This is going to be the most pictures I have ever put in a single blog post. I just can’t narrow it down any more, there are too many cousins and too much cuteness.

During the summer, the Phoenix Zoo is only open from 7am – 2pm because of the heat. But we learned that members can go an hour early! We made a plan to get up and out the door and get there as soon as we could to try to enjoy the outdoors while the temperature was still in the 80’s.

Getting three kids up, fed, sun-screened, packed, and in the car is a challenge, but we managed to get to the zoo gates by 7:20am. Brendan had to stay home with his nurse this time. He wouldn’t have like the heat at all.

Kayla got to meet a Komodo dragon face to face

We almost had the whole zoo to ourselves. Yesterday was the first day of school for most of the local schools, plus the high temp was going to be 107 degrees. Going early today was a great idea.

Monkeying around!

Look familiar?

Trevor’s favorite part so far – watching a shovel truck trying to unearth a tree stump

This monkey is making a Trevor face

More monkeys

We went in to the squirrel monkey garden. The monkeys are running loose all around.

Trevor giggled every time a monkey jumped into a tree

We had prepped for the kids to play in the splash pads at the zoo. The bigger one is a pretty cool pad, but all of the water jets are on sensors that only run when it detects people. These three kids were not big enough to keep all the water running so it was a little less than full effect, like when it is packed with kids.
Trevor loved it anyway!!

The girls took turns chasing Trevor

This one duck made it up from the lake to beg for food

Once we got all dry, we headed to the petting zoo. Trevor bothered this little group of young goats and they would all blast off running. He would follow, giggling.

The girls were much more calm

Trevor loves peek-a-boo goats

You can’t visit this zoo without taking a picture in this shell

Turtle Ashley

Turtle Kayla

Giant spider!

Giant spider web!

Trevor giving the lion a kiss

The last thing we were able to do before it got too hot was to visit Stingray Bay. This was a perfect exhibit to see when there was nobody around. The stingrays all were in the mood to be pet.

For as much as Trevor loves water, he didn’t want to lie on the wall and stick his hands in the fish water

Kayla had a special friend, a large, light brown ray that she named “Kite”. It came around and would splash her and come out of the water and all but give her a kiss.

At 10:30, it was feeding time. You could buy little cups of fish and shrimp bits.

The rays were hungry!

Trevor was tired! He ran a few laps around the ray pool and then he just waited in his stroller.

Brendan had a good day and he was happy to see everyone this afternoon.
He was also happy to help anyone mash their potato tonight.

Ashley was very interested in helping Brendan get over his fear of touching things

Brendan surprised everyone by playing with this cone

The he hammered out the terms of an agreement with the dog

Trevor says, “Back away from my cone, dog”

We had a whole pack of tired kiddos tonight!

It took forever to pick which pictures to use today, there are so many!

This morning we stayed in and played with both boys. The girls came in from the trailer both wearing orange t-shirts, so we had to find orange shirts for the boys too.

They had too much fun in the ball pit

Even big kids can’t resist ball pits!

Tackle!

Who is wearing out whom?

The girls were very cooperative about getting a group picture. The boys – not so much.

They were happy to sit after all the silliness and watch ‘The Muppets’

After the most brutal part of sunburn time had passed, we went to the pool. We are very grateful to have a close neighbor with an awesome pool. Thanks, Bailey!

Dunk!

Trevor figured out how her spray wand worked, and he watered all the plants

Back at home, time to work on Daddy’s brains

Sunscreen/pool hair

Brendan is ready to serve up dinner again. Tonight it was popcorn shrimp. The girls had never had it because of their dad’s severe allergy. The verdict = Ashley thinks they are pretty good, Kayla did not like them.

Trevor ate about a pound of them

Trevor loves to steal Kayla’s sunglasses

And finally, a little montage of some of today’s silliness

Even though we had company, we couldn’t avoid Sunday morning grocery day. We had to stock up to feed the whole crew for the week. 🙂 We had to go to Sam’s Club too. I know three kids that were happy to go there and get a frozen coke. Trevor says “Coke!” when he sees these cups.

We ran all around, including stopping at Kohls for some killer deals. We put both boys down for their naps and then the girls made a break for the pool. It was 107 today but the pool water was nice and cool.

When the boys woke up, they watched the girls play some xbox

Then they opened their suitcase that Gramma sent

They both loved this fish bowl toy

The girls built giant towers of peek-a-blocks for the boys to crash. They had a blast.

We made Shake’n’bake chops for dinner with macaroni, applesauce and peas. Kids’ orders! Trevor had to chew on the pork chop bone, dipping it in applesauce and biting it.

The cousin party has been good. They are all warming up to each other, playing, being hyper and silly, and having a good time.