Baby Doll Surgery and the Zoo

Conference weekend my parents came down to visit from Idaho.  On Friday we had a girls day out and spent the day shopping and went to lunch.  I worked Friday night and then Saturday we had girls evening out, while the guys were at the Priesthood session of Conference, with Aunt Carol and Julie and did a little more shopping and then went to dinner.  Sunday evening we went over to Carol's to play games.  The baby that Mia got for her birthday has already stopped working (that's what I get for buying it on clearance back in March) so I asked my dad to take a look at it to see if he could fix it.  That's when things got interesting.  My dad was upstairs working on the doll and Mia was running around everywhere.  After a little bit I all of a sudden heard her cry out "BABY" very concerned like and on the verge of tears.  I went upstairs and Mia was standing in front of my dad with her hand over her mouth and this is what she saw.

Not a pretty picture

  I think we slightly traumatized the poor girl.  Luckily baby was back in one piece to take home, but without peeling her entire face off (it wasn't going to come off any further without cracking) there was no way to figure out what was wrong with it and so no way to fix it.  Now it's just a normal quiet doll, but at least it came out of surgery no worse than it went in and Mia seems to be OK now.

On Monday Mia and I went to the Hogle Zoo with my parents.  It's been a long time since I've been there, even longer since my parents have been there, and Mia's never been to the zoo.
At the gate.

 Mia and Grandpa looking at the elephants.

 They have a big elephant that blows water out it's trunk.  Since summer is over it's not as exciting now but Mia loved it.

 Mia and I in the Eagle's nest

 One of the grizzly bears was having fun playing in the water.  Mia got really mad at me and threw a fit because I wouldn't let her go over the fence to go play with the bears.  It was pretty funny.

 They had a baby giraffe that was just 2 weeks old.

 Much smaller than it's mama but already over 6 feet tall.

The stroller was about a lost cause.  Mia just enjoyed roaming and running through the zoo.  Luckily it wasn't very busy.

I think this tiger was hungry.  It just kept pacing back and forth by the entrance to it's habitat.

 Mia was more interested in the fake tigers.

 And of course the lion drinking fountain was the coolest.

 The monkeys were Mia's favorite but somehow I didn't get any pictures of her with them.  She would run along the glass saying "OO OO AH AH"  It was really cute.  We did get a picture of her sitting on the ape's head though.  It wasn't actually a seat but Mia wanted to try it out so Grandma let her.

 We had lots of fun at the zoo and we get to go back in less than a month and Monty gets to go with us that time too.

4-Wheeling Adventure

This weekend to celebrate Monty's mom's birthday the whole family (minus Gina who's in Connecticut) got together and went out to Simpson Springs to go 4-wheeling.  I'll admit I was a little nervous as to how Mia would do in the desert all day with no nap and outside her normal routine, but for the most part she did great and we all had a good time...until the end.  Let me start at the beginning. 
We  headed out to Simpson Springs in the morning.  Our car left later than the rest because we have a little princess who doesn't like to get woken up (Mia not me).  When we got out there Mia got to go on a little ride with Monty on the 4-wheeler around the camp ground

 Mia wasn't too sure at first but ended up loving it.

 Mia started her eating early when we got there and never did stop.  She used her little camp chair and then made the picnic table bench her table.  At least for a little bit, then she realized it was much more fun to run and eat at the same time.

 Monty and I left Mia to play with the family and took off exploring on our own on one of the 4-wheelers.

 A little while later the big 4-wheeler was back and available so the whole family went out for a ride.  I felt much better about this ride over Monty's ride with Mia because Monty could focus on driving and I could hold on to Mia.  Mia just sat there looking around and every now and again would say "Weee."

 We spent a lot of time just hanging out, talking, enjoying each other's company,

 And of course eating.

 The longer the day went on the messier Mia got.  She didn't mind a bit though.

 Nana brought some little water guns so we had a mini water fight going on.

 By about 3:30 Mia was pretty tired.  She decided to just lay down in the dirt to rest.  Silly girl.

 By the time we left everyone was exhausted.  But that was when the real adventure began.

 Sadly the naps didn't last very long.  Luckily we were in the back of the caravan on the way to dinner because about a half an hour down the road, Monty's parents truck blew a tire.  What I neglected to mention is that when they first got to the campground and got out of the truck they heard a hissing sound and saw a tire going flat so the spare tire was already on the truck when this one blew.

 So we emptied out our trunk into the bed of the truck, loaded the first flat tire into our car, I got out and Monty's dad got in and they headed into the big old town of Vernon, UT (population 200) that was 8 miles down the road.  Once Matt and Jen realized no one was behind them anymore, they turned around and came back to find the rest of us.
Jen and Sam took the blown tire off.

 While the rest of us sat around, supervised, and waited for the tire to come back.

  Luckily someone in the tiny town of Vernon was able to put a couple plugs in the tire.  They made it back with the tire, got it put back on the truck, and managed to make it the 8 miles to Vernon before to plug came out and the tire went flat again.  The wonderful nice family that fixed the tire in the first place let Monty's parents borrow a car to get home and to get a couple new tires and then made the hour and a half trip back to Vernon on Sunday to put the truck back together and get it home.

Kelly was kicked out of the truck and made the rest of the journey back to West Jordan in our car.  We didn't stop with everyone else in Vernon seeing as we had an exhausted and hungry 2 year old.  Luckily Mia had 2 aunts entertaining her for the ride home.

Unplanned adventures aside, we all had a great time.