Hogle Zoo - 7/6/12

Continuing our holiday week extravaganza, we decided to join Charlie's cousins for a morning at the zoo. I was unsure if we'd make it since Charlie had come down with a fever the day before, probably having caught the bug that his Grandpa Russell had. But he seemed relatively normal on Friday morning so we decided to travel up to SLC to Utah's Hogle Zoo. It was the first time for both of us! I was so excited. We got there in time to get on the first train ride of the day.

Mical and Cole deep in conversation, with Scarlett and Callie in the background, waiting for the train to start.

Shortly into the train ride, Charlie started fussing, which is very unlike him... so I began to worry a bit. It didn't take too long to realize that he just wasn't feeling 100%. By the time we got home that evening, he was back to lying on the floor from a fever. I felt awful about taking him to the zoo on such a hot day when he didn't feel well. :( We will have to go back sometime soon so he can maybe enjoy it a little more.

But anyway... I got lots of pictures of the animals. They are all so pretty, although I'm sad we missed the giraffes (my fav!). Honestly, I felt a little bad for the animals living in the zoo. I know they are well taken care of, but I still couldn't help but feel bad that they weren't roaming free in their native habitats. However, it is nice to get to see animals that you wouldn't normally get to see in your lifetime, and so I decided to enjoy the zoo experience :)

We saw an elephant family,

Many species of monkeys,

Bald eagles,

Sea lions swimming right by us,

The new polar bear eating and doing flips in the water,

Brown bears cooling off,

And tigers (so beautiful!!).

Shortly past the tigers, my poor sick boy finally passed out for a nap.

So he missed the oh-so-not-exciting camels. Haha!

And then some kids yelled and he woke up within 10 minutes. Ugh. In this picture you can tell he's trying to smile through his discomfort. My little trooper.

Charlie waiting as patiently as he could while I watched and took pictures of some of his cousins on the carousel. (We would have gone on it, but I knew it just wasn't worth it this time.) From L to R: Maddi, Cole, and Scarlett:

Next we were off to our last stop, the small animals building, where we saw cute little owls (another one of my FAVORITE animals!!),

Some more small monkeys and primates,

Sleeping bats,

Exotic birds,

And lots of reptiles and snakes. Here are Charlie and Scarlett taking a peek at this large boa:

So glad it was behind glass! Although it does have a sort of grace and elegance about it... don't you think?

Finally, here is the Instagram collage I put together from our trip. You can totally see here that Charlie isn't feeling like his normal self:

It was a fun experience. We hope to go back one day... maybe not this summer, but soon. When Charlie's a little older and T will have time to go with us! <3

Fourth of July - Fireworks

Keeping with tradition, we all met at Meghan's house later that night on the 4th to shoot off fireworks. Luckily, this year was relaxing and completely incident-free, even with fireworks that shot in the air, unlike last year!! Yay :)

Just playing around with the "fireworks setting" on my camera, and fun filters, of course:

And I had to again include this close-up of our sweet, sleeping boy who passed out on his Daddy after a very long and fun day!

Little did we know that he was probably coming down with the 48hr sickness that Grandpa Russell had the day before... poor little guy.

Fourth of July - Heber City Family BBQ

Later during our Fourth of July holiday, after baking some cookies and delicious brownie bars to bring, we drove to Heber City, UT for the annual Cummings BBQ and get-together! This year, instead of doing it at the park, we did it a few blocks away at a nice events building behind the local church building. I'd never seen anything like it before. It had a kitchen area, covered (and somewhat indoor, but also outdoor) seating area, and deck with a lawn. Since we had to forgo the playground, Grandma Deanna rented a blow-up water slide for the kids to play on. Didn't get any photos of it, but it was a hit!

So anyway, here are my pictures of the occasion. Of course, most of them involve Charlie! I decided to use some new Photoshop filters I found online for these photos, so please let me know what you think, which ones you like and don't like, etc!

