Spring Break Saga: Part II

Monday was a nice lazy day for us.  We slept in, watched a little Disney channel, ate breakfast...and then went back up to Park City so that Andy could do some shopping.  We found some fun things...a few kitchen gadgets in a specialty kitchen store, and some yummy chocolate truffles at a gourmet treat shop along with some new barbeque rubs.  Then we drove up to the Olympic Ski Park and Museum and showed the kids the ski jump and part of the bobsled track.  That was pretty neat, they liked it.  Then swimming and watching movies for the rest of the day.

So Tuesday when the sun came out again, we set off for Hogle Zoo.  Lainey was Daddy's big helper with the lunch making and packing. She was so excited to go to the zoo and see the Elephants. (Elfunts) So funny, but out of all the animals we talked about, the "Elfunts" are the ones she wanted to see the most!

However, she and Brooklynn were pretty entertained by the monkeys too.  This one little guy kept coming right up to them in front of the glass.  The girls thought that was pretty fun.

There was this cocky peacock guy strutting around the zoo.  He was hilarious.  He was just strutting around like he owned the place, would put out his huge fan of feathers, and then turn around and around showing them off.  Then he'd evidently get a little tired and put them down for a few minutes before showing them off again.  The kids were getting a kick out of him that's for sure.

Here he is all fanned out...Sir Peacock

This was his favorite spot throughout the day.  He'd just turn around and around.  Silly bird. Matthew was just giggling at him.

Here's Lainey in front of the Elephants.  There was a mommy and baby elephant she was watching, and there were steps leading right down to the enclosure so you could get really close.  Lainey loved that. There's mama elephant eating hay in the background.  Matthew wondered why they hung her food up instead of putting it down on the ground.  He thought that was pretty funny.

There's mommy and baby.  The kids really enjoyed watching the baby throw mud up on her back. Here's Matthew standing in front of a partial elephant skull.  The one out at the Cleveland Zoo is a full elephant skull and it is huge.  The kids always thought it was so neat to touch it and look at the skull.  My little scientists.

And we had to have a picture with the rhino statue.  We came here years ago when Tay was 3 and Rachey was 18 months and took their pictures by this same Rhino.  Boy has our family grown since then! Mom got in the picture!  The Rhino's back was really slick so I had to hold Brooklynn and Matthew on.  After we did this, there was an electronic scale just behind the Rhino in the gazebo, and you could all stand on it, and it would tell you how your weight compared to Rhinos and elephants.  Our entire family stood on the scale together, and we weighed almost as much as a baby elephant.  I think we were somewhere around 700 pounds.  We had a lot of fun with that scale.  Matthew has gained weight since his last check up...he now weighs in at 57 pounds.  He's 4 years old.  What a tank.  When I first stepped on it, Andy slyly put his foot behind mine without me knowing and pressed down.  The kids all laughed at my huge gasp...NOT funny! And this Orangutan was named Eli.  Taylor and I saw him first and just kind of cocked our heads to one side.  His face was FLAT.  It was the strangest thing I've ever seen.  The rain forest section of Cleveland's zoo had a big family of Orangutan's and not one of them had a flat face like this one.  Eli was pretty funny. We read the info about him and it just said that some males get these big "cheek flaps."  Wow!  Tay and I really just think it's from years of pressing his poor face up against the glass.  Poor guy!

Rachey taking her turn with Eli.  It was so hard to get a good picture of him without getting glare on the glass!

Matthew didn't want his picture taken with Eli.  He wanted to look at him, but didn't want me to take his picture.  But I couldn't help posting it, because his facial expression just cracks me up!  What a funny guy! At this point, Eli crossed his arms and jutted his bottom lip out.  It was so funny, just like one of the kids when they pout.   Here's our little group of Orangutans...minus Matthew who didn't want to put his arms on the wall.  Lainah is the size of a juvenile in height and had about half the armspan.  Brooklynn was about the exact height of an adult female without the armspan, and Rachey was the height of an adult male...without the huge armspan. It was Tay's idea to stand in front of this thing...I told him he'd make a good fun missionary someday.  He already has the knack at funny picture spots.   Daddy could not be outdone by the kids.  Maybe if he puts his face up against our bathroom mirror each night for 20 minutes, in a few years he could compare his cheek flaps to Eli's...maybe not.  Still, it's amazing the armspan they have.  Andy's arms aren't even as long as an adult male's...and Andy is a pretty big guy.  I guess that's a good thing...that his knuckles don't drag on the ground.  He does the sound effects pretty well though. 

