Stingrays and Lobsters and Pumpkins? OH MY!

Last weekend, I loaded up the kidlets and took them to Sandy (about 45 minutes away for you non-Utahns) to something called "The Living Planet Aquarium." Nice little place. We saw some pretty cool creatures. (sorry for the poor quality on some of these. I forgot to charge my camera so I had to use the phone cam after the batteries died)

They had a touch pool with stingray. I was hoping for dolphins, but did I mention I'm in Sandy, Utah? We'll settle for the stingray.

If you can't tell, this is a giant lobster. By "giant," I mean about the size of a cocker spaniel.

Notice the jack-o-lantern in the tank? Do fish celebrate Halloween?

A Pumpkinless Patch

Welcome to day two of the saga known as "WHAT? They're all home for four days?!" I made it halfway! Go me! So here's what we did today. Once again there were lots of animals involved, but nobody got pooed on this time. We call that a good day.

Why does looking at this picture make me feel like I have a LOT of children? Yes, they're all mine.


And no, that's not an abnormally large child in that choo-choo barrel. It's aunt Beffie/BLB.


The girls loved the pony rides. They made them wear special helmets for the actual ride, then put the cute cowgirl hats on for the photo opp. Like I was gonna miss an opportunity to post a photo on my blog of Livvi in a helmet!

The petting "zoo." I use that term loosely. Let's call it a petting pen. You say tomato. Either way, a big hit with the kids.

Hallie catches some serious air...for the bargain price of $5.

Good food and good company. I love my sisters! Looks like Livvi loves her hot dog, too.

This is not an unusual scene around our house. Lucas consumes anything and everything within his reach, including but not limited to actual food and drink. i.e., Last week it was a bottle of Children's liquid Tylenol. Well, not sure how MUCH of the bottle he drank, since I don't know how much was in there to begin with. But that was 5 or 6 days ago, and he's still with us, so...maybe I can still collect my Mother of the Year award after all. I won't hold my breath.

Say No to Ducks

A summary of the last few days:

Last week was anti-drugs week at Hallie and Livvi's school. (They do that in Utah? 'pparently.) So each day was a fun little theme day. Can you guess by the following hair photos what Wednesday was? Ding ding ding! You guessed it! Crazy hair day! And can you guess by the photos which child was not thrilled about having her picture taken with crazy hair? Right again!

Nuff said.

On to this week: A three-day school week. Why, you ask? Because of some big deer hunt that goes on every year at this time. A big deal in these parts. But why do *I* have to be punished along with the poor unsuspecting deer? Four days in a row with FOUR children home? ALL day long? ...sigh...

So, the plan is to keep them entertained. Occupied. Not an easy task. Off to the park we went. During a moment of insanity, I may have casually mentioned that there MIGHT be a pond at the park where we were going. Side note: Do NOT mention the possibility of ponds to young children when headed to the park. So we packed up the bread and headed for the park with the pond. We get there and fo shizzle, there's a pond! WITH DUCKS!!! We get out of the car and we start breaking off pieces of bread for the hungry little duckies. All fun and games. The ducks were thrilled. The kids were excited. Hallie may have gotten a little TOO excited, however. She couldn't resist the urge to keep picking up ducks. Turns out ducks don't like to be cuddled so much. I kept warning her that something bad was going to happen if she continued her duck-loving ways. But if you know Hallie, you know she can't help herself. I'll let the pictures tell the story. To quote a favorite cable news channel: WE report. YOU decide.

Think the duck was happy about being man-handled? Me neither. Still, the funniest part of my day. Maybe even my week. Hallie's not laughing...yet.

Random Quirkiness

I've been tagged by Alyssa to share with my audience/fans/stalkers six quirky things about me that you may or may not know. This was hard. Not because I don't have an abundance of quirks, but because of the time involved TRYING TO NARROW THEM DOWN TO SIX!!! Now, Jenna helped me out by stealing many of mine (yeah, we ARE sisters), but trying to whittle down the list AND come up with six that were safe to share without risking you all thinking I'm completely insane---now THAT was a challenge! Here are the top six:

1. I can NOT stand open closet doors. How can I maintain the illusion of being organized and put-together if you can see into my closets? I can NOT sleep at night if there are closet doors open. Seriously.

2. My little girls do NOT go out in public without their hair fixed. No, not brushed and combed. FIXED. Barrettes, rubberbands, something. I don't like being seen out and about with messy-haired girls who look like their mother doesn't love them.

3. I haven't painted my fingernails in about 8 years, but my toes are ALWAYS painted. Half the time, nobody even sees them, but they always get painted. My fingernails can look like they've been gnawed off by an angry beaver, but the toes have GOT to look guuuuud.

4. I want to tear my hair out when I see signs or any kind of public advertisement/writings with misspelled words or incorrect grammar!!!! Who is letting these people create sentences in public? I ask you! If you can't write good English, ya ain't got no business making signs or writing e-books or designing websites! I feel better now. (Alyssa, I know you do, too)

5. I type words and sentences out in my head. I've had this horribly annoying habit (it's only annoying to me since nobody knows I'm doing it) since I took typing class in 8th grade. If you're saying it to me or I'm saying it to you, I'm picturing it being typed out on a keyboard in my head. However, I'm sorry to say that I think this habit is being replaced by one even worse---texting! I'm starting to text words in my head now. Anyone have a number for a good therapist? (shut up, Jon)

6. I can't stand smelling like food. Blech. I hate it when I cook lunch or dinner, then have to go somewhere like to church or anywhere, really, and I smell like whatever I just cooked. I try to plan cooking around not having to go anywhere or around my showers. Cook first, shower second. Changing my clothes isn't enough. I mean, the smell stays in your hair, too! Yuck! The same goes for eating out and leaving the restaurant smelling like whatever I just ate...or what the people next to me just ate (case in point: Chili's sizzling fajitas. The waiter passes by your table carrying those things and you're done for. You now smell like green peppers and onions.)

I guess I'm supposed to tag a few people now, so....Kristi, Polly, Tami D., Lita, Camille H., and Debbie C. C'mon girls, let's have 'em.