Our Little Larsen Family: August 2011

Last Saturday we decided to take our annual trip to the Hogle Zoo. So the four of us piled in the car with Grandma and Uncle Mikey and all our stuff for the trip down to Salt Lake. It was such a fun day (and very, very hot!) and Rylee was a very good girl despite her three-year-old tantrums. Jayden celebrated his first trip to the zoo by sleeping most of the day away in the stroller and snuggling with his first ever zoo souvenir (a plush dinosaur).

Rylee had decided early in the week that she wanted to see the elephants first, so we headed over for our traditional "zoo pictures".

After the elephants we walked back up to take our ride on the train. This was the first year we had been on the train (they closed it last year before we got a chance to ride) so it was fun to see all the different parts of the zoo we hadn't seen before.

Then we made the rounds to see the monkeys, giraffes, rhinos, dinosaurs and all the other animals. We also stopped to see the bird show. Rylee is still talking about the birds flying around and around our heads. She had such a fun time dragging daddy, Mikey and Grandma all over the zoo to see the different animals and she was even in a good enough mood to let me take all of these pictures. We had such a fun time!

Ry and Daddy looking at the monkeys

Ry checking out a dinosaur fossil

Jayden chillin' in the stroller

She was amazed by all the different animals running around

Rylee kept asking to go back and see this "pretend" monkey

We had to have a group shot on the dinosaur

Ry and Mikey being gorillas

Daddy, Ry and Mikey checking out the orangutangs

Grandma, Ry and Daddy taking a break

Mikey and Ry by the biggest dinosaur

Ry and Mikey watching the giraffes

Jayden's first trip to the zoo - just a couple months older than Ry was on her first trip

Grandma and Rylee waiting for the bird show to start

His "What are you doing to me?" look

Looking at the bugs

Jayd always has big smiles for daddy

Daddy showing Ry how the magnifying glass works

Happy boy with mama

Ry riding the wooden horsies

Ry and Daddy riding the wooden horsies

Digging for fossils in the sand pit

Of course, no trip to the zoo is complete without a souvenir. Rylee picked a purple monkey this year and she helped Jayden pick an orange dinosaur! Then after we left the zoo we got to have Grandma's favorite part of a zoo trip: dinner at Applebee's!!

This is definitely one of our favorite summer traditions and we were excited to bring Jayden along for his first time this year!! It is so fun to watch Rylee's enthusiasm and understanding change each year we go and I can't wait for Jayden to be old enough to get excited for the animals, too.

Another part of the tradition is my mom and Rylee's picture by the elephants. My mom will probably kill me for putting these up here, but I think the whole world should see how amazing she looks!