BBall Ainslee

Ainslee was so excited to play basketball this year! She was a little nervous when she first started, but it didn't take long for her to get over that! She had such a fun season, and although she didn't make any game winning baskets, she guarded like a champ and even rebounded a few times. Oh, and she can dribble down the court like a pro! Plus, she is super fast! It was so much fun to watch her learn and grow and just have fun! This girls heart is so big and there is nothing that can put a bigger smile on my face than an Ainslee laugh! I can't wait until next bball season! Love you Ainslee!

Scouting #1

This will be the first in hopefuly many to come posts on Trey and scouting! I am lost in the world of scouting...I mean it...they probably have a Scouting for Dummies book and I should seriously consider getting it and reading it cover to cover. So, for those serious scouters out there, please forgive me if I call a meeting the wrong thing, or, heaven forbid, place one of Trey's patches in the wrong place. That is, if I ever get them onto the shirt in the first place. 

Let me start by describing a little about Trey's scout troop! We have been so blessed. When we first moved here and Trey turned 8 we started looking at the local Scout troops because our ward didn't have enough boys to really have one. We weren't really impressed and felt kind of lost as which way to turn. Luckily at that same time, an amazing Grandpa to one of the other boys Trey's age decided to step in and become the Scout leader for these two boys! It has been amazing and Trey has learned so much! He loves going to scouts and we are so thankful for the time and effort that his scout leader puts into their meetings! To make this a little easier as I post about Trey's scout troop, I will rename a few people. I will now call his scout leader R and his fellow scouter K. 

A few months ago Trey had his first pack meeting! R had laid out a display for the boys (and me) to look through of K's dads (R's son) scouting career! It was amazing to see all of the hard work that the two of them had done! The thing that I was most impressed with was that he had scrapbooked it all! Surprise, surprise journaling and scrapbooking is what impressed me the most! So here we are at the (somewhat) beginning of Trey's scouting experience and I hope that one day he can turn to this to show his son(s) what he had done! 

Giraffe Tongues!

Yes, Giraffe Tongues! I couldn't name it Going to the Zoo again...I really need to go back and count how many blog posts are named that over the life of this little blog. I can tell you right now there is more than one! Every time we went to the zoo growing up my mom would sing "Going to the zoo, zoo, how 'bout you, you!" I cannot go to the zoo without singing it...it is stuck. Anyway, I went with giraffe tongues because we saw A LOT of giraffe tongues today! 

With the older girls going back to school so early, I sat down with Trey and the younger girls and asked how they wanted to spend the last week of summer. The first thing Trey said was swimming! Of course, we have spent the last three summers living at the pool almost daily (although a little less this year with all of the rain!). We attempted this yesterday since we were feeling a little out of sorts with Aurianna and Livia gone, but our attempts were stomped out when I misplaced the keys. Three hours I spent looking for them, Tad came home and the first place he looked, he found them...UGHHH! We had a good laugh about it and a big WHEW because it would have cost a couple hundred bucks to get them replaced. Anyway, day 1...no pool, but an awesome scavenger hunt...and bonus, cleaned under the couch and couch cushions! 

Day 2 had to be pretty epic to make up for day 1 being so poopy, so we went with the second thing on Trey's list....the Zoo...which of course the little girls jumped up and down and all around for!  

 The first thing that we saw when we came in was the baby Tiger. We were sad to hear that the two other babies didn't make it. It would have been even better had three sibling been playing together! But man was this little guy cute! And BIG! He weighs 160 pounds! They had put a big refrigerator box in there with him and the helpers said that he was too scared to go near it for three days. Right before we got there, he had torn off a little piece and was playing with it!

 Next came the sting rays! We weren't expecting to do this today....I had forgotten that it was there, but when I mentioned it they ran to the exhibit! Trey was freaked out at first because of their stingers. Once he learned that they couldn't sting anymore, he decided to touch them. But before he could, Audrey didn't even hesitate and started touching them. Ainslee stayed hesitant the entire time, only touching the babies! There were five babies and the kids had fun touching them!

