The Zoo, Take Two

The weekend of my birthday (known to the rest of America as Labor Day weekend) we decided to finally go to the zoo as a family. We have attempted the trip two other times in the past month, but both times we failed to actually make it to the zoo. Ellie and I went to the zoo back in May with Grandma, Grandpa, her aunts and her cuzzy, but I was so happy to finally be able to go and experience the joys of the zoo with just Daddy and Ellie. It has been quite a while since Brad last went. Brad seems to think the last time he went to the zoo was on a field trip in elementary school. He has only poor memories of that sad journey. His room mother chaperon decided it was important to first see the insects and snakes (probably because it wasn't crowded there), and after that, they had to go eat lunch and head home. He was a little bitter then, and is still a little bitter now. But he had loads of fun on our trip last week, so I guess the zoo experience has been redeemed to some extent. Ellie loved the zoo again this time. She had so much fun seeing the elephants, giraffes, and rhinos, but we think her favorite part of the zoo was probably the elephant slide. Yep. All those cool animals, and she just had a smile from ear to ear going up and down that silly little elephant slide time after time after time. Brad's favorite part of the zoo was just spending time with his girls. I agree with him. I just had fun being with my two favorite people.

Here's our sweet Ellie enjoying the amazingly exciting elephant slide

Ellie had to experience all aspects of the zoo, including all of the flowers and weeds along the path. She is so cute. Any time she see a flower, whether it be a real flower, a silk flower, a picture of a flower, or a weed that has some semblance of a flower, she has to smell it. So of course she had to do this with all the "flowers" seen with our strolling about zoo too.

She though the rhinos were quite interesting. She likes to point to their horns in books, so she pointed to the horn on the statue too.

I don't think she really trust this gorilla next to her.

Family Reunions

We had a family reunion the last weekend in July and another the first weekend in August. The first was with the Winter Family. The latter was with the Frandsen Family. We stayed in a cabin with the whole Winter family. We saw moose, did fun crafts, and just had fun being with family and learning about our family history. Almost the whole Alan Winter clan was in attendance. We were only missing Josh. Ellie had so much fun learning how to move about with all of her on-the-go cousins, and Brad savored every minute he had with his brother. I forgot to use my camera at the Winter family reunion, but we had so much fun. Luckily, our talented sister-in-law took some great pictures of our sweet family. Ellie didn't exactly cooperate, but I think we still got some wonderful shots. Thanks Kristen! Sorry, I can't post them right now though. The last day of the reunion, we went to Jordanelle Reservoir and enjoyed a beautiful day on the lake. It started to rain just as we were leaving, but it was beautiful the whole time we were out. Between the boat, the jet skis and the beachfront, I think everyone had some fun.

The Frandsen reunion was the first weekend in August down at Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen's home in Sandy. Grandma Frandsen, of course, made her famous yeasty root beer. Apparently Ellie is a fan. She couldn't get enough of it. Brad was able to be there for the Friday festivities, but had to work on Saturday, so Ellie and I ventured down with Grandma Winter, Whit and Emm. We had a lovely time, and it was fun to see cousins we rarely get to see.

Ellie sporting some cool shades at G. Grandma Frandsens

Playing under the parachute with the whole Frandsen clan

And Ellie first experience with Grandma's famous burp beer (root beer, boot-legger style)

Some of the Winters enjoying the burps

Asthma Camp Adventures

First of all, I just want to say that I have an amazing husband :)

Brad got the rare opportunity to go be a counselor at Camp Wyatt last week for Asthma Camp. I'm sure he wishes he could say he did it for some noble reason, but he didn't. Heck, he doesn't even have asthma. He really decided to do it to get elective credit for school. And after the week of camp, he said he deserves those credits. It was definitely an adventure. He got to do some really fun things as a counselor like a camp out under the stars, canoe, swim, teach kids about asthma, alleviate homesick children, eat cotton candy on a churro (you'd never see that at Diabetes Camp[which is this week]), walk sleep walking children to the bathroom in the middle of the night (or 3 times in the middle of the night!),and keep Jeffery's shoes on (not successful). He came home on Friday with so many silly stories to tell, I am glad he had a good time. Unfortunately,Asthma Camp had it in for our family. I think that just about any big event that could have happened, happened while he was away for Asthma Camp activities. Now I don't mean to complain, but let me just tell you all the things that overlapped with Asthma Camp. Training for Asthma Camp was on Ellie's first birthday. Rob, Kristen and family got to Utah the day Brad left. Whitney had her baby. We had our third anniversary. Ellie took her first steps. But we survived. I'm sure this wont be the last time that he will be away from us for long stints of time, so we better get used to it. I sure look up to those Moms who do so much without their husbands around. It's hard work to say the least.

Sorry for the picture-less post. I didn't take any pictures last week, and neither did Brad.

Miss Messy Ellie

We had a fun birthday celebration for Ellie on Saturday. We had a great party with lots of family and a few great friends. I made some homemade bubbles that we were going to play with, but for some reason, the bubble mixture didn't work out. I was pretty bummed because I remember having hours of amusement as a child making huge bubbles with the recipe I used. Despite the bubble letdown, we still had a delightful get together. We started out the party with a barbecue dinner with some of Ellie's favorite foods. After a little bit to eat, it was time for Ellie to have some fun with her presents. It was so fun to watch here open each gift. She did very well, considering a one year old's attention span. She loved each gift, and you can really tell because she hasn't even touched any of her "old toys" since Saturday.

