Boat, Duck, Quack!

My Grandma's friend Karen was visiting from Oregon last week, and Addie and I got to accompany them on a boat tour at Canyon Lake. I can't believe I've lived here all my life and never been there before. It's only about an hour away from us and it was beautiful! I definitely want to go back and do more exploring!

Addie liked the boat, but she was most excited about the ducks, quack, quack! She kept looking out the window and exclaiming "Duck! Quack, quack!"

Isn't she adorable in her little life jacket? 

 Addie, Karen and Me

Her other favorite part of the boat ride was the big bucket of popcorn Karen bought! I think she could have eaten the entire bucket all by herself, if we would have let her!

 G.G., Addie and Karen

All four of us (six, if you count the twins!)

Cookie Monster

Addie and I needed an activity one Saturday while Wil was at work, so we decided to make sugar cookies. This was Addie's first time making sugar cookies and she thought it was SO much fun.

I would help measure the ingredients and then Addie got to add them all to the mixer. Then she picked out the cookie cutters she wanted to use and added those to the mixer too...isn't that how you do it? I'm pretty sure they weren't the most sanitary cookies ever, because while we were rolling them out I found the plastic child safety outlet cover in the cookie dough, too. I wonder what else went in there without me knowing? She also kept snitching cookie dough to eat when I wasn't looking! At least we know she has my good taste! :-)

I rolled out the dough and let Addie decide which cookie cutter to use when. Not that it mattered that much, because by the time she helped me move the cookies to the cookie sheet they were a little mangled!

Can you tell which ones were Addie's?

Once they cooled we got to frost them. Which was mostly a knife full of frosting plopped in one spot on the cookie. Spreading is still a little beyond her abilities, but she took her frosting responsibility very seriously. She didn't even lick the cookies or frosting!

At the end she got to pick out a cookie to eat. She licked all the frosting off of it so the top of the cookie was really soggy and then gave it back to me. Silly girl!

Picasso

Addie drew this beautiful picture on the back page of one of her coloring books. I asked her what it was. Pointing to a different squiggly line each time she explained: 

• Daddy
• Tito
• Tita
• Sink Hands (washing her hands in the sink)

Vegas Vacation

We stayed two nights in Vegas at the Stratosphere before we came home. We had SO much fun getting to hang out as a family for three days and not having any other real responsibilities.

It is one of the best trips we've had in a while, and probably one of my favorites since we've been married!

I'm so glad we got to go while I could still travel and before the babies come. I have a feeling it will be a little while before we're ready to take three kids on vacation!

Roo Zoo

The next morning, we went to Roo Zoo! It's a small zoo, probably only a few acres, but it's interactive and you get to pet almost all of the animals. How AWESOME is that??? It was SERIOUSLY THE COOLEST ZOO EVER!

This one is a coati. We thought he looked like an anteater, but apparently he's a member of the racoon family.

Did you know...the six banded armadillo is the only armadillo that can roll itself into a complete ball?

Addie LOVED the monkeys...or really anything that resembled a monkey. She kept squealing and giggle and saying monkey! This little guy made friends with Wil and Addie right away!

Addie called this guy kitty cat...or dog she couldn't decide which fit better. Wil and I thought he looked like a mountain lion, so naturally, we encouraged our child to walk right up and pet him! And then we remembered to ask what he was. :-) It turns out he is a Caracal. It's a desert lynx found commonly in Asia and Africa.

The lemur was by far my FAVORITE! His paws felt like really soft leather - something I was definitely not expecting! And he just climbed up and all over you as he pleased!

Have you ever tried to get a picture of an almost two year old and an animal looking at the camera at the same time...or even visible at the same time? It's not an easy task! We gave up on asking her to smile, too!

Shortly after I took this picture of Wil and the lemur, the monkey from earlier came inside, hopped onto Wil's back too, and promptly got in a fight with the lemur. Apparently the two are cage mates, but they didn't want to share one set of shoulders. The handlers took both animals back and the lemur then pooped all over the lady from the zoo. Wil dodged a bullet on that one!

