Lehi Family Fun Day!

So, I really enjoy taking the kids to do fun things. Maybe that'll slow down once the kids are in school, but when I rarely leave the house for anything other than errands, it's nice to have something fun to do. Especially when it's free or cheap! Saturday we took the kids to the Lehi Parade & Family Fun Day. We only spent $13, and we were there from 10:00 when the parade started until around 2:00! And we all had some funnel cake and cotton candy, too! The kids were all sweaty & sticky by the time we left, but we all had a great time!

We were silly and didn't bring a camera. I remembered about 2 min away from home, but we were already running late and didn't think it was worth it. I'm sad we didn't take the time to get it! I used my phone to get a few pics, but they aren't all that amazing. Oh well, at least we captured a few things.

One of the things at the Family Fun Day was a little petting farm. Katy loved it! Dan already posted the pictures of Katy loving the tiny white goat (if you haven't already seen them, just scroll down a bit). It was so cute! She tried to love this goat, too, but it wasn't as cuddly. In fact, this picture looks like it's getting ready to stick a horn through her head...
Silly Ryan. He kept asking to go on a big inflatable slip and slide, then cried when he got to go. So his cool Spiderman face ran a little from the tears. And as soon as I held up my phone to take his picture he did this. Lovely.
And there is a debate about whose fault David's smeared face paint is. Dan dumped some water in his hand, then rubbed it in David's hair to cool him off. I think some ran down his face, but Dan really thinks David just smeared it. Either way, here's a cool Spiderman David.
And here's what I'm the most sad about not having better pictures of! There were a bunch of big inflatable toys (a bounce house, a giant slide, etc.)...then there was this small swing thing. I don't even think it was electric, the guy had to push it to start every time. Then it would go for a couple minutes before he had to manually stop it. I was just going to have the boys do it, but I realized it would probably be safe for Katy. I thought she might be scared, but she LOVED it! And oh, what a fit she threw when it was done!

Sweet goo

This is the goo right after awaking from a nap. She just stayed like that for 10 minutes for so...and she smelled like heavan. She and I are just watching Ryan play on the Wii...

This is another picture of Katy loving the goatlett

Katy loves little little goats!

OK, so, we went to a Lehi festival type thing today. It was pretty fun. Started with a parade (only one pipe band...lame). We then went to the circus type deal afterwards, and the kids had alot of fun. Katy especially liked the animals...and the baby goat was her favorite, as ween here

More whining...

Are you sick of it yet? I'm sorry to always use this board as my place to vent. But many days I don't have anyone else to vent to. And better to get it out here than let it fester and be mean to my kids!

So, you know those circus performers that try to get a whole bunch of plates spinning at the same time? They get them all going, only to have to run back and start over again. I feel like that. Or like I'm playing a video game where I just have enough defense to live until the time runs out. I'm not hoping to do anything more than survive. I am never done with my work, not even close. And I am now much more sympathetic to people who consider dogs their children. We've had a cat for 4 years, and she requires very, very little work. We change her water and refill her food dish only about twice a week. And that's about it. But holy cow, a dog is a lot more work! I can't just throw her out back for long periods of time or she'll start digging. So she's like a baby in that I only get a break from her when she naps. I don't want to get rid of her, but there are certainly times I wish I hadn't gotten her. Of course, I feel that way about the children sometimes, too...

Oh, and Molly and Katy work together to destroy everything. Katy will find a cupboard left unlocked or a door left open, get into a bunch of things she's not supposed to get into, and leave them all over the floor. Then Molly will come along and chew those things up. Then as I'm trying to clean up from that mess, they go and make a new one. Then, when I finally get a break, like right now (Katy & Molly are napping, David & Ryan are downstairs watching TV), I just feel like resting up for the next disaster rather than getting ahead. It's always something around here. And when it's not, I feel like I should relax while I can!

