Toledo Zoo

We went to the Toledo Zoo this week with some friends, Jen & Ben, who just moved to Michigan. It was such a fun and summery day! Benjamin and his little friend Daxton had a great time running around together. The highlight was the monkey exhibit. The boys laughed and laughed at theorangutans and Eliza actually started to cry when Jed carried her away from the glass. Too funny! 

Instead of pictures, I have a video of a bunch of tiny little clips from the adventure. I lost my camera this week (I know it must be somewhere in this house...) so I used the video camera in its place and, as it turns out, all the little 'picture' clips made a fun video. 

We are going to Niagara Falls and the Sacred Grove tomorrow morning with friends. We're pretty excited.  :)

Eliza's first steps!

Museum of Natural History

In March we went to the Museum of Natural History in Ann Arbor. We went with a few girlfriends and kids, and it was a fun adventure. The dinosaur exhibit was pretty cool.  

Ben wasn't thrilled with the idea of pretending to be eaten by the T Rex. :)

Benjamin must have been listening...

General Conference today was great. Of course with kids I think I actually comprehended and internalized about 25% of what was said. Nevertheless, it was really neat to listen to our prophet, apostles, and church leaders and feel the Spirit as they testified of Christ and motivated me to 'stand a little taller and be a little better'. 

I think Benjamin internalized some of it too (thankfully, since part of me missing what was said was because I was helping him with General Conference related activities).  I came to that conclusion after his bedtime prayers, which started thus:

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Please bless that President Monson can be blessed for his faith. 

Please bless that we can go to bed and be inspired. 

He comes up with the funniest things. Have I ever mentioned before how he describes the feelings of the Holy Ghost? When he feels happy as he listens to his Scripture stories, or articles from his Friend magazine, or when he feels extra loving towards me or Jed, he says, 

"Mom, I'm sad for joy!"

It's so cute. He picked it up probably about a year ago when we read about how Jesus in the scriptures wept. He was concerned, so we explained to him that Jesus cried because he was full of joy - because he was so happy. From then on whenever we read about people crying in the scriptures, (or if I get choked up reading something from his Friend magazine - which happened a lot when I was pregnant with Eliza!) he will say, "They are sad for JOY!" or "Mom, are you sad for joy?" It's one of those funny Benjamin-isms that I just love.  He will often get this sweet smile on his face, cock his head a little, and say, "I love you, Mom. I'm sad for joy." It's so cute. 

Anyway, a few things stood out to me today during General Conference, that I'll briefly share. Firstly, how blessed I am that I have Jed, Benny, and Eliza. Trials may come, but I can never complain because I still have my incredible husband and my sweet sweet children with me. (That was from Elder Scott's talk - when he talked about the deaths of his children I thought 'how can I ever complain?') Secondly, I realized the importance of "hallowed be thy name" in the Lord's example of prayer. It's respectful, and it reminds me of WHO I am talking to. I mean, with that in mind, how can I honestly let my mind wander when I am praying to and addressing the Eternal God of heaven and earth? (I'm embarrassed to admit how often that happens to me... Jed teases me about my 'long prayers' because he knows how I daydream... yikes.) (Elder Nelson's talk.)

Can't wait for General Conference tomorrow.  :)