"This Is The Place"

While we were out this weekend at the zoo (see the previous posting) we decided it would be a good idea to visit the "This Is The Place Monument." We only made a quick visit since we had all quite enough sun for the day, but we enjoyed looking at the monument and thinking about Brigham Young and the Mormon Pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley.

It was a beautiful day and we loved all of our time together. We felt blessed to finally have "just us" time.

Daddy's Taking Us To The Zoo!

Jay and I both had the day off, so we took Lucy to the zoo. We all had a blast! The weather was beautiful, a little hot, but cool enough that the animals were out to play.





At first Lucy was more interested in watching the kids than the animals. She was especially fascinated by a little girl who was eating a sucker.




Our first stop was to see the black howler monkeys. The monkeys were behind a glass wall. We pushed Lucy's stroller up close to the window, and she watched them for a long time. They were eating spinach, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Lucy has recently sampled carrots and sweet potatoes herself, although the monkeys were enjoying their fare much more than Lucy does.


After we watched the monkeys play, we took Lucy to the elephant exhibit. She was more interested in the fence than in the elephants.


Daddy and Lucy by the elephants.


We stopped to pose near this elephant statue. It played "Pop Goes the Weasel."


Our next stop was the penguin pool. Lucy liked watching the birds dive in the water. Her feet were kicking with excitement.


"Is your mamma a llama?" I asked our sweet Lucy. If you look carefully, there is a llama behind us. We had to take our picture with the llama because we like reading the book, "Is Your Mamma a Llama."


We made it to the mandrill exhibit at feeding time.


While we posed for a picture with the giraffe, the Fearless Leader was eating the map. If you look carefully, you can see a piece of it in her mouth.


We had to convince Lucy that this was not Geoffrey the Toys R Us Giraffe. LOL.


We all had a great time at the zoo. We can't wait to go back.

Car Recommendations?

We are considering buying a new car/truck sometime soon. Space, fuel economy, value, and of course superb engineering/reliability are most important to us. Does anybody have a particularly evangelistic attitude about their car? I'd like to hear from you if so!

I am NOT in the mood.

Lucy attended her first family reunion. Everybody kept kissing her cheeks, saying how cute she was, and taking her picture. She kind of enjoyed it but didn't want to let anybody know. Here is her "not in the mood" face.

"Feeeeed The Birds"

We recently took Lucy to feed the ducks south of BYU campus. She LOVED it! She held the little pieces of cookies that we had hanging around since December, then as we'd hold her out a little over the water, she'd drop them in for the ducks. She is always so happy and calm to be outside. It is probably because at this time in our lives we kind of have to spend a little more time inside than we'd like. For those of you who don't know, we care for an elderly gentleman who requires a lot of attention. Family time really is most enjoyable when we can get out though, go for walks, and show Lucy the world. Boy, does she ever love it too!


You can see Lucy does take some time to be a little contemplative in nature as well. It is a great time to meditate.



She likes hanging out with Daddy too a lot more these days. He loves the time that he gets to spend with her and teach her new things. You wouldn't know from this picture, but Lucy can sit up on her own. She has been trying really hard to do the things that grown-ups do. Daddy has noticed her developing quite the problem-solving skills. The other day, she kept falling over while reaching for her Pound Puppy. She found a solution after a few failed attempts. The solution was to grab onto something and then she could reach for the Pound Puppy and pull it closer. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of her!