Hogle Zoo

In May we celebrated the boys' birthdays by going to Hogle Zoo with the Winn clan. We went with Kevin and Patrice , Vanessa and her husband Izaak and daughter Elizabeth, Natalie and her husband Kevin, and Olivia and her daughter Ella, who were in town from Virginia.








Olivia left her husband Eric at home to study for the Bar Exam, but he did entertain us by chatting with us online, while he was possessed by the spirit of E.T. You can hear it if you listen closely at the end of this video.


We all enjoyed the zoo. Chase brought his friend Andrew and they ran around like lunatics all day.


Makai and Ella got along famously and kept each other entertained all day.



We saw the Madascar exhibit and Makai was inspired to do his hippo impersonation from the movie: “I like 'em big. I like 'em chunky.”

The Duck

Several weeks ago the boys came in from playing outside and said that a duck laid an egg on our patio. We figured it was another of their tall tales, but they insisted it was true, so we checked it out. Sure enough a duck had made a nest in the corner of our patio and laid some eggs. We didn't see her again for a few days, but when she came back, she sat on the nest and didn't leave for weeks at a time. One day Chase came in and said his soccer ball almost hit the duck. After some interrogation, we discovered that he had kicked it at her on purpose. He wanted me to get the ball because it was right next to her and she got mad and flared up her feathers whenever he tried to grab it. I told him to sit on a rock and very slowly reach up and put one finger on top of the ball and pull it toward himself. He tried a few times and she kept getting mad. He finally got his finger all the way on top of the ball. The duck, with the speed of a snake, snapped at chase and bit his finger. He stopped throwing things at the duck after that.




Last week we discovered about a half dozen ducklings exploring the rocks on our patio. When ever we came out to look at them, the mama duck swept them into the nest and covered them. We had hoped she would get used to us and let them run around, but the next day they were all gone, never to be seen again.

Update on us

The LeGrandes are all doing well. Jessica recently ran a half marathon in the Salt Lake City Marathon. In case you're wondering, yes she is crazy.


Travis completed his Associates in Chemistry and transferred to the U of U in January. He will be entering the Chemical Engineering program in the fall.


Chase just turned 8 and got a new mountain bike, which he rides every day. We recently did a five mile ride through the city and we had a hard time keeping up with him.

Makai will be 4 next week. He's excited to start playing T-ball again soon. He played last summer and did pretty good, except that he had a very short attention span. Maybe he'll be a little more focused this year, but I doubt it.


Teija is almost six months old. She smiles all the time, unless there are a lot of people around. Then she is too busy watching all the action. She has 2 teeth coming in, too, and she has discovered that feet are delicious.