A Fun Filled Few Days!

Hello Everyone! Hope you all are doing well! We have been having a really fun last few days. To start off, of course on Wednesday we had Eliza's 1st Birthday Party. That was a blast! I mentioned in my last post how I put Eliza's picture on Good Things Utah (I'm still very excited about that, by the way!). This is the picture that was on there. It wasn't my favorite, but when I was choosing it, I didn't realize it was the one where she wasn't smiling. But oh well! She's so cute anyway.


Well, on the opening of that show on Wednesday they had a guest cohost. She brought all of the ladies these cute little gifts that her mom made and put in a store called The Cannery in North Ogden. They were pink and brown flowers and I thought that they would be perfect for Eliza's room. Well, the store was in North Ogden and for those of you who aren't familiar with Utah, North Ogden is about an hour and a half away. I gave up on the dream of having those flowers for about a minute, but I really NEEDED to have them. So, Friday my dad, Mollie, Eliza and I headed out on the long trip to North Ogden to get my sweet find. Seriously, they will look so cute once I get them up into her room. Look how adorable:


Many of you have seen her room or atleast the quilt Eliza's sweet Mamaw made so you know how fabulous it matches. I'm so excited! After we went to The Cannery (Thank goodness I only set my sights on those flowers! Believe me, I could have spent a fortune in there!) we were starving so we went to the Union Station Grille. It was in the old Union Train Station. The food was just ok. I heard it was GREAT, so I wonder if I just got the wrong thing. Eliza was a gem on this long trip! She slept all the way there and all the way back. What a good baby!

When my neices and nephew got home from playing at their friends' house in American Fork (we picked them up on our way home), we waited for my mom to get home from work and then we went to this place called "Max & Cheese." It's this really cute restaurant that features mostly kid's food. It's little logo or whatever says "Grown Ups Tolerated." It was a fun little place. I think the kids really liked it.

Today, Saturday, we headed up to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake. I had actually never been up to the zoo in the 7 years that I have lived here (minus almost 2 years in Florida). I was really excited because Eliza had never been to the zoo at all and she loves animals so I figured she would be over the moon with excitement. Every animal that she sees she growls. Whether it be a bird or a lamb, whatever. Its so funny! She's finally started to understand the sound a dog makes though since our dog Phoebe barks at any sound she hears.


The first thing that we did at the zoo was head over to the White Alligator Exhibit. OK! Anybody who knows me, knows I am deathly afraid of many reptiles, mostly alligators and crocidiles. I lived in Florida for 2 years people! They walked down the street like it was normal! I had nightmares that they would come into my house or that they were chasing me down the street. My friend's little twins used to say (when they were 2 yrs old)- "Alligators will eat you for dinner!" I believe them! They are scary! So, needless to say, I was not excited to go see this "amazing" alligator. White and rare or not, its still an alligator. But I went anyway. It was actually quite interesting to see such a white animal. I wanted to know how they become like that, but I didn't feel like sticking around so close to it to actually find out the information. The kids loved it though and we ended up going back through before we left.




We next headed over to the elephants. Eliza was in awe of these animals. Naturally she growled at them and tried to get their attention by a scream and then a growl while waving her arm. It was too funny! Did you know elephants are pregnant for TWO YEARS?! Ugh! Disgusting! There are days when I thank the Lord that I am HUMAN. But then again, there are days when I do just the opposite. What would I have done if I had to be pregnant for 2 years? Oh my goodness!




Brandon wanted to go and see the gorillas next. I don't generally like the zoo. I think it smells and I don't actually LOVE animals enough to go look at them all day. This is unmistakably true with monkies. Uhh! This exhibit stunk so bad. I tried not to complain too much because Eliza was in love with the gorillas! WHY?! We spent so much time in there. I swear, Eliza and Brandon could have watched them all day. It was kind of fun though, the baby gorilla swang (swung?) right up by Eliza and looked at her through the glass. She was extatic! Silly Mommy though couldn't get the camera out in time. But watching Eliza's face when that monkey came close to her... that made the disgusting smell totally worth it.



