Boo at the Zoo

Halloween is fast upon us, as we've already been through two Halloween events this past week!  This year Brooke is Cinderella, I am Prince Charming, Monica is the Fairy Godmother, and Winry is Gus Gus!  We got all dressed up for the ward trunk or treat on Friday, and a special congratulations to Monica who got our Halloween costumes ready before the trunk or treat this year, without us having to be late!  There were carnival games, and we all had a great time and got plenty of candy.

On Tuesday the kids were playing with some animal masks after they got ready for swim lessons.  They were doing their animal sounds, and Winry was REALLY into it.

Winry has been taking care of baby dolls recently.  I think she's been learning from Brooke.  When I came home from work she was rocking her baby for a nap, which quickly became singing songs, but was always very cute!

Winry has started singing all kinds of songs, which is great!  She started singing "I'm a little coo-coo clock" this past week and dancing.  Also, speaking of dancing.  This girl LOVES to dance!  At the first beat she'll start rocking herself all over.  I love it!

On Friday, Monica finished up our costumes.  Here's Winry once we got her ears and hat attached to the hood of her jacket!  She looks so cute.  This is my best picture because she was moving in the other ones and was a little blurry.

And here's Cinderella sharing a dance with her prince!

And moments before when she was visited by her fairy godmother!

Saturday was a pretty full day.  I woke up and hopped right onto the treadmill for my run since it was still going to be dark for a few hours.  Then we all got ready quickly and headed to the allergist so Monica could get some allergy shots.  On our way out the girls sat on these chairs.

And where did we go from there?  To the ZOO!  It was crazy busy and packed, and to be honest I want to go again sometime soon to be able to enjoy the animals and stuff more.  That said the lions were all out in full force, and looked awesome!  This is not a view I am used to!  Also, the baby was out running around too.  I don't think he's in this picture, but he was running around and his dad was following him.  Don't worry man, I get it.

The tahi were also right up at the front of their enclosure.  This is one of my favorite animals, because the only place they are in the wild is in Mongolia, and when my parents came to pick me up we went out to the nature preserve where they are and saw them in the wild!  They are the only wild horse in the world.

The zoo was crazy because they were doing boo at the zoo!  This means there were some extra things at the zoo, like princesses, jugglers, and trick or treat candy stations.  There was also this ring toss game with inflatable donuts.  The kids had a lot of fun, and the festivities were a good excuse to get to put on costumes that we otherwise wouldn't wear this year (Winry was Pikachu, which we really wanted to use again, and Brooke was Doc McStuffins).  Brooke was also sick on Thursday and Friday which meant the kids spent a lot of time in the house, so it was also good to get out and burn some energy.

On the way home Monica pretended to eat a Lamborghini... real mature Monica......

I told her to! :)

When we came home I had a REALLY bad headache, so I took some Excedrin.  Winry took a nap and I started doing some work in the basement tiling the shower.  Brooke (and Winry once she woke up) came down to watch and play.  We soon headed to Costco to do some grocery shopping, and then when we got come the neighbors on both sides were out playing, so we brought out Brooke's bike and joined them.  This quickly turned into a walk around the block with a stop to check in on the flamingos.  By the time we continued on they were all well fed and felt very loved!  When we got home we made a HUGE leaf pile!  Almost all of the leaves have fallen off of both of our trees, so there were lots to rake up.

We all had fun jumping into the pile, and the pile was definitely big enough for me to jump in too!

Winry quickly got buried!

And Brooke thought that looked fun enough she'd do it too!  We had a lot of fun playing in the back yard all the way until dinner time!

After dinner we put the kids to bed, and then Monica went to baby sit and I headed to the basement to work on tiling the shower!  I got the floor in, the little splash guard entrance thing, and the first row around the bottom.  That's all I wanted to get done so that it could all dry before I do the rest of the walls.  I think everything looks nice, and hopefully I'll be able to get it all done over the next week.  I'm hoping to do an additional row each night.  That's the last big project for finishing the basement.  After that we'll need to do some touch ups on the molding, and paint the doors, but we're definitely on the home stretch!

When I woke up this morning I still had my headache from yesterday, so that was pretty fantastic...  Monica and I were both quite tired because we didn't end up going to bed until much later than usual.  The girls were also both quite tired today, and they are both up taking naps right now, so I guess I should be advantageous and go take a nap myself!  Have a great week!

Leaf Pile

After a quick mini-winter between summer and fall that lasted for all of one day (I'm talking about that snow day last week with a high of 28!), fall has finally started falling.  We have climbed back to 80 a time or two, but over this weekend it's been highs in the 50's or 60's, and the leaves are falling from the trees.  While I didn't find summer to be as unbearable as usual, which I believe is because I spent more time outside this year in the heat than in years past and got used to it, I'm still embracing jackets and the cold with open arms.  This past week our back yard hit critical mass, and the first leaf pile of the year was born!  We all had a wonderful time in the leaves!

