Easter, Birthday, Trips and More!

This past month has been crazy. Natalie and I have been back and forth to Utah twice, she is getting to be quite the experienced flier, and Patrick's mom and sister got to come and visit for Natalie's birthday. Here are some pictures and stories from our adventures.

So every month or so our zoo has a free day. We went with our neighbors at the end of March, of course it turned out to be a VERY cold day! We decided to save money by parking on the street (it costs $10 to park at the zoo). Anyways on our LONG walk to the zoo, Natalie got SOAKED and was crying because she was so cold, let me tell you I felt like mother of the year, luckily Bird had brought her daughter Myleigh and extra set of snow pants, just in case and was nice enough to share them with us! The zoo was pretty empty that day and the girls had a blast. On our way out Natalie and I liked it so much we decided to buy a zoo pass for the year, needless to say we got one that included parking.





Natalie pretending to be a gorilla by the gorillas.



Yes the cheetah's really are that close, their indoor exhbit lets you get up close and personal with the big cats. Natalie kept touching the glass and saying pet kitty.



Natalie has recently fallen in love with a website called starfall.com. It helps to teach kids their letters and sounds. My daughter who still won't watch TV EVER, will sit and play this game for at least a half an hour, too bad she can't figure out how to click the mouse by herself. It is a really cool website and she is always asking for her buh Bs as she calles it. (b was the first letter and sound she learned). In this picture she couldn't even wait to get dressed from her bath before she started playing.



A cute new dress she got from my mom for her birthday (early). Thanks, mom and dad!



We had all been home from our trips to Utah for a week and a half when we got a sad phone call, my grandma had passed away unexpectedly. Natalie and I got on a plane the next morning and spent a week in Utah with family reminiscing about my wonderful grandma and all of the things she had taught us and our favorite memories of her. It was a sad, but wonderful week full of new memories. My grandma was an amazing woman who will always be remembered for her love of cooking, selflessness and fun summers. The following pictures of are of Natalie and her cousin Josh, they are so cute.

A couple of days after returning from Utah we had Natalie's birthday party. We had it the day before Easter and had an easter egg hunt. The kids all loved it and really got into it, especially when they realized there was candy in the eggs. It was a very fun afternoon, thanks to all who came. When it came time to blow out candles we discovered Natalie is scared of candles, she was trying to get away from Patrick the whole time we were singing her Happy Birthday! By the end of the party Natalie was very tired and decided to chill out on the stairs (sorry the picture is sideways, I can't figure otu how to rotate it).

The next day was Easter and the Easter Bunny definitely spoiled Natalie and she enjoyed another easter egg hunt around our house. She loved the toys and looked so cute in her dress.

Natalie's Grandma Leiter and Aunt Lynsey came to see her and we had a fun-filled week of shopping, movies, the zoo, parks and eating out. It was a fun treat and Natalie had a great birthday, thanks for coming to visit. Natalie was so spoiled for her birthday thanks to great grandparents (both sides) she loves all of her presents. She spends hours building towers with her blocks and when we go on bike rides her favorite thing to do is sit on her bike and say "push-a-me". I can't believe Natalie is already 2, time flies so fast!

Tonight Natalie was going crazy and having so much fun jumpping on the couch. She was singing songs and having fun then saw the camera and pointed and said for grandma, so this is for the grandmas, Natalie wanted to share her fun with you guys, she misses you!

So our next goal with blogging is to not have such massive posts, we'll work on that, sorry if you got Natalie overload or got bored halfway thrlough.

Vacation

Patrick and I spent spring break separate, but not because we don't love each other. I flew down to St. George during Patrick's test week to see my sister's new baby "Anna." She is way cute. I have lots of pictures, of my trip to st. george but they are on our other computer I realized. So more to come. Anyway I spent a week in St. George and then met Patrick in Salt Lake where we spent a couple days together. We had some friends over to Patrick's house for dinner Sunday night. It was way good catching up with everyone. I then flew back to Monday, and my great husband was so excited to see me that he dropped me off at the airport early to get back for his tee time at Thanksgiving point with Jared and Tristan. I feel loved! He did, however, buy me a gift card to the cheesecake factory to eat avocado egg rolls. They are the yummiest if you haven't tried them. I had to fly to Milwaukee to work so my husband could play. He ended up going Golfing twice, Skiing three times, and Cafe Rio four times. I am glad he was so miserable being apart from me. He did say he is set on moving back to Northern Utah because "where else can you golf in the morning and ski in the afternoon?" We will see, its still a little too cold for me. Well anyway here are the pictures, mainly of Natalie with Patrick's parents I will try to interpret them the best I can.

