The zoo (& some Sat. activities)

On June 12th Tammy took us to the zoo! On our way there, we stopped off for some lunch at the Dairy Queen in Centerville (Tammy's favorite Dairy Queen - I think it's so cute that she'll only visit specific locations of certain fast food restaurants. She also has her favorite Arctic Circle.)

It rained a bit on our car on the way up, so Faith was worried enough to bring her umbrella in. Luckily enough, it was pretty good weather while we were there!

Faith really wants the butterflies back to the zoo in the display building, but right now it's an exhibit called "Madagascar". I was not especially impressed, but it was all right. Christian loved these cool Radiated tortoises.

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Here are the kids with a Colobus monkey,

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and posing so cute together.

They love this interactive elephant display which makes noises and sprays water.

And here are some pics with the real elephants. The one on the left in this picture is very pregnant and due in July or August. Elephant gestation lasts 20 to 22 months, and I thought 9 was bad!

Buddy was mesmerized by them and could have sat there watching all day!

Faith decided to sit out the "conservation carousel" but Tammy helped Christian on the cool tiger,

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. . . . . and Zach opted for just a seat.

We took every photo opportunity that came around and it was nice that the statues weren't too hot.

Christian also got obsessed with the bears and made grandma hold him up at this exhibit for a long time!

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Faith loved how this one was relaxing with its head hanging over the edge.

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Checking out the zebras.

Faith was most excited to see the penguins, but wished that they had been swimming instead of taking an afternoon snooze in the shade.

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And we loved how close this giraffe was to the fence (up top on the east side).

It looks like it's posing for a group photo!

Christian was getting tired and grouchy so I caved to his demand of being photographed alone with the gorilla :)

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He does have the perfect lap for one child!

Me, snuggling my cuties.

Tammy got this cute picture just before we entered the Asian Highlands exhibit.

And the obligatory yearly gorilla arm growth chart pics. I can't believe how big Faith is getting!

This one's still my tiny baby, though :D

Tammy let them pick a souvenir at the end. Christian ended up with a chomping lemur head and Faith got a little hedgehog stuffed animal. What a great day! Thanks Tam, you're the best!!!!!!

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The next morning, we did our first project at Lowe's since we loved the Home Depot one so much. It was also really fun!

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They made these cute putting practice sets that even came with little wooden golf clubs!

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Lowe's holds their workshops on the 2nd and 4th Saturday mornings at 10 (click the link to sign up) and Home Depot's is the 1st Saturday at 9 (no prior sign up needed), if any of you are interested.

After that, we hit Toys-R-Us for a "Super Why" event. They got to color, wear character masks, hear a story, and play bingo where they won Super Why stickers and temporary tatoos.

We had a bunch of fun!

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If you're wondering where Tony was, he was at the Utah State Truck Driving Championships (also called the Truck Rodeo) that day. You'll have to wait until the next journal post to see how he did ;)

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A few weeks ago I rented Newsies to watch with the kids. I hadn't seen it since it came out in '92 and I thought Faith and Christian would enjoy the fun music and dance numbers. They watched about halfway through, but I'm the main one who enjoyed it! (Make sure you pause the music at right before playing the clip!)

End of school & party in Park City

Faith had been bugging me to teach her how to sew with a needle and thread for the last few months, so I finally broke down and did. She practiced making stitches (and made a heart shape!) with embroidery floss on felt with a dull tapestry needle and did really well. A few days later, she asked if she could mend her stuffed snake (which was coming apart at the seam in a few places) and I told her to go for it. She did such a great job sewing it up all by herself!
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On June 3rd, we released the rest of the butterflies. Faith was torn between wanting to keep them and wanting them to have a good life, so they were sent on their way by one sad little girl.



But she did put on a pretty brave face for the camera! Christian wanted to hold one, but just couldn't get over his fear of bugs to do it. .

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He sure was interested in them, though!

Here he is getting brave enough to hold the paper full of empty chrysalises (even this took a lot of encouragement!).

