Hogle Zoo

Jade and I had a blast at the Hogle Zoo the other day with some of our best buddies!

When we first walked in I was a little worried we weren't going to see anything good. No one was around and a bunch of stuff was under construction.

I quickly changed my mind. It was awesome having the zoo to ourselves!

All the animals came right up to the glass so we could get a great look at them. 

Perhaps they were lonely? Or just showing off?

We were able to take our time and get the best views at each exhibit. 

Jade loved the elephants.

Jade loves Curious George....but she did NOT like real monkeys.

This monkey yogi was practicing his dolphin pose.

Jade loved the bears.

And the giraffes.

It was fun to growl at the tiger.

Not too thrilled about being in the Eagle's nest.

We had a great day! I would totally go to the zoo during the "off season" again!

A Fairy Wedding

Sally and Joie got married! They had a fairy themed wedding up at the Theater in the Pines Campground near Sundance. Everyone had to arrive in costume!!

Holden, Hope, Mary & Tyce
(Tyce's costume was a bit frightening!)

As part of the evening entertainment, Mary performed on corde lisse and I performed on aerial hoop.

I feel so honored that I was able to perform with amazing performers like Mary, Holden and Hope! I feel pretty good about my performance, considering I had a baby 2 months ago! There's lots to improve upon, but it is good to have a starting off point!

Mary's corde lisse performance

Hope's Aerial Silks Performance

Pizza Night!

We had TWO pizza nights this week! One with Aimee and Dave, the other with Lance and his friends. Lance makes THE BEST homemade pizza. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures from pizza night with Aimee...but we did get some pics from our 2nd pizza night. If anyone wants a good dough recipe....let me know!

the daddies and their daughters :)

A Baby Party

The other day we threw a baby party for my friend Aimee!! She is expecting her little girl any day now. You  may ask....what exactly is a baby party? Simple! Same as a baby shower, but hubbies and significant others are invited to this one. ;)

Isn't she such a cute pregnant lady??

We played an entertaining, yet rather disgusting, game where the
soon to be parents had to guess what candy bar was melted into a diaper.
Dave was champion at this.

It was so fun to have the hubbies around.



Lance is an awesome dad!

Our babies might not know this yet, but they are going to be best friends!!

A Mission Farewell and a Baby Blessing

Sunday, July 8th was such a wonderful day! Daniel left on his LDS mission today, so his mission farewell talk was on Sunday. We decided to give Jade her baby blessing that same day in our parents' ward so Daniel could be part of the blessing circle. I was a bit nervous about taking Jade to church for the first time (what if she starts having a freak out??) but she was such a good baby! I was so grateful that Lance was able to give our daughter a blessing.

Daniel gave an awesome talk. What was even sweeter about this sacrament meeting was that it was Troy's farewell too (he is going to Thailand!). They both did great on their talks and they sang a duet together "I Believe in Christ". They did a fantastic job. I am just so amazed by how great so many young men and women in the church are. Here are two very talented young men giving up everything to spend 2 years just serving God and other people. Wow.

Daniel with his friends

Lance and Jade
(Lance made Jade's headband!!)

Getting the little lady ready

Family Picture

Baby Shower

One of my friends hosted a baby shower for me the other day! It was so much fun! I loved being able to see so many of my friends! We ate some really yummy food (I had to have Korean food and lots of fruit-especially pineapple-because that's what ALWAYS sounds good to me), we played some fun games, and had a great time visiting. :)

 Is this little guy not the cutest thing ever??

China Update!

Here is an update on some of the adventures we've had since our last post:

*Russians love cheese and sausage..... We followed a Russian to the market where she buys cheese and sausage and came home with a freaking WHEEL of cheese weighing about 6 pounds. We cut it into 5 wedges and stuck them in the freezer...but we are already down to our last wedge of cheese.

*Lance and Sam recovered from a case of the bird poo flu. Expect to see it in the U.S. this winter.

*We had a night time visitor that would leave treats on our balcony. He had whiskers and a long tail and he squeaked when he saw cheese. Lance flung him off our balcony with his lacrosse stick, and our visitor has not returned.

*A bear thought Lance looked like cotton candy in his blue puff ball costume and took a swipe at him. Lance barely escaped from being a mid show snack.

*We like to eat at a pizza restaurant called Tomatoes. One day we had leftovers so we had them box them up to take home. They kindly put them in a 7 Eleven bag along with plastic gloves and chinese soup spoons..... ?? Napkins? Of course not!

*Sam is now babysitting a little Russian girl whose parents are performers in the circus. She is the cutest little girl. She doesn't speak English and all Sam knows in Russian is how to how to say Mickey Mouse. Needless to say, they get along just fine. :D

*Sam had a birthday! She was excited that she got to go swimming in October and on her birthday. She and Lance and some of the other circus monkeys went out to eat at Oggi's Pizzeria. Sam and Lance got a humongous calzone. It was delicious.

*General Conference was on the 2nd and 3rd, but the Guangzhou Branch got to watch Conference on the 9th and 10th! We all met at the church to watch the sessions and ate potluck in between. Thank you technology!

*We went on a lightning vacation. We went to Hong Kong on the earliest bus leaving Guangzhou at 7:00 am. We miraculously made it to the Hong Kong Temple in time to catch the 11:00 session. And....we bought 25 loaves of bread (which we have already completely devoured) and caught the 2:30 bus back to Guangzhou, making it back just in time for the circus.

*Ratattouie is based on a true story. We were eating at a Chinese restaurant when the biggest rat we have ever seen (and we've seen a lot of rats here) walked out of the kitchen and into the pantry. Most restaurants have cats they keep on guard duty to catch any rats, well the cat that was on guard duty at this restaurant took one look at the new "chef" and ran and hid under a chair. Not even kidding, the rat just walked out of the kitchen and into the panty and the cat bolted and cowered under a chair.

Korea

Lance wants everyone to know, that Korean food is still the best. He likes it a lot. He would also like everyone to know that he is pleased to announce that he is no longer concerned with the thing he was concerned about.

We had a lot of fun in Korea. It was great to spend time with our relatives. We all took a trip to a small fishing village on an island. Lance and I had fun exploring the rice paddies, poking spiders, catching crabs, and digging for clams. Everyone was very impressed because Lance dug up the biggest clam. We also went night fishing. It was sweet because my dad caught 3 fish!

We were able to go to sacrament meeting at an LDS church. My uncle gave a talk...which I wouldn't have been able to understand, but luckily for us, a missionary from Utah translated it.

We spent a day exploring Busan. We went to a huge fish market, where we saw all kinds of creepy sea creatures, and we ate fried fish. We went to the top of the Busan tower and got to see the city. For dinner that night we all went to a restaurant where we got a huge tower of crab on our plates! It was delicious.

We went to a traditional Korean village near Daegu. It was really cool to see the old Korean houses. Lance and Daniel jumped on a Korean teeter board. It was a little sketchy because it had been raining, so if you missed your footing you would fall back and land right into a puddle!

Korean customs are....different. We always had to take off our shoes before going into an apartment or restaurant. We wore funny slippers in the bathroom and we slept on the floor...and the air conditioning has to be turned off at night. And sweet potatoes DON'T belong on a pizza...but Korean food is still the best.

Pictures from China