A day at the Zoo

In July, we went to the zoo with my entire family. It was kind of amazing that we got everyone to come, because usually, we can only get that to happen when it is someone's birthday and this was a whole week before my brothers birthday. This trip was Madelynn's second time at the zoo, but the difference between the last time she went in May and now was amazing. She was so much more interactive. She loves animals. If she ever see's a cat or a dog she starts a round of super excited arm flapping, and in some rare occasions, she lets out some excited squeals as well. The last time we were at the zoo she didn't really care. She didn't know what she was looking at and was just kind of along for the ride. This time at the zoo we got quite a few  excited arm flaps and some seriously intense animal staring. It was fun to watch her little face as she was processing so many new things. She is one smart little girl and I look forward to the next time we get to take her back to a zoo. Maybe she will be making animal noises by then. That would be fun.

It was also nice being with all of my siblings and reminiscing about childhood memories that we had at the Hogle Zoo. We lived in Sandy when I was a little girl and my mom would take us up there all the time. It was kind of fun and sad remembering all the good times we had there. Fun because they were awesome memories, but sad because a lot of the animals and exhibits and places we remembered are either gone or replaced. That zoo is changing quite a bit. Thank you family, for adding another fun Hogle Zoo memory.

And now for the pictures, the never ending pictures.

family... i already miss you. you are a crazy but amazing set of people. i love you all so much. thanks for being mine.

Packing Up

The last week at our house has been chaos. We have never done a move like this before. Whenever we have moved in the past we have been able to reuse the same 10 boxes and take a couple of trips across town (except with china, but that was a whole different ball game). This is the first time that we have had to pack up every single possession that we have at the same time. Thanks to our awesome family and friends (Mom, Melissa and Kaimii especially) we were able to come up with enough boxes to hold all of our crap. I decided that I really do hate packing and don't look forward to doing it again in two years.

We get our moving truck tomorrow morning and it will be a mad dash to fill it up with all of these boxes, but until then, our apartment is a little bit claustrophobic. Our walls are lined with boxes and I am constantly worried that Madelynn is going to try to pull herself up on some box and cause an entire pile to fall down on top of her, which would result in some serious ouchies for her. Here are a few pictures of all of our crazy boxes. This really makes me think we need to simplify our lives. Maybe we don't need to have hobbies, or clothes or books. And maybe I don't need to cook anymore. That would clear out a lot of our stuff.

A July Full of Cousins

During the month of July we spent a ton of time with the Young family. Two of McKays sisters came to visit from out of state and brought spouses and their 13 kids with them. Add them to the other two sisters that he already has living in Orem and their 2 kids, plus his parents and us, you have one crazy full house. His sister Marissa stayed for about 3 weeks and his sister Sasha stayed for just a few days more. So we had 3 weeks filled with food, fun and cousins. At first Madelynn did NOT like being around all the cousins. There was too much noise and too many people who wanted to pick her up and play with her. You would think having over 20 people fawn over you and want to hold and hug and play with you would be a good thing, but no. She spent the majority of her first few days with cousins very nervous and crying. She eventually developed a defensive "put me down!" squeal, but by the end of the 3 weeks she gave into being picked up by tons of random people with apathetic silence. Maybe someday she will actually like to be played with by people who are not her mother and father. Maybe.

While all the Young cousins were in town we celebrated a bunch of birthdays, saw a lot of fireworks, had lots of family dinners, went to the movies and seven peaks a number of times and we had a Lobsterfest. The girls also all had at home manicures complete with my niece Julia giving us a foot bath and massage. So funny! We also went to Kennecott copper mine, an extended family wedding, and played with Jet Ski's on Utah lake, and then subsequently fell victim to the mosquitoes who live on Utah lake. I still have the remains of  the welts those stupid mosquitoes left 2 weeks later. We made a lot of fun memories while they were here, however, I think Madelynn's favorite part was playing with her twin cousins, Collin and Mark, who are only 4 months older than her. They were so cute together, and she put up with a lot from them. They would constantly steal her hairbows, toys, sippy cups and pacifiers. They would climb on top of her, pull her clothes and poke her in the face, and she seemed to love every minute of it. It is crazy to think that the next time this type of family gathering happens, we will be the ones visiting from out of town. Weird. Thank you Young family for a fun month.

Here are a bunch of super cute pictures of all of our July activities. Enjoy!

 Twins holding Twins!

I married into one awesome family. I love you guys! We will miss you all in Wisconsin!