Thomas Birthday

Today Thomas turned 4 years old. He is my sunshine sweetheart, with curly hair and a smile that makes me happy when skies are gray!

Oh the curls!

We spent a couple hours this morning at the Hogle Zoo. It turned out to be a great day to go to the zoo, because right now they're featuring "Zoo-rassic Park" - dinosaurs all over! We rode the train and saw several small dinosaurs in addition to the live animals, and Zaylee and Thomas were pretty excited about it. There were also several animatronic dinosaurs situated throughout the zoo that the kids were able to look at.

There was also a dinosaur dig - a great big sandbox with dinosaur fossils hidden in it for kids to dig and find. That was definitely popular with Zaylee and Thomas.

There was a small display in one of the buildings that featured real fossils and dinosaur paraphernalia. A hadrasaur footprint as big as Thomas, a giant dinosaur femur, an allosaurus fossil, a game to guess whether an object is a rock or a bone (I think they were all bones, though most looked like ordinary rocks).

 

Of course, there was the always favorite big elephant. Thomas is still scared of it, so he stayed away. But Zaylee ran right up and had some fun with it.

Hmm, maybe a little too much fun...

And just to prove that Audrey and I were there too, here's a picture of the two of us (p.s. I love my mei tai, I have been able to use for all three kids at a variety of ages, it's awesome).

After leaving the zoo (Thomas was NOT happy to leave, he wanted to stay at the zoo all day long!) we stopped by Smith's and got some freezer pizzas, a cake, and a carton of ice cream. I would have made a cake but we just got home from Idaho yesterday, were at the zoo this morning, and Jeff has work this evening so there was no time to make a cake. That's okay, Thomas got to choose a fun, colorful cake from the bakery and we were all happy with it.

Here's the traditional singing of the birthday song:

We enjoyed the cake and ice cream for a little while, but as soon as we gave Thomas his gift, he and Zaylee pretty much forgot about their cake and ice cream because the present was too much fun to pay attention to anything else! We got him a Thomas the Train set, with train tracks, a battery-powered Thomas engine, a freight car, and a little factory where you can drop a load of chocolate into the freight car. Way too much fun!

Overall it's been a good day.

Idaho Visit

We spent the past week in Idaho visiting family. Tuesday was spent driving up and then recovering from the six-hour drive. Wednesday I wasn't feeling well, so I ended up spending most of the day in bed, but Jeff and the kids played at the park and just generally had a fun time hanging out with family.

Thursday Jeff and I enjoyed the opportunity to go on a date. Mom watched the kids while Jeff and I went to Olive Garden. I had Steak Gorgonzola, which was incredible. Jeff had some sort of Ravioli with bacon and truffle sauce, which was also incredible. We had some melty cheese with bread as an appetizer, incredible. And the lemon cream cake for dessert, also incredible. Yeah, it was all really good (by the way, I left my box of leftovers in the fridge; if anyone there wants them, dig in). Then we walked around Best Buy and Micheal's for a while, just for fun. By the time we got back to Dad's house, Michelle and her boys were there, so lots of fun playing with cousins.

On Friday and Saturday we went to Kuna for the L family reunion. Way too much good food, lots of chatting and laughing for the adults, lots of running around and playing for the kids.

Hi Cousin Sindy!

Friday evening Grandma and Grandpa told stories about when they were younger. Grandma talked about life without electricity, Grandpa talked about when his family lived on the goat ranch. During the stories, the kids watched a movie but Audrey decided that Grandma and Grandpa weren't entertaining enough on their own, and so she entertained us with her antics (sorry it's so dark).

On Saturday we took family pictures and hung out some more. Saturday night I got sick and ended up in the bathroom more than I would prefer, so again on Sunday I stayed in bed while Jeff took the kids to church. Eventually I was able to make it out and eat a little bit, a couple pieces of potato, a small piece of Marie's birthday cake, some water. Sunday evening I slowly made my way around the house getting everything ready for our return trip. By the time I was done I was exhausted and spent the rest of the evening sitting around doing nothing.

Monday I was feeling a lot better - not 100% but okay - and we left for home around 7:30. We had another very long 6-hour drive, during which all of us except Jeff slept most of the time, and another afternoon and evening of recovering from the drive. And that was our trip.

Scariest Moment Ever

Zaylee and I had a really scary time this afternoon. I was on the computer while Zaylee and Thomas were playing in Zaylee's room. I suddenly realized that Zaylee was crying in a way that is not normal for her. I'm used to her yelling at Thomas when she's irritated at him, but this was very different. She sounded panicked, and in pain. I got up to see what was the matter.

The worst moment in the world isn't the one when you walk through the door and see what's happening - it's the moment your mind actually registers what it's seeing. What I saw was a rope tied tightly around Zaylee's neck as she stood her closet, her face swollen and purple. The other end of the rope was tied to the closet pole. She was crying desperately that it was choking her, hurting her. I still don't know how she got the rope so tight, I couldn't fit a finger between the rope and her neck. When I ran out and came back with my thread clippers I couldn't even get the clipper blade between the rope and the skin. I had to cut at the rope a little bit at a time, reassuring Zaylee that she would be fine, I was there, everything would be okay. I was reassuring myself too.

After what seemed like forever but was less than a minute, I got the rope cut off of her neck and just held her in my arms for a really long time. I held her a lot more this afternoon and evening than I usually do, cherishing the fact that she is okay.

Zaylee has recovered quite well (we made cookies tonight, she's happy as a clam), though her face and neck are showing the consequences of what happened. There are small red dots all over her face and neck above where the rope was. In some areas, they almost look like freckles. It's where the capillaries burst from the exertion.

 

I never want to go through anything like this as a mother ever again. I'm just so glad she's okay.