Amazingly enough, Lainah LOVED these porcupines.  She stayed in front of them forever.  She showed them to me first and we watched them for a long time, and then she went and got daddy to show him.  The other kids didn't really take much notice of them, but she could have stayed there for even longer.  The other kids were watching some snakes instead.  Too funny.  I think Lainey thought they were some sort of "kitty."  We saw a lot of different looking "kitties" that day.  Bobcats, groundhogs, Lemurs, Armadillos...squirrels...they were all "kitties."
Rachel enjoyed the giraffes the most.  I did too today.  They were fun because they kept going right inside and eating right by the observation deck.  We watched them for a long time.  There was one inside that took one look at Andy with his dark sunglasses and got skittish.  Each time Andy moved she'd startle and move to the corner and then just look at him like she was terrified.  Poor thing!  I tried to tell her that he really isn't as mean and scary as he looks...but she didn't believe me and kept her distance. 

Tay and Brooklynn posing...the kids are growing up. Here was another shot of Sir Peacock.  Apparently he was taking a rest from all the pageantry.  My little camera doesn't do justice to his vivid colors, he really was gorgeous. 

And the kids could not help themselves.  They see a statue, they have to take a picture with it.  I think that if Hogle were to get rid of all the animals and just put in a bunch of statues...that the kids would enjoy it just as much.  I told them I wouldn't climb on this guy...he doesn't look too happy about it. 

Even little Lainey had to get right in there on his lap.  She looks so tiny sitting there!  Gorillas are huge!  When we watched the real gorillas inside, the male was laying down on his back putting his feet in the air, and then grabbing them with his hands.  I should have taken a picture, his hands were enormous.  Massive.  Don't get on the bad side of a gorilla, that's for sure! Tay was holding Matthew up...and we thought it was funny that the first thing he did was grab hold of the ears...which is what he does with Andy. 

Yet another statue...and more pictures with it. 

Taylor is such a goof.  He was "reading" and humming.  What a goof.

Closer look at our goofball.  Rachey taking Taylor's lead...getting all relaxed for nap in the crook of the elephant's trunk.

There was a section that was about the southern desert and cave dwellers.  It reminded me a little bit of Mesa Verde, and I think they tried to replicate it a little bit.  Matthew and Lainah liked it.

Lainah was so funny.  I told her to stop right in the doorway so I could take a picture...and she said, "Okay!" and then leaned against the doorway and posed.  What a funny girl! And at the end of our tour we ended up at the playground.  (Yes, that was planned.)  We let the kids play here for about an hour.  Lainah and Matthew ran up and went down the slide the entire time.  By the time we told them it was time to go, they were pretty worn out. 

Tay and Rachey and Brooklynn explored everything in the play area.  Again, here are the two goofs...posing as groundhogs.  Rock chucks, whatever...Here's Rachey peeking out...and posing, giggling away.

And Tay.  Yes.  Posing.  What was with these two?  They just had me laughing the whole day.After we played at the playground...for the end finale of the zoo we took the kids on the train ride.  We had the train to ourselves...and the older three promptly went straight to the back...

Lainah was so worn out from playing that she was done smiling for the day.  She just snuggled right into me and by the end was nearly asleep. Matthew on the other hand had waited all day to ride the train and had to sit right up front behind the engineer.  He thought it was awesome and kept asking her to blow the whistle...which she did.  He was all smiles.

There they are in front of the cute little engine.

And Matthew had to wait and watch it go again.  He loves trains and I think this was probably his favorite part of the entire day.

Taylor had to have some fun with this huge ball fountain thing before we left.  If you pushed hard enough, you could change the direction of the rolling ball.  He thought that was pretty awesome, and was trying to figure out how it worked. This is the Place Monument is right across the street from the zoo...so even though the kids were exhausted we had to stop in.  Lainah was asleep with Andy and I on the bench...so she's not in the picture. 

