Leaves changing

A Day at the Zoo

We finally had a day off from running around town and doing things, so we took the day to go to Salt Lake and take the kids to Hogle Zoo and then visit Cabela's for Daddy. It was such a beautiful day and warm...almost too warm for a walk around the zoo. Definitely burned a few calories there. The kids were excited to see all the animals but mostly they wanted to see the baby elephant.

Isn't she precious! She was playing with this ball and fell down.
Then she struggled getting back on her feet. It is hard to be an elephant. Kimberly was very concerned why her mommy wasn't helping her back up. We had to explain that animal mommies need to teach their kids early how to survive on their own. But she was sure cute. She walked around and was showing herself off to everyone. I think it was a huge attraction at the zoo because the place was packed.

More animals we saw and had to stop to have a snack. It was hot and we needed some fluid to keep us moving. After our snack we stopped to watch the cute penquins swim. The kids were enjoying that. They swim pretty fast and then pop their heads up and watch everyone. Pretty entertaining.

Cute chessy picture during the penquin show.

After the penquins, we had to see the baby giraffe. We heard about him and so that was our next stop. Cute as a button but the stinker walked outside while we were inside watching him. Then he teased us by coming just to the door. But we still got to oh and ah over him.

This picture doesn't do him justice but he is pretty tall already.

One of my favorite attractions... tigers. I love tigers and they had some cute ones.

My little poser. Matthew didn't want to have anything to do with the tigers.

As you can see in the picture, he wouldn't leave his stroller and wouldn't even touch the tigers. Kimberly is trying to tell him it is okay but he still wouldn't have anything to do with it.

After the kids and daddy visited the snake house (I sacrificed seeing to guard the strollers... without hestitation), we found the carousel. Normally one of us rides with the children while the other takes pictures. This time we both got to ride but Brian insisted I get on one of the animals by the kids. It was entertaining.

Kimberly loves to ride the carousel but she is scared when it starts moving. Matthew thinks it is fun and got a kick out of mommy right by him. Of course Brian didn't get on an animal and only wanted to take pictures.

Next species were the gorilla/orangutan group. The kids were impressed with this cute little guy.

Too cute huh. He was way below us but he kept looking up at all the people. Great photo op for me!

Once again Matthew didn't want to have anything to do with this photo either. Kimmy was cute though and she was impressed at how big she was compared to the mommy.

How did Grampie sneak in this photo? hahahaha. Just kidding dad.

We did ride the choo choo train and after 3 hours, we were tired and hot. Spent a little money but had a ball. The zoo was totally worth it.

Afterwards we joked that we just saw the live animals and now we were going to see all the dead ones at Cabela's. haha. The kids had a fun time at Cabela's but that store was mostly for daddy to find his birthday presents. Hunting starts soon!

Blessings to all!

First day of Kindergarten

Kimberly started Kindergarten today. I can't believe my little baby girl is old enough to go to school. She was so excited to start school. It is only for 2 1/2 hours but it is still Kindergarten. She had a great day and really loved it. She already met a new friend too. She said that was her favorite part of the day.

This is Kimberly's kindergarten door.
This is her teacher Mrs. Packard. This was the open house night. She is really nice and I know Kimberly will have a good year.

Kimberly insisted wearing her dog shirt the first day.

She had to have a Hannah Montana backpack. They don't make small backpacks.

She even has Hannah Montana shoes.

Heading out the door, Matthew insisted he have a backpack. He wanted to be big just like his sister.

Showing off the backpacks.

Matthew was so cute taking his sister to school. He told her bye sissy at the door and was just cute walking off. Then he gave her a big hug when we picked her up. But he did enjoy his time with mommy. I saw more tears from siblings leaving the school than I did Kindergarteners or parents. Luckily Matthew didn't cry. He wasn't too sad. Hopefully that is how the entire school year will be.

Oh they grow up so fast.

Family Reunions

The past two weeks we were lucky enough to go to 2 fun family reunions. The first one was the 1st Annual Peterson Family Campout. Brian's family got together for a campout. Granted, not everyone could camp overnight but those of us who were able to had an experience. First of all... our camp was a little ways away from where we parked and were the flushing toilets were. In order to get all our gear up to our campsite, we had to use the one and only handcart. Did I mention it was very hot the first day we were there. Well we made a bunch of trips from the cars to the campsite and we were getting an appreciation for what the pioneers went through (granted we weren't coming even close to the trek they took).

We had a nice night once we got setup. The first night we only were able to stay for dinner because Brian had to work that night and there was no way I was camping with two kids and no daddy to help. The next day we came up and stayed the night. The daytime was fun but I had my scares for the night. It didn't help that the camp rules talked a lot about snakes and many other creatures. Oh and did I mention that earlier in the year they spotted a bear cub there. So needless to say, I didn't sleep any the entire night. I was too busy listening to our sleeping kids, the nighttime noises, and thinking about having to walk the mile if I had to potty. Ugh. Oh and about the time I finally decide I can't hold it any longer and decided to hike the mile to the bathroom, it decides to thunder, lightning, and rain. Lovely! Luckily for us our tent stayed pretty dry during the rainstorm that lasted until we had the cars packed up that morning. We all went home a little soggy and a little tired but we did have fun. We also found out my father-in-law was in the drama club in high school and was in a play or two (something no one could ever guess!)