With Grandpa Russ

With Great-Grandma Deanna:

Cuddling with Grandma Jill...

...and then sleeping just a few minutes later!

Candy flying through the air from the traditional candy gun (Charlie will be loving this next year!):

With Daddy and Uncle Trent:

Showing his patriotism:

Love these photos... he's playing a game with his Daddy that they play a lot. Charlie will start to whine/cry and then T will start yelling back. It then turns into Charlie doing "fake yells" like his Dad and making this hilarious face. Just imagine both of them going "Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" at the same time. My favorite is in the third picture how Charlie has just thrown his head back in a warrior-style yelling pose. Adorable.

It was such a fun day, but it wasn't over yet! Soon to come, fireworks!! Again, let me know what filters and pictures you like best :)

Fourth of July - Hot Air Balloons

July 4th, 2012; 6:30am - America's Freedom Hot Air Balloon Festival - Provo, UT

T and I have done this once before (the first summer after we were married) and we liked it so much we wanted to make sure to do it again. We arrived at the field before any of the balloons were inflated, so we got to watch while they were inflated with industrial fans and then lifted up with the hot air from the giant flames. It was so cool! This first picture I took looking inside one balloon after it had been inflated and before the hot air was added.

All pictures were taken by me, except for the one of T and I, which of course turned out blurry. Gah. Oh well, it's better than nothing. Enjoy! :)

Right as we were leaving, they finally got the CocaCola balloon inflated, ready to take off. I guess those guys were late to the party ;) We didn't stick around to see the balloons come back and compete in the bean bag toss (throwing bean bags out of the balloons onto a giant target laid on the field), but I think we saw the best part ;)

Jolley's Ranch

Last week, we had a very fun-filled, busy 4th of July week. Seriously. We celebrated ALL week long, and wore ourselves out :) T's sister Mical and her family came to town so we jam packed our week with fun so all of the cousins could play and the adults could visit. So, the next few posts are dedicated to our festivities last week. I hope you enjoy!

On Tuesday, July 3rd, we went to Jolley's Ranch up Hobble Creek Canyon in Springville to do our 3rd annual afternoon in the park and Home Run Derby (sorry, no pics of that this year... oops!).

Here's a better picture of my poor beat up child after he pulled a kitchen chair over on his face. See how swollen he was? It was so sad! Now, a week later, he's almost 100% healed, just still a greenish-yellow tint of a bruise under his right eye. Also, in this picture you can see how he had his second bottom tooth on it's way in. Teething and bruised, double whammy! Thank goodness for Tylenol !!

I tried to get pics of most everyone who was there (I missed myself and a couple of the little ones). Clockwise from the top left: Steve talking with T and Charlie, stud-muffin Ryan, gorgeous Mical, and Grandma Jill walking in front of Maddi, Trent, and Caden with a very tiny Kanyon in the far background by the bridge over the creek.

Clockwise from top left: Trent found a snake and freaked everyone out. We're pretty sure it wasn't poisonous. Ha! Still freaky. ... Grandma Jill getting in some cuddle time with Charlie, who thoroughly enjoys chewing on keys. Meghan taking a photo of Cohen (picture of a picture being taken, how fun! I can't wait to see her amazing pics.) And lastly, Charlie's adorable shoes. I mean, for real. Look at those things!

Overall, it was a beautiful afternoon and evening. The weather was dry and perfect, getting a little chilly as the sun went down. We enjoyed sandwiches and good company. I love this tradition!!

Not pictured: Myself (I was behind the camera), Grandpa Russell (he was at home, sick with the flu, yuck!), Troy (had other plans), Scarlett and Kelan (probably running around or playing on the playground), Callie and Cole (also running and playing). 

Also, I'd like to add the beautiful pictures that Meghan took of Charlie, just so I can have them here in my "journal", so-to-speak:

Sweetest boy. 

