End of Summer

That's right.  It's over.  The event we've waited for all year long has ended.  On Monday, Molly and I go back to school and Jack goes to cousin Maddie's house.  We need some order and routine, so it is probably a good thing, but it is always hard to actually have it end.

We ended the summer on Monday with a trip to Hires for lunch with our favorite high school boys, Willie and Parker.  Molly wanted "cheese and a sucker" really, really bad.  Willie and Parker couldn't contain their laughter.

Molly and Jack got to hang out with their dad for 2 days and then with Grandma and Grandpa Binggeli (Ba -nelly, according to Molly) for two days while mom went back to work.

Molly had an open house at school on Thursday night.  She was super clingy and shy for about 3 minutes and then jumped out of my arms to play and have some fun.  She'll probably still scream at me for a minute Monday morning, but she'll have lots of fun!

We dropped off a few weeks of supplies at cousin Maddie's house, where Jack will be going during the day.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that Jack is a good boy and everything goes ok with 2 kids in 2 different places.  Maddie will be great!

I took some pictures of our pretty wild flowers that have been growing in our backyard.

Molly has spent many evenings this summer playing outside with the neighbor boys.

Jack likes to come outside, also, though exactly 2 seconds after the first picture was taken, the second picture occurred.  This is just what he does.  Oh well.  We still love him (but, we do need to get him a bigger shirt).

Jason and Alicia

A couple of Wednesday's ago, Jason and Alicia came to visit.  We went to dinner at 5 Guys and then came back to our house to hang out for a while.  Jason is starting a new adventure going to school at Weber State.  Alicia is starting a new adventure and moving to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.  It was fun to hang out with them.  Molly and Jason played "Where's Molly?  Where's Jason?" forever with a couple of blankets over their heads and then eventually everyone has to try out the playhouse.

Hogle Zoo!

With summer winding down and coming to a close, we thought we'd actually get some use out of our Hogle Zoo Membership (and pick up the cards that were paid for months ago).  To take full advantage of the zoo, Molly and Jack have been 3 (almost 4) times in the last 2 weeks.  It's been too hot to go before now and honestly, I just don't like taking a tiny baby sweating and being carried all around the zoo.  He'll have the rest of his life to go.  But at almost 3 months, he's a little sturdier and if he can sit outside for a football game, than why not a trip to the zoo?

** Important News Flash . . . The TRAIN at the Zoo is closing on September 13th and will be closed for 2 years during the construction of a new giraffe exhibit.  If you or your children are zoo train enthusiasts, you better go get that last ride in. **

Zoo Experience #1 - Molly was super whiny one morning and instead of getting mad at her and stressing at the possibility of a super unproductive day at home, we decided to load up and go.  It was a fast trip.  We were at the zoo for no more than one hour.  Molly stayed in the stroller the entire time and we just hit the highlights, including the train.  We (I mainly) finally got to see the new polar bear exhibit and it is pretty cool.  It reminds me of the Condor Flats area of California Adventure.  (I don't know why because there are no animals there, but I'm weird like that . . . and maybe just really want to go to Disneyland.)

Zoo Experience #2 - Our dad actually was NOT working on a Saturday.  Those are pretty few and far between it seems these days, so even though we'd been just a few days earlier, we decided to load up again and go to the zoo.  This time it was a bit more crowded, a bit more hot, and a bit less cooperative, but still fun.  Molly started in the stroller and Jack ended in it.  Molly had ice cream.  It was good.  The only bad thing was that the train was closed.  That was sort of another reason we went.  With the train closing in a few weeks, we wanted to ride it again.  Oh well.

Zoo Experience #3 - I went back to school for 4 days this week and James took 2 of those days off of work to tend the chilluns.  I was totally astonished when after not being able to get a hold of him all morning, he finally returned my call and said, "We've been at the zoo!"  James is honestly pretty grumpy when it comes to  . . .  anything . . . but he is a good dad and steps up when he needs to.  He said they had fun and Molly only had a couple of melt-downs.  They had been at the zoo for 3 hours!!  Both kids were asleep and they were driving home. (Oh, and they DID get to ride the train again).

Zoo Experience #4 (almost) - Apparently James had so much fun at the Zoo the first day of Daddy-Day-Care that they planned to go back the second day.  Unfortunately they got a late start and didn't get to the zoo until around nap time.  Molly fell asleep in the car, so instead of going to the zoo, they drove up Emigration Canyon, clear up East Canyon, through Hennefer and Morgan, and then home.  That is a pretty drive and I was a little bit jealous, but glad everyone was having a good day!