Friday, August 19, 2011

Changes

Here is what we have been doing the last few weeks: Joe has taken the bar, we've gone on a little vacation to the mountains, we packed up our house, moved to our new house, unpacked, Elizabeth has started 1st grade and Joe started work. A lot of changes for our family. Now for some blog catch-up....

The kids were being really cute one night so I got out the camera...




One of Nate's favorite games--sit on you and bounce up and down:
The day after Joe finished the bar, we finally got to use our zoo passes that I'd bought months before.
Checking out the tiger through the viewing window:
I think that picture captures some of the exhaustion Joe was feeling. :)

The kids got to take turns feeding the giraffes.
More pictures:
We had a fun (hot) day at the zoo!

After a few days at home, we headed up to the mountains to stay with Mom and Dad at their place. We had a wonderful time spending some time with them and just being all together again!

One day we went on a little hike up above Donner Lake. It was gorgeous and we all had a blast. We need to do that sort of thing more often!


We thought this bridge was cool:
Nate loved doing very his favorite thing: throwing rocks
We found this other little lake and played around there
Joe trying to catch a lizard:
There were a bunch of these little water snakes around:
Elizabeth caught a tadpole.
She is pretty fearless when it comes to critters.
The kids were begging to see some snow and we finally found some
SNOW!
Yes they did eat some. It couldn't be helped. Nothing like months-old snow!


We also spent some time at the pool. Thanks to my best friend Kari, the girls' swimming skills have improved a lot. They both went down the waterslide by themselves this year with no floaties!

Even backwards head-first!

We also celebrated Joe's 30th birthday a little bit early since his birthday would be full of packing. I made an eclair cake that he requested after he had some made by our friend Kim. The girls insisted on writing on the cake but the frosting didn't survive the refrigeration very well. It was kind of a lame 30th birthday but there wasn't much we could do about it with the move and everything.
My four favorite people

3 comments:

Tiffany Kadani said...

So fun! I miss you guys so much. The kids are already so much more grown since I saw them last in... June? Wow, I think so.

We'll come down soon. Just name the day and we'll be there.

Jordan and Luci said...

Happy b-day Joe! I was lame for Jordan's b-day too. Maybe when you guys come to UT next we can properly celebrate our husbands turning 30. Sounds like you guys have been busy! Your fam reunion looked fun too. I'm so jealous of your time on the beach. I love the beach!

Molly said...

Hi Ashley, enjoyed looking at your blog (probably for to long!) You have such a cute family and are such a good mom! It still amazes me when I read about your girls..they seem so similar to mine! Fun you guys moved over here! We are probably not too far from you, it would be fun to meet up sometime!