Brooke was excited to have the leaves back, and was ready for a pile as soon as they started falling.

I believe Winry played in the leaves with us last year, but I don't know that she remembered it, so this was her first time (for her)!  She definitely loved it!  We had a great time jumping in and eventually had to stop for dinner, but the leaves had also been mostly crushed into tiny pieces and the pile wasn't much compared to when we started.  Definitely not enough for Monica to jump in when she came to call us for dinner.  I'm sure we'll get a larger leaf pile later in the year, and we've already combined more leaves into our first pile.  However, when we went out to jump the second time I was re-raking the pile and found a dead bird in it.... I really hope it wasn't there the whole time... Anyway, we threw away most of the original pile...

On Friday (yeah... leaf pile Monday, next story Friday, it was one of those weeks) Brooke did a dance camp.  It's fall break this week, so they don't have dance class and instead hold camps.  The best part is that you don't have to be in dance class to attend camps, and so Brooke's friend Eleanor went to camp with her!  I asked Brooke if there was anything important I should include about dance class, and she said "Me tumbling! We did frog hops, and kangaroo hops!  We also did donkey kicks like this (insert video that doesn't exist)!  Eleanor also had a lot of fun with me, and Eleanor had a sandwich and Cheetos!"  So wise.

Another thing from dance class was making poms.  I don't know that this was actually related to dance, and was probably more a craft time type thing, but once Brooke got home it was definitely all about dance!  Just look at that pom pom dance!

On Saturday morning we helped clean the church, which means DONUTS!  Church cleaning was pretty great though, Winry and I first went around to restock everything, and then she came and helped me sweep the gym floor.  As we finished Brooke and Monica finished cleaning the bathrooms and we were off to donuts!  The girls both picked pink, and Brooke got sprinkles and Winry got M&Ms.  Everyone much enjoyed themselves, except Monica who is not eating sugar currently.  She went next door to sprouts and got sweet potatoes.(Not to eat right then, for later... and I still enjoyed myself!)

Saturday night we had dinner outside in the back yard, and Winry kept helping her pacifier eat some pizza and saying "num num num!"  And that catches everything up.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Half Week of Single Parenting

So, Monica ran off for some fun in the sun with her friends and left me in a blizzard this past week!  Okay, it wasn't really a blizzard, but we did follow up an 80 degree Wednesday with a high of 28 Thursday.  It was just that kind of week!  I had a great end of the week with Brooke and Winry, but I must say the start of the week feels like it was a LONG time ago, and I'm currently a little fuzzy on the details as well.  I do know the girls practiced cheering for BYU, though after Saturday that is seeming to be a skill that is less and less pertinent...  Winry also... did this, which is obviously the easiest way to crawl around the house!  I also know there were efforts to prep the house for both Monica's departure as well as the freeze that came on Thursday.  Monica and picking days to fly somewhere.  It also snowed the day we left for Philadelphia at the end of May.  And that takes us into the part of the week I do remember well, because I took pictures of stuff!

Well, after we got home from dropping Monica off it was time for Winry's nap.  Brooke and I cleaned up the house, and inventoried snack ideas, etc.  Brooke basically just helped me do dad stuff and make a plan for the next few days.  We also got out all of the snow clothes so they were ready when Winry woke up, and got out everything we needed to make hot chocolate, and packed our bags of swim stuff for swim lessons that night!  Brooke was an amazing helper.  Once Winry woke up it was snack time, and then we hopped into our clothes to go have some fun in the snow.  Brooke pulled Winry around the back yard for a bit in the sled.

We made snow angels and made snow balls and passed them back and forth.  And of course, we had everyone's favorite, dad pulls everyone on the sleigh!  This is probably where we spent most of our time.  It's nit that our back yard has a little bit of a hill for sledding down, but also that it's gradual enough that it's not killer to pull them back up.

Once we came in we had some hot chocolate and then changed into swim suits.  Then it was time for an early dinner before swim lessons, and finally we headed to the pool.  Brooke was one of two kids at her lesson, so she got to spend lots of time swimming around the pool!  Once her lesson was done she very patiently sat and watched Winry's lesson.  Winry had a few rough moments in her lesson.  Instead of jumping in she's started scooting in on her bum.  Well, on time she leaned back while scooting in and hit her head on the side of the pool.  Then another time when she was climbing out her hands slipped and she scratched up her nose.  Poor girl!  She still had a great time, and Brooke was wonderful and sat and enjoyed watching Winry swim!  Brooke even got a special treat for sitting and being so good.  After Winry went to bed Brooke picked a reward, like a treat or game or something.  She ended up picking a box of nerds, and was ecstatic when after opening it she found out she could have the whole box!

