The Heaths

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Thinking Turtle and Hatching Eggs at the Dallas Zoo

Yet another Dallas Zoo post, but these pictures were too cute not to share! Liz and I met up at the zoo to see the dinosaurs today. We passed by the Galapagos Tortoise exhibit and the kids were thrilled to hear a tortoise hiss at them from deep in its mud puddle. Another tortoise looked like it was thinking happy thoughts and I had to take a picture! Maybe I'll come up with a good meme for it later.

I finally got Clara's adorable new pose on camera! She's been walking around with her hands clasped behind her back looking at things on occasion, and today she stood in front of the Baryonyx model contemplating the mysteries of the fish it had in its mouth, haha! Derek and Bryce were more inclined to try their hand at hatching dinosaur eggs with Isaac, Andrew and Emeri.

Whatcha thinkin' about, turtle? Turtle stuff?

She was fascinated by the Baryonyx

Busted! She's just too cute!

Four baby dinosaurs in their nest

Derek tried his best to hatch that egg!

Not all the baby dinosaurs were thrilled with the bright, hot sun. Emeri wanted to go back to eating raisins, lol.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

7 Year Anniversary

Happy anniversary, Mitchell! My mom watched our kids while Mitchell and I went for a mini-getaway Friday night to Saturday afternoon. We spent the whole time laughing, talking, watching movies and just having a blast! We stayed at a beautiful Hyatt in Dallas and went swimming, had a late-night snack at the hotel restaurant and watched parts of the Harry Potter marathon ABC was running. Saturday morning, we ordered anything we wanted from room service (because it's our anniversary!!) and then went to the Perot - without kids! It was so cool to be able to take our time perusing the displays, discovering and exploring hidden treasures - like a whole new area of the dinosaur exhibit! My camera died soon after that, but I still got a cool picture of the view from the elevator ride (which doesn't allow strollers). Those were the two things I wanted to do anyway. :) We had a blast talking about what we liked and we even went to one of the 3D movies. It was an interesting documentary about one of James Cameron's deep sea expeditions. Not bad, but definitely not something the kids would've sat through.

I'm going to get mushy now. You've been warned. Seriously though, I'm so glad Heavenly Father blessed me with such a wonderful husband! Mitchell is a wonderful husband, father to our kids and my best friend. We are so different and yet so similar and it's been amazing to see how we've woven our personalities into each other through the past years. From two, we're continually growing into one. We've made it through some of the roughest years of our lives and he never once wavered in his commitment to our family or the Lord. He's a wonderful example of a priesthood holder and I'm so thankful our kids will grow up having the power of the priesthood in our home. Our relationship has grown so much and changed in a myriad of beautiful ways; I can't wait to see where the next seven years takes us, babe!

Seven years down, eternity to go!

I love my handsome husband!

Look at that spread! A feast fit for a king and his queen! ;)

Entelodont or "Hell Pig" skull - one of my favorite prehistoric animals!

Edaphosaurus - gentle herbivore with a cool sail

Coelophysis - graceful therapod dinosaur

Fossilized Green River ray - I can't wait to decorate my home with fossil accents!

Fossilized sea stars

Giant fossilized crab!

The skyline view from the escalator ride! We had a blast!

Sunday, June 28, 2015

CHICAGOOOOOOOOOO!!

This weekend was a whirlwind of AWESOME! Amy, Danny and I boarded a plane in the late afternoon and arrived after a blissfully quiet plane ride late at night in beautiful Chicago! We were welcomed to Aunt Mary and Aunt Nancy's beautiful bungalow-style home with authentic Chicago pizza and yummy treats. We woke early the next morning for the hour-long drive to the town where Aunt Nancy, Rhonda and Linda would participate in the Ride for MS. Mom, Aunt Jenn, Ally, Bella, Danny, Amy and I were to act as the pit crew and travelled from rest stop to rest stop, cheering them on and providing water and snacks if wanted.

We're going on an adventure!

I needed models to pose with the cool dinosaur fossil in the background. See the sauropod (probably brachiosaurus)?

Ally has the ultimate lazy-girl life hack

Rhonda, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Jenn, and Linda

Beautiful rows of corn. I love the beautiful countryside here!

Aunt Mary and I with the now-infamous bug spray, lol

At the first rest stop, Aunt Mary asked if anyone wanted some all-natural bug spray. I volunteered and assumed the position, facing away from her with my arms spread. We were both surprised by a powerful squirt of fluid instead of the light mist we were expecting, but I got a little suspicious when I felt the stream flow down the back of my shirt. Still, I turned around so she could spray my front half and some of it got into my mouth. Definitely not the normal taste of bug spray. I checked the bottle and it was all-natural Raid - what you would use to spray wasps and other flying insects. You were supposed to spray the bug from a distance of three feet and point it away from people. Oops. Aunt Mary was horrified and so apologetic, but I just thought it was funny... til I started feeling a burning sensation in my eyes. I called the poison control hotline (from my Utah phone number in Indiana and got connected to an office in Tennessee - huh?!) The poor guy had a thick accent and kept telling me to wash it off or go see a doctor. Lots of help. Luckily, this first stop was located at a beautiful farmhouse and I asked the owner, after a brief explanation, if I could borrow some dishsoap and a water source. She grabbed the Dawn soap and led me to a hand-operated water pump. I rinsed my face and skin as best I could and felt better in no time. This is going to be an awesome story. ;)

At the lunch stop, we set up a big tailgate party with lots of friends and delicious food. It was great to talk to everyone and make new friends and Amy was able to take a motorcycle ride on Mr. Jim's awesome Harley. Our Chicagoland Lab Rescue team biked an impressive 75 miles that day! We stayed at a hotel that night while we were waiting for round two the next day and were able to sample a local delicacy called the Chocolate Cake Shake from ___. Mitchell had them on his mission and loved it, but I'm not a fan of soggy chocolate cake in my chocolate shakes. :) Still, it was an authentic experience and I loved that. The next day, Aunt Nancy, Rhonda and Linda had a shorter run of 30 miles and then we all drove home for a delicious BBQ. Aunt Mary let me take a cutting of her fantastic lemon-scented roses to try to grow back home and I was able to successfully get that through the airport security and onto the plane. :) Cool! They're soaking in water right now and hopefully will start to sprout roots in a few weeks. It was great to have a spontaneous trip to visit family, see new sights and make new friends! Thanks Mom!