 We of course couldn't leave without feeding them! Ainslee was adamant that she would feed them the fish, until she saw the fish, and then she was adamant that she would NOT feed them! Trey took over and followed the directions to a T! Before he knew it he had all of the big sting rays surrounding his hand! They weren't very patient either...if he took too long getting the fish, they would come up on the side and splash us. Audrey got splashed right in the eye!

 While the girls and I were in the bathroom, Trey noticed some zoo keepers with flamingos...but they weren't in their enclosures, they were taking a walk around the zoo! He said that at first he thought that they were robots...LOL! The zoo keepers would clap their hands and the flamingos would follow them wherever they went!

 It was cooking hot! Thank heavens for the misters! Everyone else simply walked through it...not my kids, they were soaked! I couldn't blame them though...it really was hot!

 One of our favorite enclosures...the Lions! They have a plane where half is on the outside of the enclosure and half is on the inside by the lions! The kids are able to climb inside of the plane and feel like they are in the enclosure! The last time we were here, on of the lions climbed up on the wing of the plane right next to the window! It was amazing! The girls were feeling SILLY!

 We were first in line to go up and look at the giraffes! They wouldn't let us get close to them while they were eating their fiber...this guy was HUGE! It was really cool to see them this close!

 Then we were able to go and watch the Cheetah run! This was incredible! This is the cheetah that Jack Hanna takes on his TV shows! It was born at the zoo and trained along with his best friend a yellow lab! He chased a ball through the enclosure at full speed! It was amazing!!!

I have a video of the kids feeding the giraffe, but it says it is too big...going to figure it out and get it on here soon!

       
We were so excited to feed the giraffes! Ainslee didn't want to touch the tongue at all! She asked if she could throw the food at him! We were excited that the giraffe decided to smile for our picture though!

One last pic...we went into see the bats and monkeys not realizing that the cheetahs were also inside! This one was pacing back and forth like crazy! I am not sure what Audrey is doing here...but it totally looks like the cheetah is photo bombing the girls!

We had a blast today at the zoo. We missed the older girls, but they were having fun making new friends at school...so it was all good! Here's to another great zoo visit!!!

"I GOT TO BE THE LIGHT!"

I know that the last post was about little Audrey, but I had to blog about her little experience today before I forgot. I always think that I will remember...I never do.

Today was a little different for everyone because I had to go to Ward Council first thing this morning and amazingly enough (of course right before school starts) the girls were still asleep when I left this morning at 7:45. Tad got everyone ready and to church, I saw them and gave everyone snuggles during sacrament and then Tad (lucky duck) got to spend the rest of church in the Primary with the kids. When I came out of Relief Society, Aurianna was waiting for me in the hall and the church was quiet...I guess we got out a little late! Tad had taken the rest of the kids home....it was a very weird day to spend Sunday morning hardly seeing my kiddos!

When I walked into the house, Audrey was waiting for me with the biggest smile on her face and her arms wide open! Oh how I love that girl! She said to me..."Mom, guess what...I was the LIGHT today!" It took me a second to realize what she was talking about (SPOTLIGHT), before she was continuing on a million miles an hour!  She continued on, "They told me that I like turquoise and pink and that my eyes are BLUE!" She was so excited that she was the LIGHT and that they knew so much about her! I wish that I would have taken a picture of her right then with her eyes so big and bright! Ainslee (her Irish twin) came in at that point overhearing Audrey and said, "I thought they were talking about me because I like turquoise and pink and my eyes are blue, but then they said JUNE and I am in February!" Wow I love my kids! It is the little moments like this that I want to remember forever and ever!

Audrey Turns 4!

