Zoo Day

We went to the Hogle Zoo earlier this month. Last summer we took Claire but she wasn't interested in the animals. She was however, more interested in other kids and rocks. Well this time was... well... very similar. She really enjoyed the walk around the zoo and swinging on bars, but she would barely glance at the animals before wanting to move on to whatever was next that she could climb on.  

The polar bear was new this year and it was actually pretty cool. It swam right up to the window and started doing flips in the water right next to us.

We ended the day with the traditional monkey comparison pictures. So funny. :) It was a warm day so afterwards we stopped by Sonic and got slushies. I think that was Claire's favorite part. It was a fun day. :)

merry birthday to me

it has taken me a little bit to get this blog posted, but i definitely need to get it up and express my gratitude. i am so thankful for such a wonderful wife and precious little girl who every year help me forget that i am getting old and replace those thoughts with priceless memories. :)

this year my beautiful wife got up nice and early and made me a delicious breakfast. after that, i got to go on a treasure hunt! amber gave me a birthday card that began me on the trail to other clues that would be put together to make a map that would lead me to my birthday presents. the clues were so clever and well done. my wife is so creative. :) i did okay at solving the clues, but i quickly learned that i am a horrible searcher. i would usually go to the right place to find the clue, but i almost always couldn't find the next clue. amber had to, on more than one occasion, prompt me to look again. well after i finally found all the clues i put the map together and eventually found my presents hidden outside on the deck. it was a really fun hunt. :)

this is my dora the explorer "i did it!" dance. :) 

later that afternoon, grandma watched claire so that amber could take me out to a movie. after the movie, we picked up claire and went to brick oven pizza for dinner. then that evening we had cake and ice cream. it was such a fun day. i really am so lucky to have such wonderful girls in my life. i sure do love them.

millie's blessing

it seems like it has been forever since my family has been all together. i'm glad babies can keep us in touch. thankfully my brother kyle and his wife courtney provided us with another reason for all the brysons to get together. on april 17th, my niece millie was born, which meant we would all be gathering for the little angel's baby blessing. and this time, everyone was there with the exception of one brother-in-law. that meant my parents, all 7 of us siblings, 4 spouses, 13 and a half grandkids (14 in late august), 1 grandma, 3 of my aunts and their spouses, and 7 cousins, for a grand total of 40 of us. fun.

we headed up to ogden on friday evening and met up with everyone for dinner. claire was a little shy seeing everyone, but after we got a little dessert in her, she had fun putting on a show. she enjoyed swinging on this handrail outside the restaurant.

 we checked in to our hotel later that night. we were a little worried about her sleeping in the hotel, but she did pretty good. better than we expected at least. she definitely got to stay up a lot later than she normally does. i think she'll be a night owl like her daddy. :)

 the next day began with the guys going off to play some football at a local park. after that, everyone gathered at the orem aquatics center for some swimming and lunch. if you didn't know, you should - claire loves the water! she particularly loved the slides. after tiring daddy and mommy out, she enlisted the assistance of some cousins, aunts, and uncles to go around with her.

after some swimming, we went over to the pavilion for some lunch, cake, and some presents as we celebrated my nephew austin's, my mom's, and my birthdays. little millie seemed to sleep through most of it (or pretended to at least so she didn't have to put up with all the cheek pinching), but we did get a picture with her eyes open. and as much as i love our little claire, she has some scary water-shriveled feet. :)

we went out for dinner, and then headed to the church to play some before bed. the next day we all gathered in church for the blessing, then met together at courtney's parents house for lunch. we socialized and played games for the rest of the day. on monday, we drove down to salt lake to go to the new mall. claire loved the fountains and got a little wet playing in them. :) we then bid the elliotts goodbye as they headed back to colorado. the rest of us made our way down to provo for dinner before we were forced to say goodbye to the texas crew.

it was a wonderful weekend that went by way too quickly, as wonderful weekends tend to do. claire got to know a bunch of her extended family a little bit more. it's so much fun seeing her play with her cousins. i'm glad she will always know she has such a wonderful (and hugely extensive) support system of loving family members. we truly are blessed.

go fly a kite

a couple of months ago, amber and i put together a small list of all the potential fun summer activities we wanted to do. whenever we have a free day this summer, our hope is to try to check one off the list. it's kind of like the 25 days of Christmas thing we did back in december. we have recently blogged about some of the activities we've already done this summer, including our trip to the aquarium, miniature golf, and our annual trip to the tulip festival. some of our smaller fun activities that we've had a chance already to do include sidewalk chalk, feeding the ducks, and hitting up the spanish fork splash pad. our most recent checkmark was kite flying, which is a first for us as a family.

we first went over to walmart to get a kite. the choices were pretty slim, but we eventually found a cute pink cinderella kite. we then headed over to rock canyon park, had a picnic, played at the park for a moment, then went out to the big field so claire could fly her very first kite. :)

it wasn't quite as windy as we were hoping for, but claire got her kite up and soaring. she seemed to have a good time flying the kite, but she seemed to have a lot more fun just playing with the little pink kite tail. well, we definitely had a lot of fun watching her run around. it was quite the enjoyable day. we hope the rest of the summer will be nearly as fun with lots more checkmarks to come.

Tulip Festival

Still trying to catch up on blog posts...

A few weeks ago, we made a trip to Thanksgiving Point to see the Tulip Festival. We took Claire last year and even though Scott and I really enjoyed it, I don't think she appreciated it as much as we did. This time was a lot more fun. Claire enjoyed walking around and she would point out the butterflies and birds to us. At the beginning of our trip she would reply "pitty" in response to us pointing out the pretty flowers.

She really liked the Secret Garden. There was a fountain inside, and Claire loved touching the water and splashing. :)

Lunch time! :)

I'm sure the best part for Claire was the Children's Discovery Garden. It had music areas with toys to bang around on and an area specifically for playing in the water. We were a little disappointed that the splash pad part wasn't on, but Claire didn't seem to mind. :)

This year was so much fun and I'm sure the next times we go it will just keep getting better and better. :)

Heidi's Farewell

Our April family get together was extra fun with more family visiting for Heidi's farewell. We had family come earlier in the week, but on Saturday we had Mom and Dad, Lindy, Lia, Heather, April and their families, and also Heidi and Daniel. It was a big group. We went to the park nearby for lunch and then we fed the ducks and played a game of tag. It was a lot of fun.

The next day at church, Heidi gave her talk, we all sang a musical number "Dare To Do Right", an arrangement that Lindy wrote, and we then had a nice lunch all together after church. On Tuesday Heidi was set apart as a missionary for the church and we then had to say goodbye to Heidi on Wednesday when she was dropped off at the MTC. I'm so excited for Heidi and I know she'll make a great missionary! :)

Family Outings

We have had a few events that have kept us pretty busy lately, so this is just the first blog post out of many soon to come...

A few weeks ago, the Betts decided to go miniature golfing during their spring break. They invited us to come with them. Claire enjoyed hitting the ball a little with the putter, but after a couple strokes would just end up picking up the golf ball and dropping it into the hole herself. After dropping the ball she would throw up both arms and yell something that sounded a whole lot like "I did it!. 

Claire loved spending the time with her cousins. :) 

 A week later we went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We had heard a lot about this place and it didn't disappoint. We saw otters, penguins, sharks, turtles, fish, and numerous other animals.

  I don't know if Claire realized the otter was right there, but she was excited to see me. :)

Claire seemed really interested at the beginning and was excited to see all the fish, but she let us know when she was done. :)