Zavoral Villa!

In the morning, the boys washed our cars. Dallin and I made 4th of July food. Fruit Platter Fruit Pizza- strawberries, blueberries, kiwi and pineapple. Taco Salad We went to a party with friends from church. We got some good pics of Tanner being Mr. Observant. In new situations, he always observes for about 20 minutes before getting out and socializing. He is quite the observer (which I think is great because as a teacher I notice the observant kids end up being more successful in reading, writing, science, sports, dancing, singing, and creative play). On our way to the firework show at the park. At the playground with hundreds of kids. A bunch of people from our ward (church) sat together. They all bring glow sticks and the kids like for everyone to wear them. I brought bubbles for Tanner, and soon a huge flock of kids were chasing bubbles with us. I also brought sparklers, and surprisingly, most of the kids from church had not played with them ever before, so they loved it! I spent t...

Jeremy took work off on Mon, July 1. So we went to a little zoo about an hour drive away, near Rochester. The place was beautiful, the weather was perfect and the admission was free! All the animals there are native to the area and have been injured or sick. The variety of animals was impressive: eagles, owls, snakes, porcupine, badger, otter, fox, coyote, wolf, and black bear just to name a few!  They had a little visitor's center with hands-on learning stations and children's books. And free wagons for each family. The park was so tranquil, we took our time with everything. We watched the black bear for a good 20-25 minutes. He was pacing back and forth. Tanner tried to follow him, but with his little legs he had to run to keep up with the bear. The zoo was spacious with lots of pretty trees and plants. At one point, I hid in some bushes to feed Dallin. It was so nice to be out in nature! Jeremy carried Dallin on the bjorn. Can you spot Tanner watching the donkeys? Tanner wa...

Tanner is getting cuter and cuter. Every time that I think he can't get any cuter, he does! He turned TWO on June 28. It was such a happy day! I told Tanner that on Friday it was going to be his birthday. We talked about what we should do on his birthday for someone else. Tanner loves muffins, so I suggested we make muffins for our new neighbors that had been so nice to us. He liked that idea! We spent several days making muffins. Tanner poured the mix into the bowl and on the counter, cracked two eggs in the bowl and smashed one egg on the counter, and he attempted to stir the mix, which was flung onto Mama. We came up with a good system for getting the batter in the tins. I scooped and he scraped with a knife. We were accurate about 90% of the time! I put rhubarb from our yard into each batch of muffins. The blueberry rhubarb were my favorite because they came out red, white and blue! They were SO yummy!  The night before his birthday, I told him "Tomorrow is your birthday!...

MomR stayed with us at our new house 2.5 extra weeks to continue helping out. I am so glad she stayed this long! We would still be living out of our suitcases without her help. She did all of the cooking and cleaning, which allowed me to take care of Dallin. We took turns entertaining Tanner. And we just kept really busy with unpacking and getting the house settled.  Thank goodness Gma Nana took lots of pictures! This is our first time eating on the back porch for dinner. It was really sunny so Jeremy put a blanket over his head to keep from getting sunburned. Even though it was 7:00 pm, the brightness of the sun made it feel like it was only 3:30 in the afternoon. I guess because we are so North?  Tanner and Jeremy were begging to go back inside because of the heat. I was the only one who didn't mind; I LOVE the heat and humidity! Jeremy found these new Sunday shoes for Tanner! Tanner wore them to his Nursery class on our first week at church, so now he calls them his Nursery...