At the Zoo August 2012

We had the chance to go to the zoo with some of my cousins, and I'm glad we went!

The grown-ups outnumbered the little kids for once, so I was able to get some fun pictures.

 

James playing peek-a boo (with Grandma's help).

Mariah and James watching the bird show together.  

The happy cuddling didn't last long, but I can pretend. :)

 Mariah finally got a turn to sit on the big elephant. 

There's always so many kids around this thing.

Just coming through a log in bear county.

Mariah and Aunt Lorri dancing in the misters.

James was excited to get in the nest, 

and he sat down and immediately got up as I tried to take the picture.

 Climbing on the big rhino statue.  James didn't want to get on any of these things.

 Sharing an icee, it was quite hot that day!

 Cuddling the baby tiger.

 

Mariah insisted that Ashton sit with her for this picture.

 After the zoo, we decided to take a trip to temple square for Family Home Evening.  

Mariah loves pictures of the Salt Lake Temple and was very excited to see it.

Smelling a pretty flower.

James walked up the stairs, and then was done before I could take a picture.

Mariah standing in the alcove by the doors.  She was excited that I told her I had my picture taken in the same spot when I got married.

Taking a bit of a break, looking up at the temple.

Mariah was very excited about the huge Jesus statue, but when I tried to take her picture, she suddenly noticed the stars and galaxies on the ceiling and wouldn't look at me anymore.

July 2012 Disneyland!

We got to go to Disneyland with our kids this summer, yay!

It was tons of fun, we are already hoping to go again soon.

 One of the fun things we did was pin trading.  I had heard of pin trading, but I wasn't really interested until a couple of my good friends talked about it and told me how fun it was.  I'm really glad they did, because it was really fun!  This is the first pin that Mariah traded for.  Sadly, it was also the first pin that we lost. 

 Krista and Mariah are waiting in line to meet the fairies.

 I wasn't sure how into the characters Mariah would be, but she loved them!

Here she is with Fawn, the fairy.

Mariah and Tinkerbell.  Most of our pictures are of the kids with characters, 

since it's hard to get good pictures on the rides.

It was really fun to see the Cars characters, especially when they were driving around

 James was very excited to see Mater.  That's what he's saying in this picture.

 Mariah and Krista got to ride this ride together, and Stacey and I sat behind them.  

They were very excited to be so "grown-up".

 Mariah was very excited to see Sully.

She was also very excited to see Pluto, 

even though I'm pretty sure she had no idea who he was!

 On the last day we were able to catch Mickey and Minnie.

 

 We also saw Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and even Eyore 

(he had his own area, so he's not in this picture).

 Disneyland is hard work for little boys!

These two passed out nearly every afternoon.

 It was also really, really hot.

 

 The girls didn't fall asleep as often as the boys, but Disneyland did wear them out!

 James and his cousin Eric LOVED the train.  We discovered it while everyone else was on Splash Mountain.  It was a great way to keep them entertained.  After we rode the train, the would both get very excited every time they heard the bell signaling that a train was approaching a station.

 Mariah picked out the princess Minnie Mouse ears.

 

 Trying the door outside the Mad Hatter store.

 

 James liked the idea of his hat, but he wouldn't actually wear it!

July 2012 Happy Birthday James

 We had hotdogs and hamburgers, chips, cake and presents!  

James was excited about cheetos and orange soda.

 Daddy is helping James open his cards.

 Ooh, cars!  James got a lot of cars for his birthday, and he was super excited about all of them.

His other favorite toy?  A vacuum!

After presents, we got to have cake!  It was a really fun construction scene.

James was very excited about the trucks on the cake,

and he loved when people sang Happy Birthday.  

It was a very successful birthday.

June 2012

As part of our local city celebration, we went to a little event called Huck Finn Day. 
It was pretty much like a school carnival, except for they flood part of the park
and fill it with fish, and then people go fishing.  Since we don't eat fish much,
we mostly ignored that part!

Mariah was being goofy for pictures.

After a while we met up with some of our friends. 
As you can see, Mariah was still being silly.

James got a donut! 
You can't see his mouth in the first picture, but he's excitedly saying "DONUT!"

James really likes to show things to the camera.

We had some fun at the Trafalga in Lehi.  Mariah was super excited to ride the airplanes.
There was a swinging boat ride that James loved, but none of the pictures turned out well.

Trafalga also had a climbing wall.  Mariah begged and begged to climb it.
Note the spot just above and to the right of her head where you can see the plywood?

That spot that was to the right of Mariah's head is now right under her bum,
and that's as high as she went!
She will climb the rock walls at parks no problem, but this one scared her for some reason. 
I'm sure she'll be all over this in another year or so.

May 2012

 My nice sister bought a pass to the Zoo and added us on it, so we got to go back and ride the carousel!  The kids were way excited.

Krista and Mariah, ready to go!

 

 Mariah was very excited to show me the ears on her wolf.

 The center of this carousel has mirrors, and James would only look at them, not me!

We took some pictures of the kids for Grandma Draper to put on the wall.  

Mariah was very excited. 

 

 She's not looking at the camera, but this is the one that we printed up for Grandma.

And here's our cute boy!

Looking ready for a haircut he is!

 The end of the month started to get REALLY warm, 

and so we went to a splash park with our friends.

Playing in the fountains.

 

 Our friend brought some balls that would float down the river, 

but not get sucked through the grate at the end of the stream.  

Everyone had fun playing with them, and I think she was only short 1 or 2 balls by the end.

 Mariah was just too tired to go any further!

James learned how to climb up on the play kitchen, 

but still hasn't figured out how to get down!