trip to the zoo

Just after school got out, the kids and I decided to take a trip to the zoo.  Claire and Sam hadn't been before, and I thought they would love seeing all the animals.  We chose a day that I had a doctor appointment scheduled in Salt Lake.  I was a little worried about all of the kids hanging out in the waiting room for my hour long appointment, but they did fantastic!  Of course, Claire had made fast friends with everyone in the office by that time and even had one lady in tears telling me what a joy she was and how much the kids had cheered her up!  (We always make friends when Claire is with us!)   Waiting times don't always go so smoothly, so I was especially appreciative that this one had.

To celebrate, we went to eat at City Creek.  It was a fun little lunch date!

We met the Stosich cousins at the zoo.  What a crew!  It was a hot, busy day, and we were pretty disappointed that most of the exhibits seemed to be empty.  I'm not sure where all the animals went!  (That seems to be our luck with the zoo!)  I was bummed, because Sam had been talking for days about seeing the lions, and wouldn't you know!  We didn't see even one lion!  Emmy had just finished a report on giraffes, so I thought it would be fun for her to see one up close.  No giraffes either!  

So here's the real story of our trip to the zoo.  Our day had a great start, but by the end of the afternoon, we were all a little overheated, bored (there was nothing to see so the kids were running wild), and cranky. The kids were all campaigning for sleepovers with their cousins (which was impossible that week), Kate lost a twenty dollar bill from her pocket that we never did find, and Claire kept running away and hiding because she was mad we couldn't go swimming at Aunt Jodi's house. We left the zoo with a lot of tired, grouchy kids!

Oh well, we gave it a good shot!

I had to laugh (okay, maybe it was funny a few days later :) when I asked Claire if she'd had fun..  She responded, "No.  All day it was 'Claire do this. Claire do that.  You can't go there!  You can't go here!'  It wore me out!"


Me too, Claire.  Me too.

We laughed one night at my moms when Sam hooked this suitcase onto the little car and rode around.  Such a Sam thing to do.  He reminds me of his dad, always thinking of how to make things work more efficiently.

See?  Always being efficient.

Sam loves me, but he looooooves his daddy.

One weekend at the first of summer, Sam got tonsillitis and the two of us had to stay home while the rest of the crew went to a cousin outing for the weekend.  He was pretty lonely.  Saturday night I was busy doing something and noticed he had gone missing.  After a little panicked searching, I found him out playing on dads "mini-tractor".  He was happy as could be.  I should have looked there first. :)

At long last, a sandpile!

dance lessons (otherwise known as future blackmail material)

the backyard and slave labor

We checked yet another project off our list this Spring with the long anticipated redo of the backyard.  The grass has always been terrible back there (more weeds than grass), and we have been wanting to plant trees and rearrange everything.  We finally tackled it this spring.

It just so happened that the only day we could get sod was the last day of school, so you can bet how excited the kids were about laying sod to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation :).   We would never have got it done without the help of Uncle Darrell and Aunt Alyssa, who showed up without us even asking.  They helped us so much, and we were so thankful.

We didn't quite get it done, however, and so the following two Saturdays we put the girls to work.  They were awfully excited about it.  Sometimes it seems that there is nothing quite so, shall we say expensive as free labor.  As in, it ain't really free.  It causes me great emotional pain sometimes.

These girls have a very hard life.  As you can see, we work their fingers to the bone all. the. time.

this just might be one of my favorite pictures. ever.

random

  I found this picture on my phone, apparently from way back at Easter time.  

Looks like yet another attempt to get chores done happily. . . :)

 I snapped this picture one day at Sam's Club.  Claire lounging on the bottom of the cart and Sam in his favorite cowboy attire and shorts.  We're nothing if not classy.

(Ryenne will kill me for posting this, but it's too cute.)

Sam was having a hard time falling asleep one night, and when I went in to check on him a bit later,

 I found these two.  She has a soft spot of that little brother of hers.

I was able to attend a field trip to the Dinosaur Park with Emmy.  I happened to have one terribly blurry picture to document the day, due to the fact that I managed to lock my purse, keys, and camera in the trunk of the car.  Don't ask. 

Kate and Ashley at the Breakfast of Champions.  This was held at the end of the year to celebrate students who excelled academically last year.  These two are quite the pair.  (And smart, too!)

We always do lamb chores in our princess dresses.  

Best buddies.

Emmy and Mrs. Christensen on the last day of 3rd grade.  

What an amazing teacher!  We loved her!

This girl is a character.  And she got new glasses!