Zoo

Last weekend we took a trip to the Boise Zoo. It was Kaiya's first time at a zoo, and she liked it a lot. Here are a few pictures of what we saw:

Kaiya saw a Komodo Dragon and thought it was pretty interesting

At the penguin exhibit, they had a display of all the different kinds of penguins, and Kaiya went around to each one and gave it a kiss! It was so cute. We wanted to get a video, but by the time we thought of it, she was on her last one.

Kaiya wasn't sure about riding a giraffe.

This is what we came for. The Boise Zoo just got an African exhibit with giraffes, lions, and a zebra. We really wanted to show Kaiya a real live giraffe, since she loves stuffed ones so much. She watched it for a long time and was pretty interested, but I'm not sure she understood that this was what her beloved little stuffed animals are supposed to be.

We watched the lions for a long time. This one was sitting really close to us, and suddenly started stalking a squirrel that was running outside her cage. I had gone down to see if I could see the male lion, when this one got up and ran after the squirrel, then pounced up against the cage right in front of me! It was really like 3 feet away. It was so amazing! i felt sorry for the lion though. She'll never get that squirrel.

Here is a video of the gibbons. They make such a weird noise. The cutest thing was that Kaiya was imitating them while we watched, but of course we didn't get a video of that either.

She's Growing Up...

Today was Kaiya's first day in nursery (sniff sniff). I sat in there with her the whole time and she did really well. It's a small class, and the other kids who were there today were all older, so they kind of just left her alone and she did her thing. She especially loved snack time, and ate more than any of the other kids I think. She was so quiet that at the end of the class the teachers asked me if she could talk yet! I know she'll open up more as she gets used to it, and she seemed to have a lot of fun. I just can't believe my baby is in nursery though! Time goes by too fast.

What Kaiya's Up to

Not much has been happening around here, but I had a desire to blog and thought I should post a couple of the new and funny things Kaiya is doing. For the grandparents if no one else...

1.) She is becoming somewhat of a neat freak. She will walk around putting things away or handing them to me so that I put them away. She even cleans up after herself now on occasion. She still makes plenty of messes, but it seems like she's starting to appreciate order to things. I admit that I love it, except when she goes around the park or the grocery store picking up the trash and handing it to me.

2.) She loves Home Depot. We went there looking for a heater, and while Patrick was comparing and purchasing, I walked around with her while she ran up and down the aisles pointing at everything on her level and saying, "dat, dem, dat, dem". We had to drag her out of the store.

3.) She has discovered the joy of sliding. She used to hate it, then she would tolerate it, but recently she found that she loves it. We have a little one in the yard that she loves to go down over and over and over again. She can't quite climb up by herself yet though so that leaves me as the lifter and catcher. It's so fun to watch her laugh and smile as she comes down.

4.) Ever since we started watching the debates, she walks around the house saying, "Obama". She picked it up on her own while it was on. I guess her vote is decided.

5.) She can do errands. I can ask her to go get something for me and if she knows where it usually is kept, she can do it. The first time I discovered this was a few weeks ago. She was crying at the kitchen gate while I was making dinner, and I asked her to go get a bib from her room to give her something to do. I was amazed when she actually came back with a bib. Now I can send her to get things for me and she almost always can. She also likes to be a messenger for Patrick and I. Our house is so small we can obviously hear each other, but she takes it so seriously when we ask her to "go tell dad dinner's ready" or "go tell mom it's time to go". She's such a good little helper.

I'm sure I'll think of more things that I meant to write about after I finish this, but that's a pretty good picture of what Kaiya's doing right now. I hope you enjoyed it, even if you aren't a grandparent:)

Brrrrrr!!!

I just want everyone to know that I'm cold. It's supposed to snow tonight where we live! That's outrageous. Okay, okay, you don't care.

Balanced Rock

So I know we have been MIA on the blogging for the last few weeks, but here are a few of the things we've been up to lately.

In this post: Balanced Rock. Patrick somehow discovered this rock was out here, and we went to see it. We had heard it was "a little bit of a hike" to get out to it, but we didn't plan for a vertical climb. We were wearing our sandals (slippers, for all of you who have lived in Hawaii) and had to carry Kaiya the whole way. It was a bit treacherous, but we made it, and definitely enjoyed the view. This picture does not do the climb justice. It was scary at times!


The Balanced Rock itself. You can see Kai and I in the bottom right of the picture if you look hard. We thought it was going to be a little rock balanced on a bigger one, but this was huge!In all its glory.

A Family Visit

Patrick's grandparents were here for Meghan's wedding a few weekends ago and decided to stop by our place before heading home. Patrick's uncle, aunt, and cousins came out for a while too, and we showed them the sites of the Hagerman Valley. We had a really good time with everyone and were so happy to be able to show them some of the fun things to do around here.

Here's all of us at Niagara Springs. The water just comes out of the rocks!

We went to a park with a creek running through it, and Patrick caught this crawdad!

Kaiya thought the water was a little cold.

But she did think it was pretty great for dipping your hands in upside down.

We also showed them Malad Gorge, a couple of local fruit stands, and we tried to see the alligator, but the place was closed. But we definitely enjoyed the visit!