it too.

 Here are the real rhinos.

And a cool pink bird.  Tucker liked that it was called something spoon billed. :0)

Thadd was the most excited about the tigers.  He has decided that it is his new favorite animal.  They were all sleeping to we couldn't get a good look at them but I thought this sign was so funny.

 Thadd found the tiger statue and wanted to have his picture taken with it.

 We found a tiger that we could get a picture of.  His head was huge!

 We walked around and saw the giraffes.  There was one that if I reached out my hand I could have touched its head.

 When we went up the walk we got closer to the tigers and I love these pictures that Nate got of them.  Look at those teeth!

 And what would a trip to the zoo be without a picture of the sleeping gorilla.  We always have to take one of him.

 We left after this because it had gotten hot and the kids really wanted to go to Chuck-a-Rama for lunch.  They love that place and we had promised we would go out.

We loved spending the whole day together without having to be anywhere.  We love our family and we have the best time being together.  Now on to July and a whole lot of fun and exciting things going on. ;0)

Are you awake yet?

The kids have been waking up before me lately and so of course, Kate does too.  To keep her quiet so that she is not screaming for someone to come get her, (me) they give her toys.  Today it was Barbie.  She loved it.

Summer BBQ

We had our neighbors over for a BBQ tonight and I feel really dumb because I wanted to take a picture of all the good things we made.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, soda, salad, corn on the cob and potato fries.  All I got pictures of was the Ice Cream. :0)

I talked about the ice cream that Jered and Stephanie made up camping.  It really was That good.  I thought that we might have a maker down stairs and I really wanted to make some.  Nate found this.

We got this maker from Grandpa Powell's house when he moved.  It has been in our basement since.  We have never used it.  It looked really good and we looked for a date of when it was made.  After a little research, Nate found out that it was made in 1976.  The rock salt has a sale date on the bottom for 12-75.  How cool is that!  The recipe book is full of recipes that you put 6-8 eggs in it.!!!  I didn't know that ice cream has eggs.  We just used the recipe that we got from Steph.

We read how to get the best ice cream, what Grandpa had underlined about how to use it and plugged it in.  It works perfectly.  Nate called his dad and got the story on the maker.  Grandpa Powell had bought it for Grandma because she loved ice cream so much.  They attempted to make it twice and decided that buying it at the store was easier. ;0)  It was never used again. 

It took a little longer than it said it would for the ice cream to be done.  But I think we learned that next time we just need to use more salt.  It was so yummy!  Thadd really wants to try and make Cookies and Cream next time.  I'm pretty sure that we will be using this machine quite a bit this summer. :0)

Camp Jeremiah Johnson 11"

I am the Wolf Den Leader in my ward and so I got to go with Tucker to Day Camp this year.  If you want to see some of the things that he did last year you can go here.

I had a blast.  As a leader, it is so fun for me to see all these boys having so much fun.  I just took a few pictures of Tucker but they all had so much fun.

Here is Tucker with one of his favorite activities.  Archery.  He really is a natural.  What with Nate going bow hunting for the last two years he knows what he is doing.

Here is the Battle of the Boats.  We had 14 boys in our ward so their boat was really full and with that many boys you would have thought that they would win.  Nope.  They couldn't even move because they couldn't paddle together at all.  It was so funny watching them not moving at all but trying so hard.

And this would be Tucker's favorite and most of the other boys too.  Swordsmith Shoppe.  They got to make swords and then battle with the leaders and some other boys at the camp.  This is Josh with Tucker and they really hit it off.  I hope that they can be great friends and do lots together this summer.

What a great day!  The boys all did great and I am so lucky to be their leader and help them all in this stage of their lives.  I love scouts and I know that I have a great responsibility to these boys to help them be all that they can be.

Just for Nana and Papa

Nana and Papa bought the girls these dresses and they both look so cute in them.  I have wanted to get some pictures with the two of them and this is what I was able to get.

Kate just HATES when I get out the camera.  I don't know why but she just hates it. 

I finally got her to be shy with the camera instead of crying at the camera.

Then I tried getting the two of them.

Norma isn't afraid of the camera.

So we tried to get some of the two of them together again.  This is such the two of them.  Norma just smiling away and Katy giving me "the Look".

Nope, not doing it.

She was just happier sitting at the little table, eating and drinking.

Getting the Pool Out

So we finally got the little pool out for the kids.  Tucker, who is not a water fan, did really well and got in and got his swimsuit wet.  Then had to find a place to lay out and dry off.

Norma is my fish.  She loves the water!  She would be out in the pool all day, every day if I let her.

Thadd loved that I found some goggles and loved putting his face down in the water.

Norma and Thadd liked laying out.  I guess we need to get them some sun glasses.

Then Kate woke up.  She wasn't so sure.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"I think I want to play in that water."

"Nope, I don't want to play in this water."

"Well, maybe I want to play if Norma is playing in there."

"I might like this."

 She would lean down and splash and then stand up and look at me.  Then lean down and splash again and stand up quick and look at me.  Then she started splashing with her toys.  Then she started splashing her sister.  

I had to have Thadd stand behind me and talk to her to just get her to look at the camera and this is as close to a smile as I could get. 

At the end of the day, the pool was a hit.  Norma went out twice more and Kate kept bring me her swimsuit to put back on her.