A Zoo Visit on a Monday?! (June 20th)

The day after we got back from Oregon Jason had the day off, so we took the munchkins to the zoo! They LOVED it! It was a beautiful day and we even stayed for lunch!

Brooke's favorite thing to do at the zoo is run around like a banshee. She was wearing some really cute sandals that she ran out of about a half a dozen times! She isn't quite into the animals yet, but she loves to climb on everything and go down the giraffe slide.

Tori, on the other hand, LOVES all of the animals and climbing on everything. This time we visited the new Pampa exhibit. It has a beautiful butterfly exhibit that we didn't pay to get into, but we will the next time. We could see all of the butterflies flying all over in their habitat and you can just walk around in the habitat. We did see a really big wolf fox (?) and anteater. Tori thought that was pretty cool. Tori was also very brave and actually pet and fed the goats. Tori and I also pet the hedgehog. It is quite an adorable creature. All in all we had a fabulous time!

A Summer Vacation in Oregon!

Our Summer trip to Oregon every year is always a barrel of fun. It is a mix of keeping kids under control and parents (and grandparents) sane. But, for the most part, this year was great! The kids were old enough to play with each other and fend for themselves. Why then was I so exhausted at the end of the day? Oh, because they (meaning mostly all 3 girls) got up at the butt crack of dawn with the sun! YIKES! It was either that my children didn't get the whole time change thing, or they just couldn't wait to play with each other. My sister brought her amazing camera, so I am sure in the future I will post some of the amazing pictures that she took of my family and such...hopefully sooner than later (hint hint to you Lora). Well, I will let the pictures lead the way.

I only got one really good picture of the Oscar man. (Lora got a handful too, so I am sure you will see him in a future OR blog). Oscar LOVES Brookie...they are kindred spirits (except that Brooke thinks that he is a bit overwhelming at this moment in time). He made this amazing space ship with his legos. He is really creative. He also made some amazing pictures for Jason and I that I will also post on a later blog. I think he will be artistic like my sister. Livy is getting so big! She LOVES to be the babysitter and would follow Brooke all around the house. It was fabulous not to have to worry about Brooke the whole trip. We nicknamed her "The Wanderer" because she just wandered all around my parent's 2200 square foot house and mastered the stairs with ease. Tori and Livy were besties the WHOLE time we were there. They played all day long together. It was adorable. It just made me want to live closer to Lora so that our kids would know each other better. SAD DAY!


On Monday we took the kids to this inflatable gym. Last time Tori was a little bit skeptical of it all (like Brooke was this time) and wouldn't go on hardly any of the inflatables (although Brooke is a little bit more adventurous and tried out just about everything appropriate for her age). This time Tori was all over it (except for the gargantuan slide). I took a lot of pictures of Tori conquering this big inflatable obstacle course. She finally did it all by herself (even climbing the 12 foot wall). Later that day we went on a walk by Fanno Creek (a walk that Lora and I would take quite frequently when we were younger). Another fun little outing all photographed by Lora and will be seen in the future.
The next day we went to the park near the Rose Garden. We packed a picnic for the munchkins and off we went. They played for about an hour and then we had a picnic. Needless to say they had a blast. This was another outing photographed by Lora. (Did I mention that Lora is taking photography lessons and that she is getting good...and that she took like 1000 pictures of all of us while we were in Oregon!)

What is a visit to Portland without a little Voodoo? We had a sampling of six different donuts on Friday morning. (Jason and Jake joined the entourage on Thursday night). Friday morning Jake went and bought us some Voodoo doughnuts. YUMMY! I didn't get a picture of all of the doughnuts, but here are the girls devouring theirs!


Friday morning we went to the beach. It was a magnificent day. Sunny and in the upper 60's! It was a dream! Our first stop, of course, was the Tillamook Cheese Factory for some lunch and ice cream. YUMMY! The bottom picture looks like Brooke is taking a bite of my ice cream, but she was just pretending!
Rockaway Beach, OR

Did I not tell you this was the most beautiful day for the beach?! It was clear and gorgeous! This was Brooke's first visit to the ocean and she went right to the water with Uncle Jake. She wasn't scared at all and the water was freezing! (Make sure you click on the pictures so you can see them bigger!) Tori was all about the water and the waves to this time and like a crazy little girl she wanted her swim suit on!


