The Zoo

Before dropping Tanner off at the airport we ventured to the zoo. It was Eddie's first time, since last year he had to work or something.
The white alligator. It isn't albino though, just white.

The elephants were very active. One of them is pregnant and due next July. We learned that elephants are prego for 21 months and the babies usually weigh 200 pounds at birth.

Thought this was interesting. Never knew what there teeth looked like.

This bear was itching is backside, it was funny to watch.

This is a baby giraffe, it was less than 10 feet tall. They had it's mom and him/her on one side and the rest of the giraffes on the other side.

This was so cute...little baby monkey.

This monkey had a sheet on it the whole time, probably trying to keep cool.

Can you tell Tanner wasn't even interested in taking this pictures...haha!!

After the zoo we headed over to Hire Big H for a yummy hamburger and root beer. Then off to the airport.

Eddie and I have had the longest day. We woke up at 3:45 AM to be awake and scan Center Street for a spot for the parade. They set a new ordinance this year that you can't set anything up on the grass until 5 a.m. Eddie was a little nervous about not getting a spot so we went super early and good thing we did. We arrived on Center St. about 4 a.m. there were people sitting on the sidewalk waiting for 5 a.m. to roll around. So, I dropped him off...went back home for an hour...did some laundry....went back to the spot...he went home and showered and came back with Tanner, this was all before 6 a.m. by the way. Then I went and got ready for the day, picked up some Beto's burritos and waited until 9 a.m. for the parade to start. Thanks Sue, Frank, Elania and Kaden for joining us. We had a blast!! Probably Eddie's favorite part of the parade. People think he is some sort of Polynesian , so he claims to be a pacific islander. Too bad he is from the island of Oregon and not Hawaii.

Glenn Beck was in our parade...I had to get a picture for my brother Erik.

Then we headed just east of our house and watched the fireworks. It was super windy but felt nice since it was still pretty warm.

Eddie and Tanner talking about soccer to past the time.

Happy 4th of July!!

Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum

Before Tanner came to visit I called and asked him what he wanted to do, this was one of the things. Thursday after work and the last day of soccer camp we headed to Thanksgiving Point for the dinosaur museum.

We did the exhibit/movie combo. It is a 3-D movie on dinosaurs and then the dinosaur museum. Funny story, I need to go get my eyes checked. I have needed to for a while now but we didn't have vision insurance, we do now as of July 1st. So, hopefully soon I will go in and get them checked. For a few months things have become blurry with just my left eye, not too bad but not 20/20. So, the movie starts and the whole screen was blurry. I took of the glasses to see if they were scratched or something. They weren't but I also couldn't watch the movie without them because it is totally blurry since the movie is a 3-D movie. I put the glasses back on...*light bulb*...I thought to myself, must be the eye. So I closed my left eye...perfect vision!! I watched the whole dang movie with one eye for 45 minutes. And had a nice headache by the end.

This museum was pretty cool. They had a ton of hands on exhibits.

I pretty much made Tanner do this sand thing. He thought it was a little kid thing, but I thought it looked cool.

They also have a take home activity. You can make a mold or do some fossil thing. He chose to do a fossil.

The finished product.

Saturday we are going to the Zoo then he is taking off. It has been a nice visit but I am ready to have my house back. If you know me pretty well you know I have a slight case of OCD and like things a certain way and super clean and organized, skittles and m&m's, jelly beans all get separated into colors...everything has a place. I know, I have issues.

The past few days I think we have visited every museum on BYU campus and have gone to a water park every night. The Monte Bean museum is free of charge and pretty cool for being free. They have a bunch of I assume donated animals that are stuffed. So the smell when you walk in isn't pleasant but you get over it after like 30 seconds.

Can I just say 11 year olds are awkward! He wanted to look like a bird.

This pic is for my sister in law Melia. She loves giraffes.

Like I said...awkward. But I guess we all were at that age.

I thought this was cool. It was a bunch of butterflies made up to a big butterfly.

They had Planet Earth playing which was cool to watch. They also have scavenger hunts and we actually went back a second day to do those.

We also went to the Earth Science Museum on campus, also free. This took us, oh, about 15 minutes. It is like a one room thing with a semi wall down the middle to make it into two rooms. Still fun but not a half day activity or anything.

Looking at a bunch of fossils.

Then we headed over to the Art Museum on campus. No pics in there obviously. We didn't stay long, pretty sure he thought it was super boring. And we were the only ones in there and the security guard was following us so we left.

Then we walked across campus to the Planetarium building. I know it has a real name, I just don't know what it is. Tanner had never seen the 2 liter bottle thing. I remember doing it in like 1st grade or something. I did it like 6 times before we left.

This was like an illusion dollar bill. The planetarium movie wasn't playing but in the lobby they had all these fun activities to do.

Like I said before, we went to a water park like every night. We went to Scera and Veteran's Memorial. Tanner voted Veteran's to be more fun because the water slides are enclosed.

I tried getting pictures but I couldn't see when they were coming and then it was too late.
We have been having a wonderful time. Doing all these fun activities and playing Marble Mania on the Wii. Today we are headed to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Parade and fireworks tomorrow for the 4th and then to the Zoo on Saturday. I could get use to this... working half days and going and playing the rest of the day:)