The next morning at breakfast I felt something on my leg and looked down and Winry was sticking her spoon into my pocket...  She proceeded to pull it out and stick it back in again.  Guess pockets are a pretty big deal when you typically don't wear clothes that have any.

Friday morning we took Brooke to her dance class.  Winry was loving watching Brooke dance!  I had a lot of fun there because I don't typically get to see much of her dance lessons, and it was a lot of fun to see her do all her various dance stuff.  She did a great job!  We took a picture together after and when I was switching to front facing I somehow turned on the beauty mode and couldn't get it off, so sorry for the slightly weird picture...

After dance we went to Costco for samples, and then stopped at the food court for a chicken bake for lunch.

After Winry's nap we made an emergency run to King Soopers for some prunes because Winry seemed a little... backed up.  I told Winry it was a treat and as soon as she finished the first once she started begging for the other container.  I did not give them to her, but instead saved them for a rainy day.  We also picked up some other fruit for the girls.  After we got back home and had a snack we then went bowling!!

Winry was able to get a spare in the 10th frame, and finish it up with a strike, as you can see on her score card below.

Brooke also got a strike on her very last throw.  I guess when you pay for a game there is also a minimum time, and so after the girls finished their games they got to play part of another one.  I unfortunately didn't get a video of either of their strikes... but the important part is everyone has a great time.

After bowling we went to the arcade, and Brooke just knew she HAD to play Mario Kart.  She had a wonderful time, and the game fortunately auto-accelerated because she couldn't quite read the pedal.  We played a few other game, won some tickets, and got a few prizes before heading home.

The next day was zoo day (and Saturday)!!  I think the more we go to the zoo, the more we like it.  One thing that is decently new to me is going to the animal shows.  I've been to the sea lion show before, but I think that's it, and I think twice in total.  This trip we went to many shows, which is a nice way to break up wandering through the other animals.  It also lead to a bunch of backtracking past the same animals several times, but that was fine.  I mean, how many times in a normal day to you typically see an okapi?  Probably okay if you see it 3 or 4 times at the zoo.  We sent to see the grizzly bear, and he was digging a big hole.  In the end he just ended up laying down in it.  The kids also checked their height against a bear as well.  After a little more wandering we got to see the sea lion show.  It's fun to watch the tricks, and I especially like when it jumps for the ball at the end.

The elephant show is in a little amphitheater with seats, and takes place at 11:30, so it's the perfect place to go for lunch!  We sat and enjoyed some food while watching the elephant do some yoga!

After the elephant show we went to feed the llamas.  Both girls got to feed Fernando at Brooke's request.  While we were there we heard about the flamingo walk, which we would just be able to make it to if we left right away from the feeding.

We were able to make it to the flamingo walk, though it wasn't quite what we thought.  Brooke was a little disappointed because we thought we would actually get to walk down the path with the flamingos as they moved from their inside exhibit to outside.  I guess if the crowd was smaller we could have walked next to the barriers.  Anyway, they don't do this very often, and I'm guessing the flamingos had a quick stay inside due to that cold snap on Thursday.  This is definitely the first time I've been at the zoo and gotten to see the flamingos both inside and outside.

In the monkey area Brooke took some time to play "Row row row your boat" on the drums!  The Monkeys were the last animals we saw, and then we looped back to a few animals that hadn't been out before to see if we could catch them before going home.  This included the tiger, who was taking a nap, and the baby lion, who was taking a nap with his dad!  Good thing we circled back because we got to see all of the favorite animals!

We were at the zoo for about 5 hours, which pushed back the start of Winry's nap to around 2 in the car.  Brooke was super tired from all the zoo fun as well and really wanted to take a nap, so I let her.  While the girls slept I quickly ran to the basement and hopped on the treadmill for 8 miles.  Winry woke up right as I was getting out of the shower.  We woke Brooke up and headed to the park, even though it was close to our normal dinner time.  I knew with such a late nap that the kid wouldn't be ready for bed as early, so we went to the park for some fun, and them got back home about an hour later than usual.  On the way home we stopped by the flamingo house, which had 3 skeleton flamingos out with the heard for Halloween!  After dinner I put Winry to bed, and then Brooke got to stay up a little longer since she doesn't usually take naps and so when she does she stays up quite a bit later.  The first thing on Brooke's stay up agenda was flamingo walks!  What a flamingo day!

Today we got up and ready for church, which went well.  I was a little unsure about doing the girls hair, but the pony tails went it pretty easily, and they looked decent to boot!  After church we went up to my brother, Tyson's house and had a great time playing with their kids.  The plan was to have Winry take a nap in the car, but she didn't fall asleep until like 10 minutes before we got there, so she spent the first half hour or so just laying on me.  Eventually she was ready to get up and play with everyone.  We spent some time in the backyard playing all kinds of games including going down the slide on the play ground, and getting out a bubble machine.

