My mom visits! Days 1 and 2

My mom was SO excited this year; she got to take 2 weeks off work in a row! She planned a really nice, long vacation and got to spend time with each of her daughters! I got the last 5 days of her two weeks. AND, bonus, I still got all my hours in for work that I needed to!

The first day, she flew into the Provo airport at 845am, so I picked her up, and then she went to my Aunt Linda's house to get ready. She came over, picked Mason and me up, and we went to Toys R Us for Mason's birthday present! She bought him a sweet water table, and then we went to Barnes and Noble. Mason had a blast pulling books off the shelf and handing them to me to read to him :) Melt my heart! We went home for dinner (pulled pork) and then we went to Coldstone for dessert! After that, she and I walked with Mason to go check out the Provo Tabernacle/Temple that is under construction.

Mason totally passed out on the walk. He was so exhausted from hanging out with Grandma!

The next day, we went to Hogle Zoo! Apparently they took me when I was like 18 months old. I have no recollection of that, so this was my first trip to the zoo in my memory! Zoos are so fun! And Kelly brought her two youngest to hang out with us! It wasn't too crowded because everyone in Utah fears the wet. It rained right as we were leaving. Perfect timing!

My mom has a thing for giraffes. She loves them!

So naturally she wanted a picture with Mason under the giraffe :)

This guy was hilarious: he was totally kicked bag, legs up, and chillin'

The smaller one on the left is named Eve. I thought that was hilarious :)

(our niece is named Eve)

And this guy apparently slammed up against the glass to try and get to my dad when I was 18 months old. Crazy haha

Riding the carosel!

Once it started moving up and down he was like "Moooom get me down from here!"

I let him run around in the terrarium section and he was SO happy. Especially when he could see inside the exhibits

Such a fun couple of days with my mom! More to come but that cute kid sitting on the gorilla is awake now. PS check out that cute shirt he's wearing! My mom got it in Jackson Hole.

Hiking the Y

My good friend from college, Jess, had her birthday a few weeks ago, and she decided she wanted to hike Y Mountain in Provo with whoever wanted to come. Sean and I said "Let's Go!" He actually had never hiked it before. I thought Mason would be chill once we got going in the baby carrier, but he was not having it. So Sean carried him up and down the mountain. We got to the top as the sun was starting to set, which made for some pretty pictures! Utah in summer is the best! Thanks for inviting us Jess!

  

Mason fell asleep halfway down the mountain. Poor kid was so tired...

Hope you had a fun birthday Jess! Glad we got to spend some time together!

PS. I've had my iPhone 5 for a year and a few months. And these are the first panorama pictures I took… hashtag lame...

Museum of Natural Curiosity

A few weeks ago, Sean's dad got tickets through his work to go through Thanksgiving Point's new Museum of Natural Curiosity. It is SO. COOL. And it wasn't even half finished yet; they still had two areas to put together. They have a little town where we got to bike pedal to move trains around tracks, see a magic shop, a fake jail, bank, pet shop (where you can do X-rays of stuffed animals), a stage with costumes, a music store, library… oh man, it was so cool. I would have taken loads more pictures but I had to carry Mr. Fussy Pants (someone had fallen off the bed and hit his head that afternoon).

They have a little door for kids to go through! So naturally, Sean wanted to. Eve thought it was pretty magical!

And then, you go downstairs. This is probably the coolest part. Think the jungle gym area at McDonalds times 537.8. It has a HUGE climbing structure with platforms, rope bridges, the whole shebang. Then there are these little activities that you can to do test your 5 senses. They had a maze, touch and feel, and other little booths with things to do. They also had a little climbing wall, a DDR-type mat on the floor that lights up and you have to Panther pounce onto the lights, a rope where you can hang to compare your hanging time to a sloths, a scale where you can see how many grasshoppers or hippos you weigh, a "tree trunk" to see how many pounds of pressure you can squeeze compared to a boa constrictor, lots of fun stuff. Then there is a separate jungle gym type thing for older kids where you are actually harnessed in and you can pay an extra $5 to do a few ropes course type things. This place is awesome, and we will definitely be going back! $2 Tuesdays in August! And by then, Mason will be old enough to do a couple more things ;)

We wore this kid out! He loved watching everyone though, bonked head and all.