So the latest drama with David - last night Ryan was trying to hit Molly with a big clear plastic bin that is supposed to hold sandbox toys. I saw him and told him to put it down, which to him meant "throw it at your brother." I don't think he meant to hit David, but it got him pretty good. Poor guy started getting a lump under his eye right away. Today the lump is smaller, but the eye is really bruised. He cried for a little while, but once I started taking care of him (had him lay down, got some ice, etc) he calmed down.

Then today we went for a walk. I decided to walk the same route I run so I could focus more on David and find out why he was struggling so much. He made it to the halfway point just fine! He stopped and rested a couple times while I caught up with him, so I was starting to think "Great, he just needs to not go so fast, we've solved the problem!" Then I told Ryan to get down and walk or run. So he started running on the left side of the sidewalk. Then David started riding, also on the left side. As he approached Ryan, Ryan moved to the right to get out of David's way. At the same moment David swerved to the right to avoid Ryan. Crash! They both fell down and got a little scraped up. Ryan got back up, brushed himself off (figuratively...I'm sure he didn't actually brush himself off), and ran the rest of the way home, beating me! David cried and cried and cried. It took lots of nagging to get him to even get off the ground. Then more effort to get him back on his bike. And the whole way home he was either crying or complaining ("I'm never riding to the far church again!"). I was cranky, but I even tried really hard to be upbeat and motivate him and get him out of his slump. Didn't work. And the big, awful owie he cried about for so long? Less than 1/4" in diameter.

Tagged!

Miriam tagged me a couple weeks ago. As long as I'm catching up, I might as well do that, too!

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. I had just finished my sophomore year at Kentwood High School.
2. I was "going out" with Todd Mittge.
3. My family was finishing our addition, so I was finally getting my own bedroom.
4. I was taking Drives Ed.
5. I was a few months away from turning 16, and VERY excited to start dating!

5 things on my to do list:
1. Water the flowers as soon as the water comes back on (a water main broke!)
2. Monday is kitchen day, so do my weekly cleaning out of the pantry & fridge, clean the sink & microwave, etc.
3. Figure out why the Roomba doesn't hold a charge for very long anymore
4. Fold a couple loads of laundry (is that ever NOT on my list?)
5. Return the kids' goggles - never buy swimming equipment at a grocery store...

5 favorite snacks/food:
1. Popcorn!
2. chocolate
3. BBQ pringles
4. ripe peaches (I had a sour one recently that was definitely NOT my favorite!)
5. string cheese

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire:
1. Design & build the perfect house
2. Hire a maid
3. Stock (and keep stocked) a giant, giant pantry so I only have to go grocery shopping for perishables
4. Build a totally awesome pool & hot tub
5. Hire a weekly (or more often) babysitter so I can date my husband!

5 bad habits:
1. Biting my fingernails
2. Leaving dishes in the sink until we run out of spoons (and it's always the spoons first...maybe I should buy more...)
3. Nursing Katy whenever she wants it...wasn't a bad habit when she was a newborn, but it's getting annoying and we're trying to break that now...it's just so much easier than listening to her whine!
4. Dr Pepper
5. Staying up too late

5 places I have lived:
1. Berkely, CA
2. Kent, WA
3. Provo, UT (Helaman Halls!)
4. Orem, UT (3 different apts)
5. Eagle Mountain, UT


5 people I tag:
1. Dan Morrill
2. Nadine Sundblom - you still haven't answered Miriam's, so I tag you again
3. Sue Smith
4. Joey Guanzon
5. Mike Smith (you have to do it separate from Mom!)

Oh, the drama!

Good grief. Can't even go for a simple jog without problems.

It took us until 9:00 to get going this morning. We got out by about 7:30 or 8:00 the last couple times, but today it just took longer to get my act together. And somehow, even by 9:00, Ryan couldn't get dressed. He got UNdressed, then laid on the living room floor naked as I repeatedly nagged at him. I got Katy dressed & ready, put my shoes on...and made Ryan come naked! He had PLENTY of time to get dressed, he just chose to lay around instead. I was kind enough to bring out his underwear for him, but that was it. I thought it'd embarrass him to be naked, and maybe next time he'd take me seriously and get dressed. But as we walked back onto the driveway I said "Hey Ryan, maybe next time you'll get dressed when I ask you to...or did you like going naked." He said he like going naked. Shoot.