Another funny thing was that when we pulled into the parking lot, there was this old limo and bus right here with blaring hard metal rock music playing, surrounded by some pretty rough looking people.  With general conference weekend coming up...we figured they were some protestors come to defile the place with their rotten music.  I took a few of the kids inside to go potty, and asked the ladies at the front desk who these people were, and apparently they are a rock band that is touring the country in their limo and taking a video tour of different prominent sites in the states they stop in.  So at least they weren't protestors....but it still really bothered me that they were allowed to bring their cars past the parking barriers and blare their music so loud and right in front of the visitor's center and monument area.  It was like walking past a street gang in order to take my family to see the monument.  Very uncomfortable, and it got my temper up a bit.  I didn't feel that it was at all appropriate.  If they wanted to take a tour, great...but park where everyone else does, and keep your music down.  Really.    But...we tried not to let it ruin our experience at the monument, and told our kids the story of Brigham Young first coming into valley...and Andy did a very good impression of the deep, tremulous voice of the actor who portrays Brigham in the movie.  The kids laughed and thought he was pretty funny.  "Brethren, this is the place where we will build the Temple of our God!"  All with hard metal rock music in the background.  Wow...what an experience.

That evening when we got back to the condo, we rented the movie "Tangled" and after dinner and our swim...popped popcorn and snuggled up to one of the funniest kids' movies I've ever seen.  We loved it so much, we kept it and watched it three nights in a row before returning it.

A Favorite Day Last Summer

Last summer, we decided to take one last excursion on the very day before the kids started back into school. Since moving to southwestern Idaho, we've tried to explore our new area and find places that we enjoy as a family.

Andy and I are both very familiar with all the outdoor areas in southeastern Idaho...but this is all new to both of us over here so it's been fun to explore it together.

On this particular day, we took a drive up to Crouch, which is on your way from Boise up to McCall...but you turn off at Banks and head up a river canyon for a ways...and well, you get the idea. You end up somewhere called Crouch, and it is beautiful. It's so sad to me that it's been named such an unbeautiful name. Crouch. Yuck. It doesn't describe it at all.

Here Andy and the kids are throwing rocks into the Payette river. At least, I think it's the Payette. Uh oh...I'd better do some research to make sure.


Rachey is such an outdoorsey girl. I love how she enjoys catching bugs, finding neat rocks, and looking at all the different shapes of leaves and plants. She thoroughly enjoys herself in the mountains.


We also tried a new hairstyle on Rachey about a month before this picture was taken, she wanted to try out bangs...now they're growing out.





Here Rachey is showing Lainah the fine art of digging in the wet sand. The river bank was fun to play on because it was such soft fine sand, and clear, clear water. It also wasn't deep for several feet in so the kids were able to play in it.




Out in Cleveland, we discovered that Andy loves to barbeque. So, whenever we go on our little day trips, he comes prepared to cook burgers and dogs. While I took the kids down to play by the river, he was busy "cookin." After a while, Lainah knew where to go for refreshment and food...to Daddy.
















Yep, there's nothing quite like a cold soda out of the cooler after playing in the hot sun.




















Matthew will forever be our funny little joker. He can make us laugh without even trying, and is such a fun little guy to have around. Who else could get so much enjoyment out of a hot dog?


And Lainah with her cute chubby hands didn't know what she wanted more, cold soda or her binky. What a cutie.


I rarely get into the photos because I'm always the one taking them, but Tay wanted a turn with the camera...so there's documentation that I was there! Hooray!



Lainah is just the sweetest little girl ever. She is always giving loves of some sort, from little hugs to slobbery kisses. This was such a relaxing place to be, I found this rock right in the shade, and just listening to the river was awesome. I could have sat there for hours.

Matthew could have thrown rocks for hours. What else are rivers for?

I was having a fun time taking pictures of Lainah's cute baby chub. Her cute little toes covered with sand.

I love wildflowers, they always amaze me how they can survive in the hardest places, like right between rocks on a sandy beach.

And here is Tay trying to catch this little friend we spotted in the water. He didn't catch him, this one was too quick, but he had a lot of fun and got pretty wet trying.

And we of course brought up the fishing poles. Matthew's hook was bent together so that he couldn't hook anyone and hurt himself or others...but that didn't stop him from "fishing." He just likes to cast and reel, cast and reel. His Lightning McQueen fishing pole is super-cool too.

Seriously, could she be any cuter?

Some more cute baby chub. I have to document it because it goes away so fast!

And here is Tay, not ashamed of using a Barbie fishing pole to fish. Ha ha ha. Actually, a couple of weeks before we were up in a different area fishing, and he was the first one to catch a fish...with this cute pink and purple Barbie fishing pole. Oh ya....

And cute little Brooklynn loved digging her toes into the sand. She was having so much fun. I admit, I also love the feel of digging my toes into wet sand...there's something relaxing about it.

Matthew the fisherman.

One last shot of the river. Ahh...and then summer vacation was over. A bittersweet day, it's always hard for me when the kids start school in the fall. What a fun day, full of great memories!