Possibly the CUTEST picture ever!!!

Quote of the Day:
"A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life." ~Irish Saying

The Aquarium

We have a local aquarium that's housed in an old grocery store. Wierd, I know. But they just finished a new wing with more exhibits and the girls dig it. We have passes so we go about once a month or so. We went yesterday and had a grand 'ol time!

Janie checking out the flamenco fish. (Okay, that's not really what it's called but this frilly orange fish - another pic below - looks like a fancy flamenco dancer to me :)

This cool tank has these funky upsidedown jellyfish. I think they're alien-style wierd, myself.

Here's a pic of the flamenco fish :)

I thought this was a cute one.

This is part of the new wing. It's a rainforest exhibit and has some big tanks with interesting animals like pirhanas, boa constrictors, caymans, turtles, poison dart frogs, etc. They did a great job with the space they had. I'm so glad it's close to our house.

Quote of the Day:

"The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it." ~Doug Larson

Farm Country

We have a great petting zoo just down the road from our house and we have been going at least once a week all summer. The girls love it because they get to have a pony ride and feed the animals out of their hands. I actually secretly love it too because the baby cows are darling. Anyway, Joe surprised me with a new camera that fits in my purse so I can take pictures wherever I want! So last week I busted out my cool new toy and took some shots of the girls with the farm animals.

Nubian goats. My favorite animals at the petting zoo :) They have these itty bitty tongues that lick the corn out of your hand and it's funny! They are kind of slobbery though. I want a nanny goat of my own someday for the milk. (There something you didn't know about me, huh?)

Janie on her steed. This was the very first time she rode without me walking alongside her.

Gracie always chooses this same pony. It is black and white and she loves it!

A forced portrait for sure. They keep the bunnies in cages, which I think is dumb for a petting soo. There's nothing softer than a bunny, people! Let the kids at 'em!

Here are the two baby cows. They are adorable.

Whenever we get close to the petting zoo, Gracie inhales deeply and says, "I smell animals!" So that's the quote of the day.

And she loves this song, "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon, so that's the song of the day! I realized yesterday that for many years I thought that Chevy Chase was "Garfunkle" because of the music video for this song...LOL. I'm a little slow, okay?

Torrey '09

Well, we survived Torrey this year and didn't come home with ANY stitches, so we're happy as little clams! We had a blast visiting with all our family and having lots of laughs, as we always do. The weather was a bit windy, but warm, and the scenery was, as usual, exceedingly beautiful.

For our little family, our annual Torrey reunion is a chance to reflect on the previous year and see how we have changed and grown. The girls are so much bigger now and getting to be so independent. It's amazing how quickly they are becoming little girls instead of toddlers. They slept so much better this year than previous years. They played in the pool and did little talent shows for us. They loved the dirt. At one point we looked over to find Gracie smooshing her face in the red dirt. I think she liked it because it was warm. Too cute. But Torrey also makes us wonder about the year ahead. What will have changed? What major events are on the horizon for us? It's a little daunting to think about, actually. Well, with a little luck we'll all be there again next year sharing s'mores and laughs.

My parents. Cute!

Tawny and Eli

This picture shows how windy it was. Yikes!

Tawny played with the girls in the pool.

Janie lovin' the water!

Aunt Nan got headlamps for all the kiddos. :)

Gracie snuggling with Uncle D.

Goobers! It is physically impossible for them to take a serious picture.

At Chimney Rock in Capitol Reef.

This is my favorite picture from the entire trip. Is she a doll, or what?

Beautiful baby with a blue sky behind her.

Gracie found this raised hill and called it Pride Rock (from The Lion King, her favorite movie). She said she was Queen Nala and Joe was her cub. He's supposed to be sleeping here, but I think he looks more like a dead spider.

Again with the dirt...

Auntie and Janie sharing a juice :)

We had sack races and Myles was the winner. But Denny was a close second!

A little sunburned, but happy.

Graice and Uncle D became buds :)

Quote of the Day:

"Why do your teeth have to hang out of those pink things?" -Gracie, on the drive to Torrey

Heritage Park

Joe's company gives us passes to lots of Salt Lake attractions each summer. We decided to use one of them yesterday and headed up to Heritage Park. It is a historic park where they have a monument marking the spot where President Brigham Young stood and declared that this was the right place for the Saints to build their city. It's really kind of cool, especially for young children. Ours loved it.

A big wooden train that the girls liked to play on.

The petting zoo was the real reason we came. They have a really large area with sweet little lambs and pigmy goats and bunnies. What more could two female ankle biters want? Janie kept patting them and saying, "It's nice! It's nice!"

Gracie liked the goats and thought that they all were pregnant because their bellies are so big :)

Too cute!

Janie kept trying to feed this poor goat sticks off the ground. For some reason, he just wouldn't eat them.

It was 96 degrees yesterday while we were there. Most of the lambs huddled together in this shady spot and napped. You can just see the heat in Jane's cheeks.

This little goat just stood in the middle of his food and gorged himself the whole time. No wonder their bellies are huge!

They had a mini-train ride that the girls thought was pretty fun :)

Cute peeps!

Quote of the Day:

"One hundred and fifty years ago our people were leaving Nauvoo and threading their way across the prairies of Iowa. None of us, I am confident, can appreciate the measure of sacrifice which they made in leaving their comfortable homes to brave the tempests of the wilderness on a journey that would not end until they reached this valley of the Great Salt Lake. Their suffering was immeasurable. They died by the hundreds for this cause of which each one of us is a part." - Gordon B. Hinckley, "Listen by the Power of the Spirit," Ensign, Nov. 1996, 4

song of the day, the handcart song, the children's songbook