Gotta pose with the cute calf!

Posing with a tractor for Derek :)

Bella rocking her cool orange shirt with the cool orange tractor

The tailgate party!

Amy on Mr. Jim's hog

She's so cute when she gets excited ;)

Crossing the finish line - victorious!

Hail, the conquering heroes!

Group picture in front of a cool bell on the local college campus

I love Aunt Mary!

The last rest stop - Back row: Aunt Jenn, me, Mom, Bella, Aunt Mary, Aunt Nancy. Front row: Linda, Danny, Amy, Rhonda and Ally

Monday, June 15, 2015

Ally's 10th Birthday

Ally is 10! Boy, do I have another funny autocorrect story. I texted Aunt Jenn and asked her what kind of "things" Ally liked. I received this polite response - "No thongs please. She's a sweet little bookworm." My phone had autocorrected "things" to "thongs" and I'm pretty sure I almost gave my aunt a heart attack, haha!! We chose a couple books to pass along for her birthday and the kids had a blast at Peter Piper Pizza. It was great to see all our family members again and Ally sure is growing up into a wonderful young lady. :)

Derek loves car games

Val was a big help feeding Clara some birthday cake while Rob looked on

Gotcha! This kid loooooves to eat. He seems to have a growth spurt every other week!

Jilli got several pairs of vampire teeth with her ticket earnings

Beth is always thrilled to hold Clara

"Why the scowling face, Clara?"

Ally scored some great gifts - I gave her a couple of my favorites, Mandy and The Trumpet and The Swan.

Bryce and Clara loved this helicopter ride

Friday, April 24, 2015

Silverleaf Resort Trip!!

FREEDOM!!!! I'm still not sure how we managed it, but we scored a 3 day/2 night stay for $15 at The Villages Silverleaf Resort a couple hours south of us in Flint, TX. Austin and Liz were able to come with us and, even though Oakley had to come because she was still nursing, we were able to have fun adults-only time! Oakley was so easy-going and adorable and no trouble at all. Since Tammy is in Florida finishing up a Bob Ross instructor course, my mom came to stay with the kids while we were gone. Liz got some help from Jenna and a friend in the ward. On our way down, we found a Carl's Jr and had to stop! I was expecting more of a burger and not a crab/turtle/burger thing, but it was still tasty. After we sat through the 90 minute presentation that turned into a 3 hour attempt to get us to buy a timeshare type deal (which would be an awesome idea if we spent $1000 per year on entertainment, but we don't), we were able to check into the two-bedroom condo. It was awesome! Austin and Liz were a couple hours out at that point, so Mitchell and I watched some TV and took a walk around the grounds. Tall trees, the lake, lots of grassy lawn. Beautiful! We missed the last horseback ride by 30 minutes, but we still scored free passes to the water-park. The first night, we all watched a couple episodes of "River Monsters" (Liz and I agree that the host is a very attractive for a 60-something year old) on the pull out couch and ate turkey chili, ice cream, chocolate covered pomegranates/strawberries/pineapple for dinner. Haha! We had doughnuts and massive cinnamon buns for breakfast the next morning and were living it up junk food style. My body was not happy, but who cares? We headed over to the main resort location to play putt putt and hit up the water-park. When we finished putt putt and playing in the arcade, the guys decided to make a run for some pizza for lunch and I hung out with Liz while she fed Oakley. Poor Oakley. She was wearing a swim diaper most of the morning and peed through her swimsuit and onto blankets and the stroller (and Liz!), but she didn't really mind. She totally pooped all over the deck when we weren't looking though! Good thing we weren't in the water-park right then. :S Speaking of the water-park, it was nice but definitely geared more towards kids. We hung out in the lazy river and went down the two cool slides. My waterproof camera case came in handy again and I got some cool shots. About this time, I started feeling pretty icky. Turns out I had caught the same fever virus that Bryce had had earlier in the week, but I didn't pack any medicine with me. We wrapped up and headed back to the condo and the rest of the day is kind of a blur to me. I took a bath in the awesome jacuzzi tub in our master bedroom, wrapped up in as many comfy layers as I could and took a nap. We had fun later that evening playing Battle of the Sexes when Austin and Mitchell (but mostly Austin) thought Pencil, Poodle, Mini and Raglan were different types of dogs. Lol. Liz made a spectacular guess that Zebco made fishing gear, I guessed correctly about Civil War era firearms and the guys totally picked out a blush brush from a picture in seconds. It was awesome. After that, we ate more ice cream and doughnuts and watch Thor 2. Packed up and went home the next morning to hang with my mom and Bella for part of the afternoon to end the trip on an awesome note. :) I missed my little boogers more than I care to admit, but it was so good to see they had a blast with Nana, Aunt Amy and Aunt Val. Nana spoiled them with Frozen cereal, Hulk waffles and Reeses Big Cups (a particular favorite with Clara)! A billion, billion thanks to Nana!!!!