WHO MEASURES UP BETTER?


ME?


OR MY DAD?

HAHA! I might say ME these days.

There was a merry go round at the zoo so we thought it might be fun to let the kids ride it. Eliza seemed very excited when she saw all of the animals. She showed her enthusiasm by growling the whole time we were in line. My kid! HA! She is so funny! Eliza and I rode on the wolf. It was the closest thing to a dog and I knew she would get a kick out of riding on a "dog-dog". Brandon rode an eagle, Madi- a dolphin and Amanda chose a seal. It was so great! I put Eliza on the wolf by herself but she wanted me on with her. I haven't ridden on a merry go round in ages! It took me back to the good ol' days free from stress.





After the merry go round Eliza started to get tired so we laid her down in her stroller and she fell right to sleep. Bless her heart! We'd been dragging her around for 2 days straight without her regular naps. She's been so good!



I won't bore you all with many more details, but we saw the penguins exhibit. That was really interesting because I thought those were birds that live in the cold. They were outside and it couldn't have been less than 95 degrees today. How did the penguins not melt? One little guy must have gotten too hot so he very slowly inched his way to the water. It was funny because he seemed pretty nervous about it. HAHA!





We saw lots of other animals. I actually had a really good time. For not being a huge fan of the zoo, I enjoyed myself. I know everybody else had fun too. The kids were sad to leave, but they got some pretty cool souveniers to take home. Eliza was an angel and the other kiddos were perfect! Here are some other pictures that I won't explain. This post is getting pretty long.





Across the street from the zoo is a place called Pioneer Village. I have never been there either. It is where the "This is the Place!" monument is. A little history behind that monument. It stands where Brigham Young stood in 1847 when the saints got to the Salt Lake Valley. Brigham declared, "This is the place!" and they began to settle in Utah. I find that history very interesting and I would have liked to walk around but everyone had had it with the heat and they were hungry (I was too!) so we decided to do it another time. Maybe when its not so hot.


On our way to eat dinner at Paradise Cafe in Sugar House we heard a scrapping sound coming from outside the car. I just thought it was because we were on a construction road and the car was vibrating from the paving being uneven. But, I got out of the car at the stop light and lo and behold! We had a flat tire. Brandon was so sad because he wanted McDonald's in THE worst way (apparently he wouldn't have liked anything at Paradise Cafe)! We pulled into a parking lot across the street from a McDonalds and proceeded to make the arrangements to fix the tire. Such a bummer! But we got Eliza out of her carseat and she made herself "comfortable" wandering all over the car. She has started climbing up on things, so she had a great time doing that. She's also made it a habit to pull her hair out now. Its the best thing ever (please sense my sarcastic tone)! That's why her hair looks the way it does in these pictures. Lovely!



Anyways, so that's been our fun few days so far. I have been having so much fun having my neices and nephew here. Eliza loves having them here as well. She and Amanda have such a great time together. Amanda and Madison are such great helpers! I have to tell a sweet story. Sorry this post is so long and boring, but I have to tell this if not for anything else but to tell my sister and brother in law what a great job they are doing with their kids. Amanda came upstairs tonight after she had gone to bed. My mom and dad had gone to the store and I was on the phone. So I just said, "What's up?" She looked at me with these tired eyes and said, "I'm scared and I think its because we forgot to say a prayer." I was immediatly humbled by this 10 year old's humility. She knows the comfort that talking to Heavenly Father brings. I quickly got off the phone and we went downstairs, got on our knees and said a prayer. When she stood up she said thank you and I could see how much that prayer comforted her. Amanda taught me a couple huge lessons tonight. How important it is to be humble and what it means to have pure faith. What an amazing little spirit she is. Good job CB and Jay!

This was a long post! Are you all awake still? Hope all is well with everyone!

TAKE CARE!
LAURA & ELIZA