The Zoo

WARNING!!! There are a ton of pictures in this post.



Before I get to the zoo, I wanted to tell you what I did with my aunts after swimming. We went to feed ducks at the park. It was getting dark when we got there so we couldn't stay long, but it was totally fun.









Aunt Denise was trying to get me to blow kisses to her dog who was laying near by.







I liked doing this better:

So apparently a zoo is a place where you get to see lots of wild animals that you wouldn't normally see just around where you live. Here are some pictures of the animals we saw:

Apparently there is a baboon sitting behind me. You can see its pink butt by my elbow.

And way back by the fence there were some rhinos.

And behind that bush is a tiger.

I'm sure you can tell that I found all of these animals absolutely fascinating.

Here's what I thought were the most interesting parts of the zoo.

The big bag of popcorn mommy bought me after I kept following around another family that had some.


Aunt Kari chasing me around and around with the stroller.

A squirrel that was running free and came right up to me!

All of the birds!

Rubbing my blankie around in the dirt outside the elephant area. (I love watching Mommy shake it out when it gets dirty.)

Seeing all of those animals was exhausting--especially because it was in the 80's that day and pretty humid. So before leaving, I got to play in a fun water area that has water shooting out of little holes in the ground. I had a blast until the water shot up in my eye.

The very last thing we did was ride on the carousel that had all kinds of animals on it. Mommy put me on the tiger since that's Daddy's nickname for me. I swear it was fun, even though my expression is less than thrilled.

I had a super fun day.

After a three hour nap we all went out to dinner and had a super yummy dessert. It was a warm giant cookie, served slightly undercooked in a pan, topped with vanilla ice cream. YUM!!! Mommy's frient Liz made us a modified version at her house: bake two or three preformed Toll House chocolate chip cookie (slightly underdone) and top with ice cream. When we visited my grandparents the next day, my uncle Mark made his version by baking homemade cookies in a glass bowl. Anyway you make it is delicious!

Vacation pics

I'm so sorry that I've continued to be a blog slacker. I've been back from vacation for a week and haven't posted any pictures! And believe me, there are a lot. Mommy (and Aunt Kari) took over 200 pictures and had to delete a bunch that weren't very good in order to make room for more. She actually ran out of space on her camera!

Anyway, our first stop was Phoenix, AZ. Two of Mommy's old roommates live down there--Liz from BYU and LeeAnn from Seattle. Sorry, no pics of LeeAnn. We had dinner with her on Thursday night and I had a blast throwing sugar packets under our dinner table and running as fast as I could for the front door of the restaurant whenever Mommy let me out of my high chair. Mommy didn't seem to think that game was as fun as I did.

We stayed with Liz. She has a really cute little girl, Lauren, who is 13 months old. I think Mommy and Liz have big plans for Lauren and I. Hmmmm.... Anyway, here's a picture of us together:

Liz took us to a super cool park. There were train cars all over the place. We even got to ride a little train around the park.

I know it looks like I'm trying to escape, but it really was a blast.

My face doesn't show it, but I didn't want the ride to end. I asked to go again, but Mommy said no. Instead we went on a carousel at the same park:

It looks like I'm not having fun on the horse either, but I really was. I take my fun very seriously.

Liz also took us to a mall that had a great play area. And I played the chase game with mommy again. I don't understand why she doesn't like that game. Once I was hurrying out of a store and when she ran after me some cool buzzing sounds went off because mommy had some clothes in her hands that she hadn't paid for yet.

I also love to open doors--especially the ones with the bar handles because they're so easy. Mommy doesn't care for that game either--particularly when we're in dressing rooms or a public bathroom. She really didn't like it when we were in a really big family restroom. She was trying to use the bathroom, but I just wanted to open the door that was all the way across the room from the toilet. She kept calling for me to come closer to her every time I pulled on the door handle. I gave up on escape and decided to push the stroller around instead (it was a HUGE restroom).

