Summer Fun!!

 ****WARNING:  LOTS OF PICTURES AHEAD!****

We've had lots of fun this summer!  Let's start with the zoo. 

We went with all my siblings and their families to Hogle Zoo.  I haven't been there for years and it was so much fun!  The kids loved it!

This picture cracks me up because you can see pretty much all of the kids, except Brooklyn, who is turned around telling everyone what to do.  I hear she's like that in nursery too...yikes.  

 

This is how Adilyn was pretty much the whole time.  She was so good and didn't even mind being trapped in her stroller for a whole day.

Ben and Brooklyn absolutely loved the merry-go-round!

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Brooklyn turned 3 this summer.  She wanted a flower cake, so we made do with cupcakes arranged in flower shapes.  

She got a princess outfit, and loves it.  She still wears it at least once a day!!

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Ben and Brooklyn got to go swimming in Gramma Merrie's pool in Moab, and they would have stayed in there and floated in their tubes all day if we would have let them. 

 

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And the kids still talk about the hike we went on.  

Adilyn was so intrigued by McLain's funny hat!  So cute!

Right by one of the creek crossings, there were tons of butterflies.  It was amazing. 

 

 I'm offering a prize to anyone that can tell me the correct number of butterflies in the next picture.  

And this would have been a great family picture, but we didn't realize til we got home that the baby carrier was smashing Adilyn's face!!  Oops!

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For the 4th of July, we went to Willard and had a good ol' time!  The kids had fun playing the games.  They both got a ring around the pop bottle!

Although Brooklyn did have to step forward a little!  

 

They loved the train ride, 

and especially the airplane ride!  They couldn't stop smiling.  Brooklyn was a little scared though, and wouldn't let go of the sides of the plane for anything!  White knuckles the whole time!

The main reason for us going to Willard for the 4th was for the entertainment!  McLain's band, With One Accord, was part of it!  They played for half hour and they were a hit!  No surprise!  Everyone that hears them loves them! They did a great job!

 

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And now some pictures of Adilyn, who is getting so big!  She will be one next month!  Crazy.

She's standing and walking all along the furniture.  She's into everything, and she's quite hilarious!

She woke up from nap the other day, and apparently it was hot in her room.  Her hair was soaked with sweat, it was so nasty!

I guess she has some fascination with laundry baskets.  Besides the fact that she's always throwing clothes out of them, we found her like this on one occasion.

 

And like this on another occasion.  

What a cutie!

And I had to put this picture on here.  It describes the kids so well.  Ben always trying to protect and love Adilyn, while Brooklyn is the never-ending torturer.  So funny!!!

 

YELLOWSTONE!!

So for Memorial Day weekend, our plans were to do nothing.

Then my dad called and offered us a trip to Yellowstone!  He had planned a trip for him and my mom, but it turned out they couldn't go after all, and the reservations were non-refundable.  So he gave it to us!  And they even offered to take the kids for the weekend!  Bonus!

Thanks Mom and Dad!!!  We had lots of fun!

We were only able to go into the park on one day, so we just made it to Old Faithful and back.  But it sure made us want to go back sometime and spend more time there.

So here are the pics of the journey to Old Faithful.

It was freezing!!  And wet.  And rainy.  And windy.  The high was only in the 30's.  Brrr.  Can you see all the raindrops on the windshield?

We saw lots of bison through the binoculars.

And we even got a picture of them through the binoculars.  Cool, huh?

Look how cute the baby bison is.  

 Welcome to Yellowstone!!!

So here is Old Faithful.  We weren't that impressed.  Maybe because it was such an overcast day and from where we were sitting, we could barely see it.  The geyser just blended in with the clouds!!

The hot springs were cool and so pretty!

But they were so hot and it was so cold, there was just so much steam.  Sometimes it was pretty hard to see.  Beautiful anyway! 

We came upon another geyser (I don't remember the name, something about a great big fountain or something) that was way cooler than Old Faithful.  Way bigger, and a little bit easier to see (the clouds were darker, so it didn't blend into the sky quite as much).  It was totally awesome!!!!

And there you have it!  We had a good time!  Despite the cold, it was an awesome trip!  Thanks again Mom and Dad!