"We went on a date - a fun date."

Tonight Hazel and I went on a mother-daughter date. 

We called some friends and their moms and we all went to the Austin Ballet's production of Peter and the Wolf.

 

The girls thoroughly enjoyed it.  They cheered, they were a bit afraid of the wolf, they loved the way the duck danced.  After the performance, we met the dancers.  Hazel especially loved the cat. Hazel and her friends were dancing down the side walk afterward.

Then we went to dinner at Kerby Lane Cafe.  And we went for gelato at Central Market afterwards (nothing better than Central Market's bubblegum gelato).

Tracy Aviary

One of the outings we went on while we were in Salt Lake was visiting the Tracy Aviary. It is a small fun little place in the park.

We had lots of fun. Maddy came with us.

We saw some cool birds. We went to the bird show. There were a bunch of trained birds. The best was the golden eagle. I think the aviary has 3 or 4 golden eagles and at least 2 bald eagles. They are such powerful birds. When you see them up close they are pretty awesome.

I would definitely recommend going to the aviary. And when you get done, you can go to the playground and play, or run through the sprinkler park, or ride the ferris wheel at the mini adventure park, or have a picnic, or feed the ducks, or canoe on the duck pond, or go for a run around the park (nice place to run), or just lay on a blanket under the trees. My kids would have been happy to just be at the playground every single day.

The rains came down and the floods came up

Last Sunday our Stake held a fast for rain. Well, we now have some rain. Heavenly Father really has answered our prayers. A great side effect is better temperatures (around 85 rather than pushing 100 degrees). I love it.
Another nice blessing is the lesson we've been able to teach our children about the power of prayer and fasting, that Heavenly Father does hear us when we pray, and he gives us the things that we need.

These pictures are from a lightning storm we had a couple weeks ago. There wasn't any rain, just lots of lightning. And though it looks like it hit the fence right in front of me, it didn't. And it was dark not day time. The lightning just lit up the picture.

These two pictures were of the same strike (I love the rapid fire shutter on my camera:) But we did decide to go in soon after. The house behind us (that white one in the middle in these photos) was hit by lightning a couple nights before these pictures were taken. And 3 houses on our street have been hit as well. (one strike left a gaping hole in the front of a house down the street.) I think we must be on a slight hill. Anyway, we went in.

Glowing in the Dark

These are the funnest jammies ever!I saw them at walmart a couple weeks ago and got them for Hazel... just because...(Do you need a reason to buy cute jammies?) Anyway, I thought the little heart applique on the front and the heart shaped bones were cuteness enough. Then I put her in bed...
They actually really glow!!! And glow very brightly! Enough to light up her face under the covers! So check your walmart...$7 is a steal for fun, cute jammies. (I also saw some very similar ones at Gymboree tonight. but they didn't have the applique, and I can't vouch for their glowiness.)

EDTA: they also come in boy black that glows, as well as in sizes for infants!