Dylan's bday and the zoo

So we had a fun trip to the zoo this summer. I can't even really remember when it was, I just know it was hot! Sydney was so excited about the giraffes and was sorely disappointed about the Hogle Zoo's lack of zebras. The baby elephant was very cute too.

Then we also celebrated Dylan's birthday. I spent a few hours at the temple which gave me a lot of peace for the day. Then we went to his grave and let Sydney and cousin Carly let go of helium balloons to "send them to heaven" for him. We also had an angel food cake. I included a picture of his headstone because I know many have not been able to come see it yet. Thank you again Seth for the amazing picture. I tried to get a picture of the girls letting go of the balloons, but Carly let go too quickly, and we had to really encourage Sydney several times to let go of hers.

camping fun

So we always have a good time at Eran's family's annual camping trip, and this year was no exception:) Sydney was much more social this year than in years past, so she had fun with second cousins while 4 wheeling and in the hammock as you see in some of the pictures.

She also ensured we made plenty of smores for her at the campfire every night we were there, and she wasn't very afraid of the many bugs as is seen in the caterpillar on her hand shot. We even went out on a bug catching walk once! You can see her slightly swollen eye from a mosquito bite she got in the picture of her by the stream - ah the many joys of camping!
I can't believe I haven't taken a picture of my smashed up 4 wheeler. Zach crashed when he got panicked because he got a little lost. We were super thankful he didn't get badly hurt, just a few scrapes, and Eran's cousins and uncle helped him un-bend the 4 wheeler so it was still ride-able. I'll have to go take a picture of it before it gets completely fixed though because they used zip ties to fix the broken plastic and my bike looks a little like frankenstein. That will be a picture for my next post on my blog...

There is also this picture of her at soccer practice that a nice girl in my ward did for kids her age for a few weeks. I love good nice neighbors!

Exciting day for pets!

Some of you may have seen this on facebook, but we have had excitement going on with our pets. One of the black molly fish I just bought had 13 babies! We went from having 3 black fish to now 16! We also had our dogs shaved for the summer. I wanted to see how much it might help our shedding issues in our house. I included before and after pictures for the dogs.

Way to go Zach!

Zach has been anticipating this day since before we met him. He graduated from high school! Now he is very eager to move out and be a full fledged adult, but we don't think that will be happening anytime soon. I know the team of people who help Zach make decisions are encouraging him to stay with us for at least another year... we'll see what happens.

small catch-up

So I finally downloaded my 2010 pictures from my camera. I said in my last post that I didn't feel like playing catch-up, but there were some fun pictures to share, so here I go...This is Cal after we had some hot cocoa with whip cream on top. He and Sunny love to catch the whip cream in their mouths as it shoots out of the can. An action shot of that would have been funnier, but show me someone who can shoot a picture and whip cream at the same time and I'll be impressed.



Then Zach turned the big 18. We took him to IHOP, and that is a Ben 10 cake he requested. We are still not quite sure what is going on with him after graduation in May, but everyone (except him) is in agreement he is not ready to move out yet.

We have had a slow start to spring, and this is Syd with a very late season snowman. The thing that cracked me up about this snowman, was that as we were putting the face on, I explained to her that the nose is usually under the eyes. In her drawings, the nose and eyes are currently aligned. Then when I tried to put the arms in the snowman's middle, she protested and said, "Mom, arms start up here (pointing to her shoulder) not in the middle!" I couldn't argue with that:)Many of you have seen the sorry shape of Sydney's baby blanket. She proudly put it on display here in front of her favorite show. She is nearly ready to retire it though because she realizes how it does not keep her warm like other blankets do. She even moved on to a blanket she got when she was in the hospital last month with pneumonia.
Then we finally got to go 4wheeling this year. The weather actually cooperated. This is at the bottom of some mine trailings in the West Desert. Hooray for spring! Let's pray it stays!

winter blahs

I haven't posted lately because I haven't had much to post about. I realize I never wrote about Christmas or Sydney's 4th birthday - but now those are old news things that I don't feel like writing about. It does make me laugh though when Sydney tries to understand how time and calendars work. She always tells me that she will be turning 5 in a minute. She has been grounded from her scissors though because she cut her own hair and a hole in the knee of her jeans. That would have been a great photo, but unfortunately I was out of it with low blood sugar. Her hair was not disastrous enough to even take her in to fix it - she just has a weird layer in her hair now. So I'm sick of winter - I'm grateful for my medication that is keeping me from diving too low. It is just strange that I can tell the meds are working and that I would be sad some days without it. Anyone else out there on mental meds that can tell those kinds of things?