Labor Day Weekend

We had a really fun Labor Day Weekend because Kiley, Scott, and Sadie came to visit us. It is always so fun to see family, and I loved having my little buddy Sadie to play with. She is so great--I wish I could keep her!

That Friday, we went to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. We left early in order to avoid the worst heat of the day, and I'm glad we did. Sadie and I had fun playing and talking in the back seat during the ride down. She commandeered my sunglasses and looked so cute wearing them. When I pulled out my phone camera to take a picture of her, she started making all sorts of faces. 

     

We had a good time at the zoo. Sadie seemed more interested in pushing her stroller around than really paying attention to the animals a lot of the time, but that was okay. She is such an independent little lady. She likes to do things by herself. 

First up, we stopped to see the giraffes. I love giraffes and could watch them all day. They are such cool animals.

They were preparing to feed the giraffes when we were there. We walked over to the covered pavilion to get a closer look at the animals. They weren't quite ready though, and we didn't want to wait or pay the extra fee to get to feed them, so we moved on.

I think Sadie really likes lions. Whenever we would skype before their visit, she would always tell me that she wanted to go to the zoo with Mom, Dad, Aunt Jess, and Uncle Brian to see the lions. Then she would growl. The lions were all sleeping up by the glass, which was cool because we got a good look at them.

We had to stop and get some pictures with the nearby lion statues.

We stopped to look at the elephants next. We got to watch them eating their hay. Sadie watched for a minute, but didn't seem too impressed. She just wanted to push her stroller down the inclining path.

After wandering around for a couple of hours, looking at the bears, tigers, birds, and seals, it started to get hot. Somewhere in there we stopped so Sadie could ride the carousel a couple of times. She chose to ride the lion...of course!

We found ourselves at the "end" of the zoo, and chose to walk up the nearby steep hill instead of turning around and backtracking our way to entrance. It was so steep and long...and very hot. It was quite the workout, and I was hobbling a bit by the time we got to the top. The baby in my belly suddenly felt very heavy. There weren't any animals along that path except for three, in small cages. One held a raven, and I don't remember what the other two were, but nothing exciting. There weren't even any shade trees or benches. At the top of the hill was the zoo's administration building. Our sojourn through the desert, as I like to call it, almost did me in, and I was ready to be done after that. Luckily, the path continued forward and sloped down and around back to the main part of the zoo. We stopped to look at the orangutans while we rested for a minute. The baby was so cute.

Before leaving, we stopped to eat lunch in one of the air-conditioned buildings. It felt so amazing, and I regained my energy. The walk out of the zoo was much better, although I still felt tired after the trek through the 90+ degree heat. I'm glad we went early so that the majority of our visit was during the cooler morning temps.

On Saturday, we drove to a park in Syracuse, where we had a small reunion with a couple of our college roommates. Most of us live in Utah and Idaho now, making it possible to get together. Kiley and I had fun visiting with our friends Amanda Shurtz and Amanda Brown. Everyone brought their families, and it was nice to get to catch up and get acquainted with husbands and kids. It was only after we had left that we realized we didn't take a picture of us.  Oh well, we'll just have to do it again, and maybe more of us can come next time.

I did manage to get a picture of Sadie and I though. That girl loved to play on my phone, and I had to keep it out of sight to keep her away from it.

When we weren't on the go, we just hung out at our place. Sadie has warmed up to Brian so much since they first visited us here in Utah. This time, she let him play with her and even pick her up. One night she ran right up to him and excitedly told him that she was going to brush her teeth and change into pajamas and then she would get some milk. It was super cute. She helped me stretch out the pizza dough I was making for dinner one night. Really she just stood on a chair by the counter and poked holes in it with her fingers, but it made me laugh. We had fun chatting with Kiley and Scott too, and we laughed a lot. I love that we all live close enough now to visit regularly.

They left on Sunday and we were sad to see them go. Time with family always goes too fast. But we'll be up in Idaho in a few weeks so we'll get to see them again soon.