Play Dates

While in Utah we had several fabulous play dates. I went to the temple with Nanna and then she let us taker her out to lunch to a great little bistro in town.
Auntie Mallory drove down from Logan both weekends so we could do our long jogs together. It was SOOO nice not to have to get through those by myself! We did 9 miles the first Saturday and 8 the next. It was exhausting but so awesome. I felt pretty amazing the rest of the day knowing that I could make my body jog for 9 miles. I wish we could run our races together! It was so nice to have someone to talk to and endure with.
Cousin Mya came over one afternoon with paints to share with Tate. We went outside to paint on the sidewalk. Mya knew just what to do.

First the papers and then our feet got a brilliant treatment of Mya's artistry.

Tate was very content to find rocks in Nanna's garden and carry closed containers of paint around. I smushed his fingers in the wet paint once or twice but it distressed him so he mostly watched the mess unfold.

Mya and Tate got along famously at the beginning of our trip. Then Mya got a little tired of Tate's very physical affection. He just adores little Mya and wants to be constantly following her, copying her, and best of all hugging her. But since he outweighs her now and his hugs sometimes end with a tackle she learned really quickly that she wanted nothing to do with that! It got to be quite funny. Once or twice Mya would be crying about something else and then she'd really start to wail and we'd find out that Tate had gone over to her to try to comfort her with a hug and that definitely made it worse!

One afternoon we went to the Thanksgiving point Dinosaur Museum with Aubry, Mya, and Baby Sadie. It was a great time. There were lots of fun hands-on exhibits for the kids to touch and play with. The actual scientific concepts were definitely beyond their understanding but they loved to touch and throw things around and push all the buttons. Very cool.I love this picture of kiddo on his tip toes trying to figure out what is in there!

Mya and Tate climbing around a dino foot.

Mya's favorite part of the exhibit was this huge prehistoric turtle. She loves Crush from Finding Nemo so she calls every turtle Crush. This guy was huge Crush.

I tried to get Tate to play in the dirt at this cool erosion exhibit with sand and water but he was not alright with getting dirty on that particular day. Funny how he is dying to get messy directly after his bath or right before church or pretty much any other time I really don't want him to.

The Saturday before we left we went to Hogle Zoo with Nanna, Cody and Aubry and their girls, and Aunt Mallo too. It was so great to go with so many of us. There were tons of hands to grab, feed, and lift up the kids and also some of my favorite grown ups to talk to along the way. Here's Tate trying on Auntie Mallo's stylin' sunglasses in the car.

We had been at the zoo less than 10 minutes when Tate split his little forehead open. He was running to tell Uncle Cody about the monkeys he'd seen and he just biffed it. It was an awful sound hearing his head smack right into the asphalt. He was screaming and I picked him up and just waited to see where the blood was going to flow from. His head? His mouth? His nose? It took several seconds and then blood just started pouring down his face from a nice little cut in his forehead. Poor boy. I'm really lucky Aubry was there because I do not handle blood well. Especially my little babe's. I had a hard time looking at my little boy's forehead giving me a deep open smile. She ran to the first aid station and got Tate patched up really fast. He was completely fine after just a few minutes. I, however, kept a pretty good grip on him the rest of the trip. Here he is with Auntie Mallo sporting his own little rhino horn.

Aunties Aubry and Mallo holding Mya and Tate at the Rhino enclosure.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the tigers. We caught them in a very frisky mood. There were 3 or 4 tigers right near the windows and two of them kept wrestling with each other. They's get on their haunches then bat at each other with their huge paws then stand up and just tackle each other to the ground over and over. It was amazing. They are such huge, powerful creatures and it was stunning to see them up close like that. Tate kept saying, "Tigers, wrestle again!"

It's funny to hear things that I tell Tate come out of his mouth. I'm constantly telling him not to drink the bath water because it's yucky. Then this tiger gets in the water right in front of us at the zoo and starts drinking the water. Tate told him, "Tiger, no. Don't drink it. It's yucky!"

Tate, me, Aub and Mya watching the giraffes.

Sweet little Mya, obviously contemplating something very serious.
The zoo party. Aubry, Tate and I, Cody and Mom.

Now that I actually put write it all out I realize how much of what I do these days, and especially the special kid things I do with Tate are all about animals. I guess it's good because he loves animals right now. I just hadn't realized how many animal themed adventures we have!

Thanks for all the fun play dates family! Let's do it again really really soon.