The Zoo

Yesterday the kids and I spent the morning at the zoo with Maria and Hayden (thanks for the invite!) The kids had a lot of fun, and now I think our zoo quota has been met for a while. Now our zoo is nothing fancy, but we did get to see a few interesting things.

We happened to catch this massive bird perched with his wings outstretched for all to see. What was weird was that he stood like this for a really long time!
The kids loved watching the penguins swim in the water right in front of them. At first Owen was scared and would run away whenever a penguin got too close to the glass.
Before we had even walked in the zoo entrance Ains was begging to go on the Merry-go-Round that they have inside. I made her wait until our trip was nearly over...I hope it was as amazing as she had remembered.
I just loved the look on Ainsley's face in this picture.
And last but not least, here is Owen going up the stairs to the giraffe slide...right before I had to climb up them and force him down the slide with Ains. We caused quite the hold up in the line. I think he wanted to go down, but just couldn't work up the courage to do it because he refused to let me carry him down the stairs. So, as my last resort I pried his little fingers off the metal bars he was desperately holding on to and sent him down with his sister. And from what I hear he was smiling on the way down (although he refused to try it again)!
I would have had more pictures to share of what we saw but my camera died after the slide incident...oops!

Family Weekend

Not only did we get to celebrate Owen's b-day this weekend, we also had a lot of family in town for Michael's 'home coming' (I guess they're not actually homecomings anymore, but family came to hear him speak none the less. My mom's sisters (Kelly and Dode (Melody)) and my cousin Aubri and her newborn got here Friday night just after Owen's party. They drove here all the way from St. George. We hung out with them Friday night and stayed up way too late...but it was a lot of fun. We just don't see extended family enough anymore.

On Saturday we just hung out around the pool and made pizza for dinner. It was a great and relaxing day. Just enough activity, and lots of time to talk. It's always fun to get updates about family we don't see much. There's a lot more babies, a few new in laws, fewer cousins still in school, Dode is teaching seminary, Aubri now has 3 kids and the list goes on. One story that I loved was about my aunt Kelly, and with her telling the story, it's hilarious. She just finished running her 3rd marathon, she ran the Boston marathon this year. She had lost her friend before the start of her previous marathon and therefore ended up starting the race 10 minutes after everyone else had crossed the starting line. So when she somehow lost her running group before the start of the Boston marathon she panicked (not wanting to run another marathon alone). When she searched and couldn't find them she ended up standing on top of a bus screaming"HELP ME!" She did end up finding them, and I just think it's amazing that she's still running marathons in her 40's ....I wish I were that buff now!

On Sunday we all got up early, after being up too late again the night before. and headed off to hear Michael speak. My grandpa Welch and my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Randy drove up from Twin. Michael did a good job on his talk...he had a lot of time to fill! He told a story of a man he baptized getting thrown in jail (for nothing you would ever be thrown in jail for here). Michael was wondering why he wasn't coming to church, so he called him on his cell phone that he had with him in jail...odd. This guy would call Michael every Sunday to find out what new member lesson they were on so that he could study it that day in his cell, what a guy! We hear he's now out of jail and doing great.

After church we headed back to my parents for lunch and more visiting. Unfortunately, family wasn't able to stay all that long, and every one left early in the afternoon. It was such a nice weekend. I wasn't smart enough to get a good group shot but I did get a few random ones.

Here's Kelly with the kids. I think Kelly is Ainsley's new best friend. Kelly taught her to swim with out having to stop and take a breath, and after that, a life long friendship had been forged. Kelly was great about playing barbies with Ains, eating with the kids instead of the adults, and playing endless games with them. She's still the favorite Aunt!
Ainsley was also enthralled with Aubri's baby Gavin...she asked to hold him every chance she got.
Here's another baby shot with Aubri and Dode.
Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before I get to see anyone from my mom's side of the family. There's a tentative plan for a reunion in SL in June...so maybe not!

8-8-08

Today was 8-8-08 (in case you hadn't noticed) and the beginning of the summer Olympics. So, what did we do to celebrate? We decided to have a party commemorating Owen's birth. And just in case you were wondering what we did to make this day special, I'll tell you.