Natalie drinking a slurpy with Grandma and Grandpa Leiter

Natalie playing with her Lion

This is Natalie playing at this really huge park by Patrick's parent's house called Discovery Park.

This is one picture of St. george, this was a way cool indoor water park we went to. Natalie wouldn't go in the water for 45 minutes, and anytime I came near her she told me to get back. Finally she entered when we put a life jacket on her. She then played for two hours.

Riding a pony at the petting zoo at thanksgiving point.

Grandma Leiter and Natalie

Natalie feeding the goats

Natalie was very brave, I was impressed when I saw these pictures

Natalie and Grandpa Leiter playing on their favorite bean bag

Grandma Leiter with her two favorite grandkids. Avery, actually, took his first steps yesterday.

This is a newer tunnel at snowbird, they blasted through the mountain to let you ski the back side. Apparently you ride on a conveyor belt.

This didn't load right, this is Natalie playing catch with Calli.

Natalie ate all of Patrick's pasta at the spaghetti factory. I am not joking, ALL of it. Patrick had to mooch off others for food.

Natalie with Mimi, her great grandma mele. Who flew out from denver to see her grandkids.

Natalie on the tire swing.

DONE

Exploring and Enjoying Wisconsin

After Christmas break and returning to the frozen land of Wisconsin we got adjusted to the cold again and then had fun exploring Wisconsin. On the extra cold days we keep ourselves entertained inside: Making Natalie sit while I practice new hairstyles, she does a very good job staying still for me.I also do projects at night when Patrick has to study. I made this to hold Natalie's bows:

At the end of January Patrick had tests and usually during the middle of test week Patrick will bring home Chipolte's for us to enjoy and to celebrate finishing some of his tests. Natalie loves the dressing that comes with the salad. Below is her drinking it out of the container and then her messy face. Natalie has some funny eating habits lately. She loves spicy taco soup, curry rice, black bean salsa and spanish rice. She definitely loves spicy food!

Then the weekend after test week it was actually warm sunny and 45! We took that Saturday and drove up to Greenbay, WI to see Lambeau Field where the Packers play. It was very fun to explore the field and take the tour. Here is Natalie playing peek-a-boo in the gift shop waiting for the tour, she is so funny.
Trying on the cheesehead, appartently back in the day the Chicago Bears fans used to call us cheeseheads to make fun of the Wisconsin fans, but instead the joke stuck and now the Packers are proud cheeseheads.

Natalie played pic-a-boo the entire tour and entertained everyone.

Here is a perfect example of why Lambeau Field is known as the frozen tundra.

Natalie performing the famous Lambeau leap!

There is a place called Mitchell Domes here in Milwaukee, they have biodomes that you can go explore with all kinds of interesting plants to see. This is a picture of Natalie looking at the trains and lego land in the show dome. This dome they decorate and re-do depending on the holiday. There is also a tropical dome and a desert dome, the tropical one is my favorite because it feels like it is 80, so nice!

Another day we went with some friends to a place called Monkey Joe's a place with huge blow-up toys. I was a little worried Natalie wouldn't like it, but she loved it! She had so much fun and was fearless even on the big slides, needless to say after playing 3 hours she took a good nap!

Natalie climbed up this huge slide all by herself, once, then the second time up she got too tired halfway up and started to yell "help, stuck."
After all that work she needed a break, so she found herself a chair and asked for water.

A couple of weeks ago for Family Home Evening we decided to try to mke sugar cookies with Natalie, she loved it. She thought it was so cool, she even liked to watch them cook.

This is what happens when you leave a 2 year old alone within reach of a bottle of lotion:
Lotion was everywhere, as you can see all over the table, the chair and herself, she thought she was pretty funny.

This past weekend Patrick and I had the chance to go on an impromptu date, our neighbors kindly watched Natalie while we went curling. It is actually really fun and there is a lot of strategy involved. The medical college had a club and so it was all free, even better, and they took time to give us private lessons since we hadn't been before. Then we jumped in and played a game. Our team actually won, despite my horrible ability to aim.

It doesn't look like it, but I am actually sliding across the ice. After this picture you let go of the rock and try to get it as close to the center of the target at the opposite side of the ice as possible. Very fun, we will try to go again soon! Well that is the update of what we have been up to in the last month. I will try to post more frequently instead of huge posts once a month. We have had so much fun exploring Wisconsin and doing all of the fun things to offer here. Now we just need it to warm up so we can explore the beautiful scenery around here!