sunday with the greats.

we spent a sunday afternoon with my grandparents (ellie and poppy's great-grandparents) in tooele, utah. it was so fun to see some cousins and let all the babies play. i think my girls really miss all the fun backyards they visited in utah - 

i know i do! 

the drive out there is always beautiful. 

i mean, seriously. how do you deal with this much cute?!

(and what you don't see is twice as many adults standing behind the camera making faces and yelling "yo gabba gabba!" just for a couple of smiles.)

somehow we all matched perfectly for this four generation picture, too.

but not all the pictures were winners... haha.

while we were there we got a display of ellie's bargaining skills.
she was collecting all of the ice-cream-cone-shaped bubbles after dinner (that's something that she loves to do, collect all of a certain thing and organize them). her little baby cousin, bence, had one. he was pretty interested in it, and we told ellie he wasn't going to give it up unless she had something to trade. someone suggested she go find another toy to trade. ellie looked around for another option.
"how about this old box?" she asked, holding up the box (trash) the the bubbles came in.
she really talked up that box, too. she made it sound pretty exciting. she tried the same thing on uncle noah, but he's a little older - less naive than an infant, anyway.
she's a pretty shrewd kid, i'd say.



i sure wish we could go back for another sunday dinner soon. it was a perfect evening with so many of the people we love.

xoxox.

goin' the zoo, part two.

we went to the atlanta zoo with all the little cousins just a few days before we left for utah.

then, in utah, we went to the hogle zoo with our other little cousin. 

both times were a total blast and the zoos are so different that there is no way we could have been bored. is it possible to get bored with all these animals? 

anyway, i present to you the second installment of

cousins at the zoo! 

part one: zoo atlanta.

(we need to go back there, the panda had TWINS this month!)

part two: hogle zoo. 

we headed up to salt lake city with grandma, uncle noah, auntie erynn and addie lou (or, as poppy says it, "addaloooo!") on a bright sunny day. it was hot but perfect and the girls had a great time, so long as we didn't try to buckle them in or stop them from going wherever they pleased. it's a miracle we got any pictures at all because all three were little blurs running in opposite directions the entire time. they loved all the animals, but the carousel was a huge hit. 
they all conked out on the way home, of course. (and that's how these stories should always end.)
 

all the girls at the zoo!

it's hard to see, but poppy's face went back and forth from excitement to awe the entire time.

i have always loved the giraffes at the hogle zoo. we even saw a little baby! 

 we had two strollers and used neither of them for kids. all three girls are RUNNERS. luckily we had them outnumbered, but they still kept us on our toes.

 

what can i say? the girl loves gorillas.

poppy's peeking out at me.

mesmerized. (i was too.)

 don't feed the bears!

gotta have a lion-drinking-fountain picture.

and poppy (addie loved helping). 

ellie picked the cassowary on the carousel.

poppy said she wanted to ride the turkey in the background, but when she saw the mantis she changed her mind.

sweet mommy and baby. :)

 i wish i had a better picture of the joy on her face, but this one is as close as i got.

goin' to the zoo, part one.

we went to the atlanta zoo with all the little cousins just a few days before we left for utah.

then, in utah, we went to the hogle zoo with our other little cousin. 

both times were a total blast and the zoos are so different that there is no way we could have been bored. is it possible to get bored with all these animals? 

anyway, i present to you the first installment of

cousins at the zoo! 

part one: zoo atlanta.

for cousin jonathan's birthday we headed to zoo atlanta with daddy, grammie, aunt ann, the birthday boy, and little baby ethan. it was sweaty and so much fun. we couldn't possibly have seen all the animals there, but we put in a good effort. the family of gorillas really put on a show for us. with all these crazy kids i didn't get many great pictures but we did get some great memories.

mom and the birthday boy (can't believe he's two!). wait, make that supermom and the birthday boy! the zoo with a two-year-old and an infant is hard work.

