Made by Memilyrae

Steve and I were THRILLED to have an anniversary where we could actually get away from real life for more than just a couple of hours. Our family and friends helped out so much by watching the kids so Steve and I could spend 24 hours away from them. We sure missed them but, like I explained to Spencer, daddy and I need time by ourselves to make sure we still love each other! 🙂 I sure do love that man of mine!

Spencer and Evie’s schedule:

Friday afternoon/evening: Play with Aunt Netty and cousins – Sounded like everything went okay. Spencer got an scratch on his leg but it wasn’t a big deal. He was very proud of his 2 Scooby Doo bandaids.

Friday night/Saturday morning: Our neighbor, Katie, slept upstairs at our apartment. She refused to sleep on our bed (we bought new sheets!) so when Spencer woke up at 4, he whimpered a little when he didn’t see her in our bed but she hear him and he decided he wanted to sleep on the couch with her. Spencer decided to tell Katie all about how mommy and daddy moved the computer to our room and out of the living room. Too funny! Evie made a noise so she told Spencer she needed to put him back in bed and he went willingly. Luckily, Evie didn’t wake up.

Saturday morning: Mikey and Coley came over to pick up the kids and relieve Katie from babysitting. 🙂 Katie has her own kids to worry about! The took Twitch for a walk to the park and Spencer walked almost the whole time! I think he got tired the last 3 houses and said “My legs are tired.” so Mikey carried him.  Then they decided to take the kids for lunch/ice cream to the BYU Creamery. Needless to say Evie got messy and so did Aunt Coley!

Saturday afternoon: Coley and Mikey had a baby shower to attend (she was the guest of honor) so Steve’s parents came down to pick up the kids. They had fallen asleep in Mike and Nicole’s car and Alec and Mike picked them up in their carseats and transferred them to the Shaw’s van. The kids slept another hour and a half and spent the rest of the time outside in the sandbox. We showed up around 4 and Evie was quite excited to see us. Spencer, on the other hand, just walked up to Steve and said “Cut this off?” (there was a tag in his Spiderman hat that bugged him).

Now, as for Steve and I…Friday we ditched the kids, headed home to pack and headed up to SLC. We made a pit stop at Walmart then to Olive Garden for dinner. We stuffed ourselves silly! We had a gift card so we ended up spending about $9 on dinner plus a tip. We went searching for the Annivesary Inn on 5th South but had a difficult time finding it because 5th South turns into 4th South. We finally got there and the room was tons of fun! Aye Matey! Here’s a few pics:

After breakfast and a shower (plus getting ready for the day) we decided to go enjoy Temple Square without having to worry about if our kids are causing trouble or not. We went on a tour of the Conference Center, watch the new movie about Joseph Smith in the Joseph Smith Building, Steve bought new scriptures (since his last pair got lost/stolen) and the lady at Deseret was so sweet she gave Steve 20% off because of his sad story 🙂

Before we headed to lunch and home we stopped off to sign a few papers…

We finished our day at Applebees (Steve picked so I could get the Chocolate Meltdown!). Take a look at what I’m eating. (It was actually what Steve was eating…but it’s definitely NOT my first hamburger in the past month). Yep…I think my body decided that 13 or so years without hamburgers is just wrong (minus the one week I ate a few when I was prego with Evie)

On Thursday we went to the Living Aquarium with Chris, Julie and Sam. They had some neat fish and different displays but I think our favorite parts were the stingrays and the play area. I wanted to take more pictures but my battery was dying. The kids were WAY cute and I think they had lots of fun.

Last Saturday we had breakfast with Steve’s cousins. It was really nice getting together with them again. Since it was such a nice day we ended up at a duck pond. Chris, Julie and Sam; Kyle Wheeler (Julie’s brother), Steve, Spencer, Evie and I were all there. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun. There were tons of ducks, a handful of turtles, 4 fish (or that’s all I saw), and lots of birds who also wanted to be fed. Oh! And we saw7 (I think) eggs…not being guarded plus 3 of them were in the water…so they might be duds. We also went to 2 parks after that…but it’s nearly 2 and I really should go to bed! YAWN!

Poor Evie had to follow in her big brother’s footsteps…or should I saw lack of footsteps. When Spencer was 1, he forgot to step on the last step of our back steps…that, of course, end in a gravel/paved parking lot. Yes, it’s true…Evie did it too. When Steve helped stand her up, a pretty big pebble/small rock was still sticking in her forehead. How horrible am I? I wanted to take pictures BEFORE I cleaned it and bandaged it!!! What a bad mom I am! Sheesh! Evie wouldn’t let me put a bandaid on so I put one on Teddy first. She figured if Teddy can get one, so can she. And boy did she look tough with a Spiderman bandaid on her head!