Life As My Phone Sees It 6/21/12 - 7/5/12

I've got lots of fun photos to show you this time. Life is good!

6/22 - 'Atta Boy Charlie! Steal Daddy's remote while he's sleeping! (Side note - it's pretty hard to get the remote from him, so Charlie definitely has the right idea!! Haha)

6/22 - Just an artistic shot of the moon from our apartments. Sometimes I go walking outside after Charlie is in bed so I can enjoy dusk, which is by far one of the best times of day in the summer!

6/23 - Got tagged in a "What are you doing right now?" post, and I had just finished cleaning my apartment (gotta love when I actually get in a cleaning streak!). I really love the feeling of a clean place, even if it does only last 10 minutes with my cute little drool bucket crawling around!

6/28 - Charlie got stuck on the frame of the chair. He wasn't too happy about it, but after lots of trying and fussing/whining, he finally figured out how to get his legs OVER the pesky bar! (These stupid chairs are going to be the death of me...)

6/28 - Later that day, we went up to Heidi's to go to a nearby splash pad with friends! Charlie and Emma are thoroughly enjoying their animal crackers!

6/30 - We enjoyed a family date out to the bowling alley! It had been so long since we had been bowling that we both had TERRIBLE scores (read between 60 to 85 points per game! ouch!), but we still had a fun time and I enjoyed that awesome one-cheek soreness and limp the next day! Woo hoo! The second picture is a shot of my favorite summer hairstyle this season: loose waves done with the straightening iron.

7/1 - Traveled up to Elk Ridge to celebrate Troy's birthday! Nephews Kanyon and Caden made that awesome Lego creation for Troy. What is it, you ask? Why, it's Troy's name made out of Legos! See? Now you can see it! :)

7/1 - Later that night, we got home late, and I got tagged in another "What are you doing right now?" post... so I posted this picture. We were trying to wrangle a very tired and cranky boy into his PJs so he could go to bed!! He only cries if he's really tired or hungry. Sounds a lot like me! Haha ;)

7/3 - Pictures of our pre-4th of July celebrations at a beautiful park up Hobble Creek Canyon. We all thoroughly enjoy this relatively new family tradition. We eat snacks, the kids play on the playground, and the guys enjoy a competitive round of home run derby! :) In the picture below you can see a mark on the bridge of Charlie's nose. It was caused by one of our kitchen chairs (THIS is why those chairs will be the death of me!). Charlie pulls himself to standing on the kitchen chairs, and this particular time he somehow pulled one down on top of him as he fell over backwards. Double whammy! He was SO upset, and we had to give him Tylenol. Stupid kitchen chairs... they are so light that they easily topple over. Blah. Well anyway, he pulled the chair over on him literally 20 minutes before we had to leave. Now he has a nice little bruise and swollen area on his nose and under his right eye.

7/4 - Happy 4th of July! I'll post a lot of details about the holiday in a different post, but here are my Instagram pics from the day: Balloons, Barbecue, Fireworks! (Feel free to click on them to see them larger)

7/5 - We're not sure if it's because he partied too hard yesterday, got in bed too late last night, is teething, or just caught a bit of the bug going around, but little man had a fever today and was soo sleepy, lethargic, and sad. I felt so bad for him. Well, a good dose of Tylenol and a nice, long afternoon nap seemed to help a ton! Broke his fever and helped him get back to normal. It's so sad to see your baby feeling sick, but it's SO sweet to have him want to cuddle and sleep on me. I soaked in that benefit to the max today! (Normally he won't slow down enough to even get a hug in without him pushing away... so it's Mommy Bliss to get cuddle time with her little man).

Hoping he's still feeling good tomorrow for his first trip to the zoo!! :)

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Just a couple videos to hopefully make your Monday a little brighter! Some of Charlie's favorite things include playing at the pool...

And playing with cords and door stoppers...

Seriously, why do I even bother with actual baby toys?! ;)