Kenya Knows her Last Name!

So the other day, Kenya and I were playing with an old cell phone. After I was pretend talking to someone I said, “It’s for you.” Kenya accepts the phone and answers the pretend caller with, “Hello, this is Kenya Draper.” It was as clear as day! You’re probably thinking, ‘whoopee!’ Well, we are impressed because we have never, directly told her or taught that her last name is Draper. She just busted that out on her own. Yeah, we about soiled ourselves with surprise.

Random side note:

Today, referring to a piece of ice, Kenya said to Uncle Chris “It’s too cold, will you warm up it for me?”

Another random side note:

Today we went shopping at the grocery store and parked in the best place ever. We realized that parked in front of us is the reason why those postcards and commercials with dogs are made!

Hogle Zoo Videos

Kenya's & Robert's 1st Daddy/Daughter Date

The Start of a Great Tradition

I know it's late, but March 1, 2011 marks the first of hopefully many, “Daddy/Daughter dates for Kenya and I. While in SLC, Mommy so graciously allowed Daddy and Kenya to run an errand and then go have some fun. Kenya had a jones for the playground today, but we just didn’t know where to find one. So while Mommy went to visit Grandpa Evans at the VA Hospital, we eventually found Utah’s Hogle Zoo!

We first stopped to play with the ball that was floating on the water.

We stopped and roared at the Cougars just before we went to the playground.

Once we got to the playground we probably spent close to 50 minutes there! She was lovin' it!

The next two photos are of Kenya being regurgitated by a giant snake! She wanted to do this big slide all by herself...and she did.

Then we stopped at the pond and watched and talked with all the water fowls. This is a Wood Duck.

We saw Swans, Geese, and many other species of duck. We stayed there for about 30 minutes! Kenya kept talking about how she wanted to go swimming with them. She got to throw some food to the birds too! Someone was nice enough to share some of the food that had to be bought from a gumball machine.

We then went to see some desert animals. We saw this sweet Owl. As Kenya and I waved at the bird it reacted to us by puffing out its feathers.

As we walked around some more we saw and heard two Geese honking away on the roof of a building.

We went and got a snack and then we saw a Peacock struttin' about. Of course Kenya could not resist pursuing it. There was a boy climbing this wooden fence so Kenya was quick to follow suit. We tried so hard to get it to show its feathers, but it was stubborn.

Later we went to see this building that had small animals and other birds in it. However, there was one quite large animal in there...a male Tortoise named Kronk! There was a female Tortoise that lived with him named Yzma. Yeah, they were totally named after the characters from the Disney film Emperor's New Groove! Kronk weighs 450 lbs!

This little monkey was very curious and friendly. He was interacting with me like no other. He was giving me the "thumbs up". It's a bit blurry.

Kenya had made some cute little girl friends while we were going around looking at the animals. They all got along so well and they were talking like they knew each other from somewhere. We didn't get to see all the animals in the building because the girls were having sooooo much fun together.

We went to see the big cats, but it was pretty much their blasted nap time! We were blessed and briefly saw a Tiger. We saw a sleeping Snow Leopard, but the camera batteries were acting up.

After the girls left and we went elsewhere to see the big cats, we went back to see the rest of the animals in the small animal building. Kenya was very impressed by the Iguana. So impressed that she specifically requested me to take a picture of it.

Here are some Porcupines cuddling together. Ouch!

We were on our way out of the zoo and I had the overwhelming feeling of being watched. You know...like all eyes were on us! Well, they were! We were the last people in the zoo! We could have gotten eaten by a wild animal and nobody would know til the next day! We spotted a Peacock with its feathers open just for us!

There are some cute videos that are to come in another post. Overall, we had such an awesome time! I look forward to continuing this awesome tradition!

Kenya turns 2 years old!

Thank everyone for helping to make Kenya's 2nd birthday a special and fun one!
I think Kenya's birthday was all a 2 year old could ask for. So much family around, dancing, games, and good food.
This is Kenya with her cousins Rachel and Sara who were here for a family visit.

Kenya and cousin Sam.
Sara and Kenya were pretending to be chickens and eating some chips off of the table. What 2 year old doesn't want steak and baked potatoes for their birthday lunch!! We had a BBQ in my dad's honor and it happened to be on her birthday.

Speaking of honoring Grandpa Evans. Kenya sure looks adorable in my dad's glasses.

Thanks aunt Michelle, all of the kids love the vacuum! Thank you all for the gifts for Kenya! She loved them all and felt very special that the presents were for her.
As you can see in the first video we made a slide and the kids loved it!

Here is Kenya playing by herself amongst the chaos of family.

We began her party with the chicken dance. This was something fun we had taught her at the hospital after my dad entered the ICU and Kenya could not see him anymore. Robert was great and we really had to get creative to keep her happy. So, we figured it was a great way to start a party!!


We played "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." It was fun.

Here is a video of the cake. We went really easy this year because I did not have a lot of time to think and/or prepare a cake. It is just a plan cake and on it we put her present from us. Since being back in Montana she has really taken a liking to horses and any farm animals and so that was the theme for the cake. She blew out the candles on her own, after 3 tries!

What a Man!

Donald James Evans

December 12, 1950 to March 3, 2011.

I love you Daddy! I pray that you remember everything you need to!! I am so happy for the answer to so many of our prayers!

Random Pictures

These first few pictures are our visit to Salt Lake City to be with Grandpa just a week after returning from China. What a trooper she was!

