Riverbanks Zoo

So yesterday Lilli and I were able to go to the Columbia, SC Riverbanks zoo with some friends. Unfortunately, Ben wasn't able to come with us.  He had to work.  But we had a blast!!!!  We got to see the elephants, lions, bears, and we got to feed the giraffe's and goat's.  Lill loved it!  She wasn't scared of the animals at all.  When the giraffe stuck out its tongue and grabbed the lettuce, Lilli laughed so hard.  She didn't pull away or anything.  Same thing with the goats.  I wish that I had gotten some pictures of that.  It was funny!  We also were able to get up close and personal (minus the big glass wall between) with the gorillas.  We watched them being fed.  Lilli kept yelling, "Gorilla!!  Come here!"  and kept putting out her hands, moving her fingers for them to come to her.  It was cute.  We both had a lot of fun seeing all the animals.  I think I had more fun watching Lilli's reaction to the animals.  

hkfdsxju9jim9uju9mzcghfdcx   c (this is Lilli gibberish, she wanted to type something so here it is)

We had a really great day and enjoyed spending it with really good friends, but we missed having Ben there to spend the day with us! 

Pictures of our fun day!

This is Lilli playing with the flowers (dandelions) in our backyard.  She wanted me to put them in my hair too, so of course, I did.  I love this picture!

Here she is throwing a fit because, well...........I can't remember why exactly.  She was probably mad because I wouldn't let her do something or I got after her for doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing.

This was after her little tantrum of banging her head against the door over and over again.  She's all spaced out.  It was funny!  Look at her face!!

She's looking at her ouchy.  She had fallen a couple of days ago and scratched her knees (both of them).  Well, yesterday I caught her scribbling on her ouchies with pen.  So she's looking at that.  Little stinker!  She's already taken a pencil to the wall.  She hasn't done it since (knock on wood), but she likes to draw on her body.  Drives me nuts!

Fun Day!

So today was a pretty fun day!  This morning I took Lilli to story hour at the library.  She loved it.  At the end, they sang this song with actions and she was right up there trying to do the actions.  The lady that was telling the stories was laughing at her.  Lilli actually did pretty good.  Then we came home and I HAD to clean the house.  It was gross, so I did that while Lilli was running in and out of the house in the back (telling Sid what to do).  Ben left for work after about an hour into her nap, so I had time to really clean and eat and take a little break.  When she woke up we spent a lot of time outside.  She was picking these dandelions we have in our back yard and rubbing them on her head, of course making her head all yellow.  I put three in her hair, one on each side of her head, and then one on top.  I have pictures I'll post later. It was really cute.  Then I gave her a popsicle, that she got all over our carpet (I was folding laundry in our bedroom during all this) so I had to clean up that mess.  I don't know why I thought this day was so fun but it was.  I'm pretty sure Lilli had fun too.  We played with her toys and read books.  It was just a good, fun day!!!!!  What a sweet little girl I have!  I feel really lucky!!

Married 3 1/2 years

This was taken when we went on a boat ride in the San Francisco Bay, about 3 years ago (I couldn't get one of our wedding photos uploaded, sorry).

We were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple (my favorite temple).

What is his name?  Benjamin Scott

How long have you been married?  We have been married almost 3 1/2 years.  Our anniversary is December 18th.  Wow!  

How long did you date?  Well, we first met my sophomore year at BYU-Idaho (almost 6 years ago).  At one point he had a big crush on my roommate (they hung out a lot, just as good friends though), and I was dating one of his roommates for a while.  There was also a time where he was trying to set me up with one of his friends from his ward.  We were always just good friends.  We lost touch for about a year, and then I saw him January of 2004 and we started hanging out.  So we officially dated for about 4 months before we were engaged.

Who eats more sweets?  Ben's really never eaten a whole lot of sweets, so I guess I am.  But not anymore.  I'm trying to lose weight.

Who said "I love you" first?  He did.  It's actually quite a funny story.  Or it wasn't funny at the time.  We were talking and all of a sudden he said, "Shari, I have something I need to tell you."  I wasn't sure what to expect, but what he said TOTALLY surprised me.  He said that he thought we should break up.  I was in shock, not to mention tongue tied.  All I could squeak out was an okay.  Then he laughed and said, "What I meant to say was, I love you."  LAME!!!!  I was so mad!  I told him I couldn't say it just yet.  It took me a while, especially after that.  Can you blame me?

Who is taller?  Definitely Ben.

Who can sing better?  Ben can.  He's got a beautiful voice.  My voice isn't too bad, but I would never sing a solo in church or anything.  Ben definitely could.

Who is smarter?  There again, Ben wins.  He's so smart.  He's working on getting his B.S. degree and so far he's got all A's.  Right now he's taking some hard classes (Anat and Phys and Political Geography), and is doing well in them.

Who does the laundry?  I do, though Ben's not afraid to help if I can't get to it.  

Who pays the bills?  I do the budget, Ben does the bills.  I'm starting to do them though, just so that when he's gone to his class in D.C. I know how to pay them.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?  Ben does.  It's closest to the door (he feels that he should be closest to the door in case we have a break in or something).  But that will change once I get pregnant again.  I'll have to get to the bathroom several times during the night and it will just be more convenient for me to be on that side.

