A Day at the Zoo with my Sis & 3 kids!

One day, 2 adults, 3 kids and LOTS of pictures

We had a TON of fun at the zoo with my sister and her daughter Kylie. Check out all the fun things that we did!

The Petting Zoo

We got to go in and pet all of these goats. All the kids loved it, even Bryson got really excited. But how gross is it that we have to walk on their poop to pet them? It was everywhere!

Check Megan out in the back!

Okay, so you have to click on this picture to make it bigger and read the sign, then you will see how gross this is.
Checking out the baby hippo
Who's Bigger?

The Splash Park!

Megan LOVED the slide, she would go down it over and over, frontward, backward & on her tummy!

Letting Bryson test out the water
Me getting wet


Feeding the Lorakeets!

These birds were CRAZY! They would fly everywhere as you can see, it was a lot of fun and a tip to anyone who ever goes, you don't have to buy the nectar to get the birds to fly to you, we had to make the birds eat the nectar.

Feeding the Geese

The end of the day everyone fell asleep in the car!
Megan had to wear her birthday crown that she got at school.

Army Crawl

Almost 9 months old and just figuring out how to crawl, what can I say... I'm really glad that it took this long so I didn't have to baby proof everything sooner. Check out his army crawl / wiggle worm!

Birthday Party!

Megan had her birthday party on the day of her birthday and invited 11 other friends to come. Megan wanted a Dora the Explorer birthday party this year, so I spent lot of time finding the perfect things to do. (I actually found a Dora birthday website where I got all of my ideas. Dora Party Ideas) So I spent a lot of time preparing for this party that was a one hour whirlwind adventure. But surprisingly we had everything done and ready before the party started and were able to snap a few pictures. (Thanks Josh and my sister Jess for your help! :-)

Crossing Frog pond by putting the puzzle pieces in the bridge so they could cross over.

Waiting to enter the Spooky Forest


After the spooky forest they entered Cupcake Cave, which we didn't get a picture of, ooops! What do you expect with 12 kids running around!

Okay, I just found this picture with our Cupcake Cave in the background, it was a tunnel they had to crawl through till they found the cupcakes at the end.

Next we were back upstairs for cake and ice cream

Opening Presents
Family Birthday Party
Megan & Kylie (Megan's cousin)
One of Megan's presents, she LOVES umbrellas

Happy Birthday Megan!

Megan celebrated her 4th birthday yesterday, Sept. 14th. We are so gratefull to have Megan in our family. She is a wonderful big sister, and always likes to make everyone laugh. She is so friendly to everyone that she meets. Megan is also very smart and loves going to school. We love you Megan!

Interview!

Josh has received an invitation to interview at the University of Louisville next Friday, Sept. 21st. We are so excited and proud that he has this interview. Please keep him in your prayers. We hope that this is the year that he will get in! And for those who are wondering, the first he can find out if he did get in is Dec. 1. Keep your fingers crossed!

Kids Bedrooms

Now that we have lived in our house for 2 months we have finally finished putting stuff up on the walls in the kids rooms. This is for my Mom and family since you wanted to see it.

Backyard Animals

Here are just a few things that we have seen in our backyard since we have moved here.

I think that this is called a horse fly. Whatever it is it is HUGE!

Megan and I found a turtle on our basement patio

And of course we have seen several deer. All babies right now, but soon enough they will be grown and ready for you Dad Kelly!

Mini Pictures

Here are a few pictures that I have recieved and more are on the way so check back again!

Here is a picture of all of us girls out to eat the night before at Olive Garden

Alexis, Teagan & Cheryl at dinner

All of us in the hotel lobby dressed and ready for the race!

Alexis (white shirt, blue shorts) & Teagan (red shirt) running to the finish line, pushing the last little stretch. Thanks to Teagan for helping me at the end!

IU Mini Marathon

I DID IT!!!!! I ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 17 minutes. It was the longest work out that I have ever done. For those who didn't know that I was running, let me tell you about it. In my ward before we moved we started up a running group to run this Indiana University Circle of Life Mini Marathon. We started training in June and ran our mini yesterday, Sept 8th. We started out with a large group of women and ended up with 11 women, 3 did the 5K and 8 of us did the mini. We all went up the night before and spent a girls night out eating dinner and we rented hotel rooms and stayed the night so that we would be ready for the race in the morning. So far this is the only picture that I have since I left my camera with Josh so that he could take pictures of me finishing. But he handed the camera to another husband to take a picture and well, check it out

Josh got it on video, and some of the other girls that I went with got it on camera so pictures will come later, and if we can figure out how to transfer stuff from our video camera to the computer then we will have video footage as well. But here is the only picture that I have right now, this is after my race and I was stretching, and Megan is holding my metal.

For those of you who want to read on about how I felt during this 13.1 miles of never ending running, please continue reading. The first of the race was really cool running and watching the sea of people ahead of me running up the hill. But it was also very difficult trying to weave through people. The weather was really good for the race, it started at 8am, and it was overcast, but the sun started peeking through clouds and then as the race went on it was cloudier and you didn't have the sun hitting you. So I did hit the water stations a lot sooner then I thought that I would, but I think that it helped since I never felt dehydrated. The course was full of A LOT of "rolling hills" which was really hard, but I felt fine till about mile 8 and then I had to keep walking every once in awhile. And then at mile 11 I felt like my legs felt like rubber, and I could feel my legs getting sore. And at mile 12 I was running with one of my friends who helped me get motivated to run the last mile and I made it past the finish line. It really meant a lot to me to have Josh and the kids there cheering me on at the end. And thank you to all of you who were cheering me on in spirit. I really needed the support to accomplish this goal. And now for those of you who are wondering if I will ever do this again... I think that I will have to think about it after all my achy muscles have gone away and my toe isn't purple. But I think that I would like to run another race, I don't know if I will ever do a mini marathon again, but I would love to do a 10k.

CHEESE!!

Here is Bryson's new cheeser smile. I think that it is adorable. Megan wanted to be in the pictures as well, she always wants to be in the picture when I am trying to take a picture of Bryson, but won't ever let me take one of just her. I guess that is just how it works!