Washington Knight's visit, continued

After Justin and Marie went home we had a few low-key days where we decompressed, and Rachel stopped having so many melt-downs as we kind of got back into the routine, with preschool, and such. Todd and Savannah came out and babysat the girls while I took Ryan to his 3 week checkup. I got our house back in order a bit, and got some laundry done.

Then Friday we got out of the house again for some fun. We went back to the zoo, and it was WAY less crowded than it had been the Friday before when we had gone with Justin and Marie on Good Friday/Spring Break for most of Tucson. And I even remembered my camera this time.

We brought the double umbrella stroller and I began to appreciate how great that thing is going to be to have around in a few months when Ryan is ready to be in it. Eloise and Annie enjoyed the first turn, and Annie actually stayed in the stroller way longer than she normally would, probably because she had company. Jared and Rachel also rotated through the stroller line up, so it was put to great use.

We went to feed the giraffes, and Annie was a little braver than last time, but the tongue still kind of scared her. I think the best part of the giraffe feeding isn't the actual feeding, but just getting to be so close to the giraffes. The kids love that.

The happy family:

Last time we had only seen 3 of the elephants in the new elephant exhibit, but this time all 5 were out, including the little baby. So cute!

The obligatory elephant picture:

Near the elephant exhibit they have some African-type instruments set up for the kids to play with. Rachel and Annie had a blast drumming on these drums. Notice Eloise at the other end pounding away. Savannah had a hard time getting her away from the drum. :)

Drum love:

This xylophone-type thing was pretty cool, too.

All in all, it was a fun zoo trip, and not nearly as tiring as the week before, since we didn't have to wade through huge packed crowds of people.

Saturday we hung out at Grandma and Grandpa's house mostly, though we did escape for a double date out to lunch with Todd and Savannah, leaving all the kids at Grandma's.

Annie had fun playing with blocks, but the most fun was the car zipping down the ramp Todd had helped build. See the look of pure joy on her face?

This girl LOVES cars! And Eloise was just intrigued that someone could be so happy about a little car.

More playing:

Sunday dinner with the kid table:

I love this picture. Since it shows pretty accurately how things went most of the time. Annie trying to "help" Ryan with his binky, Grandma surrounded by grandkids, Eloise curious and watching everything that's going on, and Rachel convincing someone to read to her. All that's missing is Jared commenting on fans or electricity, his two loves in life.

Eloise turned one while she was out here.

Rachel helped make the festivities more festive by throwing the tissue paper around while Eloise opened her presents.

She sure was excited by the doll Grandma and Grandpa got for her.

Savannah made her a bear cake, but had a hard time convincing her to eat it. This is about as dirty as she got.

Some of the other kids decided to join in the spirit of a first birthday by getting a chocolatey face to rival Eloise's. They did a decent job of it.

It was a fun visit. Now it's back to regular old life without cousins. I suppose we'll manage, but we're glad we got to see everyone and look forward to the next time.

Post-Easter fun

The day after Easter was the last full day that Justin and Marie were in town. We spent the day hanging out together around my parent's house. We had a picnic outside and the kids played in the pool and jumped on the trampoline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annie got herself nominated among the cousins as the most likely to end up in the ER. She would throw herself down and run around with abandon and no thought to her safety or common sense.

 

 

We had so much fun with all the cousins here visiting! It was a very busy, slightly chaotic, but very fun couple of days when everyone was here. We wish it would happen more often! We're hoping Justin and Marie might move back to Tucson, or at least somewhere closer than Georgia, so if you happen to know of any jobs around here, pass them along, because they're willing to move if there's a job to work at. Then we'll just set to work on changing the weather/climate so we can convince Todd and Savannah to move back.

 

 

Easter

Saturday we colored eggs for Easter. Once we got everything set up and the girls out there, the fun began.

Annie LOVED it. Mostly because it involved putting things in water and unrestrained mess making. Notice her blue and red hands.

Soon, Annie realized that she could crack the eggs open, and eat some of what was inside. Mess-making, and food? Her two favorite things!

When we tried to prevent her from cracking every single egg, she got a little mad.

McKenzie was more interested in dancing to the music than coloring eggs, but she did get some egg-dying in.

 

 

We'll declare the egg-dying a success. Everyone had a fun time (especially Annie-blue-hands).

Easter morning loot:

The girls had a fun time hunting for eggs. Rachel was very nice about leaving some of the easy-to-find eggs for Annie to find.

 

The yearly Robin Egg lipstick picture:

The girls got these awesome Easter bunny teeth lollypops in their baskets. 

Grandma got Easter dresses and Easter hats for all the litle girls. So cute!

 

We had Easter dinner at our house, since we were out here for Ryan's blessing. Good food, good company, and good times for all. :)

 

 

 

 

All the Easter fun must have worn Annie out (all the chaos really wore everyone out, I think) because she grabbed her binky and her blanky and climbed into Ryan's bouncy seat.

 

 It was a happy Easter, for sure.