Parties and Parks and the Zoo - Oh My!

Yo Yo! Another busy week has passed, and now that I am blogging, I am finding myself with a camera in hand more often. I hope you like pictures!!

Ari turned 18 months on Monday. It's hard to believe that much time has passed since we had her, but at the same time, it's hard to remember what life was like before she came. I love watching her learn and grow, and she makes Ryan and I laugh every day. She LOVES to be the center of attention, and will ham it up to get you to laugh. We feel so blessed to have such a sweet, loving girl, and I thank God every day for letting me be her mom. Anyway- moving along from the mushy stuff- if you've been around Ari at all you know she loves to go "'side." She likes to lean toward the door and point outside when she asks. It's very cute..... and convincing, especially when she adds a "please" into the mix. At home, she likes to look for dogs and cats in the neighborhood, or play in our cars, so we try to get her to the park as much as possible, hence all the park pics you're about to be barraged with. Also, cousin N had his first birthday party at a park on Saturday, which was super smart of Aunt M. Saturday was also Utah vs. BYU game day. We watched the game at Ryan's parents' (as usual). What a crazy game that was. I am surprised Ari slept though Mark and Ryan yelling at the the TV....

 Ari loves Uncle Braedon.... and balloons. 

She also likes slides. A lot.

 The birthday boy was nice enough to let Ari help him open his presents. She had a hard time not being the center of attention. The fact that he got his very own cake didn't help matters, either. 

 Girl loves her Grandma and Papa. (Can you tell it's game day and that we all bleed red?)

 Ari showing off the beautiful Play Dough necklace I made her while waiting for the game to start. 

Playing superman with Grandma (still waiting for the game to start....)

 Can you tell she loves her Grandma and Papa?

We also managed another trip to the zoo this weekend. We let Ari walk around for most of it, and I think she enjoyed it a lot more that way. It's also SO nice that the weather is cooler, so we're not a bunch of sweaty beasts by the time we leave.

 Right before we took this pic, she was standing in front of his nose. It went off and totally sprayed her in the face. She freaked out, but recovered quickly. That could have been ugly. 

She thought the Rhino was pretty awesome.

Ari pets all kinds of animals. Real ones, fake ones. She pet my head the other day, too. 

Riding on the wolf with Daddy.

Riding on the polar bear with Mom. She doesn't even act like she likes the merry-go-round, but then whines that she wants to go again as soon as she gets off. 

The whole time she's seeing the tiger she's yelling, "Kitty!! Kitty!!"

These are just a couple of random pics of our funny girl:

She kept putting her shirt on her head and trying to walk around. Yes- she ran into and tripped over things. Yes- Ryan and I are bad parents and laughed the whole time. 

Where's Ari?!?!?

"Boo!" There she is. This is one of her favorite games. :)

Welp, that was our week. Next weekend we are going camping/jeeping at Elephant Hill outside of Moab. I am excited, but it will be interesting to see how Ari does in a tent. My brother is coming out for the trip, too, so that should be fun. I promise lots of pictures from that adventure!