Molly wishes I could run faster. She spends a lot of the time, especially once we've reached the church & turned around, pulling at the leash. If only I could figure out a way to get her to pull the stroller...
And David gets tired by the end. Actually, by the halfway point. Then he walks his bike. I keep telling him that that takes more energy than riding, but he's five and doesn't listen to me. It's highly frustrating. I'm trying to jog while pushing a non-jogging stroller filled with 60 lbs of kid (40 lbs of Ryan & 20 lbs of Katy) and keep Molly nicely at my side (not getting in the way of said stroller), and he can't just ride his bike and not cause problems. Once he starts getting tired he goes slower and doesn't ride as straight. So he's wobbling back and forth, trying to keep the bike up (which he only recently learned to ride w/out training wheels) while barely pedaling. Of course that's hard! Get going faster, it's way easier! I've even told him that he doesn't have to stay with me - we only go about .7 miles, then turn and head back the same way we came, and most of the way is a long, fairly straight, wide sidewalk. So I'm fine with him going ahead of me. He does that for a little while, then slows way down, I pass him, and he ends up trailing way behind and making me exert precious energy trying to get him to catch up. Grumble grumble grumble.

Katy was a perfect angel on the jog. Thank goodness for that!

Katy's Birthday Party!

Another post I should've done several weeks ago. I'm playing blog catch up today, sorry. At least I'm not doing 16 posts at a time like somebody...

For Katy's birthday party we had a little family birthday party. My sister & her hubby came (and posted pictures from it right away...they're more on the ball than I am...), along with Dan's parents, his three sisters, one brother-in-law, and five of his nieces & nephews. It was a good group. I made a whole bunch of homemade pizza, since it's Katy's favorite (one of the few things I can get her to eat these days...). And I planned a few small activities so the kids wouldn't say "It's a party, what are we going to do?" like they did at David's first birthday party.
I got a new bubble machine (our other one tipped over backwards and spilled bubbles into the mechanical parts and stopped working...you'd think a bubble machine could handle bubbles spilling in it...), and just had bubbles going for a while. The kids all loved it! Katy especially thought it was really cool to have bubbles raining down on her!

Katy loves those bubbles!
This is why Katy had such an awesome messy cake face on her actual birthday - we did a rehearsal 2 days earlier! She was a little more timid then...
...but she did decide she likes it...
...and got kind of messy! She did much better on her birthday, though.

We also did freeze dancing, which all the kids seemed to love! I was worried that they'd be bored with my simple activities, but they seemed to have a great time. And Katy loved them, which is the most important thing, of course. Bubbles, cake, and dancing - what more could a one year old want?

Preschool Graduation

Okay, so I'm a month late on this. I didn't upload the pics for a while, and it's taken me this long to get around to it. But I'm doing it now, both because I want to have it in my blog-journal, and because I've meant to do it for so long that I need to get it done to get the weight off!
Cute, David...really cute...
That's better
For anyone who has never been to a preschool graduation, it pretty much is the kids singing a whole bunch of songs. I like this picture, cause if you don't look to carefully or know what he's doing, it looks like David is trying to make a silly face.


Here's a video of one of the songs. Cute kids, can't even clap on the beat! I have another movie I'll put up here later if I get it uploaded.
This is the only shot I got of David accepting his "diploma"...very nice smile there
David with his teacher, Ms. Tonya...and here his eyes are closed. Apparently David was having an un-photogenic day. Maybe I shouldn't have been so worried about posting these pictures after all!
After David's graduation I snuck into Ryan's class and got a picture of him with his teacher, Mrs. Sandy. He at least knows how to smile!

