Wildlife World Zoo

We did it again...made a trip to Litchfield to our favorite zoo.

It was a blast! The petting area was a favorite

We were mauled on several occasions.


Feeding the birds was another thing we couldn't miss

Grandpa was quite the bird tamer.


Adam stared down the amphibians...


and Maura's absolute favorite place was the aquarium where we could touch the rays.


She almost joined them in the pool.

She could have stayed there all day. She begged anyone she saw to lift her up to touch them.


We spent about 5 hours enjoying the zoo, then we were done!

We love this awesome zoo!

Riparian Preserve

Not far from us is a bird refuge. It has some really great trails through trees and around lakes where you can see a lot of wildlife. We took grandma Russell with us on a little outing.


Any guess where Maura gets her red hair from?


Dallin too.


Not sure where Adam gets the sneer from...

It was a fun walk with terrific weather.

I'm thankful for Dallin.

He's sweet, and smart and extremely social.

He's got a tender heart and is not afraid to hug his mom in front of his friends.

He's super good at catching bugs that get in our house and take care of them. All I need to do is holler; "Dallin, bug!" and he comes running.


He is all boy. He loves to climb, run, play, fight and is overly protective of his little sister.


I'm so lucky he is mine!

Monster...










That's all I'm going to say about that.

I've LOOOOVED having my camera! I ran around taking as many pictures as I could.

These are my favorite (out of 186) pictures I took of the Mookster.

She's nuts for horses.


A great straw maze...Dallin in the background. I think it would be a better picture if I could photoshop him out....I guess I need to learn to photoshop...


I imagine a straw maze is difficult when you're only 2 feet tall!


Mookster with the cute hat from Aunt Gina. EVERYONE commented on how cute it was.

Did I mention that I love my camera?

Grandma and Grandpa Russell made it all the way from Toronto Canada just in time for the mud run. It was held at McDonald's Ranch in Scottsdale. It is a working ranch and there were plenty of fun things to see.

We found a convenient hay stack to stay out of the sun while we waited.


Grandma chased Maura around while we were there...thank you grandma! WHEW!


The Dude and his Fam.

Awesome!

Mad Mud Run!!!

This morning with his 'Dudettes' this 'Dude' did a mud run.


He was really "One lucky Dude".

Chelsey, Angie, Adam, Ruth and Natalia Aren't they hot!?


They were announced to the crowd and skipped happily to their place in line.

After their glamorous photo shoot they lined up as a team for a 5 mile run with obstacles and a mud pit.


Awesome! They started as a team and finished as a team!


There were several casualties. Adam's sunglasses (how sad, they were studly) and Angie's bandanna.


They looked better at the end of the run than they did at the beginning.

You guys rock!

Thankful Thoughts: Adam

I love my husband. He is such a hard worker, a terrific father, really good at his job, super sexy, helpful around the house and so many, many more things.

Mostly I'm grateful for being his wife. I'm thrilled he chose me.

I'm a dork.

Seriously.

Let me explain: A few months ago I was messing with my blog and changed some settings. I didn't realize that I had put on the comment moderation thingy and that they didn't go to my email any more!

Here I was thinking that no one was commenting on my blog. Little did I know that all of you wonderful people were still commenting and I just overlooked the part where I have to actually open them and read them (as opposed to them coming straight to my email).

Tonight I was playing with my settings and discovered that I have over 200 comments that needed to be moderated!

There will be no moderation. I highlighted all of them and posted them all. You can go back as far as July and read all the newly added comments.

I'm really not ignoring all the wonderful comments and questions, I just didn't know you commented and questioned!

I sat down tonight and read through all of them (after I had posted them all and they ALL finally came through to my email). Thank you! Love them! And to try and make up for my non responsiveness I will attempt to answer all your questions.

My camera is a Canon Rebel XSI-looove it
Adam was wolverine and can't believe that brother-in-law Cory is too and both Maura and cousin Sophie were both chickens!!! ha ha hah
Yes, we should call my hubby Kadam to fit in with all the 'K' brother-in-laws
Dallin is a cutie and yes he still loves his glasses
Maura is sweet and a monster
I had to cut mookie's hair it was out of control
Didn't have time in SLC to visit all my friends *Sigh* will have to do it next time...
I have since recovered from the meltdown and I am pacing myself...most of the time.


Okay, I give up. It's past my bed time and I have to get up early in the morning to work out...

Just so you know, I love your comments!

Sincerely,
The Dorkster

WHEW! It's finally over. The crazy yard sale days are over and I have my garage back! I couldn't believe how much stuff our ward and neighborhood donated to our fund raiser! These pictures were taken on the second day after we had sold a lot of the big items.

I was quite impressed with how successful it was.


All of the youth came to help (some as early as 5:30 in the morning!). They helped tag items, sort clothing, carry boxes, stand on the corner with signs, sell items and entertain little guys.


Some of the helpers were not super helpful (but they were cute). Love the stickers on Maura's shirt. For her, that was the best part of the yard sale.


Bo was a super shopper! His dad will be so proud of his purchases!


Overall we decided it was a success and will probably do it again in the future, but meanwhile I'm happy it's over!


Edit:

I found a few cute pictures of our 'helpers' on the first day of the yard sale. These cute little girls are such good friends. They had a great time running around and 'helping'.

One of the favorite things to do was climb into the empty boxes. It was great entertainment for a while!

Maura, Rylie and Ivey.

What the heck happened to these? They are suppose to be cinnamon rolls...



They look a little....well...deformed (but tasted great)! Did I smash too many in one pan? Did I let them raise too long? I have no idea. I've been trying my hand at making bread-ish items. I've never been good at it. Not sure why. I think it's the time involved.

The ones I made with nuts and raisins turned out just great!

Luckily I made them for our YM/YW activity and youth don't care what food looks like, they will eat anything!

If you know what I did wrong, please enlighten me!

Cloudy days in Mesa are few and far between, so when we had one I hurriedly brushed the mookster's hair and hustled her outside for another passport photo shoot.

I've narrowed it down... I actually took about 12, but here are the best ones.

She didn't like it very much.

I THINK it's a requirement that you don't smile... if that's the case this one is my best shot.

If she CAN smile, I LOOOOVE this one. It sure does show her personality!

Whew! Mission accomplished. Now to get them printed and make a trip to the post office to mail it off...