Penguins, Popsicles, Parks, Pets, and Pudding

The letter of the month is "P"

This last month has been full of lots of "P" fun! Luckily not the wet kind :) Here is an overview of what we have been up to....

Penguins...

Since Shad is a state delegate this year he had the wonderful opportunity to head to Salt Lake for the day to go to the state republican convention and vote on April 20th. He was actually pretty excited about the whole thing (although I could not think of anything I would like to do less.) Since he was making the trip down anyway, we decided to make it a family event and go see my parents in Bountiful. While Shad was at the convention we headed to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy with Grandpa, Aunt Lisa, Uncle Cam, and cousins Taylor and Riley. The boys had a blast. Haken has been really into sea creatures lately so he especially liked it. I think his favorites were the penguins and the sting rays that you could touch. We have been there before, but I don't think he remembers it since it has been about 2 years. This was Jack's first time. He spent most of the time in the stroller since he is such a wanderer lately. 

Afterwards we went to a nearby park and had a picnic. The weather was perfect and Haken always loves the time he can spend with his buddy Taylor.

Trying to find just the right time to touch the sting ray

These little boys looked more like twins than cousins
with their somewhat matchy shirts

Grandpa giving Haken a better look through the glass

Loving the penguin exhibit

Haken is as big as an Emperor penguin, like on "Happy Feet"!

Can't remember the name of the penguin,
but Jack was just the right size.

Popsicles...

After the aquarium we headed back to Grandma's house for a nap and then a BBQ. I think Jack is going to have a love affair with popsicles this summer. I think he ate 2 whole ones on Grandma's lap after dinner.

Parks...


With the weather starting to stabilize for the summer (or so we thought) we decided to walk to the library and hit the park afterwards. It was nice when we left but once we got there a freak hail storm came in and made us really glad the library was right there so we could take shelter. We waited it out for a half hour and picked out some books. It stopped hailing, but the walk home was pretty freezing. I guess you never know what to expect in April when you live in Utah. Since then we have had a few more successful trips to the park where it hasn't snowed on us and we have actually gotten sunburned. Hopefully it stabilizes soon we don't have to bring our jackets!

Pets and MORE popsicles...

With the beginning of May comes the awakening of our pet tortoise, Gus. We inherited him from my brother a few years back and he has become part of the family. He hibernates in our basement from about October to May and then we fatten him back up during the summer. He roams around our yard, sleeps under our porch steps, and eats our fruit and vegetable scraps. He is a pretty low maintenance pet (until he finds an escape route and we have to go searching for him), and Haken has finally decided that he is a pretty cool pet to have. This year was Jack's first time really meeting Gus. I think it went well and he didn't try to pick him up, which is a good thing because he can be pretty heavy. He is the love of the neighborhood and all of the kids come to feed him his favorite food: dandelions.

Pudding...


Jack had his first taste of chocolate pudding for our Family Home Evening treat last week. To say that he liked it would be an understatement. Although, I think more of it ended up all over him than actually in his mouth.