Today was such a fun and wonderful day! Steve has one week off before his new job and we are loving every minute of it! Today we woke up, got ready and headed to the Hogle Zoo. The kids have been excited for days (Evie is mainly excited because she sees Spencer talking about the animals). We packed the stroller with water and fishie crackers, and I, of course, had the camera ready. The kids were SO cute in their little hats!!!!

We started off with the monkeys. Most of them were outside (it was SUCH a nice morning!) Two monkeys (too bad I can’t remember what kind they were…they were hairy, mostly black with a white tummy…I think) were playing tag, jumping around the whole caged area and just having a blast! The kids thought it was great!

Steve and I would ask the kids “Should we see the bears next or the penguins?” and Spencer’s answer was “I want to see the lions” every single time! (Poor kid…there wasn’t a single lion in the whole zoo…but he did see a few other wild cats) We would try to point to the animals to show Evie where they were and sometimes we’d wonder if she could see them or not…but we finally clued in that she would wave “hi” to the animals once she saw them.

Spencer’s favorite animals too see were the “Ghost of the Bayou” alligator (the white alligator) and the “Little” American alligator. But YUCK to all the humidity in that exhibit! Steve said that’s how New Jersey feels…plus lots more heat. ICK ICK YUCKY YUCKY!

We ran into our neighbors who reminded us about the “shows” they do. We started watching the elephant show…but Steve and I were more distracted by a big black bird with blue wings (what were they called again Coley?) kill…yes KILL…a small sparrow-like bird. The Elephant swung its trunk at the black bird and scared it away but as soon as the elephant turned its back the black bird came back to finish the job. By that time it was probably best that the poor little bird be “finished off.” It was SO sad. The kids liked the elephants show…but they seemed to get bored of all the talking and not enough ‘showing.’

We visited the black bears and zebras (the “little Cosmo” cougar wasn’t out yet) before visiting the penguins.

I was SO excited that the kids weren’t scared to take a drink from the lion’s mouth water fountain. I love these pictures and think it should be a MUST with every zoo visit.

The kids liked the funny giraffes. One giraffe was licking/kissing the doorframe and Spencer thought that was extremely funny. Steve liked when the giraffe picked its nose with its tongue! Yuck! (although I believe TWO of my old roommates could barely stick their tongues in their noses…not each others, mind you…and I thought it was funny…but gross…you know who you are!) Notice Evie’s new obsession? Her belly button!

I was so excited when we could actually SEE the cheetah! We NEVER see the cheetah! We had to stand at the top of the hill but he was rolling around in the grass (the movement helped Spencer find it). YAY!

Evie wanted to be held and wanted to lay her head on my shoulder. Needless to say we missed the reptile house but we didn’t mind.

We ended the trip with a ride on the Zoofari Express. Spencer has always loved trains so this is an extra bonus for him. Evie enjoyed it too.

They seemed to get their second wind as we were leaving…probably due to the extremely huge ball/globe that rotates with the water pressure from underneath. They loved running their hands in the water.

We decided to have lunch at Village Inn…yum…breakfast foods!

And then it was time to rest and relax….at least for the kids. I needed a nap too…but look at the time! It’s 1:00 am and I’m still not asleep. 🙂

We had such a great time with just our little family. We realized that sometimes it’s more enjoyable to do things with a smaller group than it is a larger one (and sometimes just the opposite). I think the kids truly loved today and I can say I truly did too!

Mike and Coley came over tonight to watch the season finale of American Idol. I was rooting for David Archaleta.  We watched the whole 2 hours, enjoying the singing (especially both Davids singing with the ZZ Topp and One Republic) and the humor. We were  watching the last 2 minutes…

The Next American Idol is…

And the recording stopped. That’s right…it stopped. I was SO not happy! I even said “What the hell?!?!?” and Nicole laughed.  We looked online and found the last few seconds of that sentence. Congrats David Cook! Archaleta will still do great things, that I’m sure of.

The kids were in serious need of summer pajamas so I got a few at the store yesterday. I thought these looked adorable on Evie! She was telling me she wanted a “cheese stick” (stringed cheese) in this picture.

Seven years. Can you believe it’s been SEVEN YEARS since we’ve had our bathroom set. I got it when I moved out of Annette’s house after I graduated high school in 2001. I decided to change the whole scheme when Spencer threw up on it the other day. Here’s the old verses the new.

This is 2 days after the last post…we’re SO excited!!!!

May 20

Who knew a swing would bring so much drama? On Mother’s Day we were outside enjoying the day with our neigbhors. Evie was playing fine until she say our neighbor friend, Baily, get into the swing. She threw such a tantrum!!!

Then, yesterday, Evie was watching from the window and saw Bailey in the swing again. She stood there yelling “My Swing! My Swing!” I said, “Evie, can’t we share the swing with your friends?” Evie yelled, “NO!” I couldn’t help but laugh. Steve said she’s like her mommy…my first word (if I remember right) was “no” and at some point my favorite word was “mine.”