A Day at the Zoo

Today Kara, My Mom, and I took the four kids (Cooper, Sophie, Morgan, and Lauren) to the zoo. I love going to the zoo and today was exceptionally fun. I ended up taking about 80 pictures between the kids and the animals so there are quite a few on my blog. I just couldn't decide.

I forget what kind of monkey this is, but I thought he was so cute!

Mom, Sophie, and Lauren looking at some type of reptile.

Eating snow cones...I was a little disappointed because they didn't have lime. I love lime!

Showing our colored tongues from the snow cones. I apparently don't know how to get it everywhere so my tongue turns red.

The mama giraffe eating leaves. Their tongues were so long. It was pretty crazy.

Measuring up against the Gorilla.

I thought this was such a cute picture of Lauren.

Cooper asked, "Will you post that on the blog?" So here you go Coop!

Our one and only group shot in front of the zebras. I think we covered them up though.

Pulling funny faces in the giraffe exhibit.

Looking at the turkeys. You can't go to the zoo without seeing the turkeys!

Sophie and I posing.

Lauren and Morgan in front of the white alligator.

The kids huddling by the gorilla.

The adults wanted a picture together so we recruited Sophie to take the picture. A little off center, but not too bad.

Journey and Heart Concert

Last night a big group of friends headed out to Usana Amphetheater to see Journey and Heart in concert. Cheap Trick also played before the "big dawgs" came on. It was a fabulous concert! Journey had a new lead singer they found on YouTube. He was Asian and he sounded just like the original singer. It was very trippy.

Kristen and Shane made it just as Heart started singing. They were stuck in horrible traffic.


Rachel, Lauren, and Erin

Me and Rach

Bobbie (at least she's not trying to be a gansta again!)

Rachel and Kristen posing during Journey

Me and Erin eating nachos and waiting for the concert to begin.

Just after Cheap Trick started singing. They were good, but I think I only knew one song.

Kristen and Shane....You can kind of see Heart in the background.

Me and Andrea....She took the roll of gangsta instead of Bobbie!

I didn't get any real good pictures of the bands during the concert, but you couldn't see it real well in the camera. We did have great seats. Smack dab in the middle just behind the railing on the grass. It pays to go a bit early.....no traffic and great seats!

Summer Adventures 1 & 2

This summer Rachel, Rebekah, and I have decided to do things around the Salt Lake Valley. We made a list of activities and places that we have never done or seen and have been going weekly to do one of these activities. Our first activity was hiking to the Timpanogas Caves. I had never hiked it and Rachel and Rebecca hadn't hiked it since they were little. It was a fun hike, but it was pretty hard. The caves were very cool to see.

Here we are standing after we barely made it to the top. Hopefully by the end of the summer we will be in shape with all these activites.

Here we are with our tour guide. I forgot what his name was, but he sure did love his job. He was a very animated person.

Gilgal Gardens, Salt Lake City Cemetary, Hatch Family Chocolates
These three things were our next adventure. The Gilgal Gardens is a sculpture garden that a man began creating in 1945. It was pretty cool to see the rock sculptures, but they were very interesting. There was one sculpture that was the Sphinx with Joseph Smiths head. Very interesting!!!

Rebekah stading in front of the "Captain of the Lord's Hosts"

Me sitting in my rock chair reading about the gardens. Do I look intelligent? (That is what I was going for, but I was more worried about sucking in my belly!)

Rachel eating her Wendy's on a rock.

"The Monument of the Trade" It is a sculpture of Thomas B. Child, Jr. (the man who created the gardens).

Standing under "The Monument of the Priesthood"

Hatch Family Chocolates.....Mmmm, chocolate covered bananas. They are fabulous!

Rachel being disgusting with my banana! How could you get ice cream when there is chocolate covered bananas involved???? I don't get it.

I didn't post any pictures of us in the cemetary because I think they are kind of creepy.

Hiking with Alex

Last week my friend, Alex, and I decided to go hiking. We decided that today was the day. We went up Milcreek canyon and hiked up "Rattlesnake Gulch". I think it is also called the pipeline. It was only about 2 miles, but for the first mile it was straight up hill. I warned Alex that I might pass out and not to make fun of me. Surprisingly I did pretty good. I did make it to the top so that counts for something, right?!?

Here is Alex standing next to the "Rattlesnake Gulch" sign.

Here is Alex and I at the beginning of the trail.....before I began to sweat immensely!

These two pictures are the view from the top of the mountain....you could see the city better if there wasn't so much smog! It was so disgusting to see how smoggy the city is and to think that we actually breathe that stuff!

We made it!!! Actually Alex had no problem, but me on the other hand is a little fatter and out of shape. :) This is us as we made it around the first bend toward the lookout point. We even got to see a deer run across the trail about 50 feet in front of us. It was a fun hike and there was a great view of the valley.

Denny Family Campout

This past weekend was the Denny Family Campout. It is a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. We have been doing this since I was a little girl. I have many good memories of the Denny Family Campouts. There are well over 100 of us on my mom's side so it is always fun to be able to get together with everyone. This year there weren't too many of us that were able to make it, but it was fun seeing and hanging out with those that could.

Road trip pictures....I took Sophie's and she took mine....she is going to be a great photographer!

Here is Kara and Cooper showing their angry faces....we were getting pretty frustrated trying to find where to turn to go to the campground. We had to turn around probably 5 times before we got it right. Do they look mad?

Uncle Mark displaying his fishing outfit!

Kristen, Shane, and Rachel drove up on Friday morning.

Me, Sophie, and Rachel out on New Fork Lake. Sophie loved riding in the boat.

We went to fireworks in Pinedale, WY. It was by far the best firework show I have ever been to in my entire life. Here is a picture of the young ones.

Here are the young ones (at heart) waiting for the fireworks to start.

A moose was hanging around in our camping area. He was first just laying in the bushes by Kristen and Shane's camper and then decided to get up and walk around. We decided he was still just a baby...maybe two years old.

Hanging out by the fire....Rand, Bradley, Hannah, and Gunther

Roasting marshmallows on the bonfire.

Aly and Sophie roasting mallows.

Coop and Soph with Aunt Lisa roasting more mallows....I think they each ate 10 s'mores. After eating them they just ran back and forth for about 30 minutes. They didn't have hardly any sugar!!!

Not only did we have s'mores, but we also had "adult s'mores" (mushroom wrapped in bacon...cooked and then wrapped in provolone cheese), and doughies. I think I ate about 30 doughies myself. How can you go wrong with a cooked ball of dough rolled in butter and cinnamon and sugar? They were delicious!

My New Camera

When I was in Denver a few weeks ago I had an incident with my camera and cough syrup. I had put my camera in Rachel's bag along with my cough syrup and the lid came off the bottle. Cough syrup spilled all over my camera obviously ruining it. I was devistated because I use my camera on a daily basis. It has now been about 3 weeks without a camera and I am going crazy. I finally decided to go out and buy one. This is the camera I have purchased. Kara looked up some reviews while I was sitting at the store ready to buy. Most of the reviews were good and it was rated well. I decided to go with it. Hopefully it will be a good one.

Thank You

I just wanted to tell all my friends and my family thanks for giving me such a great birthday. I had a wonderful birthday and did a lot of fun things. Thank you for all the birthday wishes and everyone that came and celebrated with me. You guys are all fabulous! Love you all!