Fun with Mike & Kim

Here are some more pictures from Mike and Kim's visit! This is a picture Kim took of the kids while we were getting Wild Animal Park passes figured out. Our passes had expired in January, so we're getting some new ones here, which makes me very happy!

The lions. I love this picture that Kim took -- it looks like it could be a painting...

One of the park guys wandering around with some kind of animal I have never seen before, and I forget its name. He said it was part of the bear family, though.

This giraffe was eating, and after he swallowed, you could see the food bump moving all the way down his loooong neck.

This bridge sways and rocks when you jump on it, so December's trying to get it to shake with her measly little weight.

This dik-dik had just had a baby. I think it was super recent, too, because the newborn was still wet! It was completely adorable and so tiny!

Watching the cheetah talk. I was impressed at how well the cat obeyed his commands, like sitting, as you can see here!

On another day, we went out to the ocean and walked along the pier, looking at all of the boats docked there.

A man was feeding seagulls (and one large pelican) on the beach, and he kindly gave December some bread to feed them, too.

Isaac playing in the sand.

Mike and December on the beach.

Warming Up

It seems like we, as well as most of our extended families, have had really nice bouts of weather lately. Here it's been close to 80 degrees F (close to 27 degrees C) this entire week, and we've been LOVING it! We've been going for walks to the grocery store, constantly playing outside, putting on the sunscreen, going to the beach, etc. Please come visit and experience it with us! We won't be here much longer, so we're really appreciating every nice day.

These pictures were taken yesterday afternoon, when the kids were playing out on our deck. December is making chalk pictures.

Isaac is playing with his vacuum (as I watched, always desparately wishing that it actually worked) and sitting on December's tricycle, one of his favorite things to sit on.

A Family Picture

Finally! A family picture. We hadn't realized how few of these we have until people started asking us for a family picture recently, especially during Brad's interviews. Then we realized that our last family picture was taken this past summer, when Isaac was about six months old. So it was time for a new one! But we had reason to take this picture, because the seminary needs a family picture for the commencement program, and the picture needs to be in today. So this picture was taken about two hours ago! :)

A Day at Disneyland

Here's Kim and December at Disneyland, standing at the Indiana Jones ride. Since none of us pregnant women or children were allowed to go on this ride, we were waiting for Brad and Mike. The ride actually broke down sometime after Brad and Mike entered the line, and they stopped letting people go on the ride. So we weren't sure if Brad and Mike were stranded on the ride somewhere inside...but they weren't, thankfully! They must have been one of the last groups that went before the ride broke down.

The kids and I at Indiana Jones

December amusing herself while waiting in line to go on the princess walk and see princesses. This was the line in which we waited the longest...it was really the perfect day to go to Disneyland, because there were almost no lines at any of the rides! Other than the princess walk, we generally were waiting in line for 5 min or less for each of the rides. It was perfect!

December with Belle. It's a rare occasion to see December being shy, but she was really quite shy with the princesses! I can understand, though -- it's not often that she comes into contact with real royalty, right??

December with Princess Tiana, the newest Disney princess.

Here's December coming out of her shell. She was the most excited to see Ariel and started talking up a storm with her!

Us wandering around Toon Town. This is where we stopped to eat our lunch.

Just finished lunch, and December's energy is renewed!

December in Minnie's house. One of her favorite places to go!

December with the Mouse himself. We all found it a bit unnerving that the whole time we were here with him, he never spoke once...to anybody. He was just this silent, large Mickey standing around. A little weird! :)





At the end of the night, there was the big parade. It was awesome! Since December was standing right along the street, she got to go in and dance with the characters and dancers and participate in the parade.