Another day at the Zoo

Last week we were in the car and Josie said, 'Momma, if we were an animal family, I would be a camel, you would be a dolphin, Chalrie would be a whale, Daddy would be a crab, Boo would be a polar bear and Scouty would be a ladybug. What do you think about that?" She is such a creative little girl. She makes me laugh all the time! I love the way her little brain works!

So she wanted to go back to the Zoo and see "all the animals". She especially wanted to see "the camels and then the giraffe's and then the zebras and then the camels again."

She navigated us around with her map. She carried it all over and would stop and take a look at it and say "Hmmmm... let me see... how about we go see the camels!"

I got the biggest kick out of her and her map!

The giraffe was eating and Josie couldn't believe his long, gross, black tounge.

She was mortified!

She can't wait to be big like these guys.

Here she is with her fellow camel family members.
We especially liked the camel with the "broken hump." Weird!

Of course we took the train ride. You have to when you are at the zoo.

WE LOVE THE ZOO!

Sweet Grandma Patten

Here is Chalres sweet Grandma Patten.

She is 95 years old and still plugging along!

She has over a hundred grandchildren and great grandchildren.

These pictures will always be a special memory.

Labor Day Camping with the Halls

We had a great Labor Day weekend

camping with the Hall family at the ranch.

Whitney and I with our big boys.

We went for an evening 4 wheeler ride and the kids loved the trailer.

Lounging Josh and the girls Lauryn, Clara and Josie.

Here is Josie and her new best friend "Clawa".

She hasn't stopped talking about her.

A little family photo op.

Charles took the girly's on a little ride.

Cute Ethan and Charlie had a great time in the Pac-n-Play.

My favorite part about camping is the camp fire.
It was so fun to hear about Lauryn's soccer adventures.

Craig was... well pretty good at movie charades. haha
We had a blast around the campfire after the kids were in bed.

Josie always has so much fun with her daddy!

Josie was so excited to sleep in a tent for the first time with her daddy. Usually we are all in the stinky old trailer.

After a good night's sleep (for those who didn't tend to the baby boys) we were all ready for breakfast. Thanks Craig for the best eggs over easy ever!

Thanks Halls for a great time camping! Let's do it again soon.

What a FUN summer!

I can't believe summer is over!

We are so sad. We had so much fun!

We went to Island Park, ID and Yellowstone.

We always have so much fun with Moni and Grandpa.

Island Park is such a majestic place.

We visited our lot near Island Park Resevior.

Hopefully there will be a cabin on it someday. We love IP!

We had breakfast at our favorite place, the

Campfire Lodge right on the Madison River.

The pancakes are the size of a dinner plate. YUM!

Charles went to the Windrivers with the Andy and the Smity's.

They backpacked in and fished and froze like crazy.

We went to Nacho Libre for "Movie night" in the park.

It is seriously my favorite movie! I love Nacho!

Charlie slept and Josie was super hyper and bouncing all over the place.

We had many fun camping weekends at the "Ranch".

The "Ranch" is the Patten family property in Wanship

near Rockport resevior.

It is hot and dusty and we LOVE IT!

Summer isn't summer without at least one rodeo!

We went to the Fairview rodeo with the Pinegar's and had a blast.

We went to concerts at the Gallivan Center with Uncle Ty.

It was noisy and fun.

Charles and I had Wednesday night mountain biking dates.

This was a fun week with Andy and Melissa biking to

Dog lake up Millcreek Canyon.

Josie hurt her foot and was laid up for a couple of days.

She wanted to wear her "big bandaide" all the time,

even for weeks after her foot was better.

The kids LOVED going on bike rides.
Josie is getting better at riding her bike.

She just needs to put her head up and watch

where she is going, then she will have it.

We got a zoo pass and took advantage of it at Tracy Aviary.

Josie loves animals and birds. She has the same hair as these birds!

We tended auntie Em's dog Chloe. The kids love her,

she is such a sweet dog. Believe it or not she bullies

big Boo (all 115 lbs. of him) around. One day she had him

cornered in the bathroom and wouldn't let him come out.

I took a fabulous girls trip (with one brother) to Cali.

We had so much fun doing nothing at all. I love you

Lauren, Mom, Ty and Paula!