The Color Run and a Trip to the Zoo

This morning I ran The Color Run 5k with several friends from my Moms Run This Town running club.  We met up this morning in our clean white shirts and got ready to run.  This is such a fun run when you are with a group of good friends.

 After a fairly muggy 3 miles we finished as a hot and colorful mess!

 Like I said, a MESS!  But how often do grown-ups get to play around like this?

 The best part...I promised the kids that since we would already be downtown I would take them to the zoo.  I brought a clean t-shirt, but that didn't help much.  I went through about 10 baby wipes scrubbing my face before I went into the zoo bathroom where I scrubbed my face and arms for a while longer, but still, I was a blue mess!  I got a lot of interesting looks from people.

 That's okay, the kids had fun.  Lily had to see her beloved jelly fish.

Gideon tolerated it all very well.

I was glad to get to go home and since Gideon was asleep I jumped right in the shower (after putting my clothes in the wash) and still, some of my skin is very much dyed.  Hopefully my neck and ear are no longer blue tomorrow for church...that could be interesting.

A Morning at the Lake

For playgroup on Tuesday morning we went out to Lake Lowell.  It is close to home and on weekday mornings it is very quiet.  We've been there a few times already this summer, but I usually forget to bring my camera.  This time I remembered.

Gideon cuddled with me.  I dipped his feet in the water, but he was content to cuddle and smile on my lap.  He then fell asleep which made it easier for me to take care of my girls.

 He sure is a happy little man.

His hats are all starting to fit him, which is great because we need to protect his sweet little head from the sun.

 When we go to the lake my girls spend most of their time playing in the sand.

 This time though Lily spent a great deal of time looking for sea shells.  In the end she collected rocks and called them sea shells.  Someday we'll go to a beach where she can really collect sea shells, like her dad.  The only souvenirs that we brought back from our honeymoon were sea shells.  Tyson would pick a couple up on each beach that we visited.

I'm not certain what this game was.

She just filled up the star with sand and then went and dropped it in the lake one shovel-full at a time.

  Charlotte watered the water.

And had a great time doing it.

 Sweet and happy children, at least at time these photos were taken.  They were tired on the way home which meant crankiness from all.  Thankfully the next item on our agenda was naps.

Boo at the Zoo

Yesterday was "Boo at the Zoo" and it was lovely! The weather was perfect, and this year it wasn't just Lily and I, we of course had Charlotte with us, but Tyson also managed to get the day off AND Grandma and Grandpa Hansen and Aunt Katie were also in town visiting for the weekend so we had quite the little group. Lily was so excited to be going to the zoo, in the car she kept saying "Zoo! Zoo!" She was a little nervous when we first got there, but soon warmed up to the animals and got very excited about them, and was eager to learn their names.

Here she is standing in front of the Condor's cage. She was scared of him the first time that we walked by, he was perched with his wings spread, but when we came back by she was no afraid of him at all.

Charlotte was not thrilled about being in the stroller so she ended up being held most of the time. I don't mind, I kinda like holding my baby.

These are the best pictures of them in costume that I managed to get while at the park. Lily got to pick one treat out of her beg and was gleefully running though the park.

Charlotte was so happy to be set down and free to roam around.

This is the best that I could do with getting my girls together in one picture. We'll try again tomorrow.

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we took the girls to a local pumpkin patch. The farm also had a small petting zoo so we started there since Lily has recently become obsessed with farm animals. We found out that she likes them just fine in books and looking at them from the car, but up close she was scared and kept her distance. Charlotte wasn't sure about them either.She was better when I held her, she enjoyed the baby camel scarfing down the feed.
They even had a baby kangaroo and a young zebra!

Lilt was much happier when we got into the fields. She wanted to pick up every pumpkin.
Too bad she couldn't quite lift them on her own.

Lily finally found the right ones for her and Charlotte!

Running back to the farm from the fields.
Getting 2 little girls to look at the camera and smile at the same time is impossible.
They love their pumpkins though!
But it was time to go home.

Hogle Zoo

Last week we drove down to Utah to visit Tyson's family and while we were there we took the girls to Hogle Zoo. They started out very cheerful. While we waited in line Lily played with her aunts.

And Charlotte relaxed in the stroller and smiled at her mama.
Lily loved the birds that they let wander free.
But her favorite animals were the monkeys, and Hogle Zoo has no shortage of monkeys.
I tried to get pictures of the girls in front of one of the elephants, but Lily just wanted to watch the elephant,
and Charlotte wouldn't look at the camera for anything.
I managed to get a picture of her with one of the giraffes though.
Okay, funny story about the T-Rex. Hogle Zoo has several of these large animatronic dinosaurs throughout the park. They move, roar, and some spray water. Lily didn't really care for them and mostly ignored them, until we came to the T-Rex. She stared at it and kept an eye on it while she walked past it, and then it roared, and she BOLTED! No tears or screams, but she wanted to be as far away from that thing as possible. I wish that I had it on camera, we all got a great laugh out of it.

We got a picture of Lily in front of this wall when she was 4 months old, she was about the height of the infant gorilla then, clearly she has grown. Charlotte was drowsy so I didn't take her out of the stroller for a picture. We'll make sure to get one next time.
Lily was grumpy and needed a break, thank heaven for a little playground. This was a large snake slide and she really enjoyed it.
We managed to wear both girls out, they slept all of the way back to grandma's house.

Lily's 2nd Birthday

Two years ago we started on the most amazing adventure!

On Tuesday May 12th, 2009 at 10:42 pm Lily Ann came into this world weighing just 6lb 12oz and measuring 20 in long. She had a bit of a rough time getting here, but she has been such a joy ever since.

Today Lily is measuring 32.5 in tall and weighing 30 pounds. She loves to play, especially outside, and is so adventurous. Lily is the best big sister that any little girl could ask for. While she doesn't care to speak much (even though she can) and refuses to eat nearly everything, we love her dearly and we are we so grateful to have her in our lives.

This morning Lily got to open her present. She was very excited to see the little cars and was amazed when I showed her the ramps.

It took a while for me to convince her to get dressed and eat breakfast because she wanted to play.

We took a little trip to the zoo since it was going to be a beautiful day and we thought that Lily would enjoy it.

Here she is checking out the tigers.

And waiting patiently for mom at the petting zoo. Charlotte was getting kind of grumpy and needed to take a break.

At first she was a little scared of the goats, but she liked the babies.

She was very excited to get to feed them. She loves to feed Oscar from her hand so she knew just what to do.

She got a little excited with the other animals. I guess that we need to work on staying behind the ropes and off of the fence.

After the zoo, because we were downtown, we stopped by Guido's Pizza to pick up some lunch and then went up to Camel's Back Park for a picnic. For the first time ever Lily took a bite of pizza. She actually had a few bites. Normally she just munches on the crust and leaves the rest.

I've decided that I need a pair of sunglasses like hers in my size.

Afterwards we came back home, had naps and then went outside to play. She hopped right back on her trike.

She loves to store things in the basket and figured out to have the flap down when carrying her doll and up for everything else.

When we came back in she got right back to playing with her cars and ramps.

For dinner I made her favorite foods and then of course birthday cake. I even made Lily her own mini-cake. She didn't understand blowing out the candle, she just wanted to touch it.

She seemed to like her cake though.

And she was very happy to find the lemon filling.

Overall it was pretty much a perfect day.

*This should have been posted on the 12th, but blogger was having issues so it is a day late.