One more

This was edited using a freeware program called GIMP. Built originally for the Linux operating system, it is a powerful tool (though not as good as Photoshop, by any means).

The picture was taken while in California during Halloween of 2007. It was taken with my dad's digital SLR camera, and in all honesty is why I:

1) Now own a good SLR camera myself
2) Am getting into photography

Here you go. One last note, this was the first real editing of a picture I had ever attempted. If you go to the post just before this one you can see how far I have come along. I was especially proud that I had made the background different.

Updated picture

Ok, so i said awhile ago that I would edit the picture of Katy that was almost perfect...except it had a stupid balloon string in front of her face. Well, DONE! I'll show you the original, plus the edited, plus the new awesome Lomo-esque picture I then made with it (look up lomography if you wonder what I am talking about).





While we are at it...here some other before and after pictures. To me, the mistakes I made are glaring. I hope you don't see them though. Although, to be fair...until you had the original to compare, you had no idea that what is really an error was anything at all...



Notice the veins in the forehead, ouchies on the eye, teeth whitening, shadow in the background, eye color adjustment, overall contrast/brightness/color balance changes.



TADA!




Shadows on shirt, stain, teeth, cheeks were just too red, recently eaten food still on face, eye color enhancement....blah blah blah.



Money.

Who says the Terrible Twos can't start a year early?

This little girl has some serious personality. She really has it in her head that things should always go her way. Dan thinks we've spoiled her, and he might be right. It's just hard to transition from her being a baby whose desires should almost always be met (because most desires are basic physical needs), to a toddler who doesn't have much of a say. If we've spoiled her, some of it can be blamed on the accident. We certainly coddled her for a while after that - we worried that she had a headache or was scared or something. And we were so grateful that she was still ours to hold, we wanted to hold on extra tight. So I was much more willing to pick her up whenever she cried, let her sleep in our bed, etc. Or maybe she was just born with this temperament. For whatever reason, she is now quite opinionated and determined to have her way! Those personality traits may be good for her in the long run, but they are making my days harder in the meantime!

She is especially opinionated about food. She won't let me feed her anymore. The other day I finally had enough of her just not eating anything but finger food, and handed her the spoon. She actually ate quite a bit...but insisted on using the spoon backwards. I tried to show her how to do it the right way, and she threw a mini-fit, and grabbed the wrong end again.

Oh, and she's picky about what she'll eat, too. I frequently have to decide between her eating semi-junk food, or not eating at all. She'd rather not eat than eat cheerios or any fruit. At this age David started getting his own peaches from the fridge and eating them whole. I try giving her cut up grapes, strawberries, apples, bananas...anything we have, and none of it gets eaten. I give her healthy cereal for breakfast, and she hardly touches it. If I break down and give her Lucky Charms, she picks out the marshmallows! At one year old! She'll eat some of the sweet cereal, too, but not until she's made sure she's eaten all the good stuff.

She also is quite opinionated about what she wants to do. If anyone opens the front or back door and doesn't let Katy out, she gets quite upset! But if I go do yard work and want her outside, she tries to get back in. She also tries to get down to the playroom, which I totally understand. And I'd let her go if she wasn't still very much in her oral phase! I don't need her to have another (it would be her fourth) trip to the hospital because she ate a lego or something. I have so many fun Katy toys in the living room, and for the most part she wants nothing to do with them. The only toys Katy ever wants to play with are Molly's, then she shrieks when Molly tries to get them back (and poor Molly just thinks Katy is squeaking her toys to play with her!). Or occasionally she'll get a hold of my cell phone...that's fun, too.



Last Saturday we went to Aunt Nadine & Uncle Scott's house to see the kittens. And Katy was such a pill! She wanted to look at the kittens pretty much the entire time. Sometimes she was good and just looked, but I had to be constantly watching to make sure she didn't grab the tiny little baby kitties. And if I tried to take her away, more screaming. She knew what she wanted, and leaving the kitties was not it!

