The Zoo

My parents and little sister, Emmalee, came to visit this week.  It was great having them here.  The kids loved having other people to play with and to show what they like to do at our house.  I especially loved having the extra hands to hold Ty, help make dinner, do the dishes, etc. 

On Wednesday, June 2nd, we made the trek to Albuquerque to the zoo.  We got there at lunchtime and had a picnic at the park across the street from the zoo. Then we hit the zoo. 

Here's a some little monkeys I saw running around.

The kids loved this little chimp. (I think it's a chimpanzee, right?)

Of course we rode the train.

Here's a good view of Ty's one tooth on the top.  Hopefully the other one comes in soon to balance things out.

King Jack

The gang in search of some shade.  It was super hot!

Refreshing ice cream break.

The kids LOVE the zoo playground.

As we were leaving Ty finally fell asleep.  Isn't Kate a great hider?  You can't even see her pouting, I mean, hiding, behind my legs.

After the zoo we stopped by Aunt Karen's house to say hi.  Then we had a few more errands to run before we headed home.  I wish my family could go to ABQ with me all the time.  It was great to have helpers and great company!

I snapped this picture of my dad and Ty the other night.  My dad tried really hard to get Ty to like him and he did warm up to him.  It just took a while and he had to start over every morning. 

Memorial Weekend

We spent Memorial Day weekend with Geoff and Annelisa and their family.  It's always fun staying with them. 

Dave, Geoff and the kids tried out our new tent one night in Geoff's backyard.  Here's a picture of the kids waking up.

I ran the Boulder Boulder 10K with my friend JoDee on Memorial Day.  Dave watched the kids overnight at Geoff's house while I spent the night in Denver at JoDee's house and then ran the race the next morning.  It was like a 15 hour vacation.

It was my first time running a race. It was fun.  The race wasn't anything too hard or super challenging.  It went around the town of Boulder.  The "hills" in the race weren't anything like what we have here in Los Alamos.  It was fun to have the race experience though.  Maybe I'll try a half marathon next. 

Last Day of Kindergarten

Kate's last day of kindergarten was last Friday, May 28th.  She didn't really want to go to school since we told her that we might leave early to go to Colorado.  But after convincing her that she wouldn't have to do any work and it would be really fun, she decided to go.  The kids played with shaving cream, then went on a field trip to Urban Park with another kindergarten class.

Here are pictures of her first and last day of kindergarten:

 

Kindergarten Program

Kate's kindergarten performance was on Wednesday, May 26th.  The kids put on a couple of plays.  Kate was the cat in the Little Red Hen Makes Pizza play.  Some of her lines were, "Not I.  I'm listening to my ipod." and "not I.  I have to go to soccer practice."

Curtain call

Getting her "award" certificate.

Singing "A Tooty Ta"

He Moves!

Ty is starting to move around a little more these days.  He doesn't do the normal crawl.  He moves like this:

Roll, then sit up...

Then scoots around on his bum.

What They've Said

Kate was coloring a picture of a princess that had a dress with spaghetti straps.  She said, "Mom, I made her dress modest.  It doesn't have those... you know... noodles."

Jack has been telling me that Heavenly Father told him to do it (about a lot of things, both good and bad).

I was putting Ty in the jogging stroller yesterday so we could go on a walk.  Kate said, "Why do they call it a jogging stroller if you only walk with it?"

Jack told me this story last night, "When I was in high school, I was playing basketball, football, and baseball.  Then I fell and got a bruise.  Then I got a trophy!"

Ty likes to say, "dadadadadada" and "hi hi hi hi hi."

Kate likes to spell our names when she talks to us.  She says, M. O. M." a lot.  I guess it's helping Jack learn how to spell. :)

Jack:  I'm going to run in space. (place)

Soccer

Today was the end of another soccer season.  For practice tonight the kids played two different games.

GAME #1 -- against their own teammates (the red team vs. the rainbow (non-red) team

Kate has improved a lot in the last little while.  She's been a little more aggressive and seems like she's enjoying soccer a little more. :)

GAME #2 -- Kate's team vs. Jack and other siblings and parents

Jack is a very intense soccer player.  He's not afraid to get in there with everyone to try to get the ball.  And, he's not afraid to fall down (he did that a lot tonight).

At the end of the game, Jack came up to me and asked, "Who got the trophy?"

He's been playing with Kate's soccer trophy that she got when she played in Salt Lake.  When I told him that no one won, because it was just for fun, he asked, "We have to play one more game?"

Dave wasn't at the last practice, so we took a team picture at our end of season soccer party.

10 Months!

Ty is already 10 months old!  Here are a few more things that he can do since I posted last.

He can DANCE!  It's so cute.  He's got some good dance moves while sitting up (head and hand shaking and bouncing) and while laying down (lifting his bum up and down)

While he's not crawling yet, he can get where he needs to go by rolling and scooting on his bum.  And he can sit back up after he's been lying down (that's what he's doing in the picture).

He's starting to make sounds like "dada" and hi.  He can clap and wave too.

And he can smile even though he's cutting one of his top teeth (tooth #3 for him).

Jack's Birthday

Jack's birthday seemed more like Christmas.  He was SO excited!  He couldn't wait to go to bed the night before his birthday.  And he woke up early on his birthday and was dancing around with excitement until we all went downstairs.  We decorated the downstairs with balloons and crepe paper and Kate made him a birthday banner.

Jack got to open his presents first thing in the morning.

Baseball and Mitt (or net like Jack calls it)

Soccer ball from Kate and Ty

Construction Set for his GeoTrax train set from Grandma and Grandpa Cox

CARS Color Wonder Coloring Book from Kate

He also got a new basketball tshirt -- but who wants to take a picture holding a shirt?

Playing with his GeoTrax construction thing.  He LOVES it!

Jack wanted a football cake this year.  I asked Jack what he wanted for lunch and he said cake.  So, we had cake for lunch. (Only on his birthday though!)

 After a birthday dinner at McDonald's we went to Dave's softball game.  It was a fun day!

He's 4

Here's how Jack started out (4 Days Old)

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

4th Birthday (TODAY!)