To the Zoo

With Chris's time at home quickly coming to an end, we decided to head to Utah on Monday to go to the zoo among other things.
We saw lots of animals............




and the CUTEST little baby elephant............

it was sooooo hot that we needed a giant snow cone to cool us off...........

Caitlin didn't even care to see any of the animals, she just wanted to ride the carousel........

this elephant made noises and squirted water out of it's trunk, and Ashlee hated it! 1 second after this picture she was in tears.



We only have pictures of the zoo, but we also went to the Salt Lake Temple, the Lion House Pantry for lunch, Costco, and we got to spend some time with our friends and their sweet little boy in the hospital on one of his tender last days on earth- we love you guys.

Back to Normal

I finished floor orientation early Monday morning, and I survived. (Even the 3 night shifts at the end). Now we will be back to our normal life, except the 2 shifts I will work a month- hooray.

And Chris went back to work this morning. A week of meetings, and then he will start his classes next week. He is just as excited as always.

Here are glimpses into our busy life lately. Hopefully we can start to do normal blogging again.

watching morning cartoons on PBS

The weekly kids movie at the theater (the dark theater and flash made our eyes all weird)

more park time with friends

cutest pig tails ever!

cheap entertainment!

and, of course, dress-ups.

What's going on?

There are a few things that have contributed to a lack of blogs lately.

1. It's summer, and we are enjoying it!
2. I strapped on my work shoes. I have been doing full-time orientation for the past 4 weeks, but I only have 1 more week and then I will start working "casual part-time", or only 2 shifts a month. It will be great to still be a full time mom, but be able to keep my skills fresh.


3. I had girls camp for 5 days, which was awesome! Probably my spiritual highlight of the year so far.
4. Chris and the girls went to Colorado while I was at girls camp. He has been great at being the "mom" for that whole week, plus 3 times a week while I am working. Thanks Chris.(one of the only pictures from Colorado. Cooling off in Lake Loveland)

That pretty much sums up our life for the past month. We have had a fun weekend with playing, visitors, and Ashlee's birthday. We are glad to still have a couple more weeks of summer before Chris heads back to work.

A few more random pictures:

(the girls hanging out in Grandma and Grandpa Will's car when they arrived on Friday.)

(Caitlin got a new dress for herself and her doll, Gigi, from Grandpa Bishop and Grandma Berta)

(this is called standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was helping Ashlee collect some water in her cup at the splash park, not realizing that I was standing right were water would be spraying up. I can see why Ashlee doesn't like the splash park, it was freezing.)

Hauppie Bir-day to me!

This is what Ashlee has been saying all day, and why not? It is her birthday after all.

Today she is 2 years old, although she says "free", I guess she is just practising for next year.

She had a great day. She LOVED opening her presents, and she did them all by herself.
We played, went on walks, went on a picnic, to the Green River, to the splash park, ate cake and ice cream. And she got to do it all with her Grandma and Grandpa Will celebrating with her!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

We love our little Ashlee. She really brings so much joy and laughter into our lives.

Irresistible

What kid can resist a gutter full of water after a good thunderstorm?

Caitlin's Camera

Caitlin got a camera for her birthday from her Will grandparents. She loves it, and loves taking pictures. It holds 600 pictures, which is great for her, but not great for me when I have to put them on the computer and go through them.

(I think Chris actually took this one of her.)

I love to be able to see the world from her view (and height), and see the things she thinks are picture worthy.






I love to see the pictures she has taken that just turn out so cool.



I love that sometimes she captures her intended target,

and sometimes she doesn't.


I love to see her point of view from the back seat of the car,



(I will be making a area on the side of the blog to post pictures she takes.)

Stubborn

Our little, nearly 2 year old is the stubbornest little thing. Tonight she absolutely REFUSED to have a new diaper put on for bed. She has been going to the bathroom in the potty quite a bit, and we will probably start full fledged potty training this week. That being said, she is sure she is a big girl and needs to wear panties to bed. We finally made a compromise and put panties over her diaper. She was happy with that.

First time wearing panties! Maybe the potty training will go well and we can stop buying diapers!

Trip #2

For our second trip, we flew to Maine to hang out with Chris' family at their Uncle and Aunts house. It, too, was a ton of fun. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather the entire time we were there.

The ocean is right next to the house, so we spent time playing in the water and on the beach. The adults, minus Trish and Doug (thanks for watching the kids!), went sailing on "The Sapphire"- Uncle Tom and Aunt Gigi's amazing sailboat!


We went out on a lobster boat, playing crochet, picked lovely flowers, and spent more time at the beach.

We made "camp Quinby" shirts to wear on the 4th, and we wore them in search of ancestors in Center Sandwich, NH. The girls LOVED driving a little tractor on the 4th, I wasn't sure we would pry them away from it. We also jumped in Squam Lake on the hottest day on record, and it felt sooooo good.

Trip #1

We recently went on two trips back to back of each other.
Our first trip was a fun week in Park City with the Bishop Family.

We went to Logan to visit our grandparents, took family pictures, made cookies, went to the Salt Lake Temple...........

...........went to a reservoir, read a lot of books, played "chubby bunny" with crazy huge marshmallows, played lots of games, flew kites, hung out at the condo..........

...........played on slides, had tea parties, played some more, got a little messy, and sometimes we were just down right exhausted.

We had so much fun, and just enjoyed all the time spent with my parents, siblings, spouses, and niece.

last of the twenties

Happy 29th to Chris!!!

He was lucky to have some special visitors to help celebrate his day.

My parents are visiting from Arizona, and the Ransom's from Iowa. (We are so glad you had time to stop by on your way back home!)

Happy, happy birthday! We love you.