Kangaroo Zoo, TP, and the Station Fire

After a crazy weekend dominated by the baptism and moving into a box-filled home that didn't have a fridge or working washer/dryer, we finally got hooked up on Monday morning and settled in to a point that it seemed reasonable to get out of the house and do something FUN in the afternoon! 

My parents chillin' at Kangaroo Zoo:

Will and Andrew--the adopted brothers neither of them have:

Wizabeff:

Katie-poo:

It was HOT that day, so we thought we better cool down with some Sub Zero ice cream:

Visiting back at home:

I really do intend to rot and die in this house if it means I can look at this every day:

A random dude biking through our completely wild and un-landscaped backyard:

My sister, Elizabeth, and I laughed ourselves to tears over and over again during the week as we mimicked women who pose super deliberately for pictures. Choose your best side, chin down, suck it in, hand on your hip, bend the knee, flex the toe:

This really is my best side. Totally:

Only half joking:

Tuesday we ventured off to Thanksgiving Point. (Like I haven't posted enough pictures of this place already.)

We got a golf cart for my mom and dad (and the youngest, whiniest child) since it is a really big place, but since we couldn't all fit on it at once we had to split up. This led to many hilarious moments of me trying to contact my mother on her infrequently used cell phone to either get directions for where they were or give her directions (to translate to my father) for where we were. In the end, I chased them down and then shuttled everyone back and forth myself since I was the only one who really knew where I was going. (I just wanted my turn to rule the road on the golf cart.)

It's fun to see how the gardens change through the seasons:

Shuttle stop #4:

We ended at the Children's Garden:

Lunch at TP's Trellis Cafe. The kids were so well behaved I couldn't believe it! I think it's because they were sitting by themselves--it made them feel responsible for their own behavior. (Nothing like a nagging parent to rile a child up, right?)

I think this is Kate's best side! We were totally cracking up about the "best side" thing again at lunch:

This is about the 11, 754th picture we made my dad take because we didn't like how any of them turned out. I think it was the lighting:

My cute parents:

Right about then the waitress noticed the huge cloud of smoke up near the mountains, so we headed home to make sure our house wasn't burning down. Of course, it wasn't, but it sure wasn't that far away as you can see from these pictures taken from our back deck:

I took this one with my telephoto lens:

There's nothing quite like watching a massive wild fire in action:

Another day of unpacking, organizing, meeting with the insulation guy, ordering checks with our new address, taking the kids to piano (and Kate to her first stained glass art class tonight--so cool! she paid for half herself), babysitting for a friend who just had ankle surgery, making Andes Candies mint chocolate cookies, and not exercising or showering--which has me feeling a wee bit cranky. Time for bed!