You never know what will happen on a Saturday

Our Saturday started out with rather mild plans. The national zoo was having an early opening with some kid-friendly events like animal feeding and birdhouse construction. We got out the door early and to the zoo by 8:30. It was a fun day for animal watching. It hit me that most animals are more active in the dawn and dusk time frame rather than the middle of the day (when most humans can get 3 kids dressed, fed, loaded in the car, and drive downtown.) Our first stop was the farm animals (cows and goats). Next was the big cats, where a tiger was out and active. It was pretty fun to watch the tiger prowl. He was hungry. He would go up to the door where he is presumably fed, and growl loudly. We then moved on to watch a squirrel taunt the prairie dogs by jumping in and out of their exhibit.



After regrouping we decided to try and catch the stingray feeding. It was in a obscure part of the zoo in an exhibit dedicated to the Amazon. We missed the feeding, but there was a very nice zoo employee who chatted to our kids for a few minutes about rays. Then we walked around the corner and found a huge aquarium. I swear, our kids could have been there all day watching these fish, some were as big as our 4 year old. There were a couple more aquariums and exhibits which were just as captivating. It was all the better because the exhibits were not crowded, and we could linger as long as we wanted.



We decided to walk back up and see the construction area where they made birdhouses and plaster molds. After that our eyes caught a chimp 40 feet up in the air. I've never seen this in a zoo before, but the Chimp exhibit is housed in two locations perhaps 100-200 yards apart, linked by something resembling a ropes-course (except, of course, that ropes-courses are modeled off cool jungle stuff. so it's moderately circular. but I digress). There were two ropes suspended between towers maybe 30-40 feet up. A series 4-5 towers made the skyway for the chimps to cross over into their other area. We watched three chimp climb up the tower, swing arm over arm and tight-rope walk, and then descend into their other house. It was pretty cool, and I bet that the animals loved it even more.







As were stalled trying to figure out what to do next or whether to go home, I heard, "Sam, Mollie." At first I thought it was one of our kids trying to get our attention (like after repeated "Dad" attempts), but it was Jason and his three kids. They were up for the day from out of town. We rounded up the kids and went to a local park and played for a while. Our kids are pretty close in age, so everybody had a buddy. I think that these ages are the best for playground fun. they are pretty much self-motivated and self-guided. Add in the excitement of having some new friends, and it was a perfect play date. Afterwards we went out for lunch.






All in all, a great day.

More Easter Pics

as promised...

Lucky Day

Ever since St. Patrick's Day, the boys have been going on about 4-leaf clovers. A recent conversations with the neighborhood kids revealed that they had all seen several. Some had seen the 5,7,8, and 12 leaf clover. As childhood bragging knows no bounds, someone quickly jumped to having seen a 100 leaf clover, but the kids shot that down as not realistic.

This weekend, we took the boys to a nearby park, and as they have done whenever they've seen grass in the past few weeks (which is very often) they bend down to see if they can spot the 4-leafer. They always claim to have found it, ... until they pick it and realize it is only 3. So i was a bit hesitant to celebrate when Harrison claimed to have found a 4-leaf clover yesterday. He picked it and sure enough, it's true.





When I told my mom about this, she said it reminded her of sorting through grass to find them as a child in Iowa. She found them on several occasions. I was surprised by this, because I have spent a lot of time digging weeds from lawns (raise your hands if your Dad delegated yard work) and never found one. But apparently they do exist.

Mormon Battalion Historic Site

One of our most memorable stops in San Diego was at the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. Sam and I had been there before, but it was recently renovated, and it is really AMAZING now. Very high tech, and very well done. This is a must do activity if you are ever in San Diego.

The kids got to pan for gold, and I seriously think all 3 of my kids could have done this for a very long time.  I had to pull them away eventually.  

They also had fiddle "lessons."  Sister Evans showed the kids how to move the bow across the strings, and then played a litle jig the kids could play along to.  They loved it!

And here's Noah bringing up a bucket from a well. Besides these fun activities, you could "make bricks" and there was a look out point from the roof that was also really fun. We got our picture taken, and they printed it for us (come to think of it, I think I was suppose to get a digital version, but I never did...), and they had artifacts and other interactive media you could play with. The best part was the tour. Very high tech, and I loved the video techniques they used with multiple screens in multiple rooms that were made to feel like you were right there with the battalion. It's really hard to describe, so you'll just have to go check it out for yourselves. We highly recommend it!

