San Diego Zoo

Thomas wrote Brian a note last week.

"let's be gone for a week"

We thought it was time for a family outing.  We saw that the San Diego Zoo was still open and only working at less than half of its normal occupancy. So we decided to try it out on Saturday.

  The weather was perfect in the low 70s and partly cloudy. There were still plenty of people, but it wasn't overly crowded like it can get in the summer normally.

Catherine has had a love for flamingos lately.  She was so excited to see them in person!

  

Chimpanzee

Okapi

hippo-  There was a mom and baby that were quite active and fun to watch.

rattlesnake

polar bear

 

Lion

These baboons were super fun to watch.  The workers had come out to spread food around the enclosure, then they let the baboons out into the enclosure.  They knew it was feeding time, and they were so active, some even fighting over food.

African Penguin-  He came along just for a picture with us.

2 Grizzly Bears- They are brothers and they also started to play fight while we were there.  

Giraffe

Cheetah

 We walked 5 miles and had a great time!

Afterwards, we couldn't leave San Diego without stopping to say happy birthday to Great Grandpa Wheeler on his 93rd birthday! We stayed for a short time.  Aunt Tracy came and Kenny and his family also came just as we were leaving.  It was good to catch up with everyone.

Lately

We've been keeping ourselves busy with different things at home lately.

Thomas was really proud of himself for shooting the orange nerf bullet up so high and have it stick to the narrow border around the door.

 

He also made a quesadilla angel.

I've been quilting a lot.  I made quilts from my scraps and my grandmother's fabric that I've had for a while. 

 The general YW presidency challenged the the YW to celebrated 150 years of the YW organization by doing 150 of something.  It could be anything.  I chose to walk 150 miles before the Nov. 15 broadcast celebration.  I have walked 36.6 miles so far!

All snuggled in for a movie.

I also made more masks for the kids for when they go back to school.

I started crocheting as well.  My first wash cloth!

Catherine loves her stuffed animals.  She found her baby carrier and carried her baby bunny around. 

Robbie took the Computer Science AP exam back in May.  He studied and worked hard to do well on it.  He got his scores back last week and he got a 5, which is the top score!  We are so proud of him!

Fourth of July

We had a relaxing Fourth of July.  Normally we would have visited Independence Hall and Soak City, but both were closed this year. We had a nice BBQ during the day.When our neighbors started their fireworks Lydia and I went out to watch on our drive way.

Pretty soon Robbie and then Brian also joined us when the younger two kids were asleep.

 It was quite a show between the different neighbors.  Our neighbors right next to us had issues with their garage door and Brian was able to help them out.  They were very grateful.

Our RS activity this past month was to pick up a craft kit for these wooden firecrackers.  We all created ours at home then shared pictures of them in our RS facebook page.  I thought it was such a fun idea.

We are grateful for our country and the freedoms we enjoy!

Happenings

Brian's coworker gave us this enormous avocado!

It made a full bowl of guacamole all by itself.  Yum!

Catherine requested Mickey Mouse sugar cookies when it was her turn to make a treat. She loves making them and eating them.

Lydia and Robbie wanted to make fleece blankets like the ones Grandma had at her house, so we bought some fleece and got started.

 I liked the colors that they picked.

We made some strawberry freezer jam too.  The kids all helped and it went by pretty quick.