A day at the Zoo

Monday we (Erica, Evelyn, Samuel, and Hyrum) went to the Fort Worth Zoo with our friends - Lori, Ethan, and Lily. This picture was taken at the very end of our day - hence why Samuel is sleeping! Here are some of the highlights from our exciting & exhausting day!


At the zoo they have a fish food dispenser - you put a quarter in it and out comes a bunch of fish food that you can throw into the "lakes" to feed the fish. It was pretty awesome. They had some huge goldfish that would come up and eat the food...This picture caught one in the act! The kids loved it, in fact, Samuel would look on the ground for fish food that had fallen around the dispensers so he could feed more fish!


The older kids loved climbing up the huge termite mounds. I don't know where kids get all their energy! At the end of our day I looked at the thermometer in our car and it read 101º!! It was a hot day, but the Zoo has tons of shade and some exhibits are even inside with air conditioning...


The White Tiger was one of the most fun for the kids. The window for the exhibit was probably 15 wide, and the tiger was rubbing up against the glass and just pacing back and forth. When he came towards the kids they screamed and growled and then it got quiet as he retreated and then they screamed and growled, etc... The kids L-O-V-E-D that tiger!


Another fun exhibit they had was a bird house. For $1 you can buy a popsicle stick with bird seeds stuck to it and you hold out the stick and let the birds eat the seeds off of it.


We were each lucky enough to get a bird to climb onto our stick and eat the seeds!! It was really fun for the kids to be able to interact with the animals! And I am happy to report that even with all those birds flying around - none of us got pooped on! ;)


Lori was smart enough to get maps for the grown-ups AND for the kids. Ethan & Evelyn would look at the map and talk about all the fun exhibits they wanted to see!


These are some of my favorite animals and/or pictures from our trip.


The orangatan definately wins the award for the most laid-back pose!


It was fun to see the Elephant enjoying a dip in the pool. Earlier in the day we got to see an Elephant paint a picture. When the Elephant was done painting, it turned to the audiance and raised one foot and shook his head around - His way of taking a bow!


We also enjoyed seeing the Jaguar - the kids Love "Go Diego Go" from TV and so it was cool for them to see a real "Mommy Jaguar."


After a long hot day a the Zoo, we went to Sonic...is there a better way to relax and cool off than with a slushy??...it was even during "happy hour" (2-for-1)!!

Moments That Make Me Smile

June 25, 2008 - Hyrum knows which button on my Suburban's keychain will make the horn "honk" ...and, unfortunately, he LOVES pushing it! The other day we were shopping at Walgreens, and as we got closer to the front of the store, I hear a car alarm. About 2 seconds later I realized that Hyrum set off our alarm. I tried to push the button again to turn it off - of course it didn't work - - I had merchandise in our cart so I parked it as close as I could to the front doors, dashed out the doors to hit the button, - luckily it worked this time - - and dashed back in...Yeah, Hyrum didn't get the keys back that day! He has also figured out which button on the TV remote turns the TV on...what a smart boy!

Potty Training Samuel

Saturday we started potty training Samuel. We knew, from sounds he was making ;), that he needed to use the potty. So we asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty - usually he said "no" - but this time he said "yes." So we sat him down on the potty.


Up until this point, using the potty (for Samuel) meant sitting for 3 seconds and then ripping the tiniest corner of toilet paper off and throwing it in the potty (no wiping involved) and flushing it. This time, he peed! So we took that success and are now full-time potty training!

He is doing wonderful and I think he may even enjoy it! He will actually go potty, with no fits, when I ask him to go - very different than Evelyn. He has Lightning McQueen underwear. I make him go potty every so often and when he doesn't have an accident he loves to tell me "No pee McQueen" (there's no pee in his McQueen underwear!)

Moments That Make Me Smile

June 24, 2008 - When Hyrum has a poopy diaper I will *sniff, sniff* a couple times and ask: "Hyrum, what's that smell?" Well today Hyrum was off playing somewhere and then came and found me, and whoa...he needed to be changed and so I said *sniff, sniff* what's that smell and Hyrum smiled and went *sniff, sniff, sniff* with his nose!! It was awesome!

Bean Jars

So after reading about and talking to a couple friends about their jars, we have decided to try having "bean jars" in our home.


We got 3 rubbermaid containers and let the kids decorate them with stickers...this was wonderful to get the kids excited about the jars, now they know which one is theirs and they love them!


Evelyn can't stop talking about her princess stickers and loves to count her beans and look at them! Samuel and Hyrum love to carry their jars around and shake them like maracas!


When someone does something 'good' I give them a bean and when they do something 'naughty' I take a bean away. When the jar is full (or maybe when they reach a certain number of beans) I'll let them pick an inexpensive toy from Wal-Mart. What's the point? Well, hopefully this will help them see rewards for making good choices (getting beans in their jar and eventually a toy from Wal-Mart) and consequences for bad choices (losing a bean). If anyone else has done this - - let me know some tricks that have worked for you and your kids!

Marsh Fishing in Louisiana

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. We have been visiting family in New Orleans! It was soooo fun. One of the more exciting things we did was go marsh fishing in The Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River. We got to the dock at the crack of dawn...literally...which means - you guessed it - we had to wake up at the unearthly time of 3:45 am to get to the dock by dawn. But what a beautiful sunrise (my dad took all of these pictures)!


Because there were 7 of us who went (Grandma stayed home with all 5 grandchildren) we took 2 boats. For the first hour or so the boats split up. But on our boat (Boat #2 - Thayne, Erica, and Jeffrey) Erica caught the first fish! Jeffrey soon followed, but all would pale in comparison to Thayne's first catch! WHOA!


FISHING STATISTICS

Thayne's redfish weighed in at 30 lbs. and was by far the biggest one we caught that day! Way to go Thayne!


Boat #2 caught 1 trout and lots of Redfish...we caught "so many" redfish that we reached our limit and just started catching and releasing.


Jeffrey caught the most fish individually - 13 - Someone had to pick up my slack - I only caught 6!! Good Job Jeffrey!

The other boat (Boat #1 - Michael, Sarah, Christy, Grandpa) caught tons of speckled trout and some redfish...

Oh yeah, and Boat #1 caught the most fish as a team. Good job - I guess... ;)


BIGGEST TRAGEDY

Sarah wins this award... She had a trout on the line and she saw it for a second when it came up the the surface, and she was a little disappointed because it was a small one...then, just after the trout disappeared under water, her line just starts unreeling (?) like crazy. Apparently what happened was a HUGE redfish ate the trout that was on her line!! Unfortunately, the fishing guide cut her line because he said it would be impossible for her to reel them both in since the hook was in the trout, not the redfish...


Special Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the fishing trip!


Thanks Grandpa for the taking the pictures - which is why he isn't in any!!


Thanks Grandma for wanting to stay home with all 5 grandchildren aged 4 and under!!