School Time Again

Hard to believe it is school time again.  I do not like this time of year.  My children go back to school, the days start getting colder, pumpkins ripen (my son is allergic), etc.  This is the first year that all my children will be in school full-time.  My youngest enters first grade this year.  Last year I had her for half an day and now, I will be missing them for hours.  Just a thought, now I will have time to do all those things I want to do right?  The sewing, the crocheting, my jewelry, my other crafts.  Maybe this won't be such a bad thing after all.  Oh, I have less than a week to get my stuff organized so I can  get busy when they get to school.  Gotta go!  Gotta clean out that craft room! 

Camping for the first time in a year

We finally went on a camping trip despite issues with the neighbor.  My son stayed up there with his Grandpa and Grandma after the rest of us went home.  I am so glad as he was able to get to know his grandparents better.   He had lots of fun fishing though no one actually caught anything big enough to keep!  The boys, and Aunt Jody, enjoyed catching the toads.  The toads really started sounding of at dusk and didn't stop until morning's light.  Grandma thought is was a cow.  We were the only ones who didn't have a trailer to sleep in.  After sleeping on the ground all night and waking up sore, I was envious of those who had an almost proper bed to sleep in.  I forgot so many things and had to ask grandma to let me use her oven so we would have dinner that night but it was still fun.  I can hardly wait to go again.

Facebook Addiction

I have been hijacked by facebook.  OMGoodness!  I started playing a game and felt I had to play it every day, more than once.  I like being able to catch up with people I haven't seen a while, okay since highschool but I don't have to mention how long ago that was, do I?  I miss my blog so instead of playing on Facebook, I will be cleaning my house and actually updating my blog again!  Yay!  Go me.  School starts next week, so see ya'll soon

How Does the World Go On?

My son's friend died Tuesday morning on the way to school. He was hit by a car and died instantly. He was 13. Today is the 23rd anniversary of my brother's death. He was barely 18. As I was thinking about these two young men. I was remembering how I felt when my brother passed away. I wonder how does life go on? When you lose someone you deeply love, your world has stopped. It seems everything should stop but, of course, it does not. I know I'm rambling. It just seems so strange that things should go on normally. Your life is shattered and things just go on.
My brother committed suicide. I don't know if he meant to or not but he was contempleting it enough to form a plan and that is bad enough. October 19 is National Suicide Prevention day. If you are thinking these kinds of thoughts or see the signs in someone else, please, please tell someone who can help. Do something. If someone who has been sad suddenly seems happy or is giving away their things, please do not stand aside but do something. Life is just too precious. Rest in peace dear brother. We all miss you very much.

Liberty Park

After we had looked at all the birds in the aviary, we headed over the Liberty Park. For those who don't know, its all in the same block. There is a pond for boat rides, a couple of carnival rides, a small consession area, a small replica of the canyons in northern Utah, a playground and what they call a splash pool. We started out at the canyons. The designer made a scale model of the canyons in the area complete with rivers. The girls wore their swimsuits so they could splash in the water. The girls had so much fun! After a while, we packed up the picnic and went to the splash area which is really close to the playgound. My children preferred the playground to the splash pool. It was getting late so we finally decided to go home. The children ended up having a picnic in the car on the way home. Before we arrived home, at least one had had enough excitement for the day and fell asleep. Aww. I usually try not to post pictures of other people's children, but I could not get a clear shot of my children in the canyon ponds and I really wanted to show how cool the canyon area is.

Dinosaurs At the Zoo? And they move?

On Thursday, I took my son, youngest daughter and my nephew to the zoo. We looked around for a while, compared hands to the ape hand, and height to the ape height. It was very cool to see the wolves. They have such a large area to roam (compared to some of the other animals) and are very shy so it was a real treat. We happened to be there just before the bird show so we stopped in to see that. It was awesome! There were birds flying right over our heads! I wondered why they ask that you don't stand up and now I know. You or the birds could get seriously hurt! Those birds were literally inches away from the top of our heads. There was one bird that was the heaviest eagle in the world. Although the trainer mentioned the name, I can't remember it. It was fun to watch it walk. Wish I'd gotten a video of that one. They had a little pool for it to take a bath in. He was having a good ole' time in the pool and wasn't going to come out! The trainer put a treat on the grass but he wasn't going to be fooled. The trainer had to put a treat on the edge of the pool and quickly put one in the grass before the bird decided he was going back to bathing.

Cute little white birds ran from one side of the stage to the other behind the presenter. Back and forth at different points in the show. They also had a rooster running back and forth and near the end he danced for us. Funny. It's beena long time since I've been to a bird show at the zoo. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was surprised to hear my little girl laugh so much. It really is a family show. Everyone enjoyed it. At the end, they have a small time to take donatation for the zoo. You hold the dollar up and the bird takes it and puts it in the donation box. My daughter really wanted to do it so I gave her a dollar. She was thrilled.

Okay, about the dinosaurs. They are not statues, they are anamatronic (is that the right spelling?) or robots. They move and growl and a couple (mom and baby) actually spit water! There was a triceratops and baby, kentasaurus, allosaurus, parasoralophus, a couple I can't remember the names to and of course, the king of all dinosaurs, the T-Rex. Even its eyes moved. If I didn't know it wasn't real, I would have thought he was sizing me up for dinner. They boys loved it. I was glad to find out my nephew had a good time. I wanted to show you more pictures of the dinosaurs but apparently I didn't download them so I'll have to post some more later.

Tracy Aviary

On July 21, while the boys were off to scout camp, us three girls went with my sister and my neice and step grandneice an newphew to the Tracy Aviary and then off to play in the water at Liberty Park. I had a picnic planned but the girls were more interested in the water than the food. Haha. At the aviary, the birds were amazing and they've made some awesome improvements since the last time I was there. Because I have a pass to the zoo, I received a discount at the Aviary which was cool. I like discounts! I think the favorite part for my girls was were they were able to purchase food and feed it to the water fowl. My favorite part were the signets (a.k.a. ugly ducklings or baby swans). Even being so small they were so graceful. They have the owls in what they call the Owl Forest. There is even a little sound system that if you push the buttons you can hear the sounds different owls make. They don't all hoot, and now my children know it too. The size ranges of these owls are amazing. We happened to run into a volunteer who was very knowledgeable. He had a bit of owl scat that he offered to let the children touch. I'm glad mine didn't want to touch it.