Hogle Zoo

We spent Friday at Utah's Hogle Zoo and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves! I guess the cold weather and the fact that it was the day after Thanksgiving kept people away.


One baby monkey was so excited to see visitors that he came right up to the window - much to Anndra's delight:





The kids loved the ape house:



Even though this next one isn't a great picture, I had to include it because when this gorilla came toward us it completely freaked me out - I was suddenly afraid the glass between us wasn't going to be enough to keep us safe. That is one seriously intimidating animal!





If you look closely, you'll see the tigers behind us in this pic:




We saved the train ride for last. The whistle was super loud, and yet Anndra managed to sleep through the whole thing - amazing!

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent most of last week in Utah for the holiday. On Wednesday we ran a hundred errands and hung out with my little brother, awesome sister-in-law, and adorable nephew:



Parker & Lincoln had fun getting to know this baby cousin a little better:



And when Ethan got a little fussy, even Todd took a turn to help cheer him up:




Thursday morning we visited my Grandma Sherrie & Grandpa John:


--I love Anndra's hair in this picture:


The kids and Debbie could have stayed all day just to play with the dog:




Then we ate Thanksgiving dinner at Todd's aunt's house and made Christmas ornaments afterward:




I'm saving the rest of the week for the next post, but I want to say THANKS to Nate, Grandma, Vicki, and Debbie for making the first two days of our trip absolutely WONDERFUL!

November Girl

This post is entirely about Anndra, but I wanted to start with this picture of the three of them because it reminds me of growing up with 2 older brothers. When I took this picture, she looked at the camera for a second but didn't dare take her eyes off the boys for too long because she never knows what they might do next!



I simply can't say enough about how much I'm enjoying having a daughter! It seems like she is the perfect balance of sweet, adventurous, shy, loving, independent, grateful, intelligent, helpful, sociable, and determined.



She's very curious and inquisitive, but not too prone to mischief.



She loves to laugh and be silly, but also knows how to be serious or reverent at the appropriate times (she's always eager to say prayers and take her turn during family scriptures).



She knows how to share and say she's sorry and will usually do both without reminding and/or coaxing.




One of the funny quirks she's developing is twisting her hair into knots. I am constantly untangling them. But sometimes if one of the knots is bugging her and I haven't gotten to it yet, she will rip it out and bring it to me. Here is one that was roughly the size of a dime:

Silly girl. Hopefully she kicks this habit while she still has hair left!

One other quirk - showing off her feet:

The 15th already?

HOW can it possibly be halfway through November already?? I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. Time goes way too fast sometimes. Here are a few things we've been up to since Halloween...

More fun teaching Lincoln's preschool class:

(pretending the storage tubs are space rockets)


More fun watching Brooke:

(poor girl fell and busted her lip, which bled like crazy so I put her in the bath to clean it all off and Anndra got in too to cheer her up)


Our boys FINALLY made it to a Gator Football Game:

(we figured it was an experience one ought to have before leaving this town)


Finding butterflies on bike rides:

(the kids decided it was sleeping - trying to hibernate since it forgot to fly south for the winter)


Very short Beach day. We dressed for the cold, but what we didn't count on was the unbelievable wind. The kids had a little fun when we first got there:

But then the wind kicked up so much that it felt like being in a sandstorm. We took shelter under towels for awhile - hoping that it would let up - but eventually gave up and went home.


Parker & Lincoln and their friends went out to "explore" the neighborhood and I sent the camera with them. Here are some of the pics they came back with: