Hannah's Special Day

I tell Ken all the time--the one thing I don't like about our house is the cheap shelving. As if to prove my point this one toppled down while we were all in the Living Room.

We were working on clearing the table after dinner and look over to see Ava playing in the sour cream.

No wait don't eat it!

Apparantly, she loves sour cream (Just like Uncle Austin--Yuck!).

The kids looking at our blog. Chase had a long day and couldn't keep his eye open any longer.

We stumbled upon this nice park with a pond. The kids loved the swans and ducks.

A couple was kind enough to share their bread with us, so we could feed the swans/ducks too.

Ava and Jordan watching the ducks.

This doesn't happen very often. . .

but it sure is cute when it does.

Good morning Ava.

Jordan showing us her gymnastic move.

I hate to even share this story because I still feel SOOOO terrible about the whole thing. We had just moved our treadmill out into the family room so we could watch TV while working out. One morning I decided to try and squeeze in a workout before the kids were up and going. Well, Chase and Caden came down to see what I was up to. Chase came up behind the treadmill and fell on the end of it. The treadmill then pinned him to the floor. I turned off the machine as fast as I could but not before it rubbed poor Chase raw. I put neosporin on it and bandages. The poor kid was in so much pain. He was crying and shaking and his teeth were chattering. We had to do this twice a day for a couple weeks.  It was not fun! Even when his wounds were scabbed over and pretty much healed he didn't want anyone to touch him to change his bandages. I can't even imagine how painful it must have been. I haven't been able to get on the treadmill since. It is a month later and the ones on his arms are almost completely gone and the ones on his legs are all healed over and are just red.

Kailyn reading to Chase. The first day he was miserable and didn't want to do anything. Kailyn was wonderful to read him story after story.

Here is his leg several days after the indicent. We ended up putting a diaper on him because it was easier to take on and off so he could use the restroom without having to pull underwear up and down.

After we changed his bandages he was in pain for the next little bit and had a hard time getting comfortable.

I am so sorry Chase. Thank goodness you are such a tough kid. I can't believe how well you handled it. It was so cute watching you try and keep up with Caden while trying to hobble along on a straight leg (bending his leg hurt). I'm just so glad he is better now.

One night Jordan wanted to make a fancy dinner so she picked a bunch of wild flowers and spread the pedals all over the table.

So precious. Kailyn holding Ava.

We went to the zoo and I decided to let the kids feed the goats. NONE of the kids wanted to feed them. I finally talked Jordan into trying.

Yeah she didn't like it too much.

Ava got sick with a fever and was pretty mello for a couple days. Here she feel asleep on my bed watching me fold laundry.

On our last trip we kept catching Jordan staring out the window. She was totally fascinated by the lines passing by (she normally doesn't sit by the window).

Working on peas from our garden.

Jordan's self portraits from school.

Kansas City, Day 2

Our reservations for the temple open house were not until 3:30 in the afternoon, so we decided to do a little more around Kansas City.  We went to the zoo first.  We got there just in time to go to the sea lion show.  It was pretty fun.  The trainers and the sea lions all put on an enjoyable show.  I filmed some of it, which is available below.  It was a Saturday, so the zoo staff tried to schedule different fun activities at different places.  First it was the sea lion show.  Then it was snack time for the cheetahs with some time to visit with the zookeeper.  Then it was feed-the-elephant time.  Then it was . . . something.  We didn't make it any further.  They didn't plan the route as well as I would have liked, so we were running from one exhibit to the next and barely making it in time, sweating, panting, and dealing with kids who weren't lovin' the running.  So, we just walked around and looked at whatever interested us.  It was a little rainy, too, keeping it fairly interesting.

Sea lion show

Feed the cheetahs, talk with the cheetah keeper

Elephant time

All our little ones intently listening to a short presentation about white-cheeked gibbons (who are dangling in the background, making sure the speaker gets the facts right)

Ava cruising down a slide at warp speed . . . 

. . . and loving it!!

She really did love it with some help

Here we all are chillin' with the kangaroos

Ava likes the tiger

The video of our zoo time

After the zoo, we caught a bite to eat at Subway, then went to the Independence visitor's center.  We were there just long enough to change clothes and load up to go to the open house.

The temple, of course, was beautiful.  The kids enjoyed seeing the inside of a temple.  After the temple open house, we went to Liberty Jail

Ava helping us get ready to leave the next morning

The rest of the kids helping us get ready to leave the next day

The kids got a pamphlet/play book from the Money Museum.  One of the pages asked you to name some words (ie, tell me a noun, now an adjective, now the name of a friend, now another noun, etc).  You would fill in the words into certain spaces and then read a paragraph.  The kids cracked up at their funny creations.

Eventually, we had to start movies.  Ava was content with that for about 5 seconds (I got a picture just in time, I guess).  Ava did do very well, though.

The rest of the kids, as you can tell, enjoyed the movies.