It's been a few weeks but we went to the ZOO. We had such a fun time. It's been a good year since we've been and Elley loved it. We'll have to go more often. Our friends Danielle and Cohen came too, which made the trip extra special and fun.

Now sit back and enjoy the many pictures of our day at the zoo.

(I made the pictures small so I could fit so many onto one post. Click on the pictures to see it bigger.)

Getting ready to go in

Elley was a little scared of the turtle




She was also a little scared of this big slide. Danielle and Cohen had to go and rescue her

Saying hi to the Tiger. FYI....this tiger went to the bathroom right in front of us. After seeing that, anytime we talked about the tigers Elley made mention about how the tiger go potty.

Elley the turtle

One little, Two little, Three little Muir cats..........

our friend Danielle

our friend the monkey

Mommy and Elley

Molly

Lunch time

the lion

we ran into some friend of ours while at the zoo

So Much To Catch Up On

We've been to the zoo, and we went on a trip to Aunt Kerilynn's house. Those will come in a few days. I just wanted to share a few things about Elley.

Little Miss Elley is so big. I love her and all of her energy. She keeps me on my toes and constantly makes me laugh with the things she comes up with. She is a jabber box! She starts talking the minute she wakes up until we turn her lights off at night. It's amazing the words she picks up on and how she puts them together. She has an incredible memory remembering things that happened weeks ago.

A few weeks ago, the TV was on while I was making Elley some breakfast. I forget what show was on but it happened to be President Obama talking. Elley looked at me and said, referring to the TV, "boy, mama?" I told her who he was, talking about this country that we live in and how he is our president. I also mentioned how grandpa didn't really like him saying, "Grandpa says no Obama." Well now, she talks all about President Obama. I'll ask her who the president of our country is and she will say, "Obama....grandpa no Obama.''

So having learned that, I thought I should teach her a more important President. I grabbed the conference Ensign with a big picture of our Prophet, President Monson. I showed her the picture and told her that this is our prophet and we sang Follow the Prophet. Now when you ask her who our prophet is she will say "President Monson" and then sing Follow the Prophet while marching around the house.

We went to visit my sister this past week and we made a quick stop at the distribution center. When we walked in there was a big shelf with RS/Priesthood manuals, you know, teachings from our prophets? Elley, immediately upon walking in, saw the shelf and yelled, "look mama, prophets."

Like I just mentioned, we just back from a trip visiting with my sister. We actually flew there which was so nice and the girls did so well. While we were waiting for our flight to leave, Elley met a new friend. His name was Trip but he informed us that he like to be called Tripper. He was about 3 years old and as cute as can be. He and Elley compared back packs, watched airplanes take off, and waited in line together. When we got on the plane we couldn't sit by him because we needed a row of 3 seats, which made them both sad. And that's the last of Tripper we saw. On the way home (5 days later) as the girls and I were walking through the airport, Elley looked up at me and said, "mama, where's Tripper?"

Anyway, just a few fun stories of my cute little girl.

Memorial Day Weekend

Here's a little bit of our Holiday weekend. It was so nice having Adam at home all weekend long. We got to spend a lot of time with our family and friends.

At Jay and Leah's after swimming and dinner. Here we are making s'mors.
"Lela, will you blow on this for me?"

fine, I'll do it myself!

mmmmmmm, what a sticky mess!

The next day Jay, Leah, Mason and Mara, came to our house and we went on a little walk to a park.

On Memorial Day, we had a BBQ. Our whole play group came over and the dads came too. We had a lot of fun.

These last 2 pictures are of Cohen and Molly who are about 2 weeks a part. What cute babies!!!

Sprinkler Fun

I'm sure many of you that are reading this know that I love to go to garage sales. Some weekends I get up really early to get the good deals.

Last weekend, I went to a few garage sales with my sister in law and had so much fun. I don't know what I enjoyed more, being in a car with another adult and no kids, or the actual garage sales?

