I had planned to have a family zoo excursion for Carson's birthday on Tuesday. Then Leslie asked me if we'd like to join her at the zoo a few days before we were already planning to go, so we jumped at the chance to spend the day with the Christensen family. Before long Kenz was in on it, too and we were making a roommate reunion out of the day.
Eli was so excited to go to the zoo that he couldn't even eat his breakfast before we left. He was so busy chatting about animals and everybody who would be there. It was adorable. Then he and Carson held hands in the car and just about melted my heart.
It was a little chilly, but the overcast weather was ideal for pictures.
We went to the zoo around the same time last year. I think it might be a yearly staycation tradition. I love going in April because Jeff gets his week off work after busy season, so it's a great place to have some fun family time together. Plus there are usually baby animals in April. And who can resist baby elephants and giraffes? Not this family.
Eli was trying to keep his cool when we entered the zoo, but his excitement got the better of him. So this face happened:
"What got him so excited?" you ask. The tractor exhibit. Complete with construction workers. Human construction workers -- just to clarify.
He probably definitely could have stayed there all day.
We forced him to move on. I think this was the sea lion exhibit. I don't really know. Mostly I just love Kenz's face, Eli kissing the glass and Izzy squatting all simultaneously occurring in one glorious picture.
I love these two boys. Plus Eli. But he was still preoccupied with licking all the germs off the glass at this point.
Favorite animal by far was the newest kid on the block. Mr. Polar Bear. I'm sure he has a real name that isn't Mr. Polar Bear, but until I care enough to look up what that name is, he will remain Mr. Show-offy Polar Bear. This guy did tricks the entire time we watched him. And we watched him for a long time.
Do you see him?
He kept popping his head up right in front of everybody like he is doing in the picture. Then he would kick off the wall and swim on his back for a minute. Then he'd flip under the water, and emerge from the water as high as he could right in front of everybody again. Over. And. Over. It was awesome.
Carson seemed to enjoy his birthday zoo trip. He stayed happy the whole time despite the fact that we were there exactly during his morning nap time. Good birthday boy!
It must have been our subconsciouses that encouraged me, Kenz and Leslie to nonchalantly pose with the giraffes. We are all tall. Dare I say monstrously tall? Yes. Monstrously tall. Amazon-like. Giraffe-like. We felt at one with the giraffes perhaps. So we smiled and made our husbands snap pictures of us with what I think should be Stadium Way #49's mascot.
As they tend to do with these girls, things got progressively weirder with each snap of the camera.
See what I mean?
Let's take a moment to notice that Kenz outfitted herself in African Safari attire. I need to get myself an African Safari hat if we are really making this zoo thing a yearly tradition like I want to.
:)
After the zoo we stopped for lunch at Moochie's? I think that's what it was called. Apparently it's been on the Food Network - Diners Drive-ins and Dives or something like that? We don't have cable so I don't really know. But we decided it qualified as a dive. But don't worry. The food was great, and the graffiti, brightly colored walls and back-alley type ambience created the perfect set-up for a trendy looking photo op. If only there was a train track for us to pose the kids on! The possibilities.
These two are so funny. They are funny on their own and they are really funny when they try to interact with each other.
The babes. Carson finally crashed for his nap and wasn't waking up for anything. Not even the smell of fried ravioli.
So much fun.
Jeff was a good sport listening to girl jabber all day.
Cade was a good sport, too, but the only picture I really got of him was this one...
Those are his arms on the left. And Leslie's very excited face there in the middle. That face about sums up the day. Perfect and happy! Thanks for the fun everybody!
We missed the Excell Family Luau last year. We weren't dumb enough to make that mistake again. We trekked down to Cedar City for Carson's first visit to Grandma and Grandpa Excell's house. When we got there, pineapple, watermelon, teriyaki chicken, rice and a tiki bar were all there to greet us.
Bryan and Celeste manned the tiki bar.
Bryan tried to teach me how to hang loose...
But I never could quite master the chill surfer persona that should accompany a hang loose gesture. Instead, my awkwardness prevailed yet again.
If there's one surefire way to throw Eli into a tizzy these days, it's to mention the word "sticker." I'm not talking about the arts and craftsy kind of stickers. I'm talking about the sticky weeds that seem to be overtaking Cedar City. Eli had a little sticker mishap moments before this picture was taken -- meaning he fell in a sticker patch, leaving him screaming and in shock with the palms of his hands covered in stickers. And let's not remind him that it happened twice in a ten minute time frame. Poor kid.
I love this picture of David and Mary. They sure know how to throw a party!
After dinner, Mary had us watch a video of tribal-like stick banging and we all tried to follow along.
Then came the part where we learned that Eli turns into a LUNATIC after 10:00 pm. We went to watch fireworks for the Utah Summer Games Opening Ceremonies which resulted in keeping Eli up way past his 8:00 bedtime. Oh. My. Word. I have never seen him so crazy. He was shaking chain-link fences, running in circles and darting straight for the busy street all the while laughing hysterically.
The only time we could get him to stay by us for a few minutes was when Laura and Bryan started dancing to music on their phones. Eli couldn't resist showing off a few of his moves and I couldn't resist posting the video footage even though it's dark and probably impossible to see:
It's a good thing Mary offered to hold Carson for the evening because chasing Eli ended up being a two-man job.
The fireworks finally started and Eli was mesmerized.
This was our first trip with two kids and our first trip since switching Eli to a toddler bed. I was convinced Eli would never fall asleep in a different bed and had prepared myself for very long sleepless nights and days without naps this trip.
With all the firework excitement, Eli fell asleep mere seconds after Jeff put him to bed. He slept perfectly and I was completely shocked. After seeing how easy it was to put him to bed when he was completely exhausted, we decided to take him to a park the next day to help wear him out before his afternoon nap. It worked like a charm.
Friday evening we roasted s'mores and chatted around the fire.
On Saturday we had a lazy day that turned into the boys going out to work on their cars. Excuse the redundancy of these pictures, but Eli was so funny following the guys around trying to do everything they were doing that I had to include all these pictures.
After the headlight deep clean, Jeff took Eli on his first four-wheeler ride. Eli was not as excited as we had expected him to be. He was completely emotionless the entire ride.
But when he came back, he hopped on the other four-wheeler and pretended to drive so I think he enjoyed his ride.
Then Bryan got the tractor going to clear away the sticker bushes while David taught Eli how to use a leaf blower. Such a manly afternoon.
Carson slept the majority of his first visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
We went to lunch at an awesome little sandwich place. It is awesome because it has a play area for the kiddos so the adults can dine in peace. And a peaceful lunch it was indeed.
Today we're celebrating Father's Day back home with our traditional treat -- doughnuts!
Here's the inevitable Father's Day sappy part: Jeff amazes me daily with what a great dad he is. I have been reading a lot of parenting tips lately and Jeff always seems to instinctively do the things the child experts suggest doing. He's a natural! He is so loving, patient, playful, gentle, understanding and happy with our kids. I'm grateful for the great example he is to my boys. We're lucky to have him. I wasn't kidding when I said I donette know what I'd do without him.