I decided I out try my hand at creating a fun cake for Ellie's birthday. She loves her monkey, so I decided to make a monkey cake. I found the basic idea online, and then adjusted it a little bit. I think for a first time cake decorator, I did a pretty good job. That monkey is pretty darn cute. Too bad the monkey brains got consumed quite quickly. All of my hard work must have tasted pretty good too I guess.

And here's the cutie pie with the chocolate all over her darling face. Oh! I was so happy she got herself good and dirty for some nice first birthday cake pictures. She really didn't eat much of the cake, but I made sure she got plenty of frosting on her serving to make her nice and messy.

Ellie's Birthday

Ellie turned 1 yesterday. Holy cow. It is hard to believe that she has been a part of our family for a whole year. I think back to a year ago on the night she arrived, and it doesn't seem long ago at all. It is amazing to watch your very own little one grow and develop. Ellie definitely has her own personality and she showed it early on. She is usually a very content little girl, but whoa! when she doesn't get her way, she knows how to throw a tantrum. Some of her favorite things include her giraffe and monkey toys, balls, her fluffy blankey, books, magnets from the refrigerator, and tupperware. She also seems to like a lot of stuff she knows she isn't supposed to be playing with, but I guess every one year old is that way. Ellie is a very good eater in my opinion. She will pretty much eat anything that is put in front of her, but some of her favorite foods include peaches, sweet potatoes, spaghetti, graham crackers, sloppy joes, and anything sweet. She is accumulating quite the vocabulary also. About two weeks ago, she discovered the word "no" and now that is probably her most used word. It is so funny though, she rarely says the word defiantly, usually it is a soft little nod of the head and a timid "no". She usually says it when she knows she is doing something she isn't supposed to be doing. That of course, doesn't stop her from doing it. She also likes to say "mom" "dad" "tickle" "ee-eee-ee" (monkey sounds) , "hi", "ball", "dog", and a few others. And she loves to vibrate her lips together to make car noises too. I think she is on the verge of saying a lot more because she can sure babble up a storm. She is also learning to point at body parts, and some animals too. She isn't quite walking, but she is steady with just one hand assisting her, so fairly soon we'll have a true toddler on our hands. For now, her primary mode of transportation is still her signature scoot. She has a constant redness on the outer part of her shins from scooting everywhere. We love our Ellie, and look forward to many more happy birthdays with her.

Ellie with my phone (one of the many objects she seems to think is a toy. She does put it up to her ear and say "hi", which is pretty cute)

Ellie on her birthday in her birthday suit

A Trip to Park City

Last weekend we got to go to Park City and spend some time with the Christensen family. It was so nice for Brad to have a whole weekend off of work, and it was so nice to just get away as a family. We did some shopping at the outlets. Holy cow, a mom can just go wild at the outlets. I think there are more children's clothing stores there than any other kind of store. Along with shopping, we did some swimming in the pool. This was Ellie's first experience with "swimming". Like many things that we put her through, I think she tolerated it, at best. She didn't want to splash around and play like we were hoping she would, but she didn't really cry either. Well, then again, she did cry the second time we put her in the pool, but that we soon alleviated with the appearance of a ball to play with. And since Ellie didn't want to splash in the pool, we got to go see other people make splashes in a pool up at the Olympic Park. Those aerial skiers are pretty amazing to watch. I hope we can catch the show they do sometime, we only got to see them practice. Brad and I also did some biking around the city as well. There are so many trails in Park City. It was fun to ride just a couple of them while we were there. I would love to explore some other trails in the future. It is so scenic up there, it really makes for a pleasant ride. I wasn't the best at taking pictures, but here is one of Dad and Ellie in the pool.

Fire 'n dirt 'n girls

Fire and dirt and girls. What a great combination, right? When all these combine, it equal Girl's Camp! Woot! Okay, you really have to add in a few other things too like braiding hair, and makin' crafty things, and spiritual upliftment, and lots of laughing. I had the opportunity to go and spend 3 days with the young women in our church group last week. I left Ellie and Brad home alone overnight for the first time, but they came up the second night to keep me company. Actually, they really needed priesthood brethern to be there, so Brad offered to help out last minute. And of course, if Brad is there, Ellie had to come along too. There was no objections from the young women with this arrangement, so it worked out well. Ellie did really well with her first camping experience, if you even want to call her experience camping. We really got pampered. They let us have the room in the cabin while everyone else slept in tents. Brad had fun chopping wood (and has a big blister to show for it) and just enjoyed being away from the pharmacy for a day. I also thought it was nice to get away from work for a couple days, and I also had fun getting to know my girls on at a different level. I was really impressed by all of our young women. There were 17 girls at camp for 4 days, and there wasn't a single quarrel, everyone got along, and everyone was included-no cliques. Impressive? Yes. Although it was fun, it was still nice to get home and sleep in my own bed.

Ellie chillin' by the campfire

Dad and Ellie exploring the campground