Photoshoot - can't leave UT without taking a bijillion pictures...

Sunday dinner at my parents house...

Quite a crowd!

Me and Eliza with Dad.

My brother, Matt, and Amy!

Mindy, Dad and Eliza.

Me, Melanie, Eliza & Cannon.

Mindy, Connor, Me, and TJ. Connor and TJ are Melanie's oldest boys. They were so fun to hang out with. What handsome guys. :) They are all moving to Tennessee/Georgia soon. Far away from their Utah home, but closer to us in Michigan!

My children and their crazy faces.

Matt played baseball with Wesley and Benjamin in the back yard. :)

Hogle Zoo

My sisters and I took a trip to the Hogle Zoo with the kids. It was kind of drizzly and overcast, which was cool because the tiger was up & about and feeling restless. He just paced the bridge back and forth, and we all watched him for quite a while. Tigers are my favorite animals - he was beautiful!

Riding on the Hogle Zoo elephant who squirts water out of his trunk at unsuspecting people.

I thought this picture was adorable. Mindy is such a fun aunt. All the kids love her. Doesn't she look so cute and animated, getting the kids excited about something that the animal behind the glass is doing? She's one in a million!

Mindy and baby Jack, taking cover with us under the Merry Go Round while it rains.

Riding the Merry Go Round with my two cuties.

It was fun how Eliza got really into the animals.

This kid is getting too big to be picked up! I think I did it out of necessity so that I could force him to take a picture with me in front of the giraffes. What a silly wild man!

And lastly, here are Eliza and Benjamin watching the bird show at the zoo. That was one of the highlights of our excursion.

Melanie's birthday dinner in Utah

We celebrated Melanie's birthday while I was visiting in Utah. She is nine years older than me, and has always been a great example for me to follow. She has five sons, so she was holding Eliza a lot during our party. :)

On the right, all the sisters (including our sister-in-law) and Mom. :)

We were all in stitches watching Eliza giving Jack hug after hug after hug. He was slightly bewildered as to what on earth was going on - she would nearly fall over while trying to hug him. It was so funny! He was a trooper - he didn't cry at all. Although a few times he was very near to tears! I'm sure it felt to him like he was being mauled!

Horseback Riding

While we were visiting family in Utah, we took the horses out for a ride in the mountains. WOW, it is gorgeous country in Utah. I realize how much I miss the scenery and the majestic mountains when I see them again. They are breath taking.

Matt and my Dad took Brittany and I on a beautiful trail in the canyon. They have Missouri Foxtrotters and they are beautiful and smooth horses. I love them! Isn't Matt and his palomino especially handsome?

Before our horse back ride we went to my parents' new house to do some yardwork. Yes, if you grew up with me you will be interested to know that my parents just moved out of Sandy and into a new home in Highland. It's sad to say goodbye to the house I grew up in, but they will turn this new yard into a Garden of Eden just like our last yard. And, of course, with my Mom's impeccable style, the house will be beautiful too. :) (I'm totally serious, my Mom has fantastic style. I wish she lived closer to me and could be my interior decorator!)

And lastly, a movie for your viewing pleasure. :) Dad was feeding Eliza little bites of vanilla icecream, and boy, was she loving it! He was taking turns: a spoonful for him, a spoonful for her. We were all cracking up because he would get a spoonful for himself and eat it (without even slightly acting like he was going to give it to her), but as he brought it up past her she would totally open her mouth and lean for it. It was hilarious.

Animal Encounter at Thanksgiving Point

I went to the Animal Encounter at Thanksgiving Point with my sisters.

They had lots of animals to look at, and horses to ride.

Here are Mindy & Jack, and Brittany & Gabe. In this picture, the horse was nibling Jack's little hand and he was laughing. It was pretty cute.

I'm holding cute little Cannon (Melanie's youngest of five boys!). The goat sure liked him!

Benjamin was happy to get to ride a horse around.

Awesome Aunt Melanie bought each of the boys a candy, and here they are showing off their colorful toungues.

This goat was funny. He would stick his long tougue between the wires to snatch up a little kernal of corn off our hands.

2 weeks in UTAH!

Benjamin, Eliza and I went to Utah in June for two weeks of pure fun! We were able to visit all of my family... before two of my sisters move away.

Above, we went to Coleman's baseball game, and it was fun to watch him play!

Here is Eliza enjoying her Uncle Griff, Aunt Mindy, and Aunt Brittany's coed softball game. :)

Brittany brought over caviar to Mindy's house for us to try.... Not necessarily "yum" but still definitely "cool!" :)

Benjamin's older cousins, Connor, TJ and Coleman, were all so adorable with him and their other younger cousins. I thought that picture of Connor carrying Gabe back home was pretty sweet. They are so good at kindly taking care of the little ones.

And here is Eliza riding Nali, who is the sweetest dog!

Ben's turn to graduate

Benjamin's big day! He 'graduated' from Preschool! :)

At the end of our preschool year we put together a mini graduation ceremony for the three boys. To be honest, the whole thing kind of fell apart - the boys wouldn't keep their black gowns on long enough to get them all to sit down together, and it was pulling teeth to drag them away from the new guinea pig in the house. :) Believe me, it was a miracle just to get these few decent pictures of him (he was bribed).

Anyway, we were proud of them for finishing their first year of preschool. It feels like yesterday that Benjamin had his first day of class...

We (the three moms/teachers) made a scrapbook of their year of preschool. Each day of class has it's own pictures and page. The boys got to choose their favorite from the book. Benjamin chose the Halloween page where I had the boys dip their hands in white paint to make a ghost.