Random

This lady has been a close friend ever since Matt and I married and moved into our first house. She and her husband were one of the first couples we met and a quick friendship grew. Moving into separate wards put a strain on our close friendship, but we tried to keep in touch regularly. Kim and I have our love of books and music in common. She has had many ups and downs with adoption, divorce, and marrying again to name a few. We worked harder this last year to get together once a month for lunch. It's so nice to have a friend that is a kindred spirit, and I was so sad when she and her new husband moved to Utah. This is our last lunch together. :(

We went with some friends to the zoo in July. It was annoying to wear masks the whole time, but we still had a great time. And we were able to stay cool by the on and off-again rain.

Dinosaur exhibit

 

Zoo Boo

Caleb had a half day of school on Friday, so we met Matt downtown at the zoo. The last couple weekends of October, the zoo does a Zoo Boo where the kids can walk around to several stations to trick-or-treat, play carnival games, or decorate a pumpkin.

Bryson and Daddy

Carter wore a firefighter costume and Caleb wore his Nate the Great attire since he wore it for school that day anyway.

Bryson's first carousel ride

Bryson really enjoyed crawling through this fish tunnel.

Snow at the Zoo

Last weekend Matt took the boys to the zoo because they were making snow at the zoo! Of course everyone in the city also went to the zoo to see snow, so it was quite busy. Here are the pictures Matt captured (no snow pictures):

Carter loves the carousel!

Dancing to Christmas music

Carter's a little obsessed with the goats. The goats get a lot of TLC every time we go to the zoo.

and a kiss or two...

Zoo Field Trip

After spending all month learning about specific zoo animals, the children in my preschool class were so excited to see them all live. We didn't quite make it to all the animals we studied before everyone needed to head out, but we enjoyed what we saw. Now that I have a zoo membership, we will be frequenting the zoo quite a bit this next year.

Here are some monkeys and a lion. (Caleb's on the right.)

Most all of my preschool students (minus 3 girls) sporting their animal masks we made at preschool

Viewing the elephants

Caitlyn, Caleb, and Chloe on the carousel ride

Carter having fun riding and ostrich

Caleb and Dallin in a hippo's mouth

Caitlyn, Dallin, and Caleb daring to touch a rhino :o)

It's crazy to me that preschool is wrapping up at the end of this month. My sister and I have loved taking on this endeavor together and really enjoyed ourselves! We loved splitting the workload and bouncing ideas off each other. We will be teaching different age groups next year, so we're enjoying our last month of team-teaching.

A Day at the Zoo

Caleb's first time at the zoo! He enjoyed seeing all the animals and with all his excitement but inability to call the animals by name yet, he just called each animal 'doggie.'

Caleb and Lily by the elephants
Mommy and Caleb in the bird house
Caleb and Lily petting a goat
And Caleb's favorite part about the entire trip was....

chasing the pigeons.