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June 5th was Faith's last day of first grade! Here she is all dolled up for end of school fun and yearbook signing, lock of pink hair and all!
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She made these as a farewell gift to her great teacher.

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This one has a self portrait inside of strawberry hand soap (which she drew on paper and then I copied onto transparency paper at Kinkos),

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and this one is her with her teacher, Mrs. Sweat, inside hand sanitizer. It reads, "I will miss you very much! Love, Faith."

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That afternoon was her friend Hunter's birthday party! She had an adorable snorkeler cake and goody bags which looked like goldfish from the pet store, but were actually soap. I forgot to get a picture, but check out Natalie's blog to see how cute they were!

That night Faith made this cute koala with movable arms and legs. It was inspired by a shirt from Justice given to her by grandma Peterson.

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I had been looking for fun, free activities to do with the kids and came across the workshops for kids at Home Depot. Our first one was June 6th and we got there promptly at 9 am. They give the kids orange aprons and then a pin for each project they complete, and the three boys in line in front of us had a bunch of them. Faith was miffed with me for not bringing her to these before now, but having a girl first, I just hadn't thought of it before. Being a bit of a tomboy myself, I'm surprised I didn't!

Christian did so well hammering the nails in. He couldn't reach his project on the table very well, so he set up shop on the floor.

Faith did hers almost completely on her own. She did a great job of reading and following the instruction sheet.

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Faith made a tool box and Christian did a sorter with a clear acrylic sliding top. They both had so much fun that we will now be regulars!

After they finished their projects, we met up with Tony (who had been at the gym) and went over to Joy & Jordans to watch the Air Show from their back yard.

Some planes zoomed right over us and we got a really good look at them.

While waiting for the thunderbirds (which we didn't know would be performing so late) the kids played with Sierra and Lily.

Jordan even got out his PVC waterfall for them!

Finally, after almost giving up, the Thunderbirds started! They did some really neat formations and fancy flying. We had a pretty good side view, but someday soon I would like to watch the show from on base. It was great fun hanging out with Joy's family all day!

On June 8th, the kids and I headed up to Park City to stay at the condo. Tony didn't have time off and had been working extra late, so he didn't come up this time.

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For some reason, Christian thinks that the storage ottomans there are his personal hidey-holes.

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Sarah & Brad got there late that evening and my kids were so excited to play with their cousins! Christian took my camera and got this pic of them playing dangerously on the bunk beds.

I love this one he got of Celeste and Brendon!
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On Tuesday we went shopping at the outlet mall. My mom very generously bought clothes for the kids (and denim capris for me the night before at TJ Maxx!). We hit OshKosh, Children's Place, Old Navy and a few others, but spent most of our time at Gymboree. They were having a huge clearance sale and we got a ton of shirts and shorts/pants/skirts for under $6. Faith even got a sundress, regular price $32, for $9!

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After shopping, we got in a couple of hours of swimming and then went to eat at Ruby Tuesday's.

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Wednesday we went back for more shopping with Joy, who had gotten there too late the day before. Even I like shopping as long as it's not for my own clothes! This time we had the kids with us (instead of ditching them with Brad or grandpa like the days before) and they were good little troopers.

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After shopping, we waited out a few hours of heavy rain inside the condo while a guy was there cleaning the carpets. We had hoped to be out at the pool when he was scheduled! It never totally cleared up, but the kids were just dying to swim again, so when the rain lightened up a bit I took them to the pool. It sprinkled on us most of the hour and a half that we were there, but the water in the kiddie pool was well heated and the kids had a blast.

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Side note--it's so pretty that all three pools are surrounded by pine trees. Park City isn't known so much as a destination for swimming, but that's our favorite activity there!


Christian learned to trust the floating power of his water wings and loved bringing his toes up out in front of him.

My sitting on the sidelines getting rained on was totally worth it for their utter joy!

After I finally was able to drag them out of the water, it was time to go. While I packed up the car, Buddy was peeking at me through the railing :)

We had a great time, but Christian was ready to get home to his own bed.
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It was a great, if also short, trip. I'm excited that we get to go back again this summer!