At one garage sale I saw this stack of games a lady was selling. As I was looking at them I saw Settlers of Catan. I asked the lady how much she wanted for it and she told me she wanted a dollar and that it was only played once. I looked inside, and sure enough it looked like it had only been played once. So, I coughed up a dollar and was on my way. Pretty good deal.....anyone want to come over and play?

Also, I got this cute little Blue's Clues sprinkler for a dollar. I'd say that it was well worth that dollar. We have used this sprinkler a few times now and we love it. It's so fun watching kids get so excited......especially when Daddy comes out to play!

Here is Molly wanting to be a part of the sprinkler fun!

Finally, Our Trip To Washington

So, here I am, finally blogging about our FUN, FUN, FUN trip to Washington. It's only been a few weeks since we've come home but we already are missing being back "home." We couldn't of asked for more perfect weather which, by the way, makes our homesickness much worse. We got to do so much and see lots of friends and family. Brace yourself, because here comes a lot of fun filled family vacation photos!! I tried to narrow it down as much as I could......sometimes I get a little camera happy.

I know I've mentioned before about leaving your shoes laying around at our house, well......Elley now will just get into your closet. Thank you Grandma for letting Elley play with your shoes.

Elley and Mommy built this cool fort in Grandma's and Grandpa's front room. A few days later Grandma helped Elley build it again.

We got to Grandma and Grandpa's house around 8pm. We ate some dinner and stayed up chatting for awhile. At around 11pm we all decided it was time to go to bed. Adam put Elley down in her little bed and we all went off to sleep. At 3:45am Elley was just too excited to sleep. We played musical beds for about an hour and a half, and after a time out for Elley Adam got up for the day with her. I don't think I have even been so frustrated with this little girl....I mean really, 3:45am? And she never went back to sleep. This picture is her at 9am the next morning.

Daddy and Molly in Leavenworth

The Family

We went over to Everett for a day because one of my very best friends was getting married. After the wedding we met up with some other very special friends. Here we are at Forest Park. Did I mention that the weather was perfect? So perfect that the kids were lucky enough to get ice cream. Sponge Bob and Spiderman....they were in heaven!

My friend Eve and I

All of us

Walking to the park. Elley and Ethen became fast friends

The temple grounds were beauitful

Did I mention the weather was perfect!!!

Grandma and Elley.......We love you Grandma!

Chimney

Our trip to Washington was so much fun. We had such a good time seeing family and friends. We miss living in Washington but glad that we get to go back and visit as much as we do. I will blog more about our trip in the next few days. I just wanted to show off my husbands sweet skills. Before we moved away from Washington, Adam worked doing stone/brick or masonry work. It was a nice trade for him to pick up on, and of course, it paid the bills at the time.

Adam's parents built a house a few years ago and slowly but surely are finishing up the details of the house. Here are some pictures of Adam and his dad doing the stone work on the chimney. I think it turned out perfect and made the house look really nice. About 2 years ago, Adam also did the stone work on the pillars, which are in the front of the house. The pillars and the chimney now match. Good job honey!

Adam and his dad

Just finishing up

Adam hard at work

Elley wanted to climb up the ladder so she could help daddy and grandpa

Here is Elley again wanting to help

Half Way To One

Here she is.....Miss Molly who is now 6 months old! She went to the doctor for her 6 month check up the other day and she is just my average sized baby. She weighs 15lbs and 4oz which is in 40th percentile and she is 26in long which is in the 50th percentile.

Molly has turned out to be the perfect baby. I know, I know, all mom's think their babies are perfect but, I truly could not of asked for anything better. I hope I don't jinx myself!!!

Molly is such a happy baby. She hardly fusses and when she does, it's usually because she's hungry or needs a new diaper. She is a marathon sleeper with stretches up to 12 hours. She eats well and is now getting more interested in solid foods. She is rolling over but sometimes gets stuck on her tummy....which she hates! She grabs everything and loves toys. Elley has been so good about sharing her toys and it's exciting to me to see them interact. I'm sure as time goes on it will bring such joy to see them play together.