Trip to the Zoo

This morning we woke up to a bright, sunny day with temperatures that were supposed to be in the high 40s. Gorgeous! We didn’t have anything planned for the day, so we decided it was time to let Austin check out the Detroit Zoo!

We weren’t very smart; the weather seemed so nice, we just put light jackets on the kids (and I even wore 3/4 length sleeves!). So although it LOOKED like a beautiful day, we were pretty darn cold! Luckily for the kids, we had blankets for them in the car that we wrapped them up in, but our day would have been much better if we had dressed more appropriately!

By the way, the zoo is a GREAT place to play with a new camera. : ) We have lots of animal pictures because I was having a blast using our camera!

We always love visiting the butterfly house:

         Watching the storks:

“Makenna, how many humps does the camel have?” “Humps?!? What’s a hump???” Ha ha:

The tiger, as always, was sleeping:

I still can’t look at the gorilla without thinking about the movie Zookeeper! : )

  

The peacocks were out like crazy today! Honestly, everywhere we went we were followed by peacocks!

I’m sorry, but ostriches are scary birds! They are especially scary when they march up to the fence and stare you down!

 

I think they should spray paint the rocks in the rhino pens—it’s awfully hard to see the rhino when it’s the same color as the rocks!

It may have been cold, but we were enjoying ourselves!

The zebras were running and jumping and playing.  So fun to watch!

We watched the giraffes for quite a while.  We loved seeing them play (plus it was warm inside where we were watching them from!)!

  

Aww! The zebras were cuddling with each other! : )

The bears do not hibernate, but a sign told us that they sleep quite a bit. They were definitely sleeping when we walked by!

 

After a picnic lunch, we went to my favorite place—the Artic to see the seals and the polar bear! : )

           

It was a freezing day, but we had a great time! Next time we will be sure to wear our coats, gloves, and hats! : )

A Week Full of Firsts

On Sunday, Miss Makenna hit a HUGE milestone! She had her first day in Primary!!! My baby girl is now a Sunbeam!!! (Can you tell we are all excited about it?!?) To celebrate, we gave Makenna her very own scriptures. We decided this would be a tradition in our family—each child will receive their first scriptures the Sunday they go into Primary.

  

Makenna had a GREAT time in Primary, and we are so excited that she is such a big girl now! After Church, the first words she said to me were, “Did you cry, Mom? Did you cry because your baby girl is so big she is in Primary now?” : )

Max also had a “first” this week—he is now wearing a patch over his eye in the mornings! We went to the doctor on Tuesday, and the doctor is having Max patch his good eye for four hours a day (so basically breakfast to lunch). The first day was really hard.  Max kept the patch on perfectly fine, but he really had a hard time seeing.  His uncovered eye would try to look at us, but then would turn in and he had a hard time focusing.  At one point he seemed super sad.  I asked him what was wrong and he said, “I can’t see anybody!” : ( Poor little guy! But he is a champ and is wearing the patch without complaint.  We go back in to the doctor on March 6 and we will see what she says then!

 

Austin had his own “firsts” this week. His work week was just super strange.  This month he is at a hospital about 45 minutes to a hour away from here (a hour and a half in traffic). He went in to work on Monday, rounded, and then they told him he could go home.  He was supposed to go to work on Tuesday at 6:30.  He left our house at 5:30 to get there.  Then he gets to work and they said, “Oh. Our cases were canceled this morning. Come back at 1” and he had to turn around and drive the hour back home, and then come back for clinic in the afternoon! The same thing happened on Wednesday morning. Seriously, this seems to be a pretty unorganized place! Anyway, but back to his “first.” Because Austin came back home on Tuesday morning, he was able to go to our Play and Learn with us for the first time! The kids had a BLAST playing with their Dad! Our theme this week was “Artic—Polar Bears” and the kids played and played in the fake snow with their Dad!

I also had my own “first” this week—I had to get my first Michigan driver’s license and registration on Wednesday. I was super sad to get a new license when my Arizona license doesn’t expire until 2049, but I had to get my new car plates and you have to get a Michigan license to do that… Oh well I guess.

Other than all of our “firsts,” this week was actually a pretty weird week.  Because of the holiday, our schedule was all messed up.  For instance, Play and Learn this week was on Tuesday instead of Monday, and Preschool was on Wednesday and Friday rather than Tuesday and Thursday.  This really seemed to throw our week all off.  Then with Austin’s weird work week, we were all over the place this week! Hopefully things will get back to normal next week!

One more piece of news—Austin took his second boards on Friday! He had to drive 4+ hours to take this test AND pay a ton of money for it! Don’t you love tests like that?!? Here’s hoping we hear good results with they come back in about a month!

New Year’s

This year I wanted the kids to understand more about what “New Year’s Day” is all about. So using some project ideas from Preschool, we did a few activities on New Year’s Eve.

First, we made crowns:

    

Then we made our New Year’s Resolutions (both kids set goals to be able to ride a “big bike” this year):

 

Then we practiced counting from 10 down to 1, yelling “Happy New Year!” and blowing noise makers:

And then we were ready for the New Year!

On New Year’s Eve night, we went to a fun New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house.  We had a blast! Lots of yummy treats and fun games (ping pong, foosball, darts, Pictionary, etc.). The kids had a great time playing with all the fun toys:

     

Unfortunately my camera’s batteries died before I could take very many pictures. But it was a great time! At about 10:30 or 11:00, we counted down the New Year with noise makers and sparklers (hey, we had small kids there and Church at 9 am the next morning—we needed to do an earlier count down!).

SUCH a fun time!!! Happy New Year!