A Day with Pa Pa at the Fort Worth Zoo

Grandpa took all the grand kids minus Taylor to the Fort Worth Zoo today. It is one of the top 5 zoos in the nation and it was pretty fun except for the 100 degree heat. The pictures in this post are in reverse order, and there are a lot of them.

Abigail and Thomas crashed 5 minutes down the road coming home from the zoo.

Elizabeth got another shiner on the other side of her head while we were in the zoo. I am afraid she may have her mother and grandmother's klutz gene.

A 7 foot rattle snake.

Kangaroos

Birds, Birds, and More BirdsFeed The Birds

Lion

Asian Elephant

Pumba

Rhino
My favorite

The grandchildren

Thomas, Abigail, Andrew, Elizabeth, Emily

Water Works

The water park in Denton is about one mile from my parents house. Every Friday, they have splash story-time sponsored by the Denton Public Library. They read a story at the water park and then the kids get to play for one hour. The best part about it is that it is FREE. We met cousins at the water park and had a blast.

Elizabeth and cousin Liliana

Elizabeth is working on her tan.

Listening to stories.

Abigail has lots of fun with her Texas cousins: Trevin, Brendan, and Liliana.

The Frank Buck Zoo

We went to the Gainsville Zoo with Grand Nan. I remember going to that zoo when I was little, it is the perfect size for little children and they loved it.

They had a little train that went around the park. Perfect size and length for the kids.

More Texas Fun

This weekend we went to the Bass Hall in Fort Worth to see Little House on the Prairie the musical starring Melissa Gilbert. It was great! I love musicals and it was really neat to see Melissa Gilbert as Ma this time instead of Laura. The girl who played Laura had an amazing voice and the story was so cute and reminds me of my own circumstances in Rockland. I wish it was showing in Salt Lake so I could take Darin to it, but they are staying in the south for a while.

We ate at Joe's Crab Shack before the play. Yum! So many restaurants, so little time.

Dear Pocatello

Dear Pocatello,
We need Super Target. I promise I would shop there weekly.
Thanks,
Target's biggest fan - Misty

Dear Pocatello,
Please get rid of all of your Artic Circles and Taco Johns and put the following fast food restaurants in their place. I am not a huge fan of fast food, but these have to be my favorite and Pocatello doesn't have any of them.

Howdy Yall

Wow the last 10 days have been a blurr! We are in Texas now, well Darin has already gone back to Idaho and we have been running since we arrived. We are having a blast and have kept ourselves very BUSY! Here is a re-cap of the last 10 days.

We left for Texas, where it is 100 degrees in the shade on May 29th, we drove through every season in two days. It was quite the trip 1500 miles in 24 hours.

First things first, Heather, Mom, and I went on a shopping spree and got our hair and nails done. We were all starting to look pretty rough around the edges, and now we feel much better.

Our family got pictures taken by my friend Heather Ferguson. More about that to come.

This is Why We Came!

We had a crazy day of swimming registration on June 1st and started lessons today. Stocker Swim School here we come! We still have spots available, so if you are in the area, go to our website www. stockerswimschool.com We were able to attend the baby of the family's graduation. Harrison graduated from Denton's Ryan High School. He had about 350 in his class and was recognized as a Texas All-State Academic Football Team and he also recieved superior ratings on his All-State Ensemble. YEA! Harrison.

We have visited with all kinds of friends, inlaws, and outlaws and enjoyed a few of the following things: Abigail and I went to a voice recital at UNT. My professor of voice gave an awesome Chamber Recital and I was so happy to go. It was beautiful.

We went with Eric's family to Bonkers. It is a really cool indoor play area with jungle gyms, bounce areas, and arcades. It was only $3.00 per person, so a pretty good price. I have decided that Pocatello needs one.

We had fun at Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Andrew's birthday and give the kids a place to blow off some steam.

Fun At Grand Nan's House

The girls have played hard at Grand Nan's house and the end of the day usually results in a few exhausted little girls. The twins and Abigail love Grand Nan's sand box.

