Andy & Sherrie's Place

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.

This year for Spring Break, we took a little vacation down to Utah. We registered Andy to take a few dental implant courses in Heber City, and made a weeklong trip out of it. It was a great week away, Andy had a good time with his classes, learned a lot, and we had a lot of fun.

Thursday night we checked into the hotel in Heber City, which was close enough to the hospital that Andy could walk over, leaving me with the van so that I could take the kids places. Friday morning, it was snowing. Hard. Big huge flakes of it. So I loaded the kids up, and we drove 30 minutes to Park City to do a little shopping at the outlets. I love Park City. I've been going to Park City and to the Park City outlets ever since I was a kid with my family, and it was fun to take my kiddos there to show them around. It's amazing how it has grown since I was there last. There are so many more condominium developments, it's crazy! So we spent a couple hours walking around the outlet stores, found Taylor some great shoes from the Nike outlet, he was ELATED to have some Nike shoes. Matthew had fun at the Nike store kicking a soccer ball with one of the employees. Too funny. And the clerk who checked us out couldn't believe that the shoes were for Taylor. They were a half size larger than the shoes he wears...and he is a full-grown adult. Poor guy. Tay wears a size 9 mens.

Then we went back to the hotel, changed into suits and went swimming for a couple of hours. There was nobody else in the pool, so the kids and I had it to ourselves. It was so fun. This picture is of the kids after we finally went back to the room. They were exhausted. I fixed some lunch and we turned on a movie...and then I went to sleep. I slept solid for a couple of hours. Now THAT'S what I call a vacation!

There were a lot of cowboys and cowgirls walking around our hotel. No kidding. I haven't heard, "Howdy Ma'am" or "howdy pardner" so often before! Breakfast was especially entertaining. They all seemed to get a kick out of how much bacon Matthew could eat.  I couldn't help myself and had to ask the next morning at breakfast if there was a rodeo going on that I didn't know about. Sure enough, there was a big college rodeo going on right there in Heber City at the indoor arena...and they told me that I should bring the kids and come watch. So...that's what we did Saturday while Andy was in class.  The kids and I went to a rodeo. Matthew made friends with a couple of CSI (College of Southern Idaho) steer wrestlers who were sitting in front of us. They were laughing at how excited he would get when the horses would burst out of the gates at a full run. He was pretty funny. The girls were worried about the calves and goats legs during the tying events...but were reassured by several people that it didn't hurt. "Whatever!" I thought...but kept to myself! I tried to imagine how we humans would like it if someone came flying off a running horse at us, threw us down on our side and then strapped our ankles together all under 3 seconds. Whew! That would be a bit of a shocker! We stayed there for about two hours before heading back for another long swim and then movie and nap.   Well, movie for kids and nap for mom.

Sunday morning, we checked out of our hotel...and needed to wait a few hours before we could check into our condominium in Midway...so we drove down to Salt Lake City and went to church at a ward in Sugar House.  Something that Andy and I have always done, starting on our Honeymoon, is that when we're out of town, we still pack church clothes and find a ward or branch to attend on Sunday. It has been really fun and interesting over the years to meet people in all different areas of the nation. Now that we have our children, it has been a great learning opportunity for them to see that the church really is the same no matter where you are. The lessons are the same, the sacrament prayers are the same, etc. and it has been really nice to show them that no matter where they are, they can always find other members of the church and be safe and be surrounded by people who can help them.

Over the years, it has also been very difficult not to "grade" the different wards we've gone to based on their friendliness. I am so sad to say that this ward in Sugar House, Utah...didn't fair too well on the friendliness scale. Not one person, no, not one, said "hello" to us...and I consider Andy and myself to be very friendly and outgoing smiling people! But, they scored really high on the "entertaining" scale...so we'll forgive them.  It was Fast and Testimony meeting...and let's just say that they had some really interesting ducks. See?  Yet another example of how the church is the same not matter which ward you attend.

After church, we stopped at a cute little park with a duck pond to eat lunch. It was a pretty day, and there were lots of people out. I think the best part of the picnic lunch was this huge gigantic dog that some people were "walking." Truth of it was, it looked like the dog was walking HIS pets, not the other way around.  This dog looked like a mix between a greyhound and a great dane...and maybe a dalmation. He was tall and had the head and chest of a Great Dane, the back end of a Greyhound...and spotted like a dalmation. I just laughed and said it really wasn't a dog, it was an Appaloosa. Only Tay and Andy got the joke. Looks like I need to teach our kids a little bit about Idaho's State Horse.

From our picnic, we continued on down to temple square, and toured the Conference Center. We've never been inside the Conference Center before, so this was a great experience for all of us. I loved it. They still had it all decorated up for the YW General Broadcast, and were doing preparations for General Conference. The kids took a special interest in everything and thought it was really pretty neat that they were looking down at the very podium that the Prophet would be speaking at in a week.

Here are the kids in the main level of the conference center. Pretty spectacular.

Matthew enjoyed the tour, but truth be told, he was so much more interested in the escalators, the ropes separating himself from restricted areas, and buttons and knobs. A true boy, through and through.

Here's Matthew and Lainey by the fountain in the main atrium of the Conference Center. We had Matthew's hair all combed that morning...a sacrament meeting, and a picnic later...this is what it looks like. These two loved the fountain.

The Conference Center has a lot of different art displayed throughout, and I loved it. This sculpture was really neat because the sculptor didn't use any paints or stain on the wood. He carved exposing the different shades...I thought it was amazing.

This stained glass window reminded me of the Palmyra Temple windows. I loved that the kids recognized immediately what the picture was. Whew! Someone's paying attention to Family Home Evening lessons!

Here's Lainah in the upper balcony of the Conference Center. It is SO high up there. I didn't really like it. I'm afraid of heights, and the kids made me worried...not that they were doing anything wrong, I just worried that they would go down the aisle to the end and fall off. Silly me. I was amazed at how big it is, and I told Rachey that in a few years when she is in Young Women's, that I would take her to the broadcast here over Spring Break. What an experience that will be.

I love this picture of little Brooklynn. We are not yet out on the roof of the center, but one of the upper levels where some of the fountains come down. It was beautiful, and Brooklynn loved watching the water.

Here we are out on the roof. Our tour guide was so fun and was telling Andy and I all sorts of interesting little tidbits of information. For example, he told us that this tower is actually made of a few support beams, and then styrofoam covered with a thin laminate layer of granite. It would be too heavy if it were solid rock. That cracked me up, and I asked him if they got the idea from wedding cakes. He looked at me kind of funny, and asked me if people really used styrofoam for wedding cakes. I let him in on the secret...that yes, sometimes they do indeed! Aha! We both learned something that day!

It was a little sad to me how many tall buildings have gone up around the temple, but it is still so beautiful.

Matthew is NOT afraid of heights. He kept us busy, that's for sure. What a little mischief maker.

Throughout this little vacation, Taylor made me think of missionary pictures. Some of his pictures, he just looks like a missionary out exploring his area. As I post pictures from other days, you'll see what I mean. So here's where he started, in front of the temple.

Tay and I both laughed at this picture. It was a cloudy day, but the sun was coming out so we're squinting. It really just looks like we're giving Andy a funny look or something...