These posts are emotionally exhausting.

Two birthdays in three days. Yesterday I lived through two years of pictures. Today I relived six years of life with another one of the most amazing humans I know.

She's so proud of being six. It comes with some big accomplishments in her mind - a few more inches in height, two front teeth lost, a cartwheel almost perfected, a chihuahua fund being filled up (she told us that we didn't have to get her a cake if we just wanted to get her a chihuahua instead). It's hard to remember when she was a brand new life and her main goal was to eat as much and as frequently as possible.


It struck me when I was selecting these pictures how much they captured the essence of this child.

She has always had a mothering nature.

and an appreciation that borders on worship for the natural world.


She cannot contain her utter joy in dancing.

She is a mischievous little trouble-maker

with an unapologetic joie de vivre.

She is a protective, loving sibling,

who has an imagination that takes over all of our lives at times.

And she is my friend. What mother could ask for more?

Happy Birthday my precocious little girl. I so love being your mother.

It's been two years.

Two years exactly since this little 'supah-hewo' entered my life.

Two years since my heart expanded yet even farther than I thought possible.



He is so very loved by his siblings.



Sometimes too loved.

His goofy personality is so much fun.







He's conquered all of us.

Happy Birthday, little man. I can't imagine my life without you in it.

I don't know what a two-year-old wishes for, but I hope that whatever it is, you get it in spades.

On our way home.

We're leaving this...

and this...

and this...

Oh, and this.

The brief vacation in the sun was so rejuvenating.

The girls are ready to go home and see their daddy. When we stopped at a McDonald's Play Place yesterday, Ains saved a seat for her daddy at the table. Hannah's goat, Beauty, kidded out while we were gone and Hannah wants to get back to take care of her and her new baby, Diamond.

So this morning, when Daddy called our hotel room, I had some very happy children.

It will be good to be home.

Zoo.

What more is there to say?

It was a long, full day. When we got there, the first thing we did was get over to the giraffe enclosure because it was feeding time. This was such a great opportunity. Mike helped the kids hold out treats and the giraffes would lean over the fence and eat it out of their hands. It was an awesome experience for all three kids.

Hannah was startled that their tongues were purple. ("They're not even turquoise!" she later told her aunt.)

Ainsley was tickled (literally) by how long the tongues were.

Grayson seemed unsure - maybe because he realized that a giraffe kiss would cover his entire face - but couldn't stop staring. He was very unhappy to leave that area.

Once we were done with that, Ainsley took the map and started to decide where we should go.

Each girl had animals they wanted to see, and they both got to see all of them.

Hannah got to see her lions, tigers, and anteaters.

Ainsley got to see her elephants, zebras, and - her favourite animal - toucans.

Look close - they're up there.

Me? I was just happy that this zoo was obviously built with kids in mind. There were little cubbyholes everywhere holding little creatures.

Scattered throughout the zoo were animals that kids could climb on.

And in.

And on.

And explore.

There was even a 'petting zoo' that was low on variety. Only goats. My kids were so excited about that.

Can you see the excitement? Yeah. "We have deez at home." said Ainsley.

There were little playgrounds scattered everywhere which were great places to let kids run unfettered for a bit.




We even found places to sit and just be for a little bit.

Though this tranquil moment ended when Gray decided to try to jump into the pond - but that's a story for another post.

The next part of the zoo was very exciting (truly). It was a 'monkey village'. You walked into an enclosure and these little spider monkeys were everywhere. The picture below was taken without a zoom lens.

They were running and jumping and swinging all around you. It was fantastic.

By the end of the day, we'd seen more animals than I could remember and we were all completely exhausted.

Oh, I have to show you this picture because it makes me laugh. At the moment I took the picture, Hannah was pretending to be The Little Mermaid, Gray was trying to decide whether a running jump off the log was a good idea, and Ains was saying "Wook, Mommy! I Queen of all da kids in da WOOOLD!!!"

On our way out, we stopped at the carousel. Hannah and Ains each chose sea creatures the first time around - a sea horse and dolphin respectively.

Gray chose to sit on the stationary bench with me once his shark started moving.

On the second time around, Ains chose a zebra. She wanted to bring it home with her.

Today I went to IKEA for the first time with my sister and my feet hurt from all the walking I did yesterday added onto the walking we did in IKEA. That store's almost as big as the zoo (Not really. But kinda. But not even close. But it's BIG!!!).

It was a wonderful day and now my kids want to go to the zoo closer to home. It's not nearly as nice, and it's a lot colder this time of year. They'll have to wait.

Always a day behind.

And today won't be any different. I'll tell you about today's fun tomorrow, when my eyes aren't glassing over from exhaustion.

Yesterday my sister and I went to a small market in the area. The girls bought mini-cheesecakes from a sweets vendor which they thought was tons of fun (mini-cheesecakes are fancy and Hannah's still trying to teach Ains the importance of that) and Gray had several mini-meltdowns. Being away from home isn't as carefree for him as it was for his sisters at the same age.

Then, when the cousins got home, we went to a World Market. Such a fun store. Hannah and I found some ideas for lighting in the kid's flower garden this summer.

Wouldn't those be pretty? Everyone kind of gravitated to the international chocolates aisle and milled there for awhile. I got some early Easter supplies and a sweet little mini-globe that I would like to have floating around our house.

When we got home, the kids went directly to the trampoline in the back yard without passing Go or collecting $200 (not that they would have had much of a chance of that had they tried). This is where they get rid of so much of their energy. I tried to get some pictures, but they were getting rid of a lot of energy.







The girls are so good with Gray in there. All he wants to do is run in circles as fast as he can, and if he can do that while they're bouncing around him, it's all the more fun.

Let me show you one of my favorite views since I've been here. From my sister's patio, you can see an orange tree in the yard behind hers...

and a lemon tree a few doors down.

We don't have local citrus in Idaho.