Early Out=Picnic at the Zoo

Friday the kids had early out so we packed a lunch and headed to the zoo. We are looking for cheap fun right now and that zoo pass is really workin for us! We had a great time and since it was a mild 80 degrees most of the animals were out and about and we got some good photo's.

The lions were funny, the daddy lion was sleepin and mommy lion walked over and got him up, so he stands up and gets a little nuzzle going on and the next thing you know, bam, she drops down right into his nice shady spot! It was hilarious! But it was kind of her to get him up so we could get a nice photo.

Just down the road there are 2 new cheetah brothers who were busy walking around and marking their new territory.

We had a great time and it was fun to be out in our fantastic weather enjoying quality time as a family.

Crush's new do

We have a desert tortoise, Crush, who lives in our backyard. When we got Crush we were told he would hibernate from October to March-ish. No problem, Brad built him a den and he hangs out there to hibernate. Someone forgot to tell Crush he is supposed to hibernate for 4-6 months. He cruises around the back yard until late November and comes out in Feb. He must have a thermometer inside of him that perk's him up when it gets over 70 F (21 C). So, he has been out and about since the last week in January--that's maybe 2 months of hibernation for those of you keepin score. Yes, that means that we have been enjoying temperatures in the 70's for the last 2 weeks, the last 2 days it's been 80 F (26 C)!!!

Anyway, Lewis loves Crush and pat's him all the time and sits outside and talks to him often. So, the other day Lewis is outside playing with the sidewalk chalk and Brad and I are organizing the cupboards (oh the fun things you get to do when you've been laid off!) Lewis is just having a great time and is entertaining himself and is so happy. After Lewis goes down for his nap, Brad and I go pick up all the balls he has tossed all over the backyard and pick up the sidewalk chalk and then we notice Crush. Hmmmmmm, what is all over our sweet tortoise? Well, bless my soul, its blue chalk!! Lewis just decided the sidewalk wasn't enough for his lovely scribbling, he needed to get Crush in on the action!!! AWESOME! So, until it rains or just wears off, Crush is sporting a new look.

Lynette turns 40

2009 is a big year for me and Brad and some of our friends. We will be hitting the big 40. I am not to thrilled about this fact and plan to run away from home at some point to celebrate with Lynette because Brad doesn't care about turning 40 and Lynette can feel my pain!

Lynette was the first to hit her 40 mark and since some of her sisters were in from out of town they had a surprise party for her a week early! You had to bring 40 of something for her present, so we made her 40 coupons good for 1 won ton each. She loves Brad's won ton's! It was a fun party but she wouldn't stand still for a picture so I just got the blowing out the candles shot and one with her, her mom and her sisters after the party was over. So enjoy.

PS Lynette comes from a family of really short people. She is 5' 13" so just think how tall all these lovely ladies are!

1st "pretty"

Here are some of the cutest kids I know with their first "pretty's!" Lewis really needs a hair cut again and I stuck his hair in a pretty (that's what the girls call ponytail holders) and dang if he doesn't look exactly like Mary. It's so cute! So here are the pictures for you to judge, all of them around age 2. Me and my brothers might not look alike but my kids are all cut from the same cloth.

No pretty picture for Grif but he sure looked cute when he was 2!

4 Day Weekend

We had a 4 day weekend for Martin Luther King Day this past weekend. My parents came down Thursday to see Ida Smithson who had a stroke the first week of January and isn't expected to live much longer. She is at a hospice care facility here in Gilbert.

After visiting Ida they came over and spent the night. The next day they took us out to lunch and then took the girls with them to Flagstaff to play in the snow. Griffin had a birthday party on Saturday. We were glad we kept him because on Sunday he and Lewis both got really high fevers and have been sick since Sunday.

If you want to see how much fun my girls had check out Amie's blog
http://freerville.blogspot.com/2009/01/martin-luther-king-3-day-weekend.html

Here is how we spent our weekend. Sucking our thumbs and watching tv, wearing our pj's. Fun times!

Freer Family Photo's

A friend of mine loved my Jenkins family photo's but wondered why I didn't look like anyone in the pictures. I explained that that was Brad's family and I'm sure I posted our Freer family pictures from Thanksgiving at Newport Beach. Well, I checked and no, I didn't do the group pictures just my little family. So, I got the good pictures my brother took and here they are for your viewing pleasure! I still don't think I look like my brothers but I do look a bit like my mom and our kids look like their cousins so you can tell this is my family! :>

**No, seriously, I don't look like my brothers....Once when I was waitressing at Sizzler with my brother Michael and my cousin Mark a lady stopped me and asked me to send my brother, her waiter, over to help her, I sent Mark and I was right, we totally look like brother and sister. When Michael and I were at BYU-Hawaii we were sitting next to each other for a choir concert and my friend sat next to me, she noticed Michael and I weren't talking at that moment and proceeded to introduce us to each other (I knew her from the dorm and she was in Michaels classes) she really couldn't believe he was my brother!**

Coaster

At my parent's condo in Del Mar, the train tracks are right outside the condo. It always honks right as it gets to our area because of the crossing about 200 yards away. This takes some getting used to but we are oblivious to it after 24 years of vacations there.

