The Beach Again...

So, of course we had to go to the beach again, and this time Asher discovered the water. The first time we were there he was content to hang out and play in the sand because I never took him down to the water. After I let him play in the water on the second trip, that was the end of it. Every chance he got it was the mad dash down the beach to the water as fast as he could crawl. He was convinced he was going to make it without me catching him. Of course, where you sit on the beach is uphill from the water, so he would take off down the hill as fast as he could and inevitably end up with sand all over him! And since Becky didn't think she needed any pictures taken of her and wasn't cooperating, I told her this is the one that would have to go up on my blog. Looks great Becky!! Thanks for having us, we had a blast!

San Diego Zoo

On Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo, and not only did we have my four kids and Becky's four kids, but we also had her two nieces. So, with ten kids in tow we hit the zoo and had a crazy but good time. Asher has figured out what a zoo is all about, and everytime we came up on an animal enclosure he would lean out of the stroller and strain his neck to look for whatever was in it. He would reach like he wanted to grab whatever it was and just stare at it. He's so cute!

As you can see, Mayson seems to like the foliage. She kept thinking she needed to climb the trees and walk through the plants... she is such a little lady!

Of course, you can't go to the San Diego Zoo and not see the Panda bear. it was awfully cute and fuzzy but somehow I can't imagine it was as lovable as it looked. It just meant that right about the time we were getting ready to leave the zoo see had to go down a huge hill to see the panda and then hike back up it to get out of the zoo, Oh well,exercise, right!

Here's Kaleb getting stomped on by the elephant. It's lucky he made it out alive! The zoo has a huge elephant exhibit to go through and you can see them up really close. They are definitely huge, and Rhyan loves elephants so she enjoyed getting to see them.

Last but not least we have pictures at the hippo trail exhibit. I loved watching Asher with the hippose swimming around. The are massive, and to have this little baby standing in front of it as it swims by was fun to watch. He loved watching it do it's laps around the water. And of course, the kids all had to climb on the hippo statue before we could go.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

We went with Becky and her kids to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and it was a fun place. They had a ferris wheel with all sorts of different wild animals to ride on, and the kids rode a few times. Of course they had to change the animal they were on every time, and Asher wasn't too sure what to make of it at first but decided he really liked it after a few times. We thought the lion exhibit was pretty cool too with the lion that was sleeping on top of the safari jeep. We took a train around the park and it was a lot like and African safari with the animals just roaming around out in the open doing their thing. Kind of a nice change from the little enclosures you find at the zoo. It was pretty warm walking around so we let the kids play in the little splash park they had there, and of course the kids were soaked when we got done. They thought it was a lot of fun and it definitely cooled them off. There was a play area that the kids played in for a little while and Rhyan loved the elephant and the car with the animals she could pretend to drive. She is such a cutie. She was giving the elephant kisses before she left. These pots the kids were in were up by the Dinosaur Mountain adventure we went through, and they thought that they were just perfect for climbing on, of course! The petting zoo was a hit too. The kids got to feed the deer some food and all the animals were quite friendly. Asher wasn't sure what to make of the deer... he was very curious as to what it was. He was also pretty impressed with the kimono dragon and was just standing there staring at it. The last picture you can see all the kids intrigued by this big, blue crested pigeon. He was really pretty and all the kids were impressed!

The Beach

The kids absolutely loved the beach. We went twice while we were there because they requested we go back again, and these pictures are from the first trip. Becky's mom and sisters met us out there with their kids so there were plenty of people there with lots of babies for Asher to hang out with. Kaleb and Mayson took the boogie boards out with Michael and Gunnar and looked like they fit right in with the California folk. Even Asher took an interest in the boogie board and decided to hop on to try it out. Maybe we have a serious future surfer on our hands! Even Rhyan was getting in on the action and hauling her boogie board up and down the beach. She looked so cute draggin it around... a little mini surfer girl!

California Here We Come

Next stop on our trip was sunny California. We drove out to see Becky, JJ and the kids and we were all so excited to see them. I can't tell you how many time my kids asked when we were going to see Michael and Gunnar. This was the first leg of our trip that I drove by myself, and as luck would have it, as we were leaving the Salt Lake valley and my kids were asking for a movie, turns out my DVD player had died. This did not help my mood or make the drive any easier, but I have to say that the kids did really well anyway. Needless to say getting to the Toyota dealer and getting the DVD player fixed were tops on the priority list in CA. The drive took longer than panned and we got there late, but it was great to see everyone. The kids had a great time and it was good to get to hang out with Becky for a week. We really miss having them around to hang out with all the time.

As you can see, Asher already thinks he should be able to use the bike ramp. We caught a great video of him falling off the bike ramp, so if I can get it to load I'll put it on.

Father's Day

We spent father's day with Opa, and though we really missed Larry and wish he had been with us, we did have fun with everyone. We had turkey for dinner which was great, and then we just hung out and talked while the kids played. You can see that dad/Opa was the star of the day. He was in quite a few wrestling/tickling matches with all of the kids that night. They all love being around him and playing with him bacause he can be such a kid himself!

Hangin' with YaYa

Here are just a couple of pictures of hanging out with YaYa and Grandpa Mark. We had a barbecue with them on Saturday to celebrate father's day since we were spending Sunday at my dads. It was cold and rainy so we ended up inside. In this top one mom was hanging out on the steps because Asher insisted on climbing up and trying to come back down them over and over!
Here is Kaleb and Grandpa Mark in the middle of an intense game of chess. This is serious stuff!
And last but not least we have Asher trying to stick his head in a bucket. Yeah, I don't even know what to follow that with!

Salt Lake Children's Museum

e went to the Salt Lake Children's Museum with Oma and Opa while we were there. Quinn got to go with us and the kids had a lot of fun together. In this first picture Asher was trying to put the balls down the tube and was doing a really good job of it. He was just fascinated that they suddenly disappeared and kept doing it over and over.Here Opa and Kaleb were building with some blocks. They spent a quite a bit of time on the upper floor building with all of the different blocks and things.
Oma got stuck in the car for a quite a while with all the girls. They were having great fun driving and filling it up with gas.
Rhyan was pretty impressed with these flowers that were in the flower box of the little house because she could pick them. Her and Mayson kept picking bouquets of flowers a Rhyan was hauling them around with her for a while.

The picture above shows the mouse hole that they had in the wall of the Children's Museum, and below you can see Rhyan and Quinn lying on the floor staring into the hole. They thought it was pretty neat.
And of course, Asher had to get a good look too!
Here is Rhyan hiding out in the little stick hut. She had a lot of fun running around in this room which was set up specifically for younger children.