Riding the Bike

Look at her go!  Faye's catching on quick to the whole pedaling business.

Baby Animal Days

 Yay!  Baby animals are always fun.  Mom, Faye, and I drove to Logan to meet up with Heidi, Ryan, Viv, and Greg at THE Baby Animal Days.  We love a good adventure. 

We beat the others to the American West Heritage Center.  While waiting, Faye and I made a game out of smelling every daffodil we found. 

Once we met up with everybody, we went through the scene backwards.  Best. Idea. Ever.  We were able to see things without the lines, enjoy ourselves without the rush.  Faye was so excited to hear there were turtles.

Even more excited to see the baby turtles, but not enough to actually touch them.  We can't seem to get over the timidness with animals.

 

After we played in 'Turtle Town' for a bit, we found a face painting stand.  Luckily, Ryan was willing to share five dollars so Faye could get a shark.  She was too wiggly for her face to be painted, so the kind lady offered to paint it on Faye's arm. Faye was quite excited to see the shark be painted, and we were blown away by the speed and skill of the artist. 

Faye's 'face' painting all finished!  She would get distracted from the baby animals throughout the rest of the visit by the shark and fish on her arm.

Greg was a bit late meeting up with the rest of us, but we were all so excited to see him!  Faye absolutely adores her uncle.  

Faye, Mom and Greg enjoyed the open space by running a few ladders to the fence and back.  Faye loves a good race. 

Nothing completes a princess outfit quite like red cowgirl boots, and a shark painted on your arm.

Enjoying the lasso dummies. 

 Heidi took a turn riding the wild beast!  Clearly she's ready for the rodeo now.

Maybe not so much; we were having fun pushing each other off.

 Group shot!  Such a nice day.

We didn't care to stand in the mile long line to see the baby bears (it sure looked like a mile long line!), but we did see all the farm animal babies! 

Still working on getting Faye to touch animals.  She's intrigued by them, but overly cautious as well. 

Two cousins looking at a pony and her baby. Viv is definitely braver when it comes to animals than Faye is. 

So glad we got to go up and spend the day with family.  It was just a quick trip, Mom, Faye and I were back home in time for me to head to work, but it was perfect.  Thanks so much for sharing pictures, Mom!

A Posh Afternoon

It's always nice to head to Cache Valley to see Alan's family.   We spent Sunday with Sharon, Kelly, and Camille.  After church, and Sunday dinner, Faye discovered the tea sets in the bonus room. 

It cracks me up how much our shark lover also loves dainty little things like tea parties and dress up.  Daddy and Grandpa were so kind to join us ladies for the tea party action.

Sharon and Camille took off with an improv dialog worthy of British nobility.  I couldn't even pretend to keep up with their discussions of the staffing changes at their imaginary villa. So fun.

Aquarium Re-Opening

 Like many families in the Salt Lake Valley, we have anxiously waited for the re-opening of the Living Planet Aquarium.  I feel like we were a little more anxious than most as Faye's shark obsession started shortly after the old location closed.  Since we had purchased membership passes last year, our family was able to attend the weekend before the official opening!  We met up with Heidi, Ryan, Viv, and my mom.  Thank heavens Mom had her camera, Faye and I had come from a baby shower and I had forgotten mine.

We were so excited to see Faye's reaction to the exhibits! 

Tucan.  I am loving Mom's new camera lens; you can hardly tell she shot this through the mesh.

Unfortunately, two thirds of the exhibits were empty and what would be fun play areas were still under construction.  For instance, here we stand at the "helm" of their giant ship.  The wall behind us still had the builder's scribbles of planning on them, no helm was in the room, just a white empty room with a window. 

 

However, the three big exhibits were filled with animals and so fun to watch.  Faye was so excited about the penguins!  She was so intrigued by the refraction of the water and was continually playing with looking above the water level and underneath it as well.

The floor below showed plenty of swimming room for the penguins. Faye and Alan loved finding the penguins as they were swimming.

Viv was entranced by the swimming penguins, too!  So fun to watch her little head whip around as she watched those penguins dive in.

The otters were just as much fun and seemed to enjoy the attention.  They swam laps right next to the glass where all the children were.

Loving the crawl tunnels.

 

The shark tunnel was the last exhibit on the tour.  Luckily it was filled with just what we came to see.  Faye was ecstatic about the sharks!  She jumped and cheered and pointed every time one swam by.  We stayed at this exhibit for at least half an hour, it was brilliant watching Faye's excitement.

Showing daddy a shark.

It was so strange to be at the opening event for the aquarium while so much of it was still incomplete.  Even the shark tank was covered in construction paper as you can see in our little family photo.  Love the photoboming ray.

