SD Zoo Safari Park

A couple weeks ago my parents took me and the kiddos to the SD Zoo Safari Park! We were bummed Reed had to work and couldn't come, but we were still able to have some fun. We made our way over to the tram for a ride first. We got to see lots of animals out on the plains!

Then we wandered around the park looking at the different animals,

like flamingos

 and sleeping tigers.

Evan groomed some goats at the petting zoo

And Audrey did her best to stay out of the stroller

We also got to see the elephant show and got to see a cheetah and some lions up close. Evan is totally obsessed with cheetahs now. He loves to pretend he's a cheetah and Audrey is a gazelle...

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun trip!

April Wedding

Has it really almost been a month since the last time I posted?! Let's see if we can get caught up a little bit here. We've been pretty busy!

The weekend after we moved in, my little brother, Bryant was married in the Newport Beach LDS Temple to Julie. It was so fun to have my whole family (except Trae who is serving a mission in the Philippines) together for the weekend. The kids loved playing together and we're so excited to add another member to the fam.

Purple

 Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids. I love little Colby's face in this one!

 Evan LOVED the suspenders. He always had his thumbs tucked in them.

Oh right-the bride and groom! Lookin' good!

We're loving our new house and have been busy working on some projects to put some personal touches on it. We love how it's all coming together and are enjoying the process of putting everything together. One of our favorite features of the house right now-fresh, delicious oranges off the tree in the backyard! They are so good!

The Move

After 7 months of invading my parent's house, we finally moved out last weekend! The whole buying thing wasn't working out for us, so we found a rental out in Riverside that we totally love. It's an older home so it has a little bit of character to it that is really fun, but the owner has done a lot of really nice upgrades (including basically totally re-doing the kitchen and one of the bathrooms!).

Here's our truck out front-no, we don't have enough stuff to fill it. We just filled the first 11 feet of it from top to bottom.

 After removing the first row of stuff

 There's my piano-in one piece!

 Here comes B with the sectional

 And then there was the piano...

I couldn't watch. But Reed and my brothers and Dad got it out without any problems! Hooray! It was impressive to see the 4 of them lift it out of the truck, especially since it's not a low-to-the-ground U-Haul truck.

Empty trucks are so fun to play in!

We didn't see or hear much from Evan all day-he was too busy re discovering all of his toys that had been in storage for 7 months.

Pretty much all the boxes are unpacked, but we've still got a few we just can't seem to let go of yet (Audrey is in there somewhere too)

 And things are finally starting to get back to 'normal' around here!

Easter

We had such a busy but fun Easter this year. Our Easter Bunny has decided not to work on Sundays, so he left baskets and an egg hunt for us Saturday morning.

Evan got some goggles that may or may not be too small

 Audrey got some yellow shades to match her cute new yellow swimsuit

 Filling their new buckets (the Easter baskets are still in storage...ugh) with eggs

 Audrey got distracted while looking for eggs and played on the swing for a few minutes

Then we packed up and headed south. Reed's aunt invited us for an egg hunt and dinner. They lives just north of San Diego, so since we were making the long drive, we decided to make a day out of it.

First stop was Crystal Cove, just before Laguna Beach.

Audrey loves watching birds. She was so distracted by all the seagulls and pelicans flying around.

 There were some little tide pools to discover and lots of sand for digging.

 Putting their new buckets and sand toys to use

Next we stopped at a beach at Carlsbad and played in the sand some more.

Audrey got a little frustrated trying to walk in that deep, soft sand.

 We even got to see a bunch of dolphins!

Then it was off to see family. We had so much fun! Once everyone was there and ready, the 7 kids got to do an Easter egg hunt. They were pretty excited!

 The hunt started at the time Audrey is usually through her morning nap. Poor little thing was so tired!

 

Eating some candy!

Afterwards the kids got to hide eggs for the adults! They really liked hiding stuff from their parents! We enjoyed a wonderful meal and some yummy carrot cake before making the trip back home. Both kids (and parents!) were exhausted!

And here are the kids after church on Easter Sunday. They looked good!

 Best picture we got of them together. Man that's tough!

Happy girl!

 Happy boy!

Happy Easter!

Family Pictures

I like to do pictures of my babies when they turn 1. And they always end up turning into family pictures too. So here are some of 'Audrey's first year' pictures:

Audrey's face here more accurately describes how she felt about getting pictures done. She did NOT like it.

But it didn't stop her from walking away and then looking over her shoulder for this cute shot!

We were bribing both of them with Smarties at this point!

We're done!

Sunny Day

A lunch picnic chased down with ice cream cones from Grandma

A 90 degree day also requires some water to splash in

We're excited for many more warm, sunny days!