Brooke got soaked by the waves, but of course we brought a change of clothes. She warmed up with Uncle Jake and in about 15 minutes she was in the water again and soaked up to her thighs! (Lora took a million pictures at the beach too, so you will see those in the future).


This was Tori's first sand castle making adventure. She was all over it. Uncle Jake dug a huge hole and the girls filled it with water to make a swimming pool! Jason and Oscar were on the architecture of the whole thing. They had a blast and they got sand in all of the crevices of their body! YIKES!


While the older kids were making sand castles Brookie roamed around and played in the water with Grandpa Lee. She picked up about a dozen little rocks. We kept one that she picked out with Jason so that she could remember her first trip to the ocean.
As always...all good things must come to an end. I really miss Lora and I really hope that we will live next to each other in the near future. I really want my kids to know their cousins. It was so wonderful to spend time with family! I cannot wait until September when Lora will come and visit our little new munchkin and take pictures of her! Thanks Mom and Dad for sharing your home and we will see you in August!

No Ice Cream For Brooke!

Once again I have this hilarious video of Brooke refusing an ice cream cone. I don't think that she likes the cold of ice cream yet and we had ice cream cones one hot afternoon and she refused. It was so funny that I recorded it, but alas, you will just get the script. This is how it went down:
I held an ice cream cone in front of her and said, "Brooke, do you want an ice cream cone?"
Brooke gave the camera a crusty and said "Nope, no way..." with a very disgruntled and slightly crying voice.
Then I held it in front of her again and asked the same question and she said, "Nope, nope, NOPE! No Brooke," with her hands in the air and very frustrated that I would even offer!
Then I asked Tori if she wanted it and she said, "Nope, that's Brooke's." Then she proceeded to eat her cone and then asked to have Brooke's.
Oh, if you could only see it. One day I will figure this camera loading out!

Durango, Mesa Verde & Silverton Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

I LOVE it when Shutterfly gives me a free photo book...so this year I made this one for Jason's Father's Day present!

A Trip to Utah to visit the Dunns, Dingers, and Dinosaurs!

For our annual Memorial Day Celebration we made our trek down to Utah to visit our peeps! Oh how we miss you peeps! We left Friday night after Jason was done with work and drove our 4 1/2 hours to good ol' Hooper. It was amazing to see all of Utah still green! (It was the end of May and there is still snow in the mountains...and it snowed in the mountains while we were there too!) It was also nice to finally drive into the valley and not be filled with severe sadness that we lived so far away from family and friends. I think we are now used to living in Idaho and I think we owe that a LOT to our amazing ward family!
In Hooper we saw Grandma & Grandpa Dinger, Auntie Joy & Auntie Marie. The girls were pretty tired and went to sleep pretty fast but after getting some good ol' loving!
Saturday morning we ventured down to Sandy to meet up with the Dunns, Debra and Rachel at the Living Planet Aquarium. You may ask...why are there no pictures from the aquarium? Well, after swiftly taking Tori inside to go to the bathroom (have I mentioned that I HATE potty training?!) I met everyone inside the aquarium and Jason didn't get the camera out of the car. Da-da-dum! Sad day, but we confiscated Marie's camera and took some pictures that will be viewed on a later post!
It was fun to see the Dunns and little baby Ryah, who is now not so little and getting bigger and bigger as we speak. I cannot believe that the next time we see her she will probably be 1 and be walking! YIKES! Time flies! Anyway, the aquarium was fabulous and Tori had a blast. After their own little fiasco at home Debra, Rachel and Rachel's niece Caroline met up with us at the end of our aquarium tour. We then went to lunch at Olive Garden and gabbed for a few hours. It is so fun to hang out with the old gang! WE MISS YOU! There is a picture of all of the girls at Olive Garden, but at this moment in time it is in limbo....lost in the files of another camera.

