it's all happening at the zoo

we went to the idaho falls zoo today! the weather was perrrfect. 80-something degrees and wonderful. klayton ditched work to come with mandy, cindy (my mom-in-law), the kids and me.

avery is always all-smiles around her cousins, but having animals to giggle and point at put her over the top.

at the kids petting zoo area ava and avery hopped on the mama hen and rode around...

and then all of the kiddies were hatched...

klayton saved avery from a vicious lion attack at the last minute! whew, that was a close one...

and avery enjoyed the scenery from atop her daddy's shoulders. way better than a guided tour.

the monkeys were her favorite. they would hoot and she would hoot back. grabbing onto klayton's head like that, i think she looks very monkey-ish. what do you think?

slowly breaking through the daylight

a couple of weeks ago klayton and i took a walk along memorial drive and i took some pictures. i aboslutely love this town. it is the most beautiful place. i feel really lucky to live here.

the farmer's market (aka heaven) is held every saturday morning right here along the river.

klayton has vowed to jump off of this bridge into the snake river by the end of the summer. i'm not so sure...

avery loves to watch klayton and i feed the ducks along the river. she learned her first real word this week: "DUCK!" she likes to pronounce the CK in duck for a long time while she holds her rubber ducky in the tub.

after our walk avery made her best monkey face while eating her apples and pancakes.

edward, gilbert, ian and eragon

just an update on my book reading frenzy.

i finished the Twilight series (for the second time in the last month) a week ago. again, if you have not read these books, i will send a vampire or a smelly werewolf after you. i posted about this a month ago, and i actually got someone to read Twilight for the first time! yay!! thanks Britt! she wrote this about it (sorry i'm bragging, but... okay, i'm not sorry): "So I took your advice and read Twilight-loved it-and by 'it' I mean too cool for school Edward... but I figured there was only that one. You can't believe my excitement when I realized that there are two more! It's going to be a great week!!! Thanks for the tip..." yay for Twilight fans!

next i re-read Anne of Green Gables. this was my favorite book in elementary school and i saw the PBS mini-series back then, too, but reading this book is such fun! as soon as i tackle some others on my list, i'm going to move on in the Anne series. i have never read the others and i can't wait to find out what happens! not by any means a burning desire to know, but i love getting sucked into Anne's world.

i picked up Wuthering Heights next, but quickly decided that it wasn't for me. maybe i'm just not in the mood for two mean, selfish main characters whose only redeeming quality is their love for each other. i just can't do depressing things lately. like klayton brought home the clean flicks version of Sweeny Todd this week, thinking that i would love it because i generally love all musicals, but by the end of it i had such a yucky feeling. cool story, great songs, perfect movie-making, but... yuck. anyway, i got a few chapters into Wuthering Heights and needed a pick-me-up (but if you love this book and it is worth finishing, please let me know. i don't want to miss out because i'm a wuss!). i didn't have time to run back to the library, so...

i grabbed my copy of Stephenie Meyer's latest, The Host. this one isn't in the Twilight series, but it was good the first time, so i picked it up again. i was super surprised to find it even super better the second time! grab a copy of this one. Steph is the queen of love triangles, action, suspense, and weirdness.

i finished that yesterday, and, as soon as i dropped klayton off at work last night, i took the last $10 that we have until klayton gets paid again (tomorrow) and went to target. i wandered around for a while (i could spend a million bajillion dollars at target) until i found a paperback copy of Eragon (i think i am immature - everything i read is in the YA section). i got it for about $9 and started into it last night. so far, so good. i picked this up to return the favor to Britt and read one she recommended, and i'm excited to see where it goes. i also plan to find a copy of The Historian, a vampire book that Livi recommended, and i can't wait! if anyone else has any favorite books to recommend, please do!

who knows how long i've loved you

i just wanted to do a Father's Day shout out. and then some.

first, to my wonderful hubby. this is his second father's day, but he spent his first sleeping in a vinyl arm chair in the hospital by avery's incubator, so it really didn't count! klayton is the most amazing father because:

-he knows just how to tickle avery to make her giggle and squeal every time

-he has changed nearly as many dirty diapers as i have, he fed avery in the middle of the night for the first 9 (yipes!) months of her life, and he watches her every day so i can go to the gym and keep sane. in other words, his Father of the Year award is in the mail.

-he loves to take the last night feeding so he can hold avery as she sleeps (the ONLY time that she is ever still) for as long as he likes.

