The DandJ Edition

In case you didn't see it through another channel: http://derrickbowen.com/merrychristmas

Zachary loves drawing pictures. He has recently taken to finding all the animal words in books and writing them on paper, outside with chalk, or into the Google Images search bar on the iPad. Since he's been doing this for "fun" for awhile now, Zach can spell most animal words from memory. Eric Carle's The Mixed-Up Chameleon has been a hit recently.

The day after going to Dewberry farm we had planned on taking it easy. Instead we made a spontaneous trip to the beach. All the boys LOVED the beach and we had some good times building sandcastles, dumping water on the sandcastles (Caleb and Melissa's oldest especially), running in the waves, and chasing seagulls. Zach started feeling pretty sick part way through so that was our cue to head home. 





A big damper on the trip was having a piece of tire come flipping across the highway while driving home. I wasn't able to dodge it so it punched a big hole in the bumper of our new van that we have only owned for about 2 1/2 weeks. (A couple of weeks and little over $700 later it looks good as new again.)


We also managed to squeeze decorating Halloween cupcakes into the visit. Here are the results:

My lovely sister Melissa and her two cute boys came out to visit over the first weekend in October. The first 2 days of the visit involved watching General Conference. I put together a bunch of activities and games to try and make it exciting for the boys. Zach got really good at recognizing the prophet and different apostles.



Although we've added to the number of kids since her last visit, we noticed that we're getting a little bit better at managing the chaos brought on by 4 boys age 4 and under, especially when it comes to braving leaving the house.
We decided to give the boys some fall experience since my boys especially needed it with summer weather lasting around here through December. To do this, we went to Dewberry Farms. As evidence from the massive amount of pictures to follow, (only a small fraction of what was actually taken), Melissa and I apparently thought that we needed to document every possible moment of the day.

All loaded down with kids and ready to go


Taking advantage of the farm animal photo opportunity. That's an excited Caleb posing out front.


We attempted to get the boys to pose by the pumpkin measuring stick but apparently the creepy singing chickens at "The Cackle Palace" were much more exciting.

 

Checking out the baby farm animals. Caleb is obsessed with anything baby.


Next we watched the pig races. Apparently they were so exciting that I didn't get any pictures of the race.

 The cow train had some impressive speed for being a bunch of barrels pulled by a tractor. It was a pretty bumpy ride and with being 4 months pregnant, I wasn't able to last very long on this one.


This train was apparently another photo op. The kids had no intention to stop playing and pose for the camera.



Zach takes his job as biggest cousin seriously. I think sometimes the younger cousins feel a little too much love from his enthusiasm.




Zachary showing off his studliness with a gaze off into the distance.


These guys have a blast together.


Caleb growls at every opportunity. He has been known to reduce kids to tears by his "scariness".


While it was pretty cheesy, we enjoyed our trip to the farm. Stay tuned for part 2 of our visit from the Sharps.

 In case you didn't know, the proper use of stickers is to place as many as you can on your forehead...



...or on your eyes.  Putting them on paper is way too tame for these boys.  

We bought a family pass to the zoo awhile ago and we have really enjoyed the purchase. With the animal obsession within our house is it any surprise that the zoo is a big hit? 

Caleb and me, checking out the red panda pelt. Gotta love that Caleb's head is already too big for that hat. Big heads run in the family.



The boys love this tube through part of the aquarium.

 

 Posing in front of the elephants but pretty much blocking them completely...




In the monkey area. Caleb's face here is classic. Zach loved sticking his head in the hole but we never managed to get him to look at the camera.


At the chimpanzee viewing area. I don't think my kids were capable regular smiles for the camera this zoo trip.


Lovely shot of one of a chimpanzee, courtesy of Derrick.


In front of the giraffes. Don't let his expression fool you, Caleb had a great time.


As a special treat we took the boys on the carousel ride. Both boys (Zach in particular) beg to ride every time and both get terrified when it comes down to actually riding it. Caleb looked so scared the ride attendant made Derrick get off his seal to stand next to Caleb.


Here's evidence of the head lock Zach had me in before the ride started. He calmed down after it got going.


Random story - Zachary has a backpack with a pull up handle. Lately he's been filling it up with animals and dragging it around the house. At first he called it his suitcase but then changed it to his "zoo" case. Pretty clever. I was impressed.