Who are you at the ZOO?

Rick's Work Party

Rick's work did a work party at the Hogle Zoo this past weekend. You can really tell our family is getting older. Chantel was the only one we could get to go with us, and the deal breaker was that she had to be able to bring a friend, so Montana came with us.

The party started off with a little face painting. You could be painted like any animal in the zoo. I have to say, the people were quite talented. The girls looked really cute.
Channy getting painted


Montana

Both girls


I enjoyed the zoo. I love looking at all the animals, but I do feel kinda bad that they are all caged up for my viewing pleasure. Still I do have my favorites.

The Meerkat: I am fascinated by the Meerkats. I became addicted to this show I started watching at my many visits to the Dr.'s office with Corbin. It's called Meerkat Manor, and it's on Animal Planet. Seriously, it's like an animal soap opera. Love it! So, I had to take a pic of this little guy.

The Giraffes : They are the coolest; Those long necks are amazing. There was a new baby with her mom, and I could have stayed all day and watched. They were so dang cute. I got a pic of this little nuzzle. What a loving moment.


Bears and Elephants: As a kid the bears were my favorite, but they never move. We had after hours passes, so the animals were up and moving, so that was fun for a change. I was most excited to see the new baby elephant that was recently born at the zoo, but, NO! They did not have her out. There were a few animals missing that used to be there. My all time favorite was the Hippopotamus. I love how fat they are, but Hogle Zoo got rid of there hippo, and I missed it terribly.



We also had dinner and watched bird show, but the girls said the best thing was the Merry-go-round. They rode it over and over, and over.


Rick and me at the bird show.


It turned out to be a fun time and Corbin must have missed us after all because he sure called a lot. :)

A Visit to Aunt Tammy♠

Davenport Washington

We went for a visit to Rick's sister Tammy's house. We've never been to visit and they finished building a new home in the past year, so we thought it was about time. Rick, Corbin, Corbin's friend, and I went. It was fun for the boys to see some small town living. Some parts they liked, and some parts they didn't like so much.

I personally am a huge fan of small town living. I love the little houses and the fact that you can know everyone in town. The small family owned businesses are so personal, and I prefer a slower pace to life, but I think someone forgot to tell Tammy that's what small towns are all about because that family goes 100 miles an hour (and most of them in a car getting to the next event.)

Corbin wanted to move in with Tammy for one reason and one reason alone....The Bike! I'm not a fan of motorcycles, and will never own one, so Corbin took full advantage of the opportunity to ride. Thanks Austin for sharing your bike with him. He really enjoyed it.




My favorite part of the trip was the Hiawatha Trail. I loved this! I wish it was close to my house. I'd use it all the time. The Hiawatha trail was absolutely beautiful! It's a wonderfully maintained bike trail that goes along the railway that used to exist from Taft Montana to Idaho. We rode bikes on the trail, but I'd love to run it. The views from the trestle's are breath taking. The only thing I'd really do different would be to use better lighting through the tunnels (there are several). It was a little scary not being able to see where you were going. I really hope I get to do it again someday. I'm sure Rick would like to do it again also. He ended up riding Austin's broken BMX bike the last 1/2 of the ride, and didn't have much fun at all.






Rick's favorite part was Roosevelt Lake. He flipped over it (see pic). Roosevelt Lake was beautiful also. We really had fun there. Rick really loves the water, so he enjoyed this part of the trip the most. We rented a pontoon boat and cruised the lake. We tried to pull some tubes and got a lot of laughs at the kids expense, but he best part was cliff jumping. What fun.

Corbin tried to flip. :)


Tammy and Boots

Corbin and Ryan

Corbin was almost underwater and Ryan sat back with his seeds and had a good time. It was so funny.

Austin

The worst part of the cliff diving was climbing up the cliff. This is Ryan going up.


Tammy and Rick jumping. It took Tammy a little while to work up the courage, but she did it!

Austin jumping

Corbin doing a toe touch.

Me and Cole....Cole talked me into it.

Ryan the muscle man.

It really was beautiful.


We enjoyed our visit, and hope to get there to visit more often. When we left we took Amanda (Rick's niece), back home with us for a week. We enjoyed several activities with her and enjoyed her company. Here she is with Corbin at the airport ready to go home.

Holiday fun

The 4th of July.

It's one of my favorite holidays, the 4th. It's warm you can BBQ and hang out until late playing games. And then the night ends with a big bang. What better day could you have? So that's just what we did. We had our good friends the Saddlers over along with the Brother's family. It was fun.

We played a few games. Had a BBQ, and went to the Davis High Fire works.

The kids played while the food cooked, and put on some holiday spirit. Here Madison Saddler and Chantel show off their handy work.

Chantel plays a game before dinner.

Then we ate. There really is nothing like sharing a good meal with the Saddlers....as you can see.
What's up with putting things up their noses????
Steve.

Taylor.

Rick.

Corbin.

Dessert.

Then it was off to the fireworks. Davis High had the worst fireworks ever, but we still had a good time.
Channy, Madison, and Kin

The Brother's family

Brenda and Steve.

Rick and I

It was a fun 4th.