Everyone had lots of fun together, and Brooke even helped make two desserts!  After dinner was over the girls changed into their pajamas, and Brooke asked Megan to read them bed time stories!  Look at them all enjoying some Berenstain Bears.  The kids stayed away for much longer than I expected on the drive home, but were super out when we got home.  They both easily laid down and quickly were off to sleep.

All in all I had a wonderful time with the girls!  I did only have days filled with fun plans, but we also did our share of cleaning up the house after we got out toys, etc.  I feel like I definitely got a lot closer with Brooke and Winry over the last few days, and I feel like I better understand them and how to work with them through their struggles.  It was also good to get a glimpse into what things are like for Monica when I have to travel for work.  We had a wonderful time, and I'm glad we got an opportunity to spend so much time together.  I am also grateful that Monica comes home tonight!  That also means I don't have a proof reader... so sorry for all the weird typing errors in this post.

Dad, the Most Comfortable Seat in the House

Hey everyone.  I hope you are having a great General Conference weekend.  This past week I became the seat of choice for basically everyone.  On Wednesday night the kids were taking their time to go to bed, so I did a little foam rolling in their room.  This quickly transformed into story time on dad, but I at least got Brooke to sit on my legs over the foam roller to keep up that massaging goodness!  Everyone had a good time.

Brooke continues to love to help put Winry down for naps or bed.  She loves rocking her in her chair, and singing her songs.  I won't speak for Monica, but for me it almost makes it easier, except that once I get Winry I still end up singing her the same number of songs.

Every now and then a friend comes with us in the car.  Don't worry, Brooke makes sure they're safe and get's them in the seat belt.  Also, it looks like bear is borrowing some of Brooke's shoes for this particular outing.

On Tuesday, Monica and some of her friends went to the zoo.  Brooke was very excited to have Alayna there with her!  They would go running off holding hands, which as long as they didn't go too far off was cute.  However, Winry is less accustomed to sharing her best friend and always had to go chasing off after them!  Poor Winry!  But Brooke is a good sport and very much tries to make sure her little sister is happy.

Speaking of, after they got back from the zoo it was naturally time to flip Jellly's scratching arc over and do some "sledding!"  Looks like a good time.

Tuesday started swim lessons again, and this time for both Brooke and Winry.  Brooke had a great time in her lesson, though there are a few rowdy kids in her class.  During her second class on Thursday she got pushed into the pool...  Super "exciting," but she was alright and after her teacher snatched her up and she calmed down, she jumped straight in to her teacher!  Winry also had a great time in her lesson, and we worked on jumping in the pool.  She loves to jump in and to get dunked under!  That's pretty fortunate.

On Wednesday when I got home from my run, I spied a squirrel on our roof.  I think he's trying to find our trees that we had taken down...

I came in to do some foam rolling and Jelly walked right up into my lap!  This was also the day the first picture was from, so the girls took Jelly's cue in the morning and hopped on my lap at night.

Winry has started to get more daring at the park, and now climbs up this stair case and goes down the twisty slide all by herself!  It's pretty nice because Brooke loves to make that same loop, so now they can both just loop around and around at the park!

The basement continues to progress, and on Wednesday night, Brooke helped me put up little metal brackets so that we could put the shelves up in the basement!  What a fine set of shelves!

On Saturday morning Monica was going through Halloween things and next thing I knew Pikachu was walking over to me!  We're thinking we'll let Winry wear this for either the ward trunk or treat, or for actual trick or treating.  It's a super cute costume!

Shortly after, it was time to get ready to go running.  It was a pretty cold morning at 41 degrees, so we had to bundle up the kids.  Here's Brooke all ready to go.

And here's Winry almost ready to go.  We had an alright time.  It was an 8 mile run, and the latter half of this week I've been sick with whatever Monica had at the start of the week.  Turns out I was a little tired from being sick and the run was a little much for me, but we made it through, and the girls still had a good time.

When we got home we found a huge surprise.  Monica had set up a whole bunch of conference stations for the girls!  They had coloring pages, snacks, blocks, and a baby care station (including a baby pack n play, bath tub, blankets, rocking chair, potty, bottles, and brushes).  It definitely kept them busy for the most part, and we were able to listen to conference!

Also, per tradition we had cinnamon rolls!  They got done a little later than usual, and we ended up having lunch cinnamon rolls instead of breakfast ones.  Still, there's never a bad time to eat a cinnamon roll.

After conference, I took the kids to the park, and then we went to Noodles and Company for dinner while Monica went to watch the women's session.  We had a good time and went to bed when we got home.  As for today, the stations are still out, and conference is starting, so it looks like I finished just in time!  Have a great week, and follow the prophet!