Irene

It was wicked bad, but it could have been a lot worse. I was supposed to speak today in Sacrament, but church was cancelled because no one knew quite what to expect. There was tons of rain, but it was the wind we were really worried about. There are a bunch of tall trees that could hit the house if they were blown over. Luckily the 70mph winds that were predicted never really panned out. This little apple tree was our only casualty. Behold the carnage.



I think we can even replant this little tree since it didn't break. It's only leaning because of the wet soil.
We lost power briefly for about 10 min. We had the little dvd player all charged up for Christian to watch some Peep. He grabbed his snacks and juice and pulled up baby Ashley's bumbo for a prime seat.



Both kids weathered the storm just fine. We are used to being inside during winter snow storms, but it was weird to be cooped up in the summer. The good news is that it is supposed to be sunny and beautiful for the rest of the week so we can dry out a bit.

4 Months

My little jelly bean is 4 months old! Here are the stats and a few pictures to enjoy...

13 lbs 9 oz

24 in

50th percentile for both height and weight

We put Ashley in the jumparoo to see if we should bring it up from the basement, but she has a little more growing to do

Summer Bounty

Our garden wasn't awesome this year. We got lots of cucumbers, some green onions, and a few beets and carrots, but everything else was underwhelming. However, my flowers have been beautiful this year. I cut a bunch of different summer flowers and brought them inside to enjoy. I think that next year I am going to plant flowers in my raised bed instead of vegetables. I get a lot more pleasure from flowers than from zucchini.

Could I be any more excited?!!

No. No I could not.

Christian sat on the potty voluntarily for over a half hour. It wasn't very...productive..., however he is happy to give it another try. And so am I.

Summer Fun

In an effort to redeem myself from being a blogging slacker, here are a few random shots of the kids doing fun summer things- swimming, frolicing in the sun, hanging with cousins, and just being cute.

Maine Attractions

Last week we decided to pack up the kids for a little outing to the zoo. We had two choices- the Stoneham Zoo in southern Massachusetts or the York Zoo in Maine. The Stoneham Zoo would require a 1 1/2 hour drive on 495 through Mass, trying to avoid rush hour in Boston, heat, and much bigger crowds for a much bigger zoo. The York Zoo meant a 1 hour drive to the coast, no traffic concerns, the possibility of an ocean breeze, and much smaller crowds. Another bonus was that we would drive through Kittery, Maine. I'll explain why that is so awesome later. The choice was easy. We packed up and headed to Maine.
I am happy to report that the zoo did not disappoint. I knew it was small, but it had all of the cool animals- lions, tigers, bears, alligators, elephants, lots of monkeys, zebras...you name it, they had it. We fed the goats and baby deer, visited the butterfly house, and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Christian loved looking at the animals and baby Ashley was content in her stroller. The weather was beautiful, the crowds were small, and the food reasonably priced. We will definitely return! My only regret is that I didn't ask the zoo keepers what happens to the animals in the winter. I'm pretty sure that African elephants are not used to 10 feet of snow.

Here we are feeding the goats


Christian was brave at first, then decided that Mommy should feed the goats instead. Same went for the baby deer.

Lions

Alligators

Checking out the kangaroos

Ry and Christian in front of the white tiger

Butterfly house


The day's adventure did not end at the zoo. We stopped at Kittery Trading Post on the way home. It is the largest sporting goods store in New England. It is Mecca to Ryan. They have anything that an outdoors man/survivalist could ever dream of. It also has an awesome fudge stand.

Christian and Ashley checking out the stuffed moose
Funny thing is that there wasn't a moose at the zoo, and they are native to New Hampshire. This picture was taken just before Christian took a header into the moose pit. He was ok after a little bite of rocky road fudge.
This was the result of the day's events. We had two very tired tots. Both Christian and Ashley were very good kids considering all of the exciting things they got to see that day.