San Diego Trip

Look kids, the ocean!

The Petting zoo at the Wild Animal Park.

Sea World

Kate loved the rides.

We stayed 1 1/2 blocks from the beach.

Day three, afternoon at the zoo. Kate's asleep under the hat.

We had a blast!

Nice pics of our kids

So after being married to a photographer for nearly 6 years and seeing all the cute pictures he takes of other people's kids, I finally finnagled a photo shoot out of him. It was on the premise of checking out a possible location for future shoots. I just dressed up the kids really cute and convinced him to take a few pictures. This is the outcome: really great pics, with none of daddy. Oh, well, maybe next time. The location is the International Peace Garden in Salt Lake.

Oh what do we do in the summertime, part 2

So we've been having more fun. In the past few weeks we've gone to the children's Pioneer day parade, Hogle zoo (of course I forgot my camera for that one), and to Idaho for education week.

We rode the trax train to the downtown area for the children's parade. It's quite an adventure for a 3-year old to ride such a big train. I think it was more fun than the actual parade.

Daddy and his girls waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the parade.

Lily came to my dentist appointment with me and had a great time watching what they did to Mommy. I think she mostly enjoyed the treat we got afterward: a whole bag of Cheetos puff that she got to eat on the way home.

Chris took the girls to his parents' house in Blackfoot while I attended BYU-I education week. I had a great time going to classes with Conna, and I think the girls had a great time with grandparents and cousins. They went to the Idaho potato museum, but Chris wisely chose not to pay the $3 admission price per person, so they just played outside.

Lily got to help farmer Grandpa pick some zucchini, which I have since shredded and frozen: 30 cups of zucchini. So if you want some zucchini bread, just let me know.

They took a walk to the nature park just down the street from my parents house and got to see the ducks.

And we got to ride the carousel, too. After that we ate lunch and went to see a show at the Playmill. What a fun trip!

Oh what do we do in the summertime?

We've been having a fun summer.  We've gone to WestFest here in West Valley, and the Arts Festival in Salt Lake.  We went to the Discovery Gateway kids museum with lots of cousins.  So here are some random pictures of the summer so far.  There are more to come, so keeping checking up on us.

One way to keep Kate from lunging at the camera whenever we pull it out:  confined spaces.

At the kids museum.

Another way to keep Kate from being blurry in the picture:  buckles.

Lily at the Winder Dairy, eating an ice cream cone.  Yum.

Love love love that face.  I snapped this one about 0.5 second before she lunged for the camera.

Our little singer.

Challis

We went to Challis over Memorial Day weekend for high school graduation.  Chris's niece and nephew graduated and all of Chris's siblings were there with most of their kids.  It was a fun time for all, especially for Lily and Kate.  They got to play with cousins we hadn't seen in way too long, and there were lots of animals and other new experiences for them.  Kate loved the kittens.  I think she thought they were just like her stuffed animals, only mobile.  She didn't hesitate to pick them up and hold them.  Lily loved jumping on the trampoline.  She wanted to ride the horse until it actually got close, then she didn't even want to touch it.  It wasn't rideable anyway, so no harm there.  It was Lily's first time bowling, and we both used the bumpers.  They were good riders in the car.  We even took the long way home, and as soon as we got home, Lily said she wanted to go back.  It's nice to know our kids like to hang out with family.

(Are those not the cutest little bowling shoes ever? Lily's, silly, not mine.)

Where did she come up with dacku?

So this is the word Kate uses for food, or drink, or basically anything she thinks she would like to put in her mouth.  It's not her first word.  That was "Wazzat?"  We are working on getting more important words, like Mama or Dada or get off me, Lily.

Kate's signs

We've taught Kate some signs, and she picked some up on her own.  We caught some on tape.  Just have patience through the first part.  It's pretty cute.

This is harder than it looks

You would think with all the computer experience I have, it wouldn't take me 5 tries and 1 month to publish a new post on my blog, but here we are in May and I'm finally getting Lily's birthday up here.  Lily turned 3 in April, and is going to skip her next 10 birthdays and go straight to 14 next year, I think.  She is precocious and smart, and frequently out-wits me in our daily interactions.  She could be a UN negociator with all the skills she has picked up trying to get me to do what she wants.  I tell ya, she's persuasive.  We went to Temple Square for her birthday and enjoyed walking around, seeing the flowers and all the fun things there.  I made her an apron for her present, and she also got sidewalk chalk and balloons (hey, those aren't just for decoration when you're three.)  

We've done some other fun things in the past little while.  We went to a couple of Grizzlies hockey games.  Kate loves watching, and was pointing things out to us the whole time.  I think Lily just goes for the treats, and to see the mascot.

The Old and the New

We decided to put Lily to work last time it snowed.  She had a great time helping Mommy shovel the walks (and the lawn).  We are glad our snow has melted now, and I can't wait to see my tulips!

These girls are growing up so fast.  Lily loves to color and cut with her scissors.  Luckily, she is a very responsible cutter and so far hasn't cut anything she isn't supposed to.  She can even write her name, kind of.

Kate is growing up way too fast.  She is crawling all over, and is just starting to pull herself to her feet.  She doesn't let her sister get away with anything and tells everybody if Lily does something she doesn't like.

We had a death in the family this week.  Chris's 1996 Buick Skylark finally bit the dust on its way to work last Friday, March 6th.  He's had that car since, um, a really long time ago, and put some good  love into it.  He tried valiantly for 2 days to resurrect it, and gave up after the mechanic told him it didn't look good.  So here's you to, Big Red.  It will soon be making the trek from our driveway to... wherever it is donated kidney cars go.

And this is the newest member of the Parkinson household, a 2006 Toyota Sienna.  Chris now gets to drive the green CR-V, and this is Mommy's car.  Not car, van, Lily would say.  We love it already, although its bigger than anything we're used to driving.  So now, if you and three friends come to visit, we may just all be able to fit in one car.  This is an 8-passenger van, folks.  But it doesn't have a power sliding door.  Them's the breaks.  I told Chris if my great great grand parents could walk across the plains, I can open my own darn door.