Trains, Cousins, the Zoo and Date Night!

Saturday May 11th was National Train Day.
To celebrate we took our little family up to Ogden to visit the huge train museum for free. We met up with my brother and his fiancee and toured the site. Claire liked Russell a little bit because she thought he looked like our brother Nick. She wasn't too sure about Lis (sorry Lis). But it was fun anyway.

The Zoo
On Tuesday (Happy Birthday Marc!) Claire's cousin Taylar came over and we all went to the zoo together!

Wet ball = Awesome!

I could NOT get Taylar and Claire to look at the camera at the same time. Meh.

We got ice cream cones! Mint. Yum! 

Watching the rhinos

Sea lions and seals

 Claire had a tumble off one of the benches while playing in the amphitheater style seating by the seals and sea lions. She fell down face first into the concrete. She cried for about 30 seconds before the cries of pain and fear turned into cries to be let go to try climbing again. She scratched her lip, nose, and forehead. There was some blood. I didn't really take a picture of it though. I try to forget those bad parenting moments. :D

Chillin with the giraffes. She's scraped up, but you can't tell.

After this trip Taylar became Claire's favorite thing. She asked for "TayTay" for a couple days following and still does when she thinks of the zoo or giraffes.

House

On Wednesday we went to see our house! Our builder is awesome and posts progress pictures on their website to let you know when things are getting done. On Monday they told us they had started digging, so on Wednesday we went out to look for ourselves.

Date

That night we headed out on a date that Peter had been planning for SIX MONTHS! He got a sweet deal on Fandango for a special fan preview of Star Trek: Into Darkness in 3D.

There were some great rainbows that day from the stormy clouds.

The rainbow was bigger than this, but I loved this perspective with the beautiful green mountains.

We didn't dress up to go to the movie, but other people did. It was a special fan preview so obviously we aren't quite as dedicated.

Yeah, I'm blushing WAY bad because Peter just asked some crazy dressed up fans to take a picture with us.

We really liked the movie. Peter thought they used too many references to the old series. But it was SO much fun watching the movie in a theater packed with super nerds. They all laughed at the right times and there was a significant amount of ooing and awing over certain actors, not to mention the well timed comments of such things as "booya" and "i knew it!"
Thanks for babysitting, Constance and Wilf!

So another great week. Happy Days!

Since We've Been Gone!

We had a great time visiting with my family in Texas.

During the course of our stay, the sequester went into effect and I was nervous about flight delays. So, having booked through Southwest, I changed my flight for FREE and stayed with my parents for another week (yay!). (There were no delays on either the of the flights.)

I'd just like to say that I am apparently incapable of blogging while I feel like I am on vacation. I recently realized what "vacation" means to me. It means playing with Claire when I want to and passing her off when I don't want to (hehe), reading all of the time, eating ice cream almost every night, not fixing dinner every night, and spending LOTS of time talking with and being with family. Blogging obviously was squeezed out to make more room for reading. Seriously. I read 2.5 books. :D

So, this might get a bit boring because here comes all of the best pictures to describe our trip to visit Gigi and PopPop. Enjoy!

Getting to know Uncle Nick again.

I don't know why, but this is what she decided to do when I asked her to smile--more than once.

Everyone took turns pushing her in the swing. Swinging was a daily Must!

Kitties:

She loved trying to pull the kitties' tails! It always produced a "meow"--reward enough for a little girl!

Acrobatics:

She Loves to be upside down with Uncle Marc! 

And up High with Uncle Nick!

Boys and Toys

This girl LOVES to be outside!

Uncle Nick took her down that slide nearly every day!

PopPop smoked some meats! 

Helping PopPop in the garden as soon as he got home. She came to recognize the sound of his Harley. :)

Helping Uncle Marc with his chores.

 Faces of Claire:

We went to the beach in Galveston. Well, the pool actually. It was lovely.

 Prom:

A boy in my parent's ward asked a girl to prom with a video he made and posted to YouTube. Claire now loves "prom."

 Yoga:

Neither Pepper nor Claire have an awareness of personal space. 

 


Ice Cream!

Claire, do you love Uncle Marc?

Well, YEAH! Chocolate Chocolate Chip Ice Cream?!

Yeah, I was there too.

 Gigi and PopPop!

And of course Daddy!

Claire missed her daddy so much! He actually missed us too and came to see us for a weekend in Tehas!

Pre-trip Shopping

We are just about set for our 5 hour plane ride to visit Gigi! Am I forgetting something?
How do you entertain a 1 and a half year old on an airplane?
Only 3 more days!