-he still looks at avery with the same awed love in his eyes today as he did when she was just a teeny, tube-injected miracle.

avery and i are both so lucky to have klayton, and we both love him immensely.

secondly, i would like to tell my own papa that i love him so much. my dad is the coolest. he is a sweet grandpa (though he is SUPER old. seriously, Bishop. next year avery is getting you a walker for VD Day) to little avery and has always been my source of guidance, Spiritual and otherwise. i look up to him a ton, and i hope that i make him proud of me. above all, though, i am glad to know that he secretly can't live without me because i am the only one who get his jokes! love you papa

since i missed blogging on both mother's day AND my mom's birthday last weekend, i also have to give her a shout out. MOM! i love you so much! everything strong and feisty and unconditionally loving in me comes from you. you are the most amazing person that i know - you juggle everything you do so well, and you do so much! when i take things on, whether it's trying to magnify my church callings or keep my house better or to serve others, you are my measuring stick. and on top of all of that, you are Super Grandma! thanks for always taking care of us, mama. love you.

she promises the earth to me and i believe her

i took this video of avery this afternoon, and i just had to post it. she has been so squirrely and adorable lately. today while i was on the couch reading a book, i look up and avery is in her toy bin. she has thrown all of her toys out of it and turned the bowl of crackers that i gave her upside-down on the carpet. she is just all over the place! she climbed in and out of that green toy bin for about half an hour, blowing kisses at me and waving and screeching. what did i do before i had her?

sometimes we don't do things we want to do so that others won't know we want to do them

i am angry at m. night shyamalan. though i am the biggest wuss alive and can't handle scary movies at all, his creepy films are some of my favorites. i even liked (no, loved) lady in the water, his latest, not-so-well-reviewed bedtime story movie. klayton and i own all of his movies and love to count down the days until a new one comes out in theaters. well, he is a big fat jerk and has decided to make his first R rated movie (i even heard that there is a preview out boasting about this fact! so lame), the happening, coming out on friday the 13th. it looks so very good and creepy and klayton and i have been looking forward to seeing it all winter. now i can't even go and see it! sure, i'll clean flix it when it comes out on video, but it's not the same. i guess that m. night is going for a dialed up, crap-your-pants scare factor for this movie, but i hope that he realizes that he has now ruined my summer movie excitement. jerk.

you will be the death of me

whew! the past couple of weeks have been a blur. between working on the new menu that i'm coming up with for Leatherby's, taking care of avery, reading non-stop, and planning movie dates, today feels like the first day that i've really been home in a long time! and it feels good! i got to gather things for the garage sale that my mother-in-law is having in rexburg on saturday, hang some beautiful art (pictures that my sister took this winter), rearrange avery's room and put old baby toys in storage, and answer emails! and i did it all in sweats and a t-shirt! yay for a lazy home day! here's an update:

so... leatherby's first. klayton and i have been at the restaurant every morning for the past month, avery in tow, having hamburgers and sandwiches and fries for breakfast (disgusting, i know!!), to test the recipes i have created for the new grill menu at leatherby's that launches June 20th! anyone in the idaho falls area needs to come on in and try out my food! it's amazing!! then again, i may be a bit biased... i'll just be glad when it is over and everyone raves about my creations and i don't have to spend my mornings grilling burgers and frying up jalapeno poppers.

avery! wow! in the last week avery has been so fun! she has always been fun, but her personality has EXPLODED in the last few days. i feel like i spend my entire day laughing with her. she claps, she laughs, she blows kisses, she blows raspberries, she shakes her head, she dances... i can't keep up! i seriously have an INSANE urge to keep her awake even when she's ready for a nap so we can keep playing. being avery's mom is the coolest!

amid all of this i have been bitten by an insatiable urge to read constantly. lately (as i have made everyone aware) it's been the Twilight series, which is fantastic no matter how many times i greedily tear through it, dying for more each time i finish. i am in the middle of Anne of Green Gables now, after a trip to the library yesterday, and i am loving it as well. please please tell me your favorite book so i have fuel for my reading frenzy this summer. i plan on tackling Wuthering Heights next, followed by the Eragon series, because i've heard they are good.

i've spent any leftover time that i have had either with my sisters-in-law, mandy and mackenzie. we watch movies, gush about Edward, go out to eat, etc. or with maria, doing pretty much the same thing (but with maria it's watching so you think you can dance [she's trying to convert me to that show] and gilmore girls). those girls are the best and i love them sooo much. mandy and i have been trying to show kenny some classic movies (well, classic to us) the past few weeks and that's been lots of fun too. we've tackled Some Kind of Wonderful, Oscar, and Only You in the last couple of weeks, and we're watching Housesitter tomorrow.

again, whew. now that you are caught up on my life, with a ridiculous amount of superfluous details to be sure, i hope that everyone out there that i've neglected recently is doing well. much love to all!