After our delicious meal we made our way down to Spanish Fork to start the amazing Dunn Dinger Extravaganza! Oh how much we love and miss our Dunns! Of course we were greeted by Max the dog (as Tori likes to call him...not to be mixed up with any other Max that she knows) and a feeling of home. The Dunn's house is definitely our second home and we all feel pretty comfortable there...ahhh...nice! The girls love to play their piano and Brooke roamed around the whole place bejeweled... she made sure that we packed her jewels!

Max (can you spot him camouflaged in the couch?!) couldn't get enough of Jason (and vice versa) and I just couldn't get enough of this little girl! Baby Ryah is quite the content little one. Tori loved her too (I don't think Brooke really knew that she existed...maybe next time) and taught her the art of watching TV.

Of course, one of the main reasons that we go down to Utah is to go visit Spencer's grave. To us it is a happy place...we know he is not really there, but we like to go and visit. Tori isn't in the pictures because she fell asleep in the car. I love the color of the roses that we got this year. It is really amazing to see all of the beautiful flowers and families coming together to visit their loved ones. It is somewhat sad to see all of the little children that surround little Spencer's grave, but I know that they are all safe and in a better place.

We ALWAYS have a good time with the Dunns. Tiffany and I usually do something crafty (this time it was bookmarks for Tiff's RS meeting) while we roll our eyes at our husband's silly antics. Jason and Adam together is a little on the scary side sometimes! (Oh and that marvelous picture of Jason and I is amazing! Thanks Marie!)

Here is some more Ryah loving time...I am sure she was tired of our kisses at the end. It was fun to see her interact with Tori. Ryah would get so excited when she spotted Tori in the room. Tori played "This little piggy" with her toes, sang her songs, gave her loves and taught her all the secrets of being part of the Dunn Dinger Clan.

Sunday night we were joined by Debra, Rachie and Marie's friend Tyler. I didn't get to many pictures of this reunion because I was barfed on (which luckily was a fluke...I mean, it was not an ongoing thing....and Brooke actually slept pretty well that night) and attacked by a killer poo virus! TMI...maybe, but that is the truth (I wish I could have spent more time with my girls!). Tori had to sit in between Rachie and Debra on the couch and held Debra's hand. But nothing can beat playing and snuggling with Adam! Tori loves Adam so much that I think she left him her cold. Alas...all things Dunn Dinger had to come to an end. We had a BLAST! and cannot wait until next year!

On our way home, we stopped in Ogden for some good ol' Chick-fil-A with Grandma & Grandpa Dinger and Auntie Joy. We decided before the kids had to be in the car for another 4 hours, we would let them roam around the Dinosaur Park by the Ogden Canyon. I had NO idea how fun this place was. Tori (our resident Dinosaur lover) was in HEAVEN! Tori was not impressed with the animatronic dinosaurs, but really liked the fossilized eggs and poop that we saw in the museum. Brooke loved to climb on all of the displays that said "Please refrain from climbing on exhibit. Thank you." It is really hard to chase around a toddler and take pictures at the same time!

Tori was pretty much amazed by everything outside in the gardens. (Make the pictures bigger by clicking on them... they are so dang cute!)

She even hugged and kissed a few dinosaurs! She liked to put her hands (and basically her whole body) into the dinosaur prints and exploring the secret trails along the way.

We explored the whole park (and even found a slug).

In the center of the park was a play area. Brooke and Tori went wild. Brooke is a little bit more adventurous than Tori, and climbed all over everything and even went down the spiral slide all by herself. Do you see the wild animals that we saw at the park?

We tried to get a good picture of our family under the legs of the dinosaur, but of course Tori would not look at the camera and artistic license of the picture taker only got the stomach of the the dinosaur. Oh well. At last, we had to leave Utah... and as you can see, the Dinosaur Park tired out our little scientist...and she got a good nap in on the way home. Thanks for taking us to the park Grandma & Grandpa Dinger (and for the GREAT idea Auntie Joy)!

Here is my favorite picture of the trip...Tori caught a ladybug while sitting on a slide in the Dinosaur Park. Tori LOVES ladybugs and was tickled (literally and figuratively) that the ladybug wanted to crawl all over her!