Museum of Ancient Life

Mabel isn't too crazy about dinosaurs
 but we still had a great time exploring the 

museum a few weeks ago!  

Pretty accurate imitation right?

Digging for fossils:

Sand, water, and plastic dinosaurs to play with
at the Erosion Table. 

The closest we can get to the beach, 

in Utah, in February.

She thought it was so great that they had

a little hand dryer at just the right height!

She has been talking about this 

BIG SHARK for days.

It's pretty intense don't you think?

My budding photographer wanted

to get a picture of me by the shark:

Pretty intrigued by the Wooly Mammoth...

She asked, "Mama, why the woahee mammoth 

stepping on that skeleton?"

The space vortex tunnel...I think 

we went through this 20 times.  It is seriously

 SO DARK inside and I was surprised she loved

it so much and wasn't afraid.  The echo from 

our voices was pretty cool and you can't

tell in the pictures but we are surrounded by stars.

One of my favorite parts of the museum was their

Tinkering exhibit.

It was full of interactive activities and she 

loved being able to build, create, and 

experiment. Perfect for this active

little body and brain!

I can't get enough of how cute her little

bum looks without a diaper.

(oh yeah, she has been going in the big

girl potty for over a month now - hooray!)

I think we are going to have to get one 

of these marble gadgets for her birthday...

my building skills were a little rusty but

it's a pretty fun toy for adults too!

Working on her fine motor skills:

This was the station where they provided

different building materials to make little parachutes

that you could test out in this wind tunnel.

I use really scientific terms like "yellow stuff" in this video.
I swear my vocabulary has almost completely deteriorated
from being out of school.

Adios Mr. T Rex, see you next time!

A visit from Aunt Kelsey and Nana...

My little sister Kelsey will be moving in with us on Saturday,

hooray! We are so excited to have her stay with us as for awhile

as she starts a new chapter in her life. 

She and my mom came out several weeks ago just

to get away, come relax, and be entertained

by Miss Mabel!

 Just a little bathroom pic at church:

(Kelsey and her husband are in the process of a divorce and

although it's an incredibly hard time for her right now

we are looking forward to spending time with her and we totally

support her in this decision.)

 Mabel loved having Aunt Kelsey around...looks

like Uncle Jacob finally has some competition! 

Playing Memory

Our Garage Door Broke.
The night before it happened Nate was joking around
saying, "That would be funny if our garage door wouldn't
open in the morning and I was forced to drive your mom's
Ford Edge to work."  My mom's rental car was a brand
new black Ford Edge....a car Nate has been drooling over
and wanting us to purchase in the future.
Nothing like spending money on a garage door.
Boo.
But on the plus side, our garage door is now super quiet!
Before it used to be so loud you could hear it from a block
away and we were always afraid of it waking Mabel
up since her room shares a wall with the garage.
Now it's practically a whisper!

My mom wanted to make a Valentine pom pom 

wreath like the one I had on my front door so we

went to Michaels for some supplies and then

got our craft on. We had carpal tunnel after

from making so many pom poms.

Of course Fritz was no help at all.

Lazy bones jones who only wanted to

play with the yarn.

Building a Tower with Nana:

Charlie wanted to make if official and give
Kelsey her half of their BFF heart necklace.

Of course we had to have a spot of afternoon tea:

A series of pictures wherein I try to tell

Mabel that it's proper to drink tea with your pinky up:

Kelsey plays the piano so well and 

Mabel loved putting on her tutu and doing

ballet moves to the piano music.

Looking forward to Kelsey giving me some

piano lessons!