LEGOLAND

[Sorry for the re-post, but I hit publish instead of save yesterday, before I got a chance to write anything.]
While in San Diego we spent a day at Legoland. We had meant to go before we left San Diego, but everything got so crazy at the end that we never did. I think it was good, though, because the boys are so much more into Legos than they were 2 year ago, and I think that made it that much more enjoyable for them.

The Mitchells were able to come with us, which was so fun. Harrison and Noah just love playing/being with John and Will. They really were in heaven all week spending so much time with these sweet boys.

We didn't go on too many of the rides, but there were lots of interactive areas where you could squirt water, or jump to make water squirt, and music play.  The kids liked that as much or more than the rides, and definitely more than standing in line for rides. 

 

The kids seemed to really like this fountain where you could jump to make the water spray and music play. The could have stayed there a while. 

This is Harrison on one of the few rides we did go on.

Harrison was so excited to visit "Mini-land." They had an huge area where they had several famous cities built out of Legos. He had seen pictures on the internet of the Washington DC built out of Legos, and was so excited to see it in "real-life." It did not disappoint. I think all of us were quite impressed with mini-land.

They even had tiny plants trimmed to scale, and moving cars, buses, trains and boats.  In front of the capital building there was a marching band, playing music and marching around.  My favorite where the old Victorian row houses in San Fransisco: 

Who knew legos could be so pretty?

There were also many other amazing things built out of Legos.  Noah loved posing with this Darth Vader, and

Bob the Builder.

There were also lots of fun play areas, playgrounds, and places you could build with Legos.  It was a great day, and one the kids were not quickly forget. But it did exhaust everyone: 

Spring Celebrations

This year, taking the lead from my friend Kim, we decided to do our commercial "Easter" celebrations (you know, the bunny, egg hunts, candy stuff) on the first day of spring. This year it worked out rather nicely since March 20th was on a Saturday, and I knew we were going to be recovering from our San Diego trip on Easter weekend.  I think it worked out pretty well, although it seemed strange to try and explain to people wy we did "Easter" a couple weeks early. And the boys have eagerly tried to explain to their friends, "The Spring bunny came to our house.  It's the same bunny as the Easter Bunny, but you can ask him to come for spring instead.  Then you can focus on the Resurrection for Easter."  Their friends just look at them very confused.  I think I might just stick to the Saturday before in the future, but this year it was perfect.

I found some great things in the dollar spot at Target.  I really don't like giving too much candy on holidays - I end up eating too much of it, and my kids get hyper and crazy.  But at Target they had some cute Beatrix Potter themed sticker sets and little board books, which the boys loved.  They also got some egg shaped sidewalk chalk, and a few other toys (playdough and slinkies).  The only candy was hidden in eggs around the house.

They loved hunting for the eggs.  Here's Harrison finding an egg in the kids dishes.

Olivia got a little purse (also from the dollar spot at Target). She likes to put it on her arm, wave and say "bye-bye" and then leave the room. 

I really did like celebrating spring - I was so ready for spring to come, and it was really here on March 20th. After having our little egg hunt, we headed off to Mount Vernon.

Spring at Mount Vernon

We spent the first day of spring at one of our favorite spots here in DC, Mount Vernon. It was a beautiful spring day, and we were lucky enough to meet up with our good friends, the Gathrights.

The flower gardens were just starting to get green - we plan on going back again soon to see everything in bloom.  This winter felt especially long, and I'm so excited that spring has sprung!

Olivia was not happy about posing for this picture - since the nice weather has hit she loves to go outside and run around, and Mount Vernon was no exception.  She often climbs all the way down stairs, finds her shoes and cries at the door until we let her out. 

I love this funny picture. There were a whole bunch of baby lambs in the paddock, and the kids loved watching them. I was trying to get a picture of Olivia and a lamb, and I caught this funny little expression.

And here's a picture with the 2 Gathright girls. Our boys just love playing with these girls. They were good friends at UCSD, and now they live in the DC area, so we've enjoyed keeping up with them and getting together from time to time.

Our year passes expire in July, so I think were going to try to make it out at least a few more times before then.  It's such a great place full of places to explore.

UCSD Fun

La Jolla Shores

Happy Easter!

I really have a lot to catch up on here on the blog. But before I do that, Happy Easter! We had a great relaxing Conference Sunday. More pictures to come.