Niecey-Auntie Time

On November 19, 1990 I became an aunt for the first time. I was SO excited when Paige was born! She was the most adorable baby! She had a perfectly round, bald head and was the happiest, sweetest little girl.

Holy cow, she is now 17 years old! She is going away to finish up her schooling so I wanted to spend a day with her before she left. We decided to take a fun "day-trip" somewhere around the Salt Lake valley. I mentioned going to the zoo and hit the jackpot! She immediately sent a text to everyone in her cell informing them of her zoo trip. After forgetting my purse (twice) at home and stopping to pick up Paige's paycheck, we were on our way. Our first stop once at the zoo was the Zoofari Express. We hopped aboard and were on our way. We passed some goats, birds, and a few other animals before coming into the Buffalo knoll. My first thoughts were, "Wow, these buffalo aren't behind a fence or caged at all. That's really cool to see them so up close." As one of these large male bison charged the train and started bucking up and down mere feet away from us, my next thought was, "Oh my gosh, we're going to die!" We continued on though and made it safely out of the knoll when I then turned to Paige and said, "Did you get a picture of that?!" She still looked like she was in shock and replied, "No, I thought we were going to die! I didn't think of it!" Ha ha. Maybe we were being a BIT dramatic, but it did get our hearts pumping and made the train ride worth the one dollar entrance fee!

(Scared to death right after the buff incident! Ha.)

After that we went and checked out the rest of the animals. We saw the elephants, rhinos, black bears, zebras, penguins, giraffes, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, alligators and many more. Paige's favorites were the monkeys though. She especially loved the oraguntans and gorillas, even though the baby orangutan fell in love with me. I hadn't been to the zoo in at least ten years and it was really fun to see all the animals. To anyone who hasn't been in awhile, I highly recommend it! Here are a few more photos of our day at the zoo:

Thirsty elephant

(Eww!)

What amazing photography skills I have! (Inside the alligator hut)

Paige's favorite of the day! The gorilla was so cute just sitting there posing for the camera!


After the zoo we headed for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I got my usual, (Bang-bang chicken and shrimp) and Paige got the chinese chicken salad. They were quite delish. After dinner we hurried out so we could babysit Tayson so Brett could play in his recreational basketball game. Just about the time we hit the congested SLC traffic, Paige decided she HAD to go to the bathroom! Like I said, traffic was slow and we weren't going anywhere fast and she could not hold it much longer! We took the next exit at 2300 North, which had no facilities. We found a secluded spot on the road and pulled over because she wasn't going to last. For some strange reason, when she got out of the car she took her cell phone with her and placed it on the hood.

It was about the time we were to the first Bountiful exit that she realized it was missing. We took that exit and headed back south. We found the phone lying in the middle of the road where we had been pulled over! Luckily it wasn't squashed. :) So, once again we headed off into the thick traffic and made it just in time for Brett's game. Brett's team doubled the other teams points making for a huge victory. After the game we all (including my mom) went to Brett's for a few games of ping pong.

The day was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I got to spend it with Paige! Here are a few more pictures from Brett's house.

Paigey and Tayson-the oldest and youngest niece and nephew.

(Oh great! Another kiss!)

Chubby baby! Tayson's new 4 mo. old picture.