Aunt Cari's visit

Cari came to visit for a few days last week. It was fun having her here. Rachel and Annie had a blast, though Cari may have been grateful when it was time to head back home because the girls didn't let her have a moment's peace.

We started our adventures with a trip to the park to fly a kite. The kite flying was successful, but short-lived, as 4-year-olds don't have an incredibly long attention span. And the playground was beckoning, so we headed over and Rachel and Cari played on the slides and swings, while some vulture kids honed in on the kite and did their best to mangle fly it under my supervision.

Rachel found a stash of pine cones that she just had to bring back with us.

Rachel had a good time showing Cari Starfall and her mad reading skills. (And Annie loves anything that involves the computer or a screen, so she had to get in on the action, too.)

Before Cari came I asked Rachel what she wanted to do while Cari was here. Her response: "Go to the zoo! Since she showed us her zoo, we should show her ours!" So we did. One of the tigers was sleeping right in front of the glass window, and the other was pacing back and forth in front of the other window. Later Rachel told me, "The tiger was trying to figure out how he could eat all us kids!"

I wonder how many pictures I have of this elephant....

It was giraffe feeding time, so Grandma paid the $2 each for the girls to feed them a handful of carrots. Annie was a little intimidated. She wanted to feed them, but when the tongue started reaching out for the carrot she would freak out a little and drop the carrot, or retract her arm. But she thought they were really cool. We had a hard time pulling her away from the giraffes.

This is pretty representative of about half of the time Cari was here:

Rachel was on a coloring/painting kick, so they colored and painted, and colored and cut out, and colored some more. Cari was such a good sport doing whatever Rachel told her to.

We also got some games in, like Hi Ho Cherry-O and Uno Moo.

(You can also see my basketball belly and my new haircut that I got Saturday--it's a it-doesn't-matter-if-you-don't-have-time-to-shower-for-days kind of haircut, in preparation for the baby.)

We were going to go on a little hike, but a meltdown shut that idea down. Instead we had a picnic at the park and enjoyed the swings a bit more. Then for dinner we barbecued some chicken and hot dogs. And Rachel, Annie, and Cari made a lovely "cake" out of lawn trimmings, rocks, and whatever else they happened upon in the back yard.

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed having Cari visit, though we were pretty boring after the girls went to bed. Rachel was so distraught over the thought of Cari leaving that she had a hard time falling asleep, finally falling asleep in our bed, so as to not wake Annie while she cried herself to sleep. Then when Rachel woke up at 4am and Cari was already gone (she and Jake had to leave at 3am to get her to Mesa in time for her 6am flight) it took an hour of singing to her and telling her stories to distract her enough for her to fall asleep again (again in our bed).

I hope we didn't scare Cari away for too long what with the girls running her ragged, not leaving her alone for a minute while they were awake. :) We tried to provide some lovely weather at least, as a nice contrast to the Rexburg winter. Thanks for coming, Cari!

We love visitors! So come visit!