Zoo Days!

Since we got our Zoo pass on Noah's birthday, we've already gone five or six times! We love it! They just finished the African Savannah where they added zebras, lions & antelope. The train was closed the whole time they were building this, so we were super excited to have it open again this last time that we went. Noah loved it!

Here's pictures from the last few times we've gone.. some from my camera and some from my phone

I love elephants so much!

Noah just adores her

Noah really likes the bears

Trying to climb into the Sea Lion enclosure

He's such a monkey

I looove the big cats

Cuties

The next ones were during Memorial weekend. We went with Jared, Lorin, Dustin and Sophia. Daddy had Monday off so was also able to come.

He likes to sit like this. Also in shopping carts. 

It was SO hot that day. The splash park was extremely refreshing. Noah and Sophia loved it! They didn't want to leave (although the next trip to the zoo Noah didn't even want to play at all in the water.. so unpredictable this kid)

Pictures from a trip with Jess and Elijah

All aboard the train!

Our intense boy.. looking at all the animals

He was so cute with his binoculars 

Okay, this was awesome! They are usually asleep but this time they came right up to the glass. It was amazing, they are such beautiful animals. 

Stay tunes for more Zoo days!

This is The Place

AHH! I'm so behind on my blog! Sorry blog, will you forgive me?

A few weeks ago was Memorial weekend here in the US of A so we took advantage and did some fun outings. Jared's girlfriend, Lorin got some tickets for This is The Place Monument for us so we all went together on Saturday. We woke up to rain though and were pretty sad. I decided I still really wanted to go anyways (it was just drizzling out). So glad we did because it wasn't bad at all, in fact it ended up getting really nice out towards the end.

It was my first time there. I really enjoyed it. They had a bunch of old pioneer homes, and of course anything old is my territory. I LOVED the cute little homes and antique furniture. They had people dressed like Pioneers too and they would act like they lived in the house and talk to you about things the pioneers used to do. We learned some history and got to appreciate some Utah culture. 

They also had animals out, some we were able to touch which was kind of cool! Noah was able to pet a goat and some chicks, hehe. There was a train ride that took us around the whole park so we got to see everything, and some amazing views of the valley. We got some mini doughnuts (which reminded me of Calgary Stampede) that were to die for! You gotta indulge sometimes :) I actually did a lot of indulging that weekend. Later on we had lunch and Noah got his first shave! Haha... details below :)

Baby goat running around

They had a barber shop and they give pretend shaves to little kids. It was really cute. 

Sophia's turn. 

Native dance show

Hawryluks Visit!

This was a while ago now but we had some good friends from Calgary come to visit us! When Jared and I lived in Calgary, we were close with the Hawryluk family. Darwin and Patti were in town about a month ago and were able to spend some time with us. We had them over for dinner at our house. I made them turkey chili and we had protein cookies for dessert :)

They stayed for a while and we just talked and talked. It was nice. They were able to meet Derek, Noah, my mom and even Lorin.

Patti was our sunday school teacher at one point and also my Young Women's leader at another point. Darwin served in the Bishopric and was our home teacher.

I am so grateful for families like the Hawryluks. I was blessed enough to have had so many wonderful, caring and nonjudgemental people in my life as a youth. To say I struggled a lot is an understatement. I would not have made it through my teenage years without the support, friendship and examples of the leaders that I had. I know Heavenly Father was looking after me. I'm not sure if the Hawryuks knew then or know now -- I didn't even know at the time how much they helped me -- how valuable their example was to me.

I will forever be grateful for them and for everyone else in the Calgary 13th ward who was there for me and my brother.