She aint heavy, she's my sister

The girls and I went to the Zoo again yesterday, we got a membership because it's a great Zoo and good exercise. We were really blessed that it stopped raining just as we pulled up to the Zoo so hardly anyone was there and the weather was gorgeous. After walking around for a couple hours the kids started to get tired and BethAnne started to complain that her foot hurt (her doctor thinks it just a minor flat foot kind of issue, we're probably going to get some inserts for her shoes). BethAnne's too big for me to carry and she didn't seem to be hurting too much so I said we just had to be brave and keep walking and we would get to the car soon. A few minutes (and a few complaints) later, I turned around and saw that the girls were a little ways back and Grace had her arms tight around BethAnne, it looked like she was giving her a big bear hug. At first I was concerned because Grace can be a little aggressive physically, even with positive expressions of affection. But BethAnne was smiling big and saying "Grace you can't carry me, I'm too big. Grace it won't work." Grace tried and tried for a minute or so. She wanted to carry her big sister so her foot wouldn't hurt anymore. I was so touched and also amused because of the impossibility of the feat she was determined to perform. It's times like this that make it all worthwhile.

Love,
Aubrey

Bear and Eagles at the Zoo

Enjoy! It's much cooler in person, but I wanted to share anyway!

P.S. Their bald eagles are ones that have been hurt that they rehabilitate and release back into the wild.

More from the Zoo

Here is a picture of one of the bears we saw today. Being there so close to it was amazing, it's hard to show that in pictures. We will post some cool videos of some of the animals later.

 

Here are Mark, BethAnne and Grace in front of the Elk habitat.

 

They also have a fun indoor play place at the Zoo with a neat nature themed playground, a pretend animal hospital, and other fun things to do. We had so much fun!

 

 

Everything else is going well here. We love and miss you all!

Love,
Aubrey

The Zoo!

Dear Family,

We had a lot of fun at the Zoo today! I really love the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Today we got to see some of the animals we didn't see last time. We especially loved the bears and the bald eagles.

Here is Joy this morning, so cute!

 

Here's a Peacock the roams the zoo freely, I saw it last time with its feathers all out.

 

Here's Grace on the Carousel, possibly the kids favorite part of the Zoo.

 

Here is a picture of some of the bear habitat. One thing I love about this Zoo is that they give the animals such big and beautiful spaces to live in. It feels almost more like a nature preserve than a Zoo. More to follow...

 

Vancouver Temple Open House

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we went to the Open House of the new Temple in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. It is a beautiful temple, especially inside. It was a really neat experience and it was wonderful to show the kids what it's like inside the temple. We were there for about an hour and a half, and it took us about 7 1/2 hours travel time (including multiple stops) but it was well worth it. There were so many volunteers helping with the Open House, I was so impressed with their friendliness and willingness to serve. There was such a wonderful feeling there.

In other news, things are at a cross-roads at Mark's work because they are re-organizing to get ready to start work on a new version of Office. So we are looking at different opportunities within Micrsoft here in Redmond and also maybe in Utah. We are really hoping something opens up at Microsoft in Boise, but so far it's not looking very promising. But anything can happen, especially if we're patient. We are really grateful that Mark can work for such a great company and we know we can be happy wherever we're at. We'll keep you all posted.

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Aubrey

Big Girl Grace

 

We are happy to announce that Grace is mostly potty-trained, and she's only 3 years, 8 months and 5 days old. I also have a few funny Grace stories I wanted to tell. Grace's big prize for becoming potty trained was having a pretend birthday party, cake and all. So on Sunday we made her a big three-layer chocolate cake. We still have about half of this cake left which would be at least 6 or more pieces because it is so rich. I was standing by the cake earlier and Grace came up to me and asked: "Can I have that last piece of cake?" I couldn't stop laughing because it would be a very big last piece of cake.

The other day I was doing "this little piggy" on Joy's toes. I said- "This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none, and this little piggy went wee, wee wee, all the way home." Then Grace asked "Did he drop his groceries?" Very smart and cute (assuming the first and last piggy are the same piggy).

We're having a nice Spring Break, for the most part. We've all had a cold which has made Joy quite uncomfortable and fussy. But I think we'll all get better soon. I hope you are all doing well. We miss you tons. I'm already looking forward to this summer when Suzie and Jeff and the kids visit. Have a great day!

Love,
Aubrey

Exersaucer!!

 

 

 

 

Our kids love the exersaucer! The first two pictures show Joy playing in it this evening. The third picture is Grace playing in it when she was about Joy's age and the fourth picture shows BethAnne in the exersaucer when she was a similar age. They still all look a bit alike but you can definitely start to see the differences now that they are a little older. I'm so blessed to have my three girls and my amazing husband and a wonderful extended family. My cup runneth over. I love you all.

That is the end of my blogathon this evening. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures. Have a great week!
Love,
Aubrey