Who cooks dinner?  We both do.  I cook more now, but when we were first married he did.  He's actually a really good cook.

Who drives?  We both do.  I just drive from the backseat (or the right front passenger seat).  He gets so mad, but I really am trying to work on it.  

Who is more stubborn?  Definitely Ben.  Lilli gets it from him for sure.

Who kissed who first?  He kissed me first, but at the time I wasn't ready so I told him I wanted to wait.  I kissed HIM 2 weeks later on Valentine's Day.  

Who asked who out first?  He asked me out first.  We watched a movie at his apartment.

Who proposed?  He did.  He flew down to Amarillo (where I was doing an internship, living at my BFF's Emily's parents' house).  He had planned a big extravagant proposal, but it didn't work out.  I had just gotten out of the shower one night and saw a note on my bedroom door saying to go out into the living room.  So I went and he was sitting on the couch.  I went over there and he asked me.  It was a nice, simple proposal.  I was just excited to be able to spend time with him before leaving again.  I wasn't sure when I would be able to see him.

Who wears the pants?  We both do.  We have an awesome partnership, just the way I think it's supposed to be (we're not perfect, but we support one another). 

Pictures from Wyoming

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On Vacation!

My friend, Emily.

Emily's husband, Randy.  What a goof!

Ben and Aaron were anxiously engaged in flying kites for the girls, but notice how uninterested the girls are!?!?!  It was really kind of cute!

Lilli (all decked out in winter gear, ready to go outside) with my little bro, Kennan.

All right!  I know I haven't blogged in a very long time, but Lilli and I have been out West visiting my family in Wyoming.  We left Ben home alone for 2 weeks.  Boy what a vacation it was!  Lilli got spoiled!  Anytime she'd cry someone was always there to pick her up.  She was so sassy too.  She would always tell me no (which Ben and I don't let her do when we're at home, she'll go in time-out) and got away with it.  Everytime I would lay her down to take a nap or for the night, she would just cry and cry.  My dad would come find me and tell me that he was going to go and get her out of bed.  So there were nights where she would stay up until 10 or 11 pm (EST).  BUT she did sleep in till about 8 or 9 am (EST), which was nice for me.  Lilli had so much fun seeing her aunts and uncles and her Nana and Papa.  On the day that we flew out, we got up at 3 in the morning and drove the 2 hours to the Atlanta airport.  On the way to the airport, we ran over some glass and got a flat tire.  It was so freezing cold!  It made me a little nervous with Ben out there, because we were on the I-20 with semi's driving so close.  Anyway, we got the spare on and needless to say, Lilli and I BARELY made it to the gate in time.  Just as we got to the gate, the lady announced that the gate would be closing in about 60 seconds!  It was close!!!!!  Lilli was okay on the flights, except on the flight from Denver to SLC, she fell asleep but woke up during the last 45 minutes screaming and didn't stop until AFTER  we landed.  That was not fun.  We had a lot of fun with my family.  Both Breanne and Kandyce made trips from Logan to come and see us.  We made a trip up THERE to see them.  It was just fun being able to see everyone again, visiting Grandma Norene and seeing my Uncle Don and Stan and cousin Trevor.  We celebrated my little bro's 11th birthday and got to see the moose living by my parent's house.  My mom and dad decided to wait to celebrate Easter until we got there.  The Sunday before Conference, they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  Lilli is now a pro at Easter egg hunts.  4 in one year!  We were able to go to the Lindquist's house and have a fun little Easter egg hunt.  That was a lot of fun!  On Easter Sunday we had our good friends the Pilkington's over for Easter dinner.  They had a little egg hunt before dinner for the girls'.  We had so much candy, it was gross!  

Conference was really good.  Our church got a new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.  He truly is a prophet of the Lord and it was awesome to be able to sustain him as such.  I think my favorite talk was one of the last ones given.  It was by Elder Ballard.  He spoke to the young mothers.  It was something I needed to hear.  So many times I feel inadequate as both a wife and mother and hearing him say what he did gave me hope.  I feel renewed and ready to go again.  Sometimes I get burned out and it was nice to hear an apostle of the Lord say that it's okay to feel that way and just hear him speak so lovingly and respectfully about motherhood.  I also loved President Monson's closing remarks.  What a wonderful man!!!!!!

Easter weekend, my best friend from college, Emily, and her husband, Randy, drove up from Tampa to visit us (they were buying a truck there and had flown in from Amarillo, TX where they live).  It was a short visit.  They got in at about 3am and left that same day at about 7pm.  We went out to eat for lunch and on our way to the River Walk our car got a flat tire (Yes!  2 flat tires within 3 days of each other!!!) so after waiting 2 hours to get that fixed we just came back home and played the Wii.  It was so good to see them!  Even though it's been a while, it still felt like no time had passed at all.  Thanks for making the visit you guys!!!  Love ya!!

Anyway, that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods.  It was so fun seeing family again!!!  We love you and hope to see you soon!  (Kennan and Kenzie, you really need to talk to Mom and Dad about coming this summer).