Grand Nan took the girls swimming and off came their swimsuits (not Grand Nan's of course). The girls had fun with their first skinny dip!

Darin got to go to Six Flags Over Texas with the guys. He had fun bonding with some of the guys on Misty's side of the family that he had never met before. I think Lonny, Thomas, Andrew, and Harrison had a blast with Darin and they got to ride lots of the BIG BOY rides cause they went on a Wednesday. Darin and I were able to get a session in at the Dallas Temple. This temple is special to us cause it is where Darin and I were married 7 years ago for time and all eternity.

We have eaten very well since we've been here. We enjoyed a Crawfish Boil at Aunt Helen & Uncle Richard's house and some good ol' Texas BBQ. YUM YUM!

Kindergarten Graduation

Abigail has officially completed Kindergarten and she is still alive and her teacher is still alive. I consider this quite the accomplishment.

This is Mrs. Taysom's last year teaching. She is retiring after Abigail, I don't blame her! Abigail's class was a very high energy class, they wanted to send Mrs. Taysom out with something to remember them by. Mrs. Taysom's first year teaching was 1981-1982, which happens to be the year Darin was in Kindergarten. She had Darin her first year teaching and Abigail her last year teaching. It isn't often that parents and kids are taught by the same teacher. Abigail had a great year and loved kindergarten and it was because of Mrs. Taysom. Yea, Abigail!

Little Piggies

These are the latest addition to our farm. We will raise them all summer. I like pigs cause they eat everything, they aren't picky eaters.

Lost My Groove

The girls and I were having a dance party to a few Black-eyed Peas songs and we were each taking a turn doing a solo. When it was my turn to do my solo, I got up to dance and Abigail said, "Mom, I think you need to do your dance in the dark!" She promptly turned the lights off. Was I really that bad? Am I officially a mom that can't be seen in public with her five-year old? Mind you we weren't in public, but she certainly had seen enough of my Boom Boom Pow.

Elizabeth's Shiner

Elizabeth took a tumble off the porch yesterday and got this beauty. It actually looks much worse in person. It instantly got pretty swollen and pretty much ruined the rest of Elizabeth's day. At least she did this on her own and wasn't pushed off the porch by one of her sisters and I am grateful that we didn't have to take another trip to the ER. Elizabeth is pretty tough though and after the initial shock, some Motrin, and an ice pack, she went back to playing a little more cautiously for the rest of the afternoon.

Gardening Season Has Begun

We were able to start planting our garden yesterday. The girls love working in the garden, and the soil is so great! It is soft and rich and easy to work in. We planted raspberries, strawberries, potatoes, onions, and peas and there is much more to come in the next few weekends. Planting Peas

The garden is like a big sandbox.

The dirt is so soft it just squishes between the toes. Abigail loved planting the potatoes.

Happy Mothers Day to Me

So, I decided that I would potty train the twins this weekend as a mothers day gift to myself. I noticed that I had five days on the calendar that had hardly anything scheduled on them, so I decided now, is the time. I think the twins are ready, we just needed a few days that I was willing to be home bound to get the job done. We started off the day by me showing the twins their potty, big girl panties, and their sticker chart. I gave them a sippy of juice and turned on Elmo's Potty Time movie. We then, tried to go and it worked, they were so proud to put a sticker on their chart and get a chocolate chip to eat. I have a bowl of chocolate chips on the top shelf for them to have after they have gone and washed their hands. It is noon right now and they have attempted to go about 10 times and they have had no accidents so far (cross your fingers). Man, will this be a great mothers day if I can say good bye to diapers and hello to pull-ups. By the way, we don't use pull-ups for potty training. I just have them wear pull-ups if they are going to take a nap or go to sleep. My kids have never taken the time to stop what they are doing to go potty if they are in a pull-ups. It is too convenient for them to cheat.


Emily is really trying in this picture, she wants to get as many stickers as Elizabeth.

So proud of their sticker chart!