You Might Want to Sit Down for This

Yikes.  I sort of took an {unintentional} blogging break  last week!  My brother was in town for my dad's birthday {and then his birthday too} and even though we didn't really go anywhere, the days were full of activity.

I realized last night as I loaded pictures onto my computer that there were things from a couple weeks ago that I hadn't put up here.  So, I'm going to try to do a quick little "catch all" post here while both my girls are snoozing peacefully.  {Please don't jinx it, please don't jinx it.}

+  A few weekends ago, David and I took the girls {along with my parents} to Papago Park for a little hike that turned into a bigger hike than my mom would have liked.  It was a gorgeous day and that little Olivia is so in love with hiking.  She is fearless and it continues to scare the crap out of me, but I love that she enjoys being active and being outdoors.

I took this picture for my friend Doug.  I just knew he would love the landscape.  

My little hiking partner.  I'm really going to miss this stage.  The one where she just sleeps on my chest while tucked away in the Ergo.  Father Time, slow down a bit please.

+  We went on a few adventures while Ryan was here.  The first of which was a trip to GolfLand.  This must be a place that all guys want to go to because when David first saw it off the interstate, he was all, WAIT!  What is that place?  I want to go there...NOW!  And, so I got him a gift card as one of our 12 dates of the year.  Anyway, last weekend we were trying to figure out where to go, if we wanted to go on a hike or find a playground, when my brother suggested GolfLand.  We left Mom at home and ventured out!  It was SO.MUCH.FUN.  We did a round of putt-putt where I think Ryan was the only one to keep score.  Olivia had a blast putting all of our golf balls in the holes.  There was a little jungle gym for her to climb in and the guys took her to play laser tag {not her favorite thing}.  While I fed the girls, the boys did bumper boats and they finished the evening with a trip around the race track.  I'm excited to go back for our date night in the next couple of months!

Sydney's onesie says I'm told I like golf.

David never did make it around Dad.

He may have won Putt-Putt, but he definitely did not win on the track.

Watching the boys race.

And a passed out baby on the way home.

+  One of the things that has been on my brother's Arizona bucket list is to eat at Pizzeria Bianco. Apparently Oprah and Gayle King claim that it's the best pizza ever.  I have also had a couple Hoosier friends boast of its awesomeness.  I guess it is super hard to get into because there is always a huge line and the place is super tiny inside, but my dad made reservations for us while my brother was in town, so we were all excited to go.  The place is SUPER cute - exposed brick, wood burning oven, eight tables max - but the pizza was definitely not the best.  It is a super thin crust, which for this carb lover is not my favorite type, and mine was a little on the charred side.  There just wasn't anything that made it really special.  The salad was good, but if I had to pay $16 AND wait 3+ hours for my burnt pizza, I wouldn't have been super happy.  Fortunately, I had some cute tablemates.

Don't believe the hype!

+  No trip of Uncle Rhino's is complete without a zoo day, so we headed out on Friday for a little animal adventure.  I'm sure I blogged about it somewhere, but the last time we were there with Ryan, we tried to get Olivia to go on the camel ride.  She and Poppy waited in line and the second they tried to put her on the camel she FREAKED out.  When she told her Uncle Rhino what happened, she said that she had cried the camel.  And, that phrase stuck.  Anytime she cried about anything {and trust me, that happens a lot around here}, it was Olivia cried the YadaYada.  Well, this time around, Olivia didn't cry the camel!  She actually got on and took that thing for a spin.  And, she loved it.

Woot Woot!

Little Miss Sydney eating her oatmeal under the big top.  

Side note:  Dear Target Dollar Bin bib, I see why you were just a dollar.

Olivia has been on a Dumbo kick lately {she especially loves the part where the stork brings the little animal babies to their mommies} and we were amazed to see an actual stork at the zoo!

Why yes, her outfit is a little cray-cray.

+  And, since we apparently didn't get our fill of animals on Friday, we headed off to the Ostrich Festival on Saturday for some good old-fashioned carnival fun.  My parents had told us about the Ostrich Festival before, but somehow I expected it to be more, I don't know, ostrichy.  It was basically like a huge carnival/fair.  There were some ostriches that we were able to see and they did have an ostrich race where people actually rode the ostriches, but that was about it.  Oh yeah, you could also buy ostrich burgers, but we've been there, done that.  

My brother took the two pictures above.  He's got mad skills.

Of course, she HAD to ride the pony while we were there.  And, wouldn't you know it, there were camel rides too.  

We kept trying to get her to put her arm up and do the cowgirl pose, but every time she passed by us she would say, There's no time for that.  We were cracking up trying to figure out what she meant.  I literally laughed out loud last night looking at these pictures remembering her saying that and asked her today what she meant.  She told me that the man who put her on the pony told her to hold on with both hands, so she wasn't able to put the other one up.  Glad she listens to somebody.

Thank God, an ostrich.

This little McMuffin was as good as gold the entire time.  After her nap in the Ergo, she was ready to see what the Ostrich Fest had to offer and squealed with delight at everything she saw.  Love her to pieces.  I swear this girl keeps me sane.

+  And, if you could tell from the pictures above, I dressed my girls in coordinating overalls.  LawdHaveMercy, it doesn't get much better than that in my book.  Oh wait, if they would both look at the camera at the same time and actually smile, it really would.  

More of these pictures to come.  

Mama needs a nap herself.

Thanks for sticking with me...

Happy Monday!