Wacky Wardrobe

Mismatched yet still adorable. Man, I wish I could pull that off.

This is Bryn's favorite stance: bent over, looking between her legs. While doing it at church one Sunday a woman said to me, "Oh, you're going to have have another baby!" When seeing my surprised and perplexed expression at her declaration, she explained the old wive's tale that when your child starts looking between their legs like this, it is time to have another baby. Is that just an African wive's tale? 'Cause I've never heard it before.

Nursery

Bryn is 18 months old! And in the Mormon world that means...NURSERY! The nursery teachers let her attend 2 weeks early. The first Sunday she went she walked away, hand-in-hand with her BFF Canden, and didn't look back. I cried. (I cried?? I know! It was totally lame. In my defense, it was just a little crying. I sucked it up and then tried to remember what to do in Sunday School without a baby to tend to.) I must admit, I was pretty happy when I saw one of the nursery teachers in the doorway of the Sunday School classroom with my tear-stricken Bryn in his arms wanting to be with Momma. The next week I went to nursery with her. With the comfort of Mom in the room, she was able to enjoy the songs and activities, and realized that nursery is way better than adult Sunday School. The following week, her first official week of nursery, she stayed the whole time all by her self. And I didn't cry. We've all converted...nursery is awesome!

Durban

About a month ago South Africa celebrated Heritage Day, which meant to us: 3 day weekend! We took a trip to Durban, a city on the Eastern Coast about 5 1/2 hours away. We had a great time.

We arrived earlier than hotel check-in time, so we grabbed some lunch and took it to a park where a group of men were dancing and drumming traditional African music in honor of Heritage Day. It was pretty awesome.

We spent a day a Ushaka Marine World. We watched a dolphin show and went to the very cool aquarium. In the photo, Bryn was leery of the dolphin, but was willing to give a little wave to say 'hi' anyway.

We spent another day at the beach playing in the sand and wading in the Indian Ocean.

Africa's Santorini. Hopefully we'll get to go to the real Santorini someday, but until then...

Daddy and Bryn searching for sea shells.

Momma & Bryn

There was this huge wall built to create a pool of the ocean water (note to Chicoans: like unto One Mile). Justin swam through the pool to the wall. What a stud.

You Might Be a Toddler If...

Road trips go something like this:

( jam, not blood)

Posing with Mom is not a top priority

You like to throw your head back and laugh

You are fascinated by your shadow

Breakfast ever goes like this:

(oatmeal, not puke)

You know how to flash a grin that can make a heart melt

Sun City & Pilanesburg

A few weekends ago we took a trip to a (relatively) near by resort. It was a 3-day weekend, so it was packed. We hadn't anticipated the crowds and didn't think to make a hotel reservation. Justin strategically positioned himself right outside the door of the customer relations director's office while attempting to deal with the problem of discovering that all 4 hotels at the resort were fully booked for the entire weekend. As hoped, he was invited into the office and was not only given a room at the "booked" hotel, but was also given a "name your own price" rate. Awesome! The complimentary breakfast at the hotel was un-be-lievable! SOOO good!! One of the best parts of the weekend, I would have to say. Near the resort is an animal reserve called Pilanesburg. This was our best safari yet. Again, awesome! It was a short trip, but we had a great time.

Bryn LOVES pulling all the toilet paper off the roll. We always put an end to it when we catch her doing it at home. But since we were on vacation, we let her play with the toilet paper all she wanted. You can't see the end of it in this picture, but it was stretched across the hotel room.

Justin and Bryn going down a great big slide

Water park at the resort. We didn't bring any swim stuff; it was too cold for swimming in our opinions, but we'd love to go back when it's warmer.

Who needs a water park when there are puddles?!

Africa's Bellagio

Hippos

See the giraffe's head above the trees?

Warthog

Rhino

Herd of elephants

Randoms

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!...Put my arms around his neck, hug him tight like this.

Yogurt vs. Bryn

Lion Park

A couple weekends ago we visited the Lion Park. It was awesome!

Very touristy photo op.

We fed giraffes. Their tongues are super long.

We pet lion cubs.

We drove ourselves on a mini safari. We saw zebra, springbok, antelope looking things (maybe they were antelope, not sure?). Bryn's favorite part was getting to be in the front seat and out of her car seat.

These white lions were beautiful! I can't believe how close we were to them.

This gal jumped right up on the truck in front of us, trying to find out what was under the soft top. It was really awesome to see from the car behind, but if I had been in the truck I would have peed my pants for sure!

We saw a cheetah too, but it was through a fence and kinda far away.