 I can't believe it! My baby is FOUR! She loves acting and performing! Her favorite thing to do is stand on the fireplace and sing songs. Her favorite is Carrie Underwood (Or Carrie Wonderwoman in our house) and Maroon 5 (specifically Sugar).  She is a little spunky and a lot of sass! She is also totally shy in front of people that she doesn't know. She is super smart and loves to learn! She is rarely without her best friend, Ainslee. And the two of them get into a lot of mischief!

 We were lucky enough to have Grandma Debbie in town for her birthday! We spent the day in our swimsuits starting with the magic water balloons! The kids have been wanting to try it forever now and it did not disappoint! 120 water balloons in just a few minutes and we had a great water balloon fight! Then we headed over to the pool!

 There was a little swimming, and then a few party hats...

 The girls weren't into them, but dad rocked it!

 Of course she couldn't wait for presents! Play doh is her all time favorite and of course princess shoes. There was also princess snow globe making kits and coloring stuff!

 She was a happy girl! She played with everyone in the pool and loved that the whole day was centered on her! She is such an amazing little girls and we are so blessed to have her in our family!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY! WE LOVE YOU!

4th Of July 2015

4th of July is a favorite in this house! For all of the years that we were in Utah, the weekend was filled with family BBQ's and Sugar House fireworks! We miss those weekends, but we have loved our 4th of July memories while in Ohio! This year we decided to do something a little different and we got a hotel up in Polaris! It is an area that we love to visit with a lot of fun shops and places to eat, plus it is close to the zoo!

 We started the day with a lot of rubber bands and ribbons! Do you see the star?

 We had plans to go to Krispy Kreme, but when we got there the hot light wasn't on...and Tad was not eating cold donuts (he is a donut snob!). We ended up at a cute breakfast place! The pancakes were bigger than the kids heads, which they loved! After that it was off to the Zoo!

 We had a membership the first year that we were here and kind of had our fill of the zoo during that year. After a two year break, the kids were excited to get another membership, especially because they added some new animals (giraffes) and different enclosures! We had fun seeing the cool tiger exhibit, it had a plane inside that the tigers were playing on! The kids could go into the plane and watch the tigers from inside the cockpit! It was seriously awesome!

 But our favorite part of the day was definitely the pirate boat ride! We waited in line for awhile, but we had fun! There were photo back drops along the way, also it was along the water and there were a ton of garbage fish (I have no idea what kind they are, that is just what we always called them!)! The kids had a blast laughing at how big their mouths were!

 Everyone is ready to go! Ainslee was a little nervous!

 Trey was just flat out excited! There were all sorts of pirates (think Pirates of the Caribbean ride but a little creepier) and they popped out suddenly all over the place. There were also bridges over the top so that people could look down on you. At one point in time we were going right past the gorilla enclosure. I said to everyone, man that is a little scary, what if the gorilla decided to jump over here and take a ride with us. I had just finished when one of the pirates jumped out from behind the tree. I SCREAMED so LOUD. Not just a little jump, whimper scream. Like full on there is a monster under my bed and it just grabbed my foot scream! I was sure that it was a gorilla. Of course there was a bridge full of people right over us as I screamed...everyone had a good laugh. Especially Tad, oh, he thought that it was great! We also got wet a lot, which of course is always fun!

 As we were walking out to leave, the animal show was just about to start! We hadn't been to one at the Columbus zoo, so we popped over and got front row seats to a really fun show! The kids loved seeing all of the animals so close and they were able to pet some of them after the show! Tad has super 7 people selfie skills by the way! I think that we need a selfie stick!

 We decided to just do low key fireworks for the fourth. Like I said early, after years of Sugar House fireworks, we are used to big crowds, long lines and of course fabulous firework shows. We were a little farther from the fireworks than we would like to have been,  but the kids had fun catching fireflies....

 twirling glow in the dark sticks....

 and races!

 Plus the fireworks were fun and the finale was awesome! Plus, we had a big surprise at the end! We got a hotel just right up the road, so we didn't have to drive the hour home! The kids had a blast the next day getting Krispy Kremes (hot) and swimming in the pool! It was a great 4th of July!!!