Silly little Katy. You are lucky you are so darn cute.

The Latest Trip to the Farm

We went to the Thanksgiving Point Farm again last week (I'm a little late posting this...I lost my camera...turns out it was in the bottom of the diaper bag...maybe that should tell me something!), this time with my friend Heidi & her 3 kids. Last summer we met at the park a couple times, and while she got to meet my itty bitty Katy, we didn't get together again after her Katie came. So the babies got to meet each other for the first time. They were thrilled, I'm sure. Look, Katy is even doing some cheerleading kicks for the other Katie!

Here's Ryan & Rachel feeding the goats, with Heidi trying to get a picture of a really pregnant one. I know goats often look pregnant when they aren't, but this one had to be. It was giant!
Katy really loves animals. She loved the zoo, and now she loved the farm. I've been trying to get her interested in TV (that makes me sound like a terrible mom!), and I finally found some Baby Einstein movies with animals in them that hold her attention. She says "dah! dah!" over and over again...apparently "dog" is her generic word for animal. It's super cute!
Ryan is a little monkey. Here he is climbing the "prison bars," with David, Rachel, and Ethan.


While I'm on the topic, here's another shot of Ryan being a monkey. Who would've thought anyone could climb a tree this little?

The boys have been asking to play with Ethan again (I'm sure they want to play with Rachel, too). Heidi, we definitely want to meet you at a splash park sometime very soon! That way we can sit and visit instead of being occupied the whole time!

Exercising as a Mom

Being responsible for 3 small children makes it hard to exercise. For the past couple years I've mostly rode the exercise bike. That way I can do it at home while supervising the kids. Except the bike is in the play room, and it's hard to have Katy in there. She still puts things in her mouth, and there are lots of legos and other small toys in there. Oh, and occasionally she wanders over and tries to get hit by the pedals. There have been many days that I wait for Katy's nap to do it. Then I don't get showered or dressed until the afternoon, and I feel like a bum.

I also go walking, but it isn't an intense enough work out. I prefer something that I can do for 20 min, get sweaty & breathing hard, and be done. Walking just takes too long, and doesn't ever get quite the same results as harder work outs. My main purpose for exercising is to keep me from getting too cranky, and walking just doesn't do that.

I have a few exercise movies, but that seems to have the bad points of both the other two. Kids get in the way, and I generally don't feel like I've worked off the moodiness. And I feel like everyone can look in my house and see me jumping about looking silly.

So I mentioned that I went for a run last week. I went Monday & Wednesday mornings. But Dan leaves at 6:15, and it's just too hard to be done by then. Not getting enough sleep also brings out my cranky side. So if I can get up early & go for a run, or sleep in & not run, and be equally moody, that's not a tough call!

Katy has had a few really poor sleeping nights lately, one of those being Thursday night (I believe that was the night when she had a really hard time going back to sleep after waking up around 2:30), so Friday morning I just couldn't do it. I tried running Friday night, but that didn't really go great, either. Molly was way spazzier, freaking out at headlights (it was 10:00 by the time I got around to it) and constantly running in front of my feet. And as soon as we turned around and headed for home she pulled at the leash and tried to run fast the whole way home. And I had a stitch in my side most of the time. I suppose I could go earlier in the evening, but there really isn't a good time. Dan gets home a little after four. Then I make dinner, eat dinner, clean up, spend some time as a family, and before we know it it is 7:00 and time for the bedtime routine. Then the kids are in bed around 8, and I feel like I deserve a break. Then I try to get some of the cleaning done that the children kept me from getting to. And then it's time for bed.

