Shenanigans

First; Catching up - Here are a few pictures of Jacey's 6th grade promotion from last month.

Jacey is in the middle, being recognized for community service.


Getting her diploma from the principal. Can you see how happy this lady is that she doesn't have to deal with Jacey's shenanigans anymore?!


Jacey and me.



Okay, some big news! We have a new baby nephew / cousin! Michael Dominick Ryan was born on June 18, 2008, weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs., 14 oz.! He's SO freak'n cute an we love him so much. Mommy and Daddy (Dena and Sean) are doing well. We took a trip down to see him when he was 10 days old. Killian and Payton just loved him. They pat his head, touched his feet, tried to give him cups of water and were very interested in his bottle! Here are a couple pictures of the new little dude.







Our 4th of July was pretty mellow. I had it in my head that we just had to do something "fun" during the day, so Chris and I decided to take Killian and Payton to the LA Zoo. My first choice would have been to go the Long Beach Aquarium, because it was supposed to be pretty warm, in the 90s, and the aquarium is mostly indoors so you stay cool on hot days. Well, that's like 45 minutes away on a good day. We decided not to take our chances with traffic on the 5 on a holiday, and we stayed local. The LA Zoo is less than 10 minutes from us. And I had free passes to the zoo that I got back in January when we were going to take K&P on their first birthday, but got rained out. So anyway, we were out the door by 11:30, and by the time we got to the zoo it wasn't too hot yet.

If you have never been to the LA Zoo, this place is a concrete jungle. There is NO breeze in the entire zoo, it's all uphill (I don't know how that's possible, but it's seriously ALL UPHILL!), and like 50% of it is under construction right now. (BTW; If you haven't been in over a year, they tore down the reptile house due to termite infestation! I suppose they are rebuilding it, but that was one of my favorite things there.) Okay, so we're in the pits of hell at the zoo, it's like 101 degrees, Killian and Payton are NOT happy that they have to get in an out of the stroller to see an empty lot of dirt where an animal should be but their not because they are smart enough to hide in their cool indoor eating area, and they are sweating and red and very very pissed (K&P, not the animals). I don't remember exactly what I said to prompt it, but Chris responded, "Do you want to leave?" and I jumped all over that! We were in and out of the zoo within an hour. Back at home by 1:00 in our air conditioned living room, popped in a DVD and did nothing for the rest of the day!

Note to self: Don't even think that taking K&P to the zoo is a good idea until they are at least 4 years old and it's exactly 68 degrees.

At 9:00 at night we walked outside to the sidewalk and watched the fireworks from the local high school. K&P actually liked them. They got bored with them about half way through, when they started being very interested in the other people standing around, a trash can, and a car across the street. No pictures were taken, no cute 4th of July shirts were worn. What is wrong with me? Am I losing it!? I'll make up for it on Halloween! :)

Here are some pictures of Killian enjoying some yogurt, and Payton with Jacey's shoes, to hold you over.