August 2015: $2 Tuesdays, Hiking, and (Finally) Finished Projects!

I am obviously the world's biggest slacker. I've been thinking about blogging for August for 2 weeks. haha. I finally used the excuse that we got new phones and I needed to transfer pictures off my old one to my computer as the reason to sit down and do it. 

August was a fun month for us. :) We found ways to keep busy and Kollyn had a blast with it all. We went to the library and played with friends. One of our favorite things was $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. We were able to go with Luke and Kelly to the different things there that we wanted to, for $2 admission instead of $15. Total score!

The first week, we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. It was so much fun for the kids. They got to play with giant Legos, puppets, "x-ray" some animals at the vet station, and slide down the slide together. Kollyn's favorite part was the water area. She loved the water table a lot, but her favorite was turning the knob and letting water flow out the pipe onto the floor. She could've done that all day. By the end of her playing there, she was soaked but really happy.

Luke wasn't as interested in the water, but he thought it was fun to splash in a little bit.

The next week we did the dinosaur museum and they got to build a dinosaur and play with the magnetic bones.

The last week we went, we did the farm country. Kollyn freaked out when the horse neighed loudly while we were petting him, so she was a little on edge the rest of the day, but had a lot of fun anyway. She loved seeing all the animals. She is obsessed with animals. She loved the bunnies and pigs the most, after the chickens (or the bach-bachs as she says). And of course stomping in the little playhouse with Luke.

August 14 was David's last day at Vivint (YAY! He's done!!!) and so he used his PTO and we spent the morning at the zoo. Kollyn was in absolute heaven. And since we got there right when it opened, we got to see the animals eating breakfast and being very active. It was so much fun! Kollyn still talks about how we saw "giraffe eat breakfast" whenever I ask her to tell David what we did during the day when he gets home from work. Every single day she has to tell him we saw the giraffe eating breakfast. She could've been there all day long, watching the animals, getting so excited about each and every one. We heard the tiger roaring at the lady tiger they were just introducing and she thought that was so much fun to listen to. It was so cute to see her so fascinated and intrigued. She tried to say every animals name and got most of them really well.

This guy came right up to the glass before they let him out into his outside area and he and Kollyn just watched each other for a while, which was fun to watch.

There was a bear swimming in the pool but when I wanted a picture, he went behind the tree trunk and wouldn't come out. This guy was catching a snooze, and the other one was rolling around in the hay that was spread out on the ground. Kollyn loves bears so we spent probably about 15 minutes just watching these guys do their thing and she was entranced the whole time.

And, as per tradition, we rode the train. Kollyn had a lot of fun, seeing the zebras, giraffes, and ostriches, and pointing out trees all over the place. This little girl loves being able to be outside, and if you add animals into the mix, it's a perfect day.

Just had to share this one. :) Kollyn and Luke are like best buddies. They love playing together, even if sharing isn't the fist instinct always (Luke is usually really good about it, and has started to rub off on her thankfully), and I love it. It's so fun to watch them!

This girl has definitely gotten her own personality more and more as she grows up. She knows exactly what she wants and how she wants it. She's very particular about some things, but not everything. 

She loves my water bottle. She loves water in general (drinking, swimming, splashing, you name it, if it involved water, she is all over it), but apparently it tastes better out of my bottle. This was too cute not to share, her drinking from my bottle in her car seat like a big girl. I love watching her grow up! I

Her favorite, and I mean FAVORITE, snack, is guacamole...David made some, used about 3 avocados, and she ate almost all of it while we were cooking dinner. She just kept dipping her chip into it, using her chip as a spoon to get the guiac to her mouth. :)
It's awesome that she likes to eat fruits and veggies more than candy, though we let her have candy too, and it's fun to see what she likes and doesn't like. Granted, there's very little she doesn't like, but eggs is on that list. She won't eat them if they're plain, but will eat them if they're mixed in with potatoes, sausage, things like that. But scrambled eggs, fried eggs, etc...are a no go. It's fun to see her preferences.

We have recently gotten into going on little stroller friendly hikes around the area with some friends who have kids around Kollyn's age. Karin and Luke join us sometimes and it's kind of a come if you want type thing, but it's been fun. Our first one we went up to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. It was fun to get the kids together and throw rocks in the little pond at the bottom of the falls. There were at least 10 HUGE fish, I think some kind of trout but I have no idea, swimming around. Kollyn loved seeing the fish and the duck swim and got excited when they came kind of close to us.

She discovered that Elsie is her friend and these two held hands the whole way back to the car. They've held hands at pretty much all our hikes since then and it's so cute. :) Kollyn calls her Elis (anything with an S in the word usually ends up with the S at the end instead) and wants to play with her at least three times a week (guess that means more playdates Alyx!) which I love. She hasn't really had that connection with any of the other kids she's around (with like three exceptions), even the ones in the neighborhood, so I love that she has connected with Elsie.

This is my project that I finally was able to finish (I couldn't for the life of me find my glue gun) and I'm really happy with how it turned out! I've been working on this since right after Kollyn was born and finally finished it!!!

I plan on putting it up on her room soon, just need to rearrange a few things. :)

David is really liking his new job, the boss is nice and the people he works with that he knows he likes a lot. It's a small company and he likes the atmosphere. There's a lot of work, and it's kind of overwhelming with school and the huge homework load that he was no anticipating, but he's been able to get that taken care of, so he isn't as overwhelmed by the amount of work to do at work. School has been really rough on him this last month, there's so much homework and attendance is graded which he hates, so it's been hard to find out the balance between school, work, and spending time with Kollyn, while working on the start-up. Only a few months and he'll be done forever, which is what I keep reminding him. We'll make it through and it'll be worth it.

Love you all!