Fun August

We've had a fun month. We've been to the Treehouse museum, the zoo, the park (several times), a balloon festival, a new garden in Salt Lake City, picked strawberries at a local farm, and worked in our own garden.

The Treehouse Musem in Ogden is a really cool building with tons of fun stations for the kids to explore. We have yet to visit all of the stations, there's just too many for one day! This time Zoe discovered the train room. There are a couple of tables with magnetic trains you can build and pull on tracks. There's also a big train made out of foam blocks that the kids can climb on. Obviously a room the little boys love, but a few girls were found there too.

Every year there is a hot air balloon festival in the Ogden canyon area. We decided to go out to watch the evening launch with Zoe on a Friday night. Unfortunately a cold front was blowing in, so the wind kept the balloons from going up. We still had fun listening to live music and running through the field. Zoe particularly liked chasing a kite some kids were flying.

I went to Idaho for a ladies day so Matt kept Zoe for the entire day. They ventured out to the Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City in the morning. You'll notice in the pictures that Zoe's wearing a sweater, in AUGUST! Crazy weather here! Zoe had fun chasing squirrels, climbing on stone lizards she called iguanas, planting plastic vegetables, playing in the fountain, and having a picnic with her daddy.

She's becoming quite a little helper around the house. I gave her my old swiffer broom so she could help me clean up after dinner one night. She enjoyed pushing it around the floor while I got the real work done. :) She's also helping me in the garden some. Helping is a lose term. She steps on the plants and squats down next to me while I pull weeds. She also waters my shoes with the watering can. We have a few strawberry plants in our back yard that have actually produced a little fruit. The variety we planted tastes like honey. They're yummy and it's all I can do to get the things washed before Zoe gobbles them up. Hopefully next year we'll have a bigger crop.

That about sums it up for this month. Tomorrow we leave for our friends reunion in Texas. We're very excited to see everyone and catch up!

Check out the pictures that go along with our stories here.

Too funny!

Last night, on the way home from Bible class, we decided to stop at Starbucks for a treat. Our Starbucks parking lot is adjacent to the Walmart lot. As soon as we turned in Zoe exclaims, "Go Walmart!" Then, while waiting at the window for our drinks she cries out, "Chicken nuggets?"

What have I done to my daughter?! I don't know where she came up with chicken nuggets. We don't eat out that often, and when we do, it's not drive-thru. I have to admit that we do frequent Walmart several times in a week. Maybe it's time to take a break from the shopping. :)

E-I-E-I-O

Zoe has started singing along with me when we sing "Old McDonald". She'll even tell me what animal she wants to have on the farm. I caught it on video yesterday. There are two takes since she gets distracted sometimes. Enjoy the video!

Our new baby...

...NO, I'm not pregnant. :) But, we did get a new car this weekend. We traded in our Civic for a 2006 CR-V, and we love it. We decided that since we were planning on more kids, and we already fill the car up even on short road trips, we needed something a little bigger. Hence, the new car. Plus, the dealer here sent a letter offering to buy the Civic, and then offered us a good deal on the CR-V. We're happy, and Zoe has more room, and I can keep the stroller in the trunk and still have room for stuff.

In other news, we're organizing. We bought shelving and a tool chest for the garage. This entire spring/summer I haven't been able to park in the garage because of all the junk. Matt's been working on the Mustang, and we had all the gardening tools and supplies in my parking space. So, we put together shelves last night and started loading them. Once we get the empty boxes hauled off to the dump I can start parking in the garage again, which will be nice since the new car has black leather interior and it's still hot here.

I guess that's all for now. :)

Memaw and Poppy's house

Zoe and I took off for Alabama while Matt went to a conference in Pittsburgh for a week. We had a good time, wish I could say the same for Matt. Zoe's changed a lot since the last time we were there, plus the weather was better. She loves playing in the back yard. My parents have a swing set, sandbox, kiddie pool, tree house and a ton of trees. Oh, and a fountain surrounded by lots of flowers. AND, bird feeders galore.


One morning we sat on the swing for 30 minutes and watched the birds and squirrels eat and play. Zoe loves to watch them and it makes me wish we had birds in our yard. We have no trees or bird feeders. Maybe next year we can hang a feeder somewhere in the yard. If you ask Zoe what the hummingbird says she'll tell you "Fly away, zoom!"


She loved to play in the fountain. Unfortunately a few flowers lost their lives to float in the water. She also loved it when Poppy would fill up the fountain and spray her with the hose.


We took her to Bass Pro, of course, to look at the stuffed animals. They have a huge fish tank full of different fish that she loves to look at with Poppy. We found a stuffed squirrel so she could see one up close. That's one huge store!



And what trip would be complete without a visit to the zoo. It is hot and muggy in Alabama, so we didn't stay for too long. Our favorite exhibit was this one monkey. He was jumping all over the place and playing with the kids at the window. I tried to catch him on video, but just like a kid, they won't perform when you turn the camera on. :)

The monkey is swinging in the top right of the picture.

We had a great time, but were ready to come home in the end. We missed Matt and our beds. We'll see Memaw and Poppy in December though, along with ALL of her aunts, uncles and cousins from my side. Fun, and crowded!

Have a look at the pictures and enjoy!