Faye is speaking so well as of late.  She was very excitedly telling Grandma Lisa all the parts of a shark: tail, belly, teeth, back, fin, nose, eye, etc. So adorable.

Since today was the first time back to the aquarium, we splurged and let Faye pick out a toy.  She quickly found a plush tiger shark to never left her side.  It was hard to limit myself to only one shark related prize, but we happily indulged in the shark books on the reading table.

Hopefully the aquarium will have their other fish in soon, we can't wait to see it all put together.

Youngest of Geezers

This post is really for my entertainment more than anybody else's, so I apologize in advance if the subject matter is less than exciting and fully forgive you if you scroll past. 

I had a colonoscopy on Friday!  "Horray?" you may say. "Why are you so excited about this? I hear they're much less than pleasant."  I'll tell you why it makes me smile.  I have now officially experienced both menopause and a colonoscopy, both before reaching the ripe old age of 25. Now I get to make jokes about secretly being 50! Teehee.

And, quite honestly, I think this attitude of amusement helped make the entire ordeal much more pleasant than it could have been otherwise.  Don't get me wrong, I'd rather not have one every year, but it definitely wasn't the worst morning I've spent in a hospital so far.  Even the prep wasn't horrible.  

So here are my highlights of the adventure:

• I was starving.  All I wanted was a hamburger, and that's what got me to chug that gallon of 'joy' the night before.  
• I slept the 'prep' night on the couch cushions in the hallway to have a shorter distance to run to the bathroom if needed.
• My mom was kind enough to take Faye for the day.  We were so excited to see pictures of their adventures together while we were at the hospital.
• Alan and I were definitely the youngest people in the waiting room by at least two decades.
• Our nurse had streaks of bubblegum pink in her hair and was a pleasant young lady.  All three of us were in stitches as we joked about the occasion while we finished up paperwork and such.
• Just before the sleeping meds were put into my IV the next nurse was joking that I should buy her a boat.
• I woke up and was not crying!  I'm so proud of myself, that was the part I was most terrified about. 

 Me waking up.  I look so drugged still, I can't stop laughing when I see this picture.

• Doc said they had to run a biopsy, but it should be no big deal.
• Alan took me to lunch on the way home and I got my hamburger!  It was the best burger I've ever eaten.  
• On our way home from the LDS Hospital we were stopped at a red light next to Temple Square and Elder Perry was walking across the street!  He waved at us.
• I went home, slept, then went straight into a busy Friday night at work.  

I'm definitely not dreading a colonoscopy when I turn 50, especially if it means I get another heavenly hamburger.

Good Bye Chrysler

 The month we became engaged, Alan purchased a Chrysler from his Grandma's neighbors.  It was affordable and fabulous for us college students just starting a life together.  However, it came with it's own set of quirks.  For instance, the check engine light came on about 4 years ago and after spending $500+ on trying to find the problem, we were told that the internal computer needed to be switched out.  Nothing was wrong with the engine, just with the light.  No big deal, still safe to drive in, but once we moved to the Salt Lake area, we learned that it couldn't pass emissions with the check engine light on.  Last year we solved that problem by registering the car in Cache County, but this year Cache County is starting to check emissions.  Long story short, we needed to buy a new car.  The Chrysler was getting old and wasn't worth paying for the repairs.  

After we reached that decision, the radiator went out.  Now there was a big problem.  We decided to start the car shopping journey.  Lucky for us, it was a short adventure with lucrative results!  We stopped by the Nissan dealership, just to check out a model we had looked at, and wound up taking home a brand new car!  Apparently the dealership was willing to lose some money on the sale just to get the sale to add to their numbers before the end of the month. Win win for us!  I'm terrified to know we own a brand new car, but I'm grateful to know it shouldn't fall apart in the middle of the road.

Just look at it, so shiny!  

So glad we were able to trade in the Chrysler. I'm feeling nostalgic just writing about it leaving our family's life, but really it was more of a relief to wave good bye to it as we left the dealership. 

Daddy Daughter Date

With our upcoming medical bills, I asked Jeremy for more hours at work; this past week I worked 6 of 7 nights.   Alan and Faye decided to go on a date Saturday evening, I was excited to receive some pictures documenting their outing.

A dinner at Wendy's.  Faye's such a lady.

Ice Cream at Marble Slab.  (I was so excited to see them.)

And a joyous trip to the pet store.  I got a surprise dinner break just as Alan and Faye were leaving the creamery, so I joined my two cuties at the pet store.  Faye has picked up several words this week, one being "turtle."  She was so excited to watch them swim.