Greta's Blessing

May 22, 2016 was the special day. we were debating between several different ones but with my dad traveling, Greta's dad still being out of town, and other cousin's blessing their babies, this was just the day that worked. My mom and dad and I worked SO hard on the deck and the backyard trying to get it ready for everything. And by working on the deck I mean we took the boards off one by one, rough brush sanded both sides, drilled deeper holes, painted underneath the deck, replaced each board and primed the top and did two coats of paint. Then they got a railing put in. Unfortunately some parts were on backorder and so it wasn't totally done but it looked great (and now that it actually IS totally done, it looks awesome). And the weather actually cooperated. A bit sprinkly in the morning but by the time we got done with sacrament meeting, it was lovely.

I tried my darndest to do a little photo shoot with her before church, mostly to capture the gorgeous blessing gown my mother in law picked out for her.  But the timing ended up being a little chaotic and she was hungry and the lighting was NOT working well and the biggest problem in the mix is that I am very far from being a "photographer". So don't judge these, I'm putting them in anyway for remembrance sake :) My momma supplied the bow and the shoes. She's precious, even if I can't take a photo that does her justice...

Tanner gave her a beautiful blessing. She was sleeping before he went up and he said she was wide eyed during the whole thing and then conked back out after. Perfect. I took some notes and have her actual blessing written down in her baby book.

We had deli sandwiches and fruit and veggies and a couple salads and a great dessert spread. People were so nice to bring so much. And it was just lovely celebrating the day with family. Greta's a pretty good reason to celebrate any day, though.

Harvey being a spaz...

 And here's some pics that actually did turn out good and make me happy. Love my family!

 

Zoo day

My mom and the kids and I met Laura and Logan and Kathryn at the zoo today and since Greta is deciding she doesn't much want to sleep laying down this afternoon, i figured I'd just post some pics of the day right now. It was probably one of my favorite zoo days ever. So fun. Such great weather. Still a bit crowded, but we saw lots of cute babies and a lot of animals doing stuff and Harvey was pretty enjoyable wanting to watch the animals this time. They had baby lions, a baby orangutan, baby giraffe and a baby monkey inside the reptile house thing. So that was way fun. The orangutan baby was my favorite. Holy moly he was so cute. We saw the gorillas outside too and they were being pretty active. 

Harv went on the merry-go-round and was a little nervous at first but then loved it. He waved and smiled the biggest smiles ever each time they came around. My mom said after a couple times around, he threw his head back and was laughing so hard and yelled out "Fun!!"  I told my mom it's no wonder kids get spoiled. Seeing your kids happy is basically the best thing ever. 

That one is kind of blurry but I just love his happy face and excited wave!

Here he is crawling like a monkey...

Over by the seals we saw one of the grizzly bears swimming in the water. I saw him playing with a stick and splashing about which was cool. Harvey sat and watched the seals and sea lions swim around and around for quite awhile. 

We watched a little demonstration training thing from inside but it was kind of hard to see so we didn't stay long. 

They just recently completed a splash of and park. There were quite a few kids there. Mostly Harvey just wanted to splash in the water so that worked out perfectly. He also like playing captain of the boat. He told me to "sit bum" on the bench so he could drive us somewhere. Then told me when we could get off cause we were there. 

Getting serious about his boat captaining. 

Some other cute ones...

The big metal elephant just by this exhibit sprays water out of it's trunk. Harvey was running around playing by it and then stopped by the trunk as we were about to leave. He started touching the holes where the water comes out and I said "That's gonna spray you!" And literally as I was saying the last word, it sprayed and he was FULL face looking into the trunk from about an inch away. He kind of stopped and stared and then turned and looked at me. I thought he was going to flip but he didn't really do anything. And while we were all dying laughing over it he kind of smiled and giggled. So funny. 

Those cheeks, right??

We are at Corner Cafe after and this moment was just cute. So of course I snapped a pic :) Such a fun day. Love my family! Next zoo trip is with DAD!!!

Tulip Festival

My mom had a few free passes to the tulip festival this year and we were going to go with my dad. But he was in Germany for awhile and we were afraid the passes would go unused and the festival unvisited, both of which would be a tragedy. So we made a girls trip out of it! My mom and Aunt Shirley and Kathryn and Laura and Logan and myself and the two munchkins went down Tuesday morning. I had never been to the gardens, let alone the tulip festival. Holy moly. It did NOT disappoint. It was incredible. The weather was perfect. There were SO many flowers. I never knew there were so many varieties and colors of tulips. And the way they had them planted and arranged was breathtaking. The garden's themselves were pretty spectacular. I'd like to go back any other time. And I'm taking Tanner there next year for sure!
Greta slept most of the time and Harvey did good for the most part. We got a flat tire on the stroller which was unfortunate but it all worked out just fine. Then we ate at Mo Bettah's for lunch. A perfect morning, really. Here's some of the photo's :)

Harvey took this one :)

The secret garden entrance

He tried climbing in soon after this - one foot got soaked

Love that face!

 

Probably one of my favorite tulip varieties

Just being it's own kind of beautiful

Harv walked up to this little pot of plants and said, "Ohhhh, tuuute!" (cute) and pointed to it like that and kind of bent over while saying it. It was awesome.