Zoos, cousins and photo shoots, oh my! (Days 4-9)

On Tuesday we went to the zoo. (Kathryn was pouting a few feet away during this photo.) It was super hot outside and the zoo was overflowing with people. I couldn't believe how packed it was for a non-holiday, beginning of the week kind of day. The zoo also seemed rather small compared to Nashville...then I heard that Nashville is one of the largest zoos in the country and I realized I had been spoiled there.

From Tuesday until Friday, we stayed at Ashley's house. Her new baby Scarlett was such a doll. I was hoping she would still seem like a tiny newbown. She is around 7 weeks old here but you probably wouldn't guess it. Scarlett was a 9 pound newborn too (like Rachel) and she already seemed so "grown up". =)

Rachel loved her right away. She grabbed her hand and just kept looking at her and smiling, like she was greeting an old friend.

Joseph slept in Benjamin's room and they woke up early each morning to play together.

They both love reading.

My mom and I spent a lot of time shopping for coordinating outfits for our extended family photo shoot on Saturday. David was kind enough to watch most of the kids while we were out. I had my hair cut the night before the shoot--a risky move, I know--but I was happy with the way it turned out and I'm now the proud owner of bangs...again.

All the kids...these are just candids from my cell phone. We were just waiting for everyone else to get there.

More candids. Kathryn didn't hardly crack a smile the whole time. Davey would only sit in that red chair.

Sam was cracking jokes in Spanish, so only a few of us were in on them. Here's (almost) the whole crew getting all set up for the big group shot. Little Davey was being a stinker, not wanting to sit where the photographer put him.

In the end, the photos turned out pretty nice, considering we had 10 adults and 7 very young children.

Trip to Utah, Days 1-3

I realized that I had not updated our "weekly" blog for over two months. Here's what we've been up to...

We spent the better part of the 3rd week of June crossing things off our to-do list and packing for our trip to Utah. David spoke at the bi-stake youth conference Friday afternoon, then we loaded everyone up and drove away at 7pm.

Everyone was happy to be on the road. They had been looking forward to our trip to Utah for several months. We drove to McCall that night (about 3.5 hours from Lewiston), and stayed in a hotel. Joseph threw up his dinner and many road trip snacks about 10 minutes before we arrived at the hotel, at 10:30pm. 

Everyone settled down and went to sleep fairly quickly, except for Sarah. She was awake and bouncing around, literally, until 2am.

On Saturday we drove the remaining 9 hours to Utah Valley, in time to hang out with cousins at the Rookstool's house.

On Sunday, Josh gave his farewell talk at church. He entered the MTC a few days later and is going to South Korea.

Here are all the girl cousins playing dolls together. I loved how the older girls were so sweet and played with my younger ones.

We got to see most of David's family that weekend, including his parents. We enjoyed staying at his sister's house. The kids loved playing with their older cousins and jumping on the trampoline. In fact, this week someone asked Sarah what she did on her trip to Utah -- she didn't mention the zoo or aquarium or farm or dinosaur museum or the bounce castle. Nope, the first thing she said was "I got to jump on the trampoline at my cousin's house!"

Rachel was a little sick and rather grumpy for the first several days of the trip. One night she woke up every 30-60 minutes all night long. But otherwise, she was still a sweetheart. Here she is discovering her toes (age 4 months). The white afghan was knit by my grandma LouAnn just for her.