Day 4 and Oliver is not feeling well...

Unfortunately, Oliver woke up crying and acting as if he didn't feel well this morning. I fed him breakfast and he seemed to be feeling better, so after I consulted with my best friend (with whom we had scheduled a play date), we decided to go to the park and try to play. Oliver was fine at the beginning and went downhill shortly thereafter. It was fun to see her and her youngest daughter Alexis! Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to come play with us for a while! :)

Playing at the park

feeding the ducks

starting to not feel well again

Alexis turned two a couple of days after these pictures were taken, so they are just about 10 months apart. She is adorable!

Oliver waiting patiently on the sidewalk for more pics

Lexi didn't like this position

She didn't even want to sit there with her Mom. She wanted to slide, so took the kids over to the slide and Oliver got really sad.

Oliver had had enough and here Lexi is glaring at him like what's your problem. I thought this one was so sad and funny at the same time!

Here is the best one of them on the slide

And here are the four of us courtesy of a nice lady in the park

Several hours later, Oliver had had a nap and woke up feeling 100% better. So my sister Michele came to my parents and we all went out for dinner to Sweet Tomatoes. It was so yummy! I have never been a fan of Sweet Tomatoes, and I really don't know why. I'm reformed and I love it!

If you know me well, you know I will do anything to get the kids I love to laugh. Here are some pictures I took of myself at dinner to make Emily laugh. Go ahead, you can laugh too. I know you want too! :)

Here are the kids making me laugh! :)

some cute, non-silly pictures

On the way home, we were stopped next to some kids at a light. They had their windows down, their music loud, and they were dancing kind of crazy to the music. We all were amused and my Mom started doing it too. Oliver thought Grammy was funny, so he tried it too. I had to get it on video! :)

watering Grammy's flowers

Oliver & Grammy together

Chinese and ATV's

Day three in SLC was a lot of fun. Oliver and I went to lunch with my brother and his family at The Asian Star. The food was good, but the company was a lot better. Debbie was so cute to play I Spy with Oliver and Savannah and Oliver had fun playing with each other too.

This is my sister Debbie. She is an awesome photographer and she is always behind the camera, so I never get any pictures of her...but this time I made sure I did! :)

After lunch, Oliver and I spent some time playing at the Richard's house. We had so much fun and we were lucky enough to get a private concert of the songs Riley and Olivia were singing at their recital that night. They both did awesome! Here is a video of Oliver trying out the microphone.

Oliver and Preston had fun wrestling a little, Preston was so gentle with him!

Oliver trying out their train that Riley got for his 2nd Christmas. That train has seen a lot of track in its long life and it's still moving!

Playing tractors with Preston

Love this picture!

Aren't we so cool??

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That night Gramps pulled out the ATV and took Oliver and I for a nice slow ride. I love, love, love this picture!

Posing for pictures

My whole fam went to the zoo!

Well almost the whole family. Unfortunately, Clayton, Debbie and Travis weren't able to make it, but everyone else was at the Hogle Zoo for about 15 minutes at the same time. We had such a great time seeing everyone...oh ya, and the animals too! :) I have so many memories of this zoo from when I was a child, so it was fun to take Oliver back here!

the kids were fascinated by this spinning water ball at the entrance of the zoo

This huge elephant makes noise and spits water at random. Oliver did not like it and he didn't want to sit on it, nor did he want me to sit on it. Aunt Shell gladly cooperated for a picture! :)

Some of our favorite animals at the zoo

Savannah and Oliver planning something at the zoo

Madi wanted Gramps to hold her, I thought this was sweet!

I don't know how many times I turned around and Savannah was carrying Oliver. They were good buddies at the zoo today!

Oliver loved having a picture map. He pointed out the animals that he really wanted to see and we went for them! His picks were the zebras and the Madagascar exhibit.

Preston, Oliver and Savannah doing some more map reading

I thought these three were so cute together!

Look at Madi, so grown up!

Taking a break in the Giraffe house.

Three generations: my brother Jerone, my mom and Jerone's oldest Riley

Doesn't Oliver look terrified in the bottom left picture? He really wasn't that frightened, just timing on the picture I guess! :)

The last thing we did at the zoo was watch the bird show and that is when April and her kids came. Luckily Oliver took this picture of Alex. Unfortunately we only saw them for about two minutes our entire trip.

Madi, Emily, Oliver and I were the only ones brave enough for the Madagascar exhibit. Really, the others were just tired and so we hurried and went in while the others walked to the gift shop! :)

Such a cute picture of Oliver with three of Michele's girls: (left to right) Emily, Avery, Oliver & Madi

After the zoo we went back to my sister Michele's house. Oliver loved meeting Madi's new bunny named Hopper.

Michele and Travis took Madi to a school open house, and I got to play with Layla. She was so tired from the zoo that she thought this tummy time position was cozy enough to sleep in for a while! :)

And last, here is a video of Oliver attempting the Hula Hoop. Too cute not to share!

A flying we will go...

Oliver and I took a quick trip to SLC last week. We had a great time seeing my family!

Oliver & Daddy goofed around a bit in the empty space before we had to get checked in through security

Oliver did so well on the plane. This is the first time he has sat in his own seat the entire time. When we flew to SLC last December, the flight attendants allowed him to sit in my lap as he was upset about the seat belt. We had an aisle and a middle and the nice lady next to Oliver let him look out the window about half way through.

Grammy & Gramps picked us up at the airport and we headed to Sandy. They had some fun cars waiting for him, and crazy enough, neither of them made it home with us.

Oliver Clayton Royal is Thirty-Four Months old

I can hardly believe that his little guy will be three years old in just a couple of months! He has so much personality and is so inquisitive. He spends most of his days asking who, what, why, where or how and I spend most of my days answering those questions. We have even included a special question and answer session to our nighttime routine which has a definite stopping point so he can actually get settled down enough for sleep. I can't imagine stopping these months photo sessions even when he is three, so you may just keep seeing them indefinitely! :)

I had to throw this picture of him in. He was all sprawled out on the chair and ottoman relaxing while I was cleaning. So cute!