San Diego Zoo

Parker getting some shots of the orangutans 

At the elephant exhibit. Jared was sporting a pretty full-on beard at this point; I kind of miss it, it was handsome :) I think he stuck with it so long in a pact with Parker to get him to stop sucking his thumb (it worked!).

Taking a drink break in the shade--it was a hot, sunny day

Can you spot Grandpa Niki in the background?

Pushing the stroller and riding in the stroller was fun for each

We waited in line to see the pandas--luckily, you can actually get a really great view of them once you get in.

Parker captured a good shot with his camera.

Riding on the sky tram. Parker was pretty nervous about going on this (I didn't feel all that great about it, either, so I can't blame him), but as soon as it took off, he exclaimed, "Hey! This is really fun!" and then loved every minute of it.

Mariner I and Mariner II

We all couldn't resist the critter pics

 It's about time that I posted some pictures from Parker's birthday trip to the San Diego Zoo! They have been nagging me for weeks now :) Thanks to Dee and Niki, we were able to spend the day at the zoo with them and Nate, Lisa, and Alex. We got Parker his own camera for his birthday, and he spent a lot of time during the day diligently working at getting great shots and videos of the animals. We walked and walked all over, hopped on the tram here and there, and had a nice long lunch (where we caught sight of zoo keepers walking a cheetah on a leash along with its doggie buddy--who knew??). We even rode the sky tram back across the zoo at the end of the day--somehow, I got on the tram with all of the kiddos, luckily we all ended up feeling good and happy about the tram ride and made it back down to land safe and sound. It was a long, full, fun day, hopefully one that Parker will always remember as the day that we celebrated him turning five!!

Five Years Old!

Parker turned five years old on Saturday the 3rd! It really felt like a special birthday to me this year--five just feels like such a milestone. He's really growing up a lot lately. We decided to spend a day at the zoo to celebrate this year, and thanks to Dee and Niki we were able to enjoy the day with a whole group of family! When Parker woke up on the morning of his birthday, the first thing I heard him say (at about 6:20 am) was, "I'm five years old today!" it was really cute--cute enough to make me smile rather than just groan at being woken up so early :) We had a birthday breakfast celebration at Dee and Niki's house--Parker chose crepes for his special birthday breakfast, which Jared made for all of us. We stuck five candles in a fully loaded crepe for Parker in lieu of a cake. He was so excited to open his presents that he barely made it through the whole breakfast. We headed off to the zoo later that morning, where Nate, Lisa, and Alex met us by lunchtime; we all trekked back and forth around the zoo until closing time, where we wrapped up the day with a trip to the incredibly crowded gift shop. We finished off a long, fun, beautifully sunny day with a big dinner, and then it was off to bed for some much-needed rest for all of us. And so we begin a new year for Parker...

Thank you to every one, friends and family, near and far, for helping to make Parker's fifth birthday so much fun and so special!!

Zoo photos to come another day! There are of course tons to go through...

Happy First Birthday, Levi!

Happy First Birthday, Levi!!!

Opening presents from Ian, Krista, and Forest

Pointing to his birthday banner

A one-year photo collage retrospective (we were planning to have a party for Levi's birthday, but both boys ended up getting sick, so we had to cancel. I had already made decorations, so we had to just go ahead and enjoy them ourselves!)

I learned how to use Jared's sewing machine to make these birthday decorations. I really enjoyed making them, and am now on kind of an obsessive mission to sew a bunch more projects. As long as I don't get too frustrated/discouraged, this might become my latest hobby. Warning to all friends and family: you might be on the receiving end of some of these projects...sorry! ;)

Pumpkin bread cupcakes after dinner to celebrate--Levi loved his!

Four Months Old!

Levi turned four months old today! He had a good check up with the doctor; here are his stats for this month: 16 lbs 1 oz (74%) and 27 inches long (97%)! He is a tall boy. He is right on target developmentally; he has started doing all of the typical four-month old things, like reaching out for interesting objects (makes doing things while holding him a lot trickier now!), grabbing toys, talking up a storm, and rolling over from front to back and back to front. He is always full of smiles, and is definitely ticklish--that's the only way I've really been able to get him to laugh so far! He is sleeping really well at night now, too, which is great--although lately he has been waking up by 6am on the dot! Apparently nobody informed him that he was being born into a family of late sleepers! We love you, Levi!

Birthday Swing

I have a bunch of pictures from Parker's birthday party this weekend that I will post later. Here is my favorite shot...it was a wonderful, fun, sunny day at the park!

Four Years Old!

Here are a few pictures from Parker's actual birthday--he turned four on March 3rd! "Just for special" he got to wear the same Ewok shirt that he wore the day before, which still had a Happy Birthday sticker on it from his dentist visit! He got to decorate and wear a birthday crown at school, and I made chocolate chip cookies for his snack time in class that day. When we got home from school, there was a present waiting at the front door from the Mork family! Parker tore right into it and was so excited to find a new Star Wars Lego set!