hogel zoo

We decided to take advantage of having a couple extra days in Salt Lake by going to the zoo.

Due to the cold there was almost no one there. We really enjoyed our short trip. The kids were able to run around with out our having to worry about loosing them.


The animals even payed special attention to us, this orangutan gave us a nice face-to-face gaze.

Don't forget to recycle your Christmas tree next year.

winter wonderland

year in review....

Just so I don't forget......

2009 in review....

Jan- We started 2009 in Danville, CA at my parent's house. Lonnie went to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. We were able to have a short visit with Andy and Bethany. The babies and I watched the presidential inauguration with Heather and Jacki. We also dealt with baby ear infections and coughs.

Feb- Lonnie and I went to the stake Valentines Dance, leaving the sleeping babies for the first time with two baby sitters, we returned an hour and a half later.

March- Lee and Lisa came out to Texas on business and we spent the day in Austin. The Kelbereres came out to visit. Max and Maya started crawling.

April-Max started walking.

May- We celebrated the babies first birthday, together with Anna. Maya started walking. We visited Utah. We took the babies out of the boat for the first time, attened Marrianne's birthday and Phoebee's blessing.

June- We got a short visit from Jesse.

July- We moved the kids out of their infant car seats. Had new hardwood flooring installed.

August- My grandpa Allred passed away, we all traveled to San Diego. We went to Oahu for a week.

September- Lynne and Patsy stopped by on their way to Tennessee. We celebrated out four year wedding anniversary by spending a night in the city and leaving the babies with Jill and Hannah. My Dad came for a short visit on his way to London.

October- We started prepping the house for sale. My mom came in for a short visit on her way to London. House listed and under contract in the same weekend.

November-Thanksgiving with the Hayes. Packing, packing, more packing. Garage sale.

December- House sold. Houston snow. San Antonio Temple with Hannah. Sedona. Utah. No visas. Christmas with the Allreds and the Mercers.

christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. My grandma Allred came to spend the holidays with us.
We spent a fun Christmas Eve with the Mercers (I should have taken photos, but we were all having too much fun).
Christmas morning we exchanged a few small gifts. We didn't want to have to pack anything else and decided that the kids would be just as excited to open a few boxes of their favorite crackers and drink boxes.

temple square

While my sister Aimee and her family were in town for the holidays we went over to Temple Square to enjoy the lights. It seemed like there were a million people there and it was a very cold night, but the babies were entertained and seemed very happy.

Maya looked like a little snow ball sittign on top of my shoulders in her puffy while jacket.

Maya loved eating the snow.


Max was happy to run all over exploring.

travel buddies

We arrived safely in Salt Lake City on Dec 11th, one week after leaving Katy. We took our time driving and stopped for three days in Sedona. We were glad to be able to go to the temple with Jill and Hannah and also spend time with my dad's cousin Pam in Arizona.

The babies did pretty well on the drive. The looked at a lot of books and at night, when it was dark, they watched the Adventures of Milo and Otis (Thank you Jill!)

We planned our rest stops around restrurant playlands and ate a lot of burgers, chicken nuggests and fries. The moment he would see the playlands Max would wiggle his way out of my arms and climb to the top of the play structure and go down the slide. We often ended up feeding him once we got back into the car. Maya on the other had wanted to spend her time out of her carseat in her dad's arms.

We were happy when we were able to fund a place to stop that also included a changing table and I was sad to learn that changing tables were almost no-existent in men's bathrooms (Can anyone else verify this is true of was Lonnie just trying to pull a fast one on me?).

The babies often had a hard time settling down at night once we got into our hotel rooms. Max, when over tired, gets very silly and runs all over the place. Maya liked to play spider monkey with me and would wrap her arms and legs around me so tightly it was hard to put her down.

Thankfully the kids were pretty happy most of the time. They babbled and giggled together and even feel asleep holding hands several times.

drive through manti

We decided to drive through Manti on our way up North. We wanted to see the temple where we were married before leaving for New Zealand.

This photos is of the Ephraim Co-op where we had our wedding reception.

The Manti Temple where Lonnie and I were married a little over four years ago.

more sedona

sedona

The kids have been doing pretty well on our long drive, thanks to lots of books and a portable DVD player.

Lonnie's parents had unused time-share week so we decided to find a place along the way to Utah to stop and take a break from our drive. We are staying at a nice condo in Sedona and enjoying a nice couple of days relaxing.

San Antonio

After leaving the Houston snow storm we traveled to San Antonio. On Saturday morning Lonnie stayed at the hotel with the kids so I could go to the temple with our friends Hannah and Jill. The temple was beautiful and we had a wonderful time. I was so glad to be in a sacred place with wonderful friends.

After we meet up with Lonnie and the kids and went out for some Texas BBQ at Rudy's. The food was great and the company even better.

When Maya was given a taste test of the smoked turkey she kept saying "yumm, yumm, yumm". She didn't want to leave.


Thanks Hannah for letting us share your special day and for letting us steal your photos too. :)