Easter

Saturday afternoon we drove from St. George to J's parents for Easter. Zuri loved her basket and loved the eggs, especially when the eggs had something in them and rattled!

We also celebrated Adilynn's second birthday (Adilynn is Zuri's cousin; Josh's sister, Maria, her toddler). Although Zuri didn't understand what was going on, she had a good time celebrating by playing with the balloons.



About a month ago, all the girls went up to Salt Lake and we got pedicures. We also went shopping, and Maria and I got matching Easter outfits for the girls. We had a fun time trying to get them to sit together and pose for pictures.


They had fun playing on the piano. Zuri loves anything musical. In fact, whenever any sort of music plays, she always stops and listens. It's really cute. We went outside for pictures on the trampoline. Zuri laughed and laughed when Adilynn jumped and bounced her. She really enjoyed playing on the trampoline!

Zions National Park

Friday we went to Zions National Park. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was overcast but not raining; cool but not cold. We had fun hiking and exploring. We saw several wildlife including deer and wild turkeys. I was excited about the deer; J was excited about the wild turkeys. He even took a two minute video of a male turkey courting two female turkeys. He was bummed he forgot his camera at the hotel, and did what he could with my camera which is why the turkeys aren't as clear. We are pretty sure that this is a bobcat track. My foot is next to the footprint to show relative size. There were other tracks but this one was the best. As per usual with Dad, we went exploring. We had fun with a little rock climb and following a dry riverbed.

Zuri loved the exploring, and did a little of her own.

On the trail to the Emerald Pools, the trail become stroller unfriendly (the shot above is from the waterfall at the middle pool). Not letting that stop us from our destination, Dad and J took matters into their own hands...

...and the princess fell asleep. She had such a cozy ride, and the highest pool was definitely worth the climb! It was by far the best of the three pools.

J waded into the river for this shot. The water was very cold and onlookers laughed as he came hopping out of the water.

St. George

We had a busy week! We went down to St. George Thursday and spent time at the temple. Dad watched Zuri while J and I went to a session on Saturday, which happened to be the only day we had bad weather. It was our first time at the St. George temple...it is so beautiful inside! There is also so much history about the temple that I didn't know until we got there. Lol, it's a lot like the Manti temple in that there are tons of stories that people love to tell!

Zuri had fun playing in the grass. She loves being outside and exploring. She zipped along the grass and had a blast until she did a faceplant. She didn't like the feel of the grass against her face. It was too funny. She was more careful after that.

Water Baby

Yesterday, Dad, Lana, Zuri and I all took a walk around Rock Canyon Park and the Provo temple. At the end of the walk we stopped at the fountain on the temple grounds and Zuri had a blast playing in the water. She absolutely loves water. I think she will be a swimmer like her Mama! Doesn't she look just like her Daddy? She was trying to crawl out of her stroller in this picture. It was so funny to watch her try to crawl up the back.

Zuri was fascinated by the water. She loved playing in it and watching the fountain as it spewed water. She loved when it started out low and went really high. She was soaked by the time we left!

The video was taken on my new camera, so there is no audio, but you can still see how much fun she is having!

Conference

Conference was awesome! We had a great time at temple square in Salt Lake over the weekend. Zuri did amazingly well on Saturday. Sunday she was more on the fussy side, but I attribute her fussiness to a lack of a morning nap. She finally fell asleep just before the last session of conference began and slept until President Monson's talk at the end.

Since it was snowing Saturday, we didn't do our normal picnic on the lawn. Instead we went inside the Joseph Smith Memorial building, in the Bonneville room, where they had tables set out and you could buy box lunches. They said we were welcome to bring outside food in, so we picnicked in style!

After the second session Saturday, Zuri, Arial and I were all going to drive back to Provo while the guys attended the Priesthood session, but we had a little adventure. As we were waiting at a light in traffic, a young woman rapped on our window and told us that we had a flat tire. I hadn't noticed anything unusual in the car's performance, so I thought it must just be a little low. The car was lopsided, but so was the street. Not long after, though, people started pointing and laughing at the tire. I got a hold of Josh and pulled over at the first opportunity. Yep, the tire was flat...and so was the spare; which we discovered after we got it on the car and the car jack got all bent out of shape. We made it on the spare to the gas station where we filled it with air and drove to the nearest tire place, which happened to be closed (and in the worst part of Salt Lake). We called Dave and Corie, who came to our rescue--they brought a tire patching kit and an air compressor, along with a jack. They show up just as the Priesthood session of conference ended. After all our waiting, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the first tire, it just needed air--there didn't seem to be a leak. Just our luck, right? So, we didn't make it home until after ten; so much for an early night.

Zuri had fun waiting in the car, though. She got to try her skills at window faces.

Sunday was beautiful but unfortunately I forgot my camera. I took the first two photos with my cell phone. After the last session of conference, we were sitting on the lawn by the mirror pool and playing with Zuri, waiting for traffic to clear out. Two different photographers came by and took pictures of us. It was pretty cool! Last conference, they took pictures of us inside the tabernacle before one of the sessions. Zuri is just a camera magnet!

We were sad to see conference come to an end; it always seems to go by so quickly. On the bright side, Dad is staying the week with us! We are planning on going to St. George Thursday and spending the weekend out there!

Eating Woes

We are still having issues with Zuri eating solids. She just doesn't want to eat baby food. She will eat our food just fine (what she can anyway) but when it comes to baby food, she just doesn't want anything to do with it. Some days are better than others. Just when it seems that she has finally started to like eating, she stops. So frustrating. I have read that some kids just don't like baby food but really take off when they start having table food. That would be so nice, but Zuri doesn't have any teeth, which means we still have to be really careful about what we give her. Anyone have any advice?? We have tried many different things. Ironically, one of the things that we have tried that seems to work (at least for a few bites each meal) is an adult fork.

As for other news; this weekend is conference, but also happens to be the Green Valley tennis tournament in St. George. This year will be the first year that we have missed the tournament. Usually the tournament is the second weekend in April so there are no conflicts, but because Easter is the second weekend this year, they moved the tournament up a week. We will be sad to miss it; J loves playing and we always have such a great time.

We are excited for Conference, though. We are looking forward to Dad spending a week with us instead of just the quick weekend. We go up to temple square both days to listen to Conference, whether we have tickets or not. There is something about physically being there that makes Conference more special.