Arizona was pretty hot--upper 90's. So I got to go swimming at my sister Denise's boyfriend's house. My friend Amelia let me borrow her water wings which I liked much better than the stupid life vest I had to wear at Ensign Ranch (see posting The canoe ride.)

Aunt Kari and Mommy came in the pool with me, which was actually pretty cold at first--even for me who doesn't usually mind cold water. But then I had fun learning to swim.

I wanted to go off the diving board, so Aunt Denise helped me walk to the end of it. But then Mommy got worried that when I jumped I would sink her and me in the deep end. So...

Denise lowered me into the pool from the side. I bet the diving board would have been more fun. Sometimes Mommy is such a scaredy cat.

Hanging out on the steps in the shallow end with Aunt Denise and her dog Jasco:

Jasco is a really nice dog, but he sure is big!

Chillin' on a raft:

Tomorrow I'll post zoo pictures.

My new obsession

Wow, I have really been slacking on posting recently. But I swear it's not my fault. Mommy and Daddy have been slacking in the picture taking department. But don't worry--Mommy and I are leaving tomorrow for a week long trip to visit her family and friends in AZ and CA, so there will be plenty of pictures to share in the near future. In the meantime, here are a few to tide you over, along with some life updates.

Mommy and Daddy bought me some Matchbox cars a few weeks ago and I LOVE them! They are so fun and since they're so small, I can take them EVERYWHERE with me. One place I like to play with them is on the counter.

Did you notice Blankie in the picture? Of course I haven't forgotten him. He's still a favorite. And I finally found a use for my old bottles--the cars fit perfectly inside of them!

I also like playing with my cars in my highchair--even if I'm not eating.

And do you know what fits perfectly inside of a Matchbox car?

RAISINS!!!!

On a separate but similar note--I started speech therapy last week. At least, that's what Mommy calls it, but it sure seemed like playtime to me. The first thing the therapist pulled out was CARS! She had a whole bucket full and would give me one at a time. All I had to do to get more, was to sign the word more and say it. I was really bummed when we had to put the cars away, but then she pulled out BUBBLES!!! I had a great time!

Even though I've been learning a lot of words lately, I'm still behind where I should be. But here's a little list of some of the words I can say right now:

Buh= Blankie, dog, dog's bark, bug, bunny

doh=more

cars (used to be "dt")

bus (used to be buh)

bubbles (used to be buh)

boup=soup

bath

teeth

up

nite, nite

bye, bye

mama, dada

off

and lots of animal sounds..

I actually surprised Mommy and Daddy the other night when they were watching Spiderman because I said spider (pider) out of the blue. It's been a lot of fun lately trying to copy what they say. I think copying them is what's helping me learn so many new words. I'll be speaking in sentences in no time!

Multi-tasking

I've gotten really good at multi-tasking and can do a few of my favorite things at the same time!

Pushing my favorite dump truck and cuddling with my blankie:

Wearing Daddy's shoes while playing with my cars:

Playing with Grandma

Grandma Johnson came over to play a couple of weeks ago. She brought something I had never seen before--this stuff called playdough. It looks like mashed potatoes, but a lot thicker. You squish it flat like a pancake and then press plastic shapes into it and then the playdough turns into that shape. It's very cool. First Grandma showed me how to do it...



Then I did it myself.


And the reason we're on a plastic tablecloth on the hardwood floor in the kitchen is because Mommy was worried I would get playdough on the carpet and we didn't have a table in the kitchen to play on. Silly Mommy. Does she think I'm messy or something?

After playing with playdough, we read books together--Grandma brought over some of my favorite kind: lift the flap.

Grandmas are the best!

A new hobby

I finally got a hold of Daddy's camera and was able to try my hand at taking pictures. It looks so easy when Daddy does it--just take off the black thing in front and push a button on top to make a bright light flash. And it was just that easy when I did it. I think I might have a future in photography. What do you think? Here is a small sampling of the 35 pictures I was able to snap...



...before Mommy came downstairs and found me. It may be a while before I get to practice this new hobby again.