Owen got pancakes for breakfast, although I think he liked the grapes he got with his pancakes better. (In this picture he's trying to show me that he's now 2...it's just so tricky to get two fingers up at a time!)
Ainsley really got into Owen's birthday and decided to give him a special snack this morning while I was in the shower. She served granola bars, chips, and cheese crackers. When I got out of the shower I found them both on the kitchen counter cleaning themselves off in the sink. Ains told me she wanted to do the cleaning so that it wouldn't be a disaster.
Ainsley then entertained Owen with some fun games. Her games included emptying Owen's dresser drawers and turning the drawers into little beds, and then rearranging Owen's room. His crib is usually along the other wall.
After his morning of fun and games he got to watch his favorite show, Barney, it is one of the only shows Owen will watch.
After a nap, and a trip to Zurcher's to visit Syd at work and pick up the balloons, the real party started. Owen got an awesome bike from his parents...
and some super fun toys from his grandparents. Owen loves his truck that Grandma D sent and was freaking out because it took me about 15 minutes to get it out of the package....they packaged that thing with more wires than I've ever seen on a toy in my life!
He also now has his own mister, he even managed to get soaking wet from it.

The most significant part of Owen's birthday this year was that he got to share it with his great grandma. They share a birthday but live so far apart that I never thought they would be able to celebrate their b-day's together. Well it just so happened that this year my grandma was here visiting for Michael's homecoming this Sunday, so we got to spend the day with her as well!
We even got to have 2 cakes this year. My mom made my grandma an ice cream cake and I made Owen a 'boy' cake. I think it turned out cute. And in my opinion gummy worms are surprisingly good in cool whip (in case you were wondering).

Owen liked his cake so much that he ate a few bites and then promptly dumped it on the grass and continued his playing.
He seemed to have a ton of fun and was so excited to have new toys to play with (we only buy toys for birthdays and Christmas). He also seemed to understand that the day was all about him, and so did his slightly jealous sister!

The Unsuccessful Play Date

Last week Ains was asking why we hadn't been to the park in a while and was begging to go play in the water at a nearby park. We have only been over to play in the water once all summer so I told her we would call some friends and make a play date out of it. I'm sure there were some moments of fun...

but mostly, there were moments of not fun. Owen spent most of his time on my leg. And there was lots of whining from the kids (mostly mine). It was hot and muggy and for some reason the kids wanted to play on the playground equipment and not in the water. This would have been okay, except that I was so hot I wanted to be getting misted by the water, not sweating it out on the toys.
I must admit that there were tears shed when I forced my son to play in the water. What kind of a mother am I?

Needless to say, the fun day at the park didn't last long. And to top it all off I gave quite the lecture to a child that was not my own. I just couldn't take Ainsley's friend bullying her anymore and so I made it quite clear to her little friend that I knew what she was doing, that it was unacceptable, and that it needed to stop. I've had a week of standing up for myself and I just can't stop....it feels great! Too bad I didn't have the guts to give my lecture in front of the child's mother. Although she did start to cry when her mother came up to us and was wondering what was going on. (I told her mom what had happened and that I had had words with her daughter and that her daughter had apologized and everything was taken care of). (And in case you're wondering...yes this is the same little girl that Ains has always had trouble with, in fact it's the only child, that's not family, that she has ever fought with...I had to throw that last line in to justify my actions :)

I still can't decide if this little encounter was good or bad. Maybe I've made Ainsley a true enemy now? What have I done? Seriously, what kind of a mother am I???
And FYI : I didn't set Ains up for failure, there were several kids her age invited on our outing, it just somehow turned out to be a bad combination of girls that showed up...not that the girls were bad, just the combination.

So that's where she got it...

On Monday night after FHE we were reviewing the story of Nephi and his brothers acquiring the brass plates. We got to the part where Nephi found Laban on the city streets and Ains started laughing and said,"And he was drunk!" At least I know she's learning something from the scriptures.

1 thing...

Yesterday when I asked Ains to bring me her hair brush she said she couldn't because she was too drunk!

What????

Welcome Home!

Last night we got to go to the airport and pick up my little brother. He has finally completed his mission to the Dominican Republic. After our wait at the airport for the arrival of his plane...

We finally saw this skinny...no not skinny....emaciated missionary walk through the gates. It was amazing to see him, he was completely unrecognizable. I felt like I was hugging a sack of bones.
It was a great reunion though. He has definitely grown up since he left.
It was also a great experience to get to hear him bear his testimony as a missionary one last time before he was released. The stake president met us at my parents house as soon as we got home from the airport and released him. I'm sure it was a bitter sweet moment for Michael. I wish his plane would have gotten in earlier in the day so that we could have spent more time with him. (Our kids didn't get to bed until after 11:00 as it was last night.) But, I'm sure there will a lot of catching up over the next couple of weeks before he heads off for his fall semester of school. Welcome home Michael!