Our trip to the Servion Zoo!

Rob was working today, so I decided to take the girls on a little Saturday outing to the Servion Zoo, a little zoo about 30 minutes from us. We had a great time not only seeing the animals, but playing on all the fantastic kids playgrounds there. When I told Anna Claire that we would see lions, she insisted on bringing her lion too!

This is a little scary, Mommy!

The girls in front of some unidentified animal.

Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? I see two cute girls looking at me!

Toilet training

After a short, failed attempt at toilet training Anna Claire in May, I thought I'd try again after all our summer vacations were finished. Toilet training is one of the first specific times that parenting requires real, concrete results. And my attempt have not been successful! I prepared as much as I could -- I purchased the doll that wets, training paints, etc. But it has not been easy. We've mostly just stumbled along. Here is Anna Claire having a little Potty Party after her first day of training.

A couple of days later, Anna Claire somehow climbed up and got the key to the bathroom and locked herself in. After about an hour of trying to coax her to put the key in the lock and turn it, I finally went to a neighbor to try her key. It didn't work so I ran around the apartment building until I found the superintendent. After about 2 hours of this crisis, he found a key that matched, and we opened the bathroom door to find Anna Claire completely naked, with toilet paper crumpled all over the floor.

Here are the girls after I at least put a diaper back on Anna.

Our bike ride up Col de Jeux Plan

I just have to take a minute to congratulate myself. Rob and I and the girls and Rob's friend Chris drove out yesterday to Morzine, France to climb up Col de Jeux Plan. I stayed at a park with the girls while Rob and Chris biked up the pass. Rob got back about 1 hour later and let me go. Well, I wasn't feeling that great and just thought I ride up a little way to see the views. But after each turn, I thought, "I'll just do one more and see how I feel." Finally, I'd gone so far, I thought that I'd just finish the ride up to the top. Cars kept passing me saying "Allez, allez, allez!" Two hours later, I returned to a slightly worried Rob and the girls. He couldn't believe I actually climbed to the top of this peak. But I did, and it was great! Yeah me! Unfortunately, the only picture we have of the day is of the girls playing at the park down below.

Zermatt and the Matterhorn

Yesterday, we took a nice little day trip to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn. The drive was spectacular and Zermatt is a fun little car-free town. We took a cogwheel railroad up from the town in order to get better Matterhorn views. Unfortunately, this is what we saw of the Matterhorn.
Even though we didn't get great Matterhorn views, the views on the ride up were stunning. Here is Anna looking down on Zermatt.

Mariah enjoyed most the window view of herself!

The girls and Daddy in front of the train.

Anna hiking with Daddy.

Wow, that whole experience was COOL!

Comparisons

So now Mariah is finally eating baby food. I put it off for too long because I didn't have a high chair and we were traveling too much. But, she's finally taking baby food (sometimes). I thought I'd do a little comparison. Which baby is which? One is Anna Claire and one is Mariah.

The one on the left is Anna Claire (6 1/2 months), the one on the right is Mariah (8 months).

LOTOJA and Jackson Hole!

Yes, it's that time of year again -- LOTOJA. The culmination of my husband's crazy bike training annually is this 200-mile bike race from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But this year, Rob convinced his two brothers-in-law, Jared and Ted, to do the insane ride with him. We all gathered in Jackson to support the three of them and also to have some family fun. Scot and Kris and their son Ethan met us there. While Rob, Jared, Ted (and Rob's dad as support chief) prepared for the race, we set out on some adventures near Jackson. Anna Claire had a great time toodling around with Ethan, as you can see. (Still haven't fixed my camera's angelic lighting.)



Hey ho, captains!



The cousins with Grandma Judie.

While nobody's looking, I think I'll get into Mommy's purse.



Anna Claire, Mariah and me with Grandma near the Tetons.



Two pinkie girls on the annual boat ride across Jenny Lake.



Hi Grandma!



Three little cousins, sittin' on a tree (branch).



Scot, Kris and Ethan (beautiful family, huh!).


Rob and the family just after the race. Anna Claire looks as tired as Rob! Aside from a flat tire that set him back a bit, Rob did really well!

Scot and Jared, chillin' after a long ride. (Scot's long ride will be next year, right Scot?)

Fun at Grandma Tia's and Grandpa Ken's

After all the wedding festivities, we got to spend an extra week at my parents' place. Rob stayed with us -- and it was so nice to be on vacation with Daddy there (although he was still working and training for LOTOJA too). We had lots of fun swimming, four-wheeling, waterskiing and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. (Somehow, our camera was set on some weird setting, so all of these photos have an angelic glow.)

Riding the Daddy-horse. Don't you love Anna Claire's morning mop? She takes after me.

Swimming with Daddy.

Bombs away! (Check out the biker tan.)

Mariah sitting on the sidelines, enjoying the show.

On the boat with Grandma. Anna Claire hates the wind on the motorboat, but she loves going boating.

Mariah in the boat, enjoying the show as usual.

It's diaper boxcar time -- a favorite pastime of ours. I drag the girls around and around in the most recent diaper box.

At the cabin, swinging on the hammock!

Four-wheelin'!

A little more hesitant with Grandpa, because she knows he goes FAST! Actually Anna rode over all kinds of treacherous trails with Grandpa. Bravo!