We went to the Hogle Zoo on Monday – the 5 of us and Grandma and Grandpa. It was a little over cast with a chance of rain but no rain so the people stayed away but we were dry but not roasting – Hence.. the perfect zoo day! and boys and baby did great – that helped make it perfect.

New haircuts and ready for the zoo…

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Some of our favorite animals… Packer says his favorite is Elephants.

Did you know Giraffes have Blueish tongues - Benji's new favorite animal!

Me, Cali and the Bear

The boys were obsessed with their Zoo Maps – Benji made sure that we found all of the animals and he did really good at figuring out where we were.

Where to next?

Two Grumpy Monkeys

The Home of the LOUD Monkey

This is the cage that had a very loud, talkative monkey in it the first time we went to the zoo – now when we go back we keep looking for him but… no monkey this time.

Our other fun was when we were stopped and waiting to look at the wolf, we saw a bird and out of the blue it started talking to us. It said Hi and Hello but then it said “Packer” or atleast it sounded like that but Benji will tell you that he was just saying “Cracker” because that’s what birds say 🙂

Cali after the zoo

Is anyone else worn out? We’ve had Ben’s parents in town for these 2 weeks and have been on the go… parks, games, campouts, sheepshead, kites, zoo, eating and hanging out. Then you add in our regular stuff… meetings, playgroups, appointments, my family, shopping, and cleaning. No wonder I am tired. I think Cali is trying to catch up on sleep for all of us… she is still in bed this morning… been there since the baby sitter put her down at 7:30 last night. Going on 15 hours!

the 15+ hour sleeper

Here are my boys this morning – if they could be in charge every morning and decide their own fate this is where you would find them…

Packer watching Disney Channel with Milk and playing toys at the same time.

Benji playing old school Nintendo on the computer - finding secret doors and stuff and with milk and cereal.

Pics of time with Grandma and Grandpa Nettesheim COMING SOON!

We did a Thursday night camp out in Matt and Jamies backyard! I love camping and this may have been the cleanest wimpiest camping ever but we had a lot of fun. We ate our tinfoil dinners and roasted marshmallows. Kids rode bikes and played soccer and ran around with glow sticks and they watched a movie on the projector outside while the adults enjoyed the campfire. Perks of camping in the backyard: bathrooms!, didn’t have to pack a bunch of water or drinks, when we got marshmallowy fingers we could clean them easily, no dirt, and that grass was a lot more comfortable than pine cones and rocks. I did miss the dirt and nature of real camping but this was great. We had a wasp, a mosquito Eater and a moth in our tent this morning so we were the first ones up. All of the Dads got up and went to work leaving cleanup and breaking camp to the ladies – THANKS boys. And now I am enjoying a quiet afternoon because all of my children are sleeping soundly. I vote we do this every Thursday night!

On Thursday we spent some time at the Falabella’s house. Benji wanted to bring Lalo a balloon to help him feel better.

Alessandro, Benji, Luca, and Packer.

Mia and Cali also had fun playing together.

And Packer and Luca even got along for  a little while.

Kris and Cali

Cali got to meet Grandma and Grandpa Nettesheim for the first time on Monday. We’ll be sure to get a picture with Grandpa before they leave – we’ve got lots of plans with them for the next week and a half.  Last night we got in a game of Sheepshead and tonight we’ll be doing Brats!

Yesterday I went to our ward playgroup and had a good time with my neighbors. We took this picture with all of the babies that were there – this is about half of the 2008 – 2009 baby boom.

Northfield Babies -oldest on the right and then down the line from there.