Last week we took our kids to the farm at Thanksgiving Point! Pony rides, feeding and petting animals, and lots of room to run around.... My kids were in heaven. I bought some corn so they could feed the animals, Jackson would set a long line so he'd get lots of chickens, peacocks, and turkeys. Chloe would feed them one kernal at a time. By the end I would throw little handfulls of corn into the cages so we could move a long a little faster. The goats were funny! They would fight eachother for food (and they were clearly not food deprived) and jump up on the fence to eat out of your hand. The pony rides were Jackson and Chloe's favorite part! Chloe named her horse "princess", and Jackson named his "black tooth". My kids are so imaginative!!! We had so much fun together and we're looking forward to our next trip to the farm!

Monday evening we decided to have some real FUN for family home evening! We were all feeling clausterphobic and had to get some fresh air. So we took off to lake! It was a blast to get back out on the water and do some wake boarding, surfing, water skiing, and swimming! We even got Jackson out there. Jackson was amazing!!! This is his third year skiing and he popped right up, his first time was just after his fifth birthday! By now he can do just about everything! He was even TURNING really, really well. He was petrified to turn and move closer to the tsunami like wakes that the boat puts out! Heck if the wakes were bigger than me I wouldn't want to even get out there! We decided he needed a little bigger challenge, so we started swerving as much as we could to force him to turn or he would have gone over one of the tsunamis! We were all laughing and he was having a great time trying to stay perfectly behind the swerving boat. We were all so proud of him and he was beeming! He couldn't stop smiling! Although Ella isn't big enough to get out there on the water we couldn't resist getting a few pictures of our ADORABLE little baby!

I'm pretty sure the White Alligator was Jackson's favorite animal and the zookeeper there gave him a card all about it, which he carried around with him for the rest of the day! You can see the "Ghost of the Bayou" just over his right shoulder!

Jackson and Chloe wanted to take this little "cute" baby alligator home with them. We almost couldn't stop them from climbing the little plexiglass fence and grabbing it! Maybe something we wont ever tell them is that at one point in time we actually owned a baby alligator as a pet, but thats a whole other story! (Maybe one we won't ever tell our children, I mean after you tell them you bought and owned an alligator as a pet there is NO WAY you can tell them no to a dog, cat, fish, snake... etc.)

I LOVE THIS PICTURE OF JACKSON HOLDING CHLOE ON THE WOODEN ELEPHANT!

Daddy holding one of his little princesses! The elephant was what Chloe was most excited to see, she talked about the elephants the whole way up to the zoo!

ELLA was SO good the whole time!

We couldn't get the kids away from the elephant, and Jackson ended up getting soaked by its trunk that sprays water!

Jackson with his cousin Paje! They adore each other!

Chloe Loved the merry-go-round but we couldn't get her to stay on just ONE animal. She was hopping from animal to animal the ENTIRE ride!

Me with my little baby, I wish you could have smelled the RANCID reptile house. I could barely force a smile in there! ewwww....

Parker had to take this shot of his NEW FAVORITE eating buddy! :)

Parker was expecting the giraffe to just open its mouth and eat it like a horse, when it's purple tongue shot out over a foot to grab the leaves. I love his expression!

Yes he actually put the leaves in his mouth and had the giraffe grab them with its tongue. Don't worry the giraffe's tongue never touched Parker, but it got close!

This was the sign we saw after Parker finished his meal with the giraffe! Don't worry no animals were injured during the shooting of these pictures!

We have been working on Jackson's loose tooth for days!!! It's his first one and we have all been excited. Sunday we had our wonderful friends the Trasks over for dinner and then went on a walk. We stopped to talk to some darling people in our ward and Jackson asked for some pliers :) Parker tried using pliers, but they were too big, so Jackson let him try with his hand, and out it came! Everyone was excited and the little gap in his mouth is so cute! As we continued our walk he showed everyone his hole and his tooth. He also would poke their arm and say "that's how much it hurt". The tooth fairy visited that night and left him $6!!! I think she was also excited that it was his first tooth. We got him a new hair cut yesterday to go with his new "grill".

So over the past couple of days we have been so busy! It's been exhausting and yet so much fun. We are both a little glad it's over and yet somehow wishing we could do it all again! Over the period of a week we have had to give talks in church, teach two lessons, Jackson graduated from kindergarten, Father and Son campout, Mother and daughter date, two days of World Superbike in Tooele, attended a baby blessing, our new nephew 'Jack' was born (and we loved going to the hospital to meet him), and during our 'breaks' we found time to eat and occasionally get a little sleep! Whew.... glad we got all that in! It really was lots of fun and we wish it hadn't gone by so fast. Here are lots of pictures covering some of the past few moments...........