So this morning it occurred to me to go with the kids. I don't know why I just totally assumed I couldn't. I put the younger two in the stroller, and they were both great! It's just a regular stroller, so I felt like a dork jogging with it. Maybe I should invest in a jogging stroller, but I don't know if that'd be worth it (is it that much better, and will I keep jogging long enough to make it worth it?). I had David ride his bike, and he did pretty well. I know we've gone for longer walks than that and he's been fine, but he ended up walking his bike the last quarter or so. Molly was pretty good, and it was nice to once again get some of her puppy energy out early. It was definitely harder pushing a stroller, but that just means it's a better workout, right? I mean, my buns were burning, and I haven't noticed that when jogging alone. So I'm going to try again on Thursday. Maybe we'll finally find the perfect workout. Katy & Ryan get a ride, David gets some exercise (important with his ADHD), Molly gets a nice walk (she walks quickly while I jog...how embarrassing...), and I get a jog. Wish me luck!

Awesome

Hey Nadine, way to be a grown up. This isn't a "let's bash my neighbors" party. I didn't post that last post to try and fight with them. I honestly want help selling my house. I figured you guys that have seen my house could have some useful comments (like, I think the master bedroom will be better photographed from the doorway). And those of you that haven't seen my house could also helpful, since the pics are the only way you know what "our" house looks like. Seriously, the only difference between our houses is decor (and our basement being done). I was hoping you all could look at it from the point of view of someone looking for a house and tell me what the highs and lows of their ad are. Like, "I'd like a picture of the backyard." And "make sure you point out that your West facing driveway is much better than a North facing driveway." Or whatever.

And as for having 4 bedrooms...I think having our basement finished will help, but not as much as you'd think. I don't think anyone who needs the third and fourth bedrooms to function as bedrooms will want a house without a master bathroom. Or the bedrooms to be in the basement. I don't feel comfortable having my 3 and/or 5 year old sleeping that far away from me, hence the three kids in one room. This floor plan will be great for a young couple, maybe with a baby, or an older couple. But I don't think this house will work for people with children (which is why we need out!). I think this house attracts people that are trying to spend as little as possible. So the money we put into finishing the basement might not even pay off. I spoke to a realtor once who said that it doesn't, and it kind of makes sense. People see the possibility in an unfinished basement, and mentally assign about the same value as they would a finished basement. So all the hours and hours Dan spent down there have made it a nicer place to live, but won't necessarily help in selling it.

And the price thing...the value of a house is based entirely on what someone pays for it. So the more people lower their prices in an effort to get it sold, the more the value of our house drops. I guess the original price was more accurate of housing prices at the peak, about 1.5 years ago (last time we had our house on the market...should have stuck with it then!). I haven't looked at prices since, but I was told that in our price range they weren't changing much. We were still expecting to list around $209,000. But I don't think we can do that now, with the same house just across the street going for $20k less. Because they need to sell quickly (they have a reason beyond just "we don't fit"), they're going to keep dropping their price, thereby devaluing our house as well. I understand why they're doing it, but it does hurt us in the process. And if other people are lowering their prices as well, I'm frustrated with that, too!

Christine, I'll send you an email in a sec. My kids need some attention (I can hear them not doing what I've told them to do), then I'll get to it.

Our rude neighbors are selling their house!

Okay, so it's not their fault that we've been lazily trying to sell our house for years. We just keep waiting for something before we do it. Right now we're waiting for the bathroom to finish itself and the grass and flowers to become jaw dropping (or at least pleasant looking). But it's the selling time of year, even if it's not really a wonderful selling year. And I'm getting pretty sick of having three children in one bedroom. So we're getting ready to put it up.

So last Sunday I came home from Washington to find the people diagonally across the street had a FSBO sign in their front yard! I grabbed a flier, and found out that they have the exact same model home as we do! Shoot! They were asking $196,900, and we've been thinking of asking something in the low 200Ks, so that seemed about right. Our basement is finished (except the bathroom!) and theirs isn't, so ours should go a bit higher (the cost of basement finishing supplies alone is 10-15K, not to mention the labor!). Well, today we saw that their sign was gone. We were hoping either they already sold it, or they just decided not to. Well, this evening they had a realtor's sign up, so I went to grab the new flier. And the jerks lowered their price to $189,000! RUDE RUDE RUDE! It's like stealing money out of our pockets!