**Picture from Condo back door
grass...walkway...small hill to train tracks...big cliff to beach & ocean**

This year, every time it would honk (or blast) it's horn, Lewis would run to the window and yell "Choooo Choooo, Choooo Choooo!" considering it goes by every 45 min or so it was great entertainment for Lewis who only spoke one word the entire vacation.....you guessed it....Choooo Choooo! I couldn't coax an ocean, beach, park, swimmin, or anything out of him, just Chooo Chooo! So, since he was so loving it we decided to ride it from our station down into San Diego and then walk down to Anthony's for dinner.

We had a great 45 min ride to downtown San Diego on the Coaster. We went on a Saturday so it wasn't too busy. Griffin loved the little cups of water you could get from the fountain on the bottom level and he kept going to get us more and more water. We rode on the top level so we could see the coast. We took the 4:45 train which made for a great sunset ride. Our downtown stop was the end of the line and we walked about 3 blocks down and 3 blocks over to get to Anthony's Fish House on the pier. Grammy and Pap met us there for dinner and a ride home. It was a really fun way to end our day!

Check out my sis-in-law's picture of the huge fog bank that rolled in while we were in Del Mar. It was awesome!!! www.freerville.blogspot.com/2009/01/san-diego

Jenkins Family Photo Shoot

**double click picture to enlarge**

We had a photographer come and take family pictures for us the day after Christmas in St. George. It was freeeeeezzzzzzzingggg cold and breezy. Yes, I mean cold. Mary was almost in tears "Are we done yet with pictures, I'm freezing" The answer, " Suck it up and SMILE for the pictures. It actually started snowing by the end. Yes it was chilly but the pictures turned out good so I guess that's all that matters.

**double click picture to enlarge**

Thomas Crazy

So we are slightly train crazy at our house. We have moved our dinning room table over a good 8 feet to accommodate the train tracks and after finding them winding around the kitchen island one day I have put blue tape on the tile which is a no track crossing zone. Brad keeps magically producing more and more track so the trains get more and more elaborate set ups. As I type 4 separate trains can run on their own track at the same time downstairs. Its just slightly insane but its all for "the boys" so it's worth it. Lewis will lay on the floor and watch the trains forever!!! Unfortunately he sometimes wrecks the tracks so I have to fix them and you do get really involved in it and loose track of time and suddenly you too have gone Thomas crazy.

Santa realized we didn't have enough trains to run on all that track and both the boys stockings were filled with engines. Griffin asked Santa for bullet trains "like daddy rode in Japan" and he got his wish. Those things go wayyyyyy faster than Thomas and his friends. So, thanks Santa and Costco for the 48 count AA battery packs, we will keep building and creating and having fun with our Choooo Chooooo's!

Griffin with his favorite Christmas presents
DS & bullet trains

Cutie pie with a fabuloso santa hat

Lewy's favorite place in the house
by the choo choo's

Christmas

Hello! It's been a while. I can't figure out how to blog when I'm out of town so I have a whole lot to catch up on. Let's start with Christmas. It was the Jenkins Family year so we headed to St. George, Utah to stay with Brad's parents. All of his sisters and their families were there (his brother David's family didn't come down) at one time or another during our visit so we got to see all of those cousins except for Andy who is on a mission in Florida. We were so happy that all of Auntie Paula's family came down from Orem too and I mean ALL even Joanie who lives in Washington DC and Kurt, Traci & Naomi who live in New York. We seem miss them the most since we saw weekly when we lived in Pleasant Grove.

We had a great time in St. George. We got there on the 23rd and stayed until the 30th. We went to the St. George Temple on Christmas Eve and walked around while it snowed to look at the lights, yes it snowed for Christmas in St. George! It was kind of a rainy snow so we were practically the only ones on the temple grounds but we weren't afraid of getting a little wet. We took some pictures in front of the big statue of Christ in the visitors center and some outside in the snow/rain with all the Christmas lights. It didn't stick on the ground but it was great fun to be outside in. They also have a great new indoor water park that the kids loved with their dads while the mom's finished some last minute shopping.

Santa found us in St. George and everyone had a great Christmas, I guess they have all been good since they got what they asked Santa for! Brad was the only one who got rocks--the girls idea of coal--in his stocking. They had a good giggle over that. We got everything our hearts desired and then some! Every night was a slumber party with Julia, Josh, Zach, Megan and the girls. Griffin and Lewis got to slumber party with Mommy and Daddy--lucky. It was wall to wall family and we loved it!

Enjoy all the photos, here are the before and after gift opening. Lewis didn't want to open anything, even his cool new little people nativity, and was just happy to suck his thumb!