Summer to dos: Zoo #2

We also spend a good chunk of our summer free time at the Minnesota zoo.

We generally go with a crew - Evie is by far the tiniest, yet one of loudest.


Oooh, scary children.
Aunt Caroline posing with Evie.
They have a great sprinkler area - we brought them 2 weeks ago in their bathing suits and the kids had a blast.
We went with Grandma Barringer, Grandpa Walton and Mindy + kids to the new jungle playland last week. Very cool. Do check it out.

Summer to dos: Zoo #1

We're always on the lookout for fun summer things to do around here. Some of our favorite are the zoos. We go there A TON.

Zoo #1 - the (free) Como Zoo in St. Paul.

My kids love the "wirwaffes." The other favorite attractions are the huge gorillas - one of whom gave us a show one day of beating on his chest, Tarzan style.


They have a great exhibit over the summer - the butterfly garden. Evie was enthralled.

She now demands her "wurfwy" jammies every night, stinky or not.

She was especially happy because cousin Ryan agreed to hold her hand everywhere.

Sticky

I dare you to find something cuter and more summer-y than naked children eating popsicles on a hot, sticky day.

Summer, please stay.

Epic

There was evidently an epic battle of good vs evil in the family room the other night. It was a close call - we only learned about it after Ken walked in to find Luke lying on the ground with a play "rocket" in his tummy. Not to worry, though. He said he took the rocket to save Evie, but Nephi healed him. Phew.

***For those of you who don't know, most of the players are actually people from the scriptures, talked about mostly in the Book of Mormon. For more info about the Book of Mormon, go here

The good side was led by Luke. Fighting by his side was Moroni (co leader) and the rest of the Nephites. There were some Lamanites there as well because they can never decide whether they are good or bad. Other notable people on this team were Nephi and his son Nephi and all the other prophets and Evie.

The bad side was of course the evil people including King Noah, Gadianton and his robbers, Kishkumen and Amalikiah.

During the fighting, Alma decides to leave the bad side and join the good side. Way to go Alma!

The good guys were winning but Evie was in danger of getting hit by a flaming rocket shot by Kishkumen so Luke dove in front and was hit by said flaming rocket in the tummy. Good thing Nephi was there with his super healing powers. Luke was healed and the good guys won the fight.

All the bad guys died except for four. Gadianton, Kishkumen and two robbers lived. The good guys caught the robbers but were not able to capture Gadianton and Kishkumen. Kishkumen stabbed one of the nephites who died in the scuffle and Kishkumen escaped. Another Nephite warrior shot the flaming plane at Gadianton and hit him in the belly button. Gadianton died from his wounds. Beware of the evil Kishkumen hiding in the living room somewhere. Luke thinks he met up with another robber that was hiding in the mountains so there might be two of them now. They were evidently hanging out in the living room, but we haven't heard from them so they must have gotten away.

And we always said that Luke didn't have much of an imagination.

I am a triathelete

Well, I am not (I'm trying not to picture my 6-months-pregnant-self in a wet suit. Eeek). But this has been Ken's mantra for the past months - and now he can say he did it!

He and a bunch of friends from church finished the Lake Minnetonka triathalon yesterday. The kids and I had a great time cheering them on and it was a beautiful day.

Ken getting out of the water - nice arms!

Our cheering squad - at the beginning of the day.

Finishing the bike

Our cheering squad at the end of the day. They were really patient and did a great job.

Ken coming up on the finish line. He sprinted for the end.

Four out of our 6 ward finishers. Great job guys!

He finished in about 1 hour and 30 minutes - which I think he was pretty happy with. Come on ladies, are you all in next year?

Memorial Day (Finally)

I realize it's now half way to fourth of July, but I'm finally getting up to putting some pics on the blog.

We had a great (but cold!) time camping. We went with some friends up to a beautiful campground north of Duluth. We did some hiking, cooked some great food, watched the kids chase each other around, and spent the nights trying not to freeze (it got below 40 - bleeccchhh).   Luke and Evelyn actually did pretty well. It was me who was waking up freezing all night.

Evie spent most of the days trying to keep up with the older kids.








Luke, Leiden and Evelyn on the trail by split rock lighthouse.


The kids' favorite afternoon was spent playing on the rocks by the lake.  They all (including Evelyn) got brave enough to wade and jump barefoot around the rocks.  We then stopped by Gooseberry falls, another great hiking spot near Duluth.
Ken getting a squeeze from our two crazies.

The List

The List of things I really, really, with a passion, don't like is quite short, actually.

Raisins. Cockroaches. Doing the laundry.

And potty training. Really, if it were up to me I'd rather leave them in diapers till they were in the 2nd grade (or got too embarrassed and trained themselves). I'm not sure why I dislike it so much. But it's up there (other than cute chubby tooshies running around naked for 3 days straight. That's kind of cute.)

Since Ken is still home from work, we thought now would be a good time. 3 days into it, she's actually done pretty well. She thought it was great - juice and M&Ms, right up her alley. Maybe we'll actually venture out of the house tomorrow.