The other family reunion was my Toomer family reunion. My grandmother was one of the people in charge so we decided to go. Not something I normally do but this year was something special. I am not sure if my grandfather will be able to make another one so we wanted to be there for him. We saw and met many family... some I don't think I have met before. My grandfather's siblings were all there (with exception of my grandfather's brother Tip who died at a young age). It was neat to see them all together.

That is my grandfather in the middle with the oxygen. He is flanked by uncle Blake and uncle Roger. Behind them are aunt Cheryl, aunt Janine, and aunt Uletta. My great aunt Uletta came all the way from Houston to be here despite her health problems

This is all the siblings and the spouses that could make it. My grandmother is behind my grandfather.

This is my grandfather's clan that could be there. There are a lot more of us but only a few that were close could make it.

Makes you appreciate all the family you have. Much love to everyone of them.

Blessings until next post :-)

Things that have been going on

Kimberly lost her 2nd tooth. She is pretty proud to have two teeth gone.

This was the sunflower cake I made my mom for her birthday.

Mom in her party hat that Kimberly insisted she wear.

Mom on her birthday right before she blew out her candles.

Blowing out the candles.

One of our many sunflowers at our house this year. During the spring, I held preschool and we planted sunflowers. Well we had a few seeds left over so this spring we planted them. At first we planted them in two pots. Well they started outgrowing the pots so we planted them randomly around the outside of the house. We didn't think they would grow to much but this is one of our fattest ones. We have some giant ones... one in our garden is at least 10 feet tall. Something fun for this year. We are pretty proud of our flowers.

Just some of the ones in front of our house. If you look above the house at the sky, you will see it is orange. I wish I would have taken a picture of the sun that day. We had about 24 fires in northern utah that day from the lightning storms the previous night and our sky was orange all day. It was pretty interesting... fun from the kids' point of view.

Next on our list... family campout and Toomer reunion. Hopefully to have some pics from those fun events.

Blessings to all until next post :-)

Happy Birthday Mom/Grammie

Happy Birthday Mom/Grammie. 56 years looks great on you!

We love you very much!

Happenings

Some of the happenings in the past week are as follows:

Matthew got a nice black eye. He was bouncing on the couch and the couch bounced him too hard; off to smack the coffee table. It actually got worse the next couple of days after this picture was taken but he is doing good now.

Kimberly lost her first tooth. She was so excited that she had a loose tooth and then the next day she pulled it out. We found her one tooth next to the missing one is also loose. She doesn't dare pull it now. Even though the first one didn't hurt, she still doesn't want to pull it.

For Pioneer Day, we had a breakfast and kid parade at the church. The parade consist of children dressing up their bikes anyway they want and ride around the church. Our children went with the red, white, and blue theme.

Kimmy's on a kick right now that she doesn't want to ride her bike. She only wants to ride her scooter.

We gave the kids some tootsie rolls to throw to the parents watching. They enjoyed throwing the candy.

We took Matthew's 2 year old pictures this week. He was so cute taking them. At first he just scowled at the picture taker. Finally I got him to open up and then we got some really cute pictures.

Here are my two cuties!

Blessings to all until next post :-)

Duke

One year ago today, we purchased a handsome puppy that we named Duke Peterson. We had been looking for a dog for a couple weeks after the passing of our old dog Abby and we were not having much luck. We wanted a girl just like our Abby. Well we found an ad on KSL.com that had a litter of puppies and they had a pretty girl. Well we hummed and hawed a couple days and when we decided to get her, my hubby called the lady and she said she just sold the girl. We were disappointed but the lady did say she had some boy puppies that were "discounted." So we decided a boy puppy wouldn't be bad so we went out to see them. We got out of the truck and here comes this handsome puppy on a dead run to us. We fell in love instantly. On the way home, he sat in my lap and was so sweet. My hubby named him Duke on the way home and that was that.

Duke was your typical puppy. He cried a lot at first, wanted to stay in my bed at night while Brian worked, ate a lot, and loved the kids. I know Kimberly and Matthew fell madly in love with Duke from the first kiss. With love from Brian (and a little force), Duke became an outside dog that loved coming in during the day. And boy did he grow fast. I couldn't believe how quickly he grew. But he was still a puppy. He loved taking the kids' toys and eat everything in sight.

A year later, not much has changed. He still sleeps outside but loves coming into the house. He still eats a lot and still loves to take the kids' toys. He gets in trouble a lot but he is so lovable. My favorite thing is watching him jump into Brian's lap and give him loves. haha.

We are so grateful for our Duke and what he has brought into our lives.

Much loves Dukey!