The End of an Era

My Zoo Pass officially expires tomorrow, and I have zero plans to renew it anytime soon.  As such, we really maxed out our final visits in February and March, going at least once a week, sometimes twice.  I really do love the zoo, and I love taking the kids.  This is not the best zoo for seeing every animal.  But it is a great zoo to walk, see a few animals, big and small, and just enjoy each other's company-I will miss that, and I'll have to find a substitute outing for me and the boys during the day!  

Here are a few shots from our last three visits-some of them, I am sure are repeats from my Saturday spring break post, but oh well!  We managed to go as a family the final Saturday of spring break, which was great! Rebecca and I made it a point to walk each trail rather than just our traditional lion/tiger trail. As such, we went through the farm trail this week, and did the bear trail the week before.  The boys and I did the Arizona trail a few weeks ago, and we even walked the aviary trail last week.  The boys played in the splash pad multiple times, climbed up through the tree house and the ship-slide, fed the sting rays, and posed with the animal statues.  We got some great looks at the orangutan baby-that's the animal I will miss seeing the most!  All in all, certainly "the end of an era"!

Creative Options

Karianna woke up one morning around 10 (thank you, spring break!) and upon pouring her cereal, found no clean spoons.  She quickly came up with an alternative that I just watched in amusement:

 I told Karianna that was probably not going to work very well and she would be better off getting an actual spoon, even if it meant cleaning one.  She acquiesced and got a spoon:

 Yes, that is a ladle.  Anything to get around actually cleaning a utensil from the sink!  Oh, silliness!

Spring Break: Saturday

Today marked the last day of spring break-and the last day for our family to visit the Zoo.  My zoo pass expires on the 31st of the month, and while I will probably go back to the Zoo next week, today was our last visit as a whole family.  We used a free guest admission pass for James, and I found a few people in line to give my other 2 free passes to; I did the same for 3 train passes that I was not going to use either.  We actually spent about 3 hours walking around and playing in the splash pad-the animals were not great, but the weather was nice, and the kids seemed to really enjoy guiding Jared around since he doesn't visit the zoo often at all.  We had an awesome time before heading home for lunch and naps.  We ended the day with some cleaning projects and fruit popsicles-SO yummy!  We'll have a nice Sabbath tomorrow, and then head back to school on Monday-I can't believe how quick Spring Break went!  Definitely didn't get in the variety of activities I wanted, but I can look back at this week and legitimately say I had fun with the kids and got a lot accomplished.  I think summer break is going to be awesome-and I think it is going to be here much sooner than I expect!

Spring Break: Thursday and Friday

Thursday and Friday have to be combined since we literally did the exact same thing each day, just with different people!

• Because we are crazy, we went back to the pool on Thursday; it was 73 degrees.  We were among maybe 20 other crazy people.  Interestingly, the water was warmer than Tuesday and we stayed for 2 hours!  The kids, once again, had a blast, and when we got a little too cold, we went into the locker rooms, which were seriously heated.  On Friday, it was 80 degrees, and again, the pool was NOT crowded.  Everyone lived up their last swim opportunities, and as icing on the proverbial cake, Jordan lost a tooth! It has been hanging off his gum at a 60 degree angle (give or take) for the last week, and it finally broke through.  I think we are just lucky it didn't get lost in the pool!

• Karianna and Sara got to go to lunch with Grandma Lautenschlager on Thursday, and JD, Jordan, and James went on Friday-super fun for them!  They were seriously spoiled, as is a Grandma's privilege-full meals, sodas, fries, ice cream!  They really loved hanging out with Grandma.

Spring Break: Wednesday

Well, today was not as exciting as I was hoping. Wanna know what we did today?  We folded clothes.  And clothes.  And clothes.  I have had a huge goal of sorting through clothes and packing up winter stuff/donations/garbage.  As such, we have been gathering all the clothes, once washed, in Jackson's room.  Unfortunately, I have not gotten to this chore as quickly as i wanted, especially with moving new furniture into the house and potty training James.  So we bit the bullet and just folded them......all 15 or so loads.  Took FOREVER!  We celebrated by getting ice cream at McDonalds and enjoying the rain, which was awesome!  So while our plans to go park-hopping failed, we still ended up having a busy and enjoyable day!

Spring Break: Tuesday

Today's big claim to fame was visiting Mesquite Grove Aquatic Center, otherwise known as the Dump Bucket.  The kids are so awesome for consistently calling it that!  Temperature at the pool was 91 degrees, and the water, while a bit nippier than I anticipated,  was great for March swimming.  The four older kids did FANTASTIC!  I initially told Sara to stay with me, but I quickly realized that she is extremely independent in the pool and doesn't need me.  She quickly visited every single pool attraction multiple times, including both slides (dark and light), diving boards, and the toilet.  James jumped right into the water and he too was everywhere, although he had his puddle jumper on.  Jackson stayed in my arms most of the time and did not seem crazy about getting wet-I didn't care. :)  Karianna, JD, and Jordan picked up right where the left off-racing in the lap lane, wrestling in the toilet (that is a funny phrase), diving on the boards, and floating down the lazy river.  Karianna impressed me by hanging out with James in the deep end-such a good babysitter!  We lasted about two hours-longer than I thought!  It was great fun, and I really enjoyed visiting this pool again-already looking forward to the summer!

The second highlight of the day was going to see Cinderella with Karianna and Sara!  We used a gift card that covered all three of us, and indulged in some movie popcorn-always a treat.  The movie was pretty great actually-we all loved the costumes and thought the stepsister's singing was dreadful!  We were in the largest theater with only 20 people, so all the more enjoyable!  I really enjoyed hanging out with my girls, they are both beautiful and kind young ladies!