She loved taking walks around the hospital with anyone she could convince to go with her. This time she was walking in daddy's shoes!

This is when we first arrived at the hospital. She had not seen Grandpa in 2 days and when we got to the hospital and she saw him she laid on him and cuddled for about 20 minutes. It was amazing seeing some of the most important people in my life love each other and make each other so happy!!
Grandma and Kenya at Uncle Dale's house.
This is Kenya doing the hair of our dear friend Jena in Rexburg. What a good sport Jena was. It was so fun hanging out with them while in Rexburg. We love you guys!
She was really brave and let Kenya put rollers in her hair.

These next pictures are of here in Libby. It is such a beautiful place! Today it snowed from the time I woke up and didn't stop for more than 1 hour all day! I loved it! Winter is so wonderful here! These pictures are not of today, but a few weeks ago, but you get the idea.


What a cutie! Kenya LOVES the snow! She is always asking to go outside and play in it. She loves to walk in the snow and throw snowballs. One thing we are glad she did not completely miss this winter.
This picture is out of the kitchen window at my parents house a couple of weeks ago.

Life back in Montana.

Well, since we have been back in Libby we have done a lot and really not been up to much. Crazy how it works out that way.

The first week we were home we were trying to adjust to the change in time. All of us had adjusted enough after just 3 days. I had a few nights where Kenya and I were up for 2-3 hours in middle of the night, but that also included extra long naps.

As you could tell we spend our second week traveling to Utah and back. Kenya was AMAZING again! She really didn't have a hard time with the 12 hour trip there and while we were there she did rather well too! The trip home was just as good too. We were able to break it up into two days because we stopped in Rexburg for a day and a half. We got to see some of our good friends still there and had a great time!

So, this past week we have had a fun time playing. We just been hanging out with my family and trying to get somethings organized and get our lives back on track. Kenya has loved having more people to play with and a little cousin to teach new tricks to.

Kenya loves to dance (still), play chase, go outside, play in the snow, and loves all the animals around. I think she loves the horses the most.

The other day when it was snowing she said, "I want to going flying in the snow." She meant it. She wanted to go outside and go flying like on the movie "The Snowman." Robert took her outside in the snow to try.

Kenya often thinks about her friends in China and asks where they are. All we can do is tell her that they live in China and we don't live there anymore. There are many people we miss and wish we could see.

That is all I can think to update for now. I am shocked that Kenya will be 2 years old in just a couple weeks! I am sure I have an update then!

Safe

Everyone is back at home and safe.

Traveling.

Well, tonight I spend a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours unpacking from China and repacking. We are headed to Salt Lake City for a while to be with my dad. He was flown down to the VA hospital there on Thursday and we are not sure how long he is going to be there. So, are going to spend a few days down in SLC.
Kenya has been such a great child! She has adjusted to everything really well! She has been on a good sleep schedule for about 3 nights now. We will just see how she will do with a 10+ hour drive.

Splendid China (one more vid)

Now this was amazing! It caught everybody off guard. Everyone saw the fog coming in and most of the lights were off. All the sudden this Green Cyclone Tunnel of Doom appeared and everyone gasped all at once!

Splendid China (Videos)

Here are a couple short clips of the Horse Battles that took place. There was so much more, but our batteries kept dying and we wanted to save some room for the night show.



Creepy! This stone-faced story teller was pretty cool.






There was this amazing waterfall that fell right in front of the stage!


Watch the little men in purple!


Wow! Gettin' dizzy just watching them?



Now that's what I call multi-tasking!

Splendid China (Pics)

So before we left China we decided to do our best to see a little bit more of it. Since it was so difficult to tour China for real, we went to an attraction called Splendid China and Folk Cultural Village. We were told to make sure to stick around for the night show, because that was the best part. Indeed it was, but there were a ton of interesting things before hand as well. We should have gone earlier because we made it through only a third of the park! This place had replicas of the Great Wall of China, the famous Terra Cotta Soldiers, and many other famous Chinese attractions. We only saw a few.

The only snow we got to see in China are in the next two pictures.







Here's a little girl dressed in some traditional clothes. We could have taken a picture of Kenya wearing some cool traditional clothing, but the people were going to charge us, even if we used our own camera! That is one thing we will not miss and that is 98% of the people in Shenzhen try to cheat Foreigners out of their money.
The Nine Dragon Wall
We didn't make it up to this attraction, but it's replica of a famous temple/monastery.
Here is a another Buddhist temple.
The following statues are actually around 20 ft tall! I am taking the picture from the second floor.


This is the entrance to a day show we saw.
Yeah, this is totally a Mongolian tent!


Sorry Jena and Joey, we searched this place inside and out, but no Mongolian babies!

The horse riders kept begging people to come ride the horses and kept trying to get Kenya on there too. She was just interested in talking to and touching the horses.








It was so awesome to go into some of these traditional houses and see the detail and hard work that went into building them.
There was this cool structure of caves that we didn't get to go to, but we saw a guy ride a zip-line from the top over the water and over the Rattan bridge we crossed.
We crossed this cool Rattan bridge as a shortcut through the park because we were running short on time.

Our good friends, students, and guides Jason and Pascal.

This was the sign in front of the path that took would have taken us to the replica of the Great Wall.
So begins the night show. Contortionists...You gotta lovem.



The show was very musical, but was very interesting because it had a story line. Videos are on the next post.