Zoo Pictures!

I'm so thankful that this was a much cooler weekend than past ones since, with Nana and Pops visiting, it make our trip to the zoo much more enjoyable.  Brianna seemed to really enjoy seeing all the animals, particularly the monkeys, elephants and giraffes!  She got a little nervous when they started walking towards her but she kept that wide-eyed look of amazement and I can only imagine what she must have been thinking.  Its one thing to know what the animals are in the pages of her books, but it must have been completely different to see them life-sized, moving, making noise and running around. 

One of the mother chimps had an infant and she spent several minutes trying to make herself comfortable so she could feed her baby.  Brianna kept pointing at it and smiling, saying "baby monkey" over and over.  I think she could have watched them play and interact for hours.  She wasn't content to sit in her stroller or be held either.  Honestly, we could have left the stroller at home for as much use as it got.  We had her little monkey backpack and she just ran from one place to another with one of us holding on to the tail.  I have to say, I always thought a "child leash" was unnecessary until I had a toddler of my own and realized just how enjoyable it can be to let you child run till they're heart's content, but not run off or get into trouble.  She laughed and giggled and shrieked and told us all the names of the animals until we were all ready to drop.  It was a very successful and fun-fill day!

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Checking out the elephant's picture with Nana

Family Picture

Elephants really do have long noses Mommy!

Checking out the Orangutans with Pops!  She kept this wide-eyed look almost all day.  It was like she couldn't believe that the animals she's used to seeing in her books really were alive.

Snake Petting ... she was all excited to "pet" the snake until it was her turn, then she didn't want anything to do with it.

Watching the kangaroo's sleep

Strolling along, happy as can be

Fast asleep in the car ... my big girl was all worn out from her adventures.

18 Month Update & Summer Pics

I can't believe that Brianna is 18 months old now.  She had her well check last week and is doing wonderfully on all her development checklists.  She's at the 87th percentile on height and the 49th on weight.  She's up to between 50-60 words/signs in her vocabulary and is regularly speaking two word sentences with the occasional three word sentence.  Her first 3-word sentence as Dada Foo All-Gone.  She doesn't quite have the "d" on food yet but it was clear she was telling me that Justin had cleaned his plate!

We've also been having lots of fun playing outside, despite the 100+ heat.  She tolerates it a lot better than I do.  Below are some pictures from the backyard, a recent trip to the pool and her first experience with a trampoline at our friend The Ray's house.

She's going to make her Grandma Petrik very proud with this next picture.  She "helped" me feed Moab yesterday and of course, the food ended up going everywhere.  She wouldn't be happy till she'd done this ...

Surprise!

First Trampoline Experience

She loves her friend Andrew, who took care of her and played with her all night.  I think its obvious that she had a great time!

Bounce House and Crawfish

Today, we spent all afternoon with great friends, yummy crawfish and the best of all, a bounce house!  For almost 4 hours, all Brianna wanted to do was play in the bounce house and laugh, oh she laughed!  In fact, she enjoyed herself so much, she refused to take a nap and its now 6:30 and she's passed out with daddy on the couch.

You can see from the smile on her face in the below pictures that she was having a blast.  I wish I could have gotten more, but a camera inside a bounce house full of small children is not a good idea.  But, while she was playing with daddy, I was able to snap a few!

I imagine her little cheeks are probably sore from all the laughing and giggling and smiling she's done this afternoon.  I need to go wake her up though so that she can eat some dinner and get a bath.  Bedtime is going to come very early tonight!

Playing at the Park

Here's a few, okay a lot, of pictures from our trip to the park with Jen and Collin today.  We played for 2.5 hours...climbing stairs in the castle maze, going down the big slide and just enjoying this beautiful day!  I just love her expressions and the delight on her face.  I took a ton of pictures, just trying to capture all her faces.

We should both sleep good tonight is all I've got to say about it!