Jungle Jim's

Ever been there? I hadn't until a few weeks ago. And I can't tell you why we haven't been before. Jungle Jim's = a child's heaven. Its basically a mini-amusement park for kids. Bumper cars, swings, carousel, rockets, jeeps, spinning cars, etc. And we were pretty much the only ones there the whole time. A ride operator just followed us around, taking the kids on whatever ride they wanted. Claire still talks about it all the time. You can even print 2-for-1 coupons on their website and go all day for $4.

Claire, ready to get started.


On what she refers to as the "Spinners".


Paige, Drew and Claire


Riding the swings


Bumper cars. Claire couldn't reach the pedal and wasn't too great at steering, so she got in with Drew.


This is how you'll find my niece, Annie, often. She doesn't take a binkie, just loves those two middle fingers.


Cute Jason asleep on his mom's shoulder. Just look at those lashes.


Loving the jeeps.


Not my best photography, but I laugh every time I see this picture. We were just going around from ride to ride and wanted to try this one. We'd never seen it go before. Its a lot like Musicland Express at Lagoon. I put Claire on it, not having any idea how fast it goes. Ummm...fast is an understatement. It seriously hauls. She was pretty terrified.


But she got a hug from Drew after and felt much better.


And liked it much better when she could go with Aunt Angie.


If anyone wants to go, give us a call. We're always up for a Jungle Jim's day.

Easter

This Easter, Claire went on seven (count 'em - seven) Easter Egg Hunts. It just kind of worked out that way. Its so fun to watch her as she progressed from last year. Last year, we walked around with her and would have to point out eggs to pick up. This year she just ran off and grabbed.

Up first was our city's egg hunt. This was the weekend before Easter. Here are Claire, Annie and Drew ready to go.




The second hunt was an egg hunt with some friends in the neighborhood. They made cupcakes before the hunt. Here are Ashton and Claire enjoying theirs.


She loved this cow egg someone brought.


Later that day, we went to a hunt at the retirement home (where the light was gorgeous and I wished I could do an entire photo shoot with her). At this hunt there are always tons of eggs. Check out her basket and she still grabbed a few more.


The Easter Bunny was there and she remembered him from the year before. She ran right up to him and gave him a hug. Here is Corgan, Claire and Drew.


The fourth hunt was the morning before Easter at my bro and sis-in-law's city hunt. Here are Claire and Corgan all bundled up.


And they're off!


The fifth hunt was the most important, I think. The one at our house! Here she is, Easter morning.


Checking out the eggs.


Some of the loot the Easter Bunny brought her.


The sixth hunt was at my parent's later that day, where I forgot the camera. (E'Shell - if you have any pics, I'd love them.) Thanks again to my mom for putting on a fun Easter hunt and yummy dinner for everyone!

And the seventh hunt was the weekend after Easter at our church. Once again, pregnancy brain struck and although I remembered the camera this time, I forgot the memory card. So no pics from that day either.

All in all, way too much candy, but a lot of fun. We still have a large container filled with Easter candy. She doesn't love candy so I'm thinking we'll have it for a while. Here's one shot I got of her that morning. She always wants to use a prop, of which there are a plethora. L-o-v-e this girl.

Best buddies

Claire and my nephew, Drew, get to spend a lot of time together. My sister and I trade babysitting once a week so I can get editing done and she can go to work. It works out really great for all of us. We get a break and the kids get to see each other a lot. A few weeks ago when I was watching the kids, we were outside playing and I snapped a few photos. These two probably fight as much as a brother and sister, but they love each other as much too. I had to document.







Ha ha ha...I just thought this one was funny.


See what I mean about arguing? I think Claire had the ball Drew wanted. :)


And again...they were mad that the other one was touching their feet. ("Don't touch my feet!" "Don't touch my feet!")




Claire giving Drew a kiss


Drew giving one back




Best buddies.

Oh, the poor neglected blog.

I used to make posts twice a week and now I'm lucky if one gets done every other month. Well, today I'm going to work on a little catch up. You'll be seeing quite a few posts in the next few hours/days. I'm putting this on here to make sure I actually do it. First up...recap of February...ha ha ha. So behind. But I really want to be caught up so that when the baby comes I can start posting about him guilt-free. :) We'll see.

Happy Easter!

Skiing!

I started skiing at a young age - I think I was around age five or six. I've always loved it. My parents would take us a few times a year and even let us skip school once or twice a year to go up. Nate is also an avid skier and used to get a season pass every year until Claire came along. Well, we wanted to start the tradition with her. So we took Claire up to Alta last Friday and were so excited to see what our 2-year-old would think of it. I'm so glad that it went even better than I would have thought. She loved it!

Waiting to get on the chair lift...Claire's still deciding what she thinks.


She loved the chair lift.




At the top of the mountain! It was my nephew, Corgan's, first time skiing too. My mom also came along.


Nate and Claire going down the hill. She kept a very straight face through the whole thing, but when we asked her if she liked it, she would say, "I love skiing!" You'll see in the video below.


Corgan loved it too!


Family pic at the top of the mountain. Please don't mind my 30-week prego belly. (I had to take advantage that my mom was there to take pictures).


My turn to take Claire!


Ha ha ha...we loved her little skis. She loved that they had her name on them.


The end of the day. What a memorable day it was. I can't wait for a few more years til we can take our little guy too!


Here is a little video of both Nate and I taking Claire. Notice that at the first part of her skiing with me, she yells, "faster!"

Our February

Small disclaimer: most photos were taken with my small, fits-in-my-pocket camera since my back and ribs can't take much of the weight of my huge camera. Darn pregnancy.

First up, lunch with Nate. We try to meet Nate for lunch every other week or so. He works in Sandy, so we usually end up at South Towne Mall at the food court. Oh so glamorous. But Claire loves it because we get to ride the carousel every time. Riding carousels is one of her favorite things to do.


Next, we had tickets with my family for the Jazz game and I ended up deathly sick (ok, not deathly, but you shouldn't be allowed to get the stomach flu when you're pregnant. Just sayin.) Here's a photo with my mom, Drew, Claire and Corgan.


Here's a random photo of my two favorite people.


On one somewhat-warm day in Feb, my sister and I took the kids for a walk to the park. It felt so nice to be outside!




The very next day I was watching my nephew and niece, Drew and Annie, and we took a few shots in the studio. I love this little girl. I could take photos of her smiling face all day.




Same goes for this girl...


For Valentines Day, Nate bought Claire a flower and a balloon. I think she was confused and thought she won the lottery, because that's how she acted. She would talk about her flower almost every day for weeks afterward. It was really cute.


I got tulips - my fav! (With my 28-week prego belly.)


We made pink, heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast.


Claire, mid-action.


Nate had to go out of town for a few days, so Claire and I drove up to Logan and spent some quality time with my Grandma Stevens. We love her so much. I wish she lived closer. Here she is reading Claire a bed time story...sadly, the only photo I got with her while we were there.


While in Logan, I had to take Claire up to Utah State. From the look on her face you can see how cold it was. Good old Logan.


The last event in February was a trip to the zoo. We did NOT pick the best day to go, but is there really a good day to go in February? This is what the day looked like almost the whole time we were there.


But the kids didn't care.


Not the most eventful month, but at least I got it blogged!