July 2012: A Visit With Friends

We were so excited to have a visit with my dear friend Kara, her husband Andrew, and her three children, Landon, Macy, and Liam.  The last time we visited was when Kara and Andrew flew out East for a visit back in October 2006--before I married Chris (or even seriously dated him) and a good year+ before either of us had kids.  It was fun to finally meet one another's favorite little ones and introduce Chris to Kara and Andrew.

Landon and Addie are just 6 months apart in age...

And Macy's not too much older than Grace...

But, as is somewhat visible in these group photos, both Landon and Macy are a good bit taller than our girls.  I guess that's to be expected when you have one set of parents that's between 5'9" and 6'2" and the other set (us) is between 5'5" and 5'9". =D

In case you wondered, little Liam was present, but otherwise occupied while the other kids got to know each other better.

Our visit didn't go quite like we planned (Kara fell ill and ended up making an emergency trip to the doctor... which changed their itinerary a couple times over), but it was still a lot of fun to finally meet these kids and catch up with Kara and Andrew in person.

Note to Self:

-I'm not sure what it is, but a picture of a frog stored on a phone does wonders for making kids smile and laugh when you are trying to take pictures.

July 2012: A Day at the Zoo

Our friend, and neighbor, Jim invited us to join him and his kids at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.  We did and had a ton of fun.

Addie and Maddie are great friends and so cute together.  They had a grand time watching the elephants and then going and sitting on the trunk of the elephant statue.

 The kids also really loved the giraffes...

 It was funny to see Addie linger, and Grace return, to look a little longer:

Neighbors and friends:

Checking out a wolf's coat:

 I believe they are looking at a ram, and just past it, a camel:

Jim was really sweet and treated us to a merry-go-round ride; the girls loved it!

And even ended up on the same animal:

 There's Jim with Pax:

And then, he took us on a train ride too!

Our last activity at the zoo was visiting their playground:

 The girls loved the animal themed equipment:

 Even some of the creepier things:

Note to Self:
-Good friends can be hard to find--play with them when you can (these friends move out of state in a couple of days and we have not played enough!).

July 2012: Salt Lake City Pioneer Day Parade

We went to a small parade on the Fourth of July and made it to the huge Days of '47 Pioneer Day Parade on July 24th.  We found a spot at the corner where the parade began and sneaked the girls up to the front:

We saw quite a few horse-drawn carriages, buggies, wagons, etc:

A bunch of old time vehicles:

Lots of Pacific Islander groups (they were the coolest, many performed dances, had awesome costumes and/or floats, etc.)

Various Stakes were represented (I believe these floats won their local Fourth of July parade and were entered in the big parade on the 24th):

 

At least a few of the cities:

Various schools and organizations were represented too:

Even some of the local universities made an appearance (I think this guy is the mascot for UVSU, and we also saw a group for the U): 

Note to Self:
-The parade to go to, if you are around, is the one on July 24th in downtown Salt Lake City.