 

 ellie loved all of what she calls "cheese spots" at the zoo. we had to try every single one.

sweet "geewaff" kisses. 

poppy could have stayed in the petting zoo all day. she loved each and every goat.

ellie told us that the animal she most wanted to see was a warthog. wish granted: mud, warts, and all. 

 she climbed all over this and then we saw the sign about not climbing... oops. :)

of course, poppy had a moment when we buckled her. she wants to be big so badly. 

so we pretty much took a hundred pictures to get any good ones, 
but i kinda love these crazy pictures of these crazy (crazy cute!) kids. 
(+one handsome daddy, too.)



tomorrow:
part at hogle zoo with our other cousin and grammie.
can't wait!

strawberry days.

while in utah, i was able to take ellie & poppy to the small town (in the not-so-small-anymore town) celebration that was a big part of my summers as a girl.

strawberry days is the longest running festival in utah. there are all sorts of events and it gets bigger every year. because of our flight delay, we missed the little children's parade and, honestly, i was pretty worn out the rest of the week, but we hit some of the main events. unfortunately i didn't get many pictures - i was too busy having fun. :)




we stopped by huck finn day for a little while. the lines for the games were incredibly long, too long for two (three, including me) girls that had waited and waited at the airport just two days before. we stuck to the playground. each year they they make a pool for fishing and at the end they open it up for everyone to try catching fish with their bare hands.

my girls treated it like sandy creek and ran straight in, splashing as hard as they could. they were soaked in a matter of seconds. and they were happy as can be.

saturday morning we stopped by the parade with auntie erynn, uncle noah, and cousin addie lou. we got there last minute-ish, getting a pretty trashy little spot down by the railroad tracks. it was perfect for escaping early with three tired little girls, two of which fell asleep before we got a block away and the other closed her eyes just as we got our food from the drive-thru window at taco amigo. all of them missed out on the fries (more for mommy!).

 

our parade leaving the parade. we're really missing all our family and those big blue skies!

saturday night ellie and i headed to the rodeo with uncle noah, uncle nate and auntie erynn. we literally squeezed in on a bench and enjoyed the show. every time ellie had to get out (to go potty, etc) the other people on the bench would pass her down like firemen passing a bucket. she liked the barrel racing (she pronounced it "burrrl") and she was pretty worried about the calves getting roped. she almost fell asleep during the bull riding, she even curled up on the bench after some of our neighbors moved out. but! the rodeo ended with fireworks. and she loved the fireworks. they were seriously some of the best fireworks i've ever seen. she even asked if we could come back again the next night. it was a pretty great night out with my girl.

view from the rodeo:

 

i wish we could there for strawberry days every year. it is one of my very favorite things about my hometown. it just feels like home. it feels like you know everyone during strawberry days.
and even though my small town keeps getting bigger and bigger, i hope it just keeps getting better and better. it will always be a magical little place to me.

there and back again.

athens, yesterday

we're back! 
back in the south, back in our "bulldog town," back in our little home.

saying goodbye to the sunrise over the mountains

 flying is so much easier with daddy's help

the flights back weren't quite as harrowing as our trip out to utah, but i still wasn't impressed. we ended up next to the airplane bathroom with a door that wouldn't stay closed (shouldn't that be against some law? isn't it a crime against our noses?) and our laptop was completely destroyed (we pretty much got a "too bad so sad" from united).

we came home to rainy, wet, humid weather. we're really missing afternoons spent swimming, digging, catching snakes, and eating popsicles in the shady backyard. we really miss playing with our family in that backyard. while we were in utah, ellie said to me "mommy, we don't need to go anywhere. i just want to play in the yard."
it's that good.

here at home, the girls are reconnecting with their toys and we're trying to get back into a regular swing. poppy is having a hard time sleeping (therefore everyone is having a hard time sleeping).
i wish there was some way for us to visit the beehive state again very, very soon. 

i think we need a benefactor. or a private plane.
both wouldn't hurt.

more pictures (millions more, enough to jam up my memory on my phone) to come. 

p.s. - i'm excited to be back on a real computer and i'm ready to figure out how to keep up with my favorite blogs again (without reader and all that). hopefully i'll be seeing you on the internets soon!