An excellent article everyone should read:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/21/AR2010052101854.html?sid=ST2010052103072

Vacation Time: Visit Great Grandparents and the Temple

The Saturday before Kat and I headed to Las Vegas, we stopped by my mother's parents to say hello and introduce them to Jake. We often forget that many of our family still haven't met him. We wish we could visit more often. However, that's one reason why we blog. Every Saturday my mom's family gets together with my grandparents and have lunch and just hang out. We made sure we made a visit. Here are some highlights:

Jake really liked my aunt Betty's dog, Perry Mason:

Lily played dollhouse with her Great-Grandma:

We got to meet my darling 1st-cousin-once-removed, Kaitlyn (sp?):


Then we headed over to the Salt Lake Temple, where Kat and I were married. Lily loves to see temples, and we like to see her love the temples :)


Lily really enjoyed playing at the fountains, even if she couldn't go in the water. Jake wandered all over.

Vacation Time: Children's Museum

We had a blast at the Children's Museum in Salt Lake in Gateway Mall. Lily and Jake and family went with Ty and Cody and Aunt Becca. The kids learned several new, important trades:

Filling the car with gas

Cashiering


Housekeeping

Horseback riding

Stuffing plastic balls into pneumatic tubes


Architecture

Helicopter Piloting (Ty was especially excited about this, and had a difficult time relinquishing the controls to other pilots-in-training


Slide building (okay, I actually spent most of my time making this. The kid in me just had to come out)

Earthquake damage prevention

Newsanchoring (hot news anchor!)

After we parted ways, Kat had to stop into a store so Lily and I went to the water works. She loved it.

Vacation Time: Lily's Birthday

We kicked off Lily's 3rd b-day in style with a walk to the park while we awaited the arrival of all the guests. Here is a shot of Kat carrying Jake:

I managed to capture a rare shot of a collection of Kat's family sitting around:

We returned back to my parents' house and ate pulled-pork sandwiches, hot dogs, and opened presents. Lily got lots of volunteers to help her from cousins.

We also celebrated the birthday of her uncle Ryan and Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day, Kat. You are the world's best Mom!

Vacation Time: Zoo and LES

And on the second day, our family went to the zoo ... and we visited LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Lily, Ty, and Cody ran around a lot.
Lizzy had a good time, too. Then she ran off and we had to hunt for her for about 10 minutes. Uncle Jake found her at the Rhinos.
Floyd and Floyd just chilled.

Jake liked the Cougar statue at LES, but Lily got scared.

Lily ended up getting lost at the zoo, too. She had been riding with Shannon (my sister) in her wagon, and after leaving the playground and heading to the cars, we thought Lily was still with my sister. When my dad showed up, he asked where Lily was. We told him she was with Shannon. "No she's not," my dad said.

Kat and I both ran back to the zoo. Fortunately, she was still in the playground, assuming everything was fine. We think she climbed out of the wagon after Shannon started heading back to the car. We're so thankful Heavenly Father hears our prayers we offer daily for protection over our children.

The animals (or photography show off moment):

Lily, now that she's three, is a monster when she gets tired. You see the proof.
Sorry about not focusing past the fence, but I wasn't using macro, and couldn't get close enough with my standard lens.
I really enjoyed shooting the elephants. Har har har.
Ty is awesome. This pictures makes it obvious. He treats Lily great.
Turtles rock, Dude! So do ... tortoises.

Vacation Time: Park

I took finals early so we could fly out of town on Tuesday, instead of Wednesday or Thursday, and we have tried to fill our time with lots of fun things. On Wednesday morning we went to the park:

Grandma Crosby went slightly mad the moment we arrived.

Lily tried to hit on a couple of girls walking a dog.

Kat just stood around and looked hot.

And Jake tried to run away.

MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

The National Enquirer is reporting the following story:

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/obama_cheating_scandal_vera_baker_video_/celebrity/68589

Before you dismiss this, keep in mind they also broke two other now infamous scandals:

1. John Edwards
2. Tiger Woods

Here's the bulk of the story:

While (Vera) Baker has insisted in the past that "nothing happened" between them, the ENQUIRER has learned that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

Among those being offered money is a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous where the President was staying.

On the condition of anonymity, the limo driver said he took Baker "from a friend's home in the DC area to the Hotel George where I learned later that Obama would be spending the night."

The driver recalled that he "waited in the lobby while she went to change her outfit.

"But to the best of my knowledge she did not have a room at the hotel and she was not staying there so I thought that it was a bit odd."

The driver said he then picked up Obama at the airport and drove both he and Baker to various locations while he was campaigning for funds. Vera accompanied him to each meeting.

"About 10:30 PM, I drove them to the hotel and they went in together!"

"My services for the evening were done - and there was no indication she was going to leave the hotel that night."