So anyhow, they have a blog with their house info & pics on it. I was hoping I could get some unbiased opinions on what could be done better. Not only because we are in direct competition with them, but also so we can have the best possible ad. Oh, and help me come up with a blogspot address that is catchy, but not too totally obviously ripping them off.

Certainly appears that the crate training is going well.

Looking for the positive

In an effort to have a better day, I'm trying to focus on the positive. Here's what's good so far today:

The boys both got dressed while I took a shower! I didn't have to nag them!


Ryan kept his trophies (the design on his pull ups that disappears when he goes potty in them)! He usually wets in his sleep, but last night he stayed dry all night!

Little Katy was coughing really bad this morning, but I brought her in the shower with me, and she hasn't coughed since! She seems to be feeling much better!

And since I had a reason to shower early, I was totally dressed, hair & make up done, before 9:00! If you've never been a SAHM, you don't know how big of a deal that is!

Oh, and Katy already went down for her nap! She fell asleep nursing, so she didn't have to cry or anything!

My garden is growing nicely! And the spots that either didn't grow (the lettuce), started growing then died (the cucumbers), or were pulled up by the dog (the last tomato) I get to redo today! I remembered to buy more seeds/plants last night, so I'm going to do that with the boys as soon as I'm done here.

Little Molly likes her crate! We're working on crate training, which is a pretty gradual process, but she frequently goes in there on her own!

My sister's kitty had 6 kittens last night! SO CUTE! We're going to go visit them in the next couple days (Nadine, what are you doing Sunday? Maybe we could come for dinner & kitty admiring?).

There, I feel much better already! That's my mission for today, to focus on the positive!

The Hogle Zoo!

I still need to post pictures of David's preschool graduation & Katy's birthday party, but I'm not ready for those yet. I do, however, have the pictures ready from our trip to the zoo on Tuesday! A lady in our ward brought over a schedule of fun activities this summer, and that was the first. There were actually only 4 women & their children that came, hopefully others will come next week. And, actually, we weren't with the others much anyways. We wanted to take our time looking at things, and they seemed more in a hurry. Oh well, we still had a blast!

We arrived around 10:45, and the bird show was at 11, so we (my kids & me, and a couple other people) headed straight over. We've seen it before, but it still is so cool! The birds fly right over the audience!



The boys were mesmerized. The bird show really held their attention!

The only bad part of the day was on the way out of the bird show. I walked up the stairs holding Katy, and the boys followed me. Only at some point Ryan started following someone else I think, because I put Katy in the stroller, then turned around to have him get in, and he was gone! We were right by the carousel, so I looked around there, then back at the bird show...nothing. It was so scary! I've lost David before, but usually in Walmart. They call a Code Adam, and he's back within a couple minutes. Ryan was missing for probably 10-15 minutes before Janelle, my visiting teaching companion, found him with a security guy. Poor little guy was very sad! I was so relieved to have my little Rynan back!



After we found Ryan we sat down & ate lunch, then finally started looking at animals. Katy LOVED it! She especially liked the small animal building, where they were so close & easy to spot. This is a meerkat, and it kept walking back and forth in front of her. She thought that was pretty cool.

Silly Katy. One of her favorite animals was a wild cat, that looked pretty much like a regular house cat. Didn't have to drive an hour & pay $20 to see one of those!

There IS glass there, I promise!

David took this picture, didn't he do a good job?

Then a nice stranger came and took one of all of us. I think David took a better picture, but this one has all of us.

The boys were quite excited to see a cheetah. Katy isn't even looking at it. I think it was too far for her to get a good enough look at it.

Katy did NOT want to sit on the Elephant's trunk!

...but she cheered up later

At the end we stopped by the playground. The kids loved this one! Really, they did! It just doesn't look like it here.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach...ew!

And here's our obligatory picture by the sign. Katy was definitely ready to leave by this point. At least the boys still look like they're having fun!