The bearcat was Wil's favorite! It's about the size of a small bear or small bear cub, but it looks a little more like a cat, so they call it a bearcat. It's actually not in the bear or the cat family...but I can't remember exactly what type of animal it is.

The other interesting thing about the bearcat is that it smells like Fritos. Apparently that's how they attract their mates, but if you pet him and then smell your hand, it smells exactly like you've been eating Fritos!

We took a couple of special tours since we were there and wanted to full Roo Zoo experience. The first one was to play with the sea otters! How COOL is that??? How many people can say they've gotten to play with sea otters???

This is a curious otter trying to go up my jacket!

Addie and me with the otter...Addie thought this little guy was fun, but she got a bit nervous when he got to close!

Wil and Addie with the sea otter. One of them actually went down the front of another lady's shirt on the tour. All you could see was the tip of his tail sticking out...I'll bet that felt WEIRD!

Addie and me petting an otter - it was super windy that day!

We also took a special kangaroo tour. This is one of the kangaroos with a young joey in her pouch. Did you know...the female kangaroo is only pregnant for about 30 days? It then gives birth to a joey the size of a jelly bean. The joey crawls up her tail and into the pouch where it will stay for many months.

We also learned, kangaroos only have one joey at a time, because there's only enough room in the pouch for one. However, if mom has an older baby that's been kicked out of the pouch but is still nursing, she can create two completely different milk streams. The babies have different nutritional needs, so they each get their own.

This was one of the male kangaroos - they are WAY bigger than the females. We had to stay along the perimeter of the cage because kangaroos are kind of jumpy (pun intended, ha ha ha). Apparently, they've been known to jump straight into a fence and break their neck trying to get away at other zoos. Since we were on the perimeter, they always had a place to run - that didn't kill them. 

I think Addie liked the albino kangaroo the best. This one was the most willing to let her pet him!

If you are ever in the wild and need to catch a kangaroo, you should grab them by the tail. Their tails are so tough you won't hurt the kangaroo that way. Also, kangaroos balance on their tails when they kick...if you grab it's tail it can't kick you!

This is the sloth. It was too cold for him to come outside, so we reached in to pet him. 

There were also snakes, some pigs, a zebra, a camel, and lots of other animals that we didn't get pictures with. They had a toucan that Wil was going to take Addie to see, while I bravely took their picture. But Wil gave up because Addie was as scared of the bird as I was. I really do try not to let her see that birds make me nervous so she won't grow up with my fear...apparently, I need to do a better job!

The zoo was my favorite part of the trip, although the entire trip was wonderful. I wish it was closer so we could go back more often!

Buh, Bye Horse!

Our first night in Las Vegas we went to the Knights of the Round Table dinner show. It was rated one of the best family shows and Addie loves horses, so we thought she'd think it was fun. 

Addie was a little nervous at first, but quickly warmed up to the show as soon as they brought out the horses. She spent the entire night pointing and saying buh, bye horse, whenever one of the horses would leave the arena. 

She could not be bothered to eat dinner during the show because she was much too busy watching...unless we were willing to hold the food and feed her bites like she was a tiny baby - which we were not.

It's funny how life changes when you have kids. Wil and I both agreed that watching her reaction to the show was almost more fun than watching the show itself. 

The three of us waiting for the show to begin. 

Addie and Daddy with the Black Dragon - he was the bad guy in the show. She was kind of scared of him and unsure about being too close to him for this picture.

Addie and Mommy with the princess. Addie learned several new words on our trip, one of which was princess!

Addie and Daddy with a knight. She posed for the picture, but trying to get her to smile was another story entirely!

Dam, Dam, Dam

Every once in a while we get an itch to go on vacation! I saw a friend's Facebook post about a cool zoo they went to about an hour away from their house in Las Vegas. I was afraid Wil would think I was CRAZY for wanting to go to Las Vegas just to go to a zoo, but he was game as soon as I said let's go away for the weekend!

The last weekend in February, we packed up the car and the kid and headed to Las Vegas! Wil had done a Hoover Dam tour with his family when he was a kid, but I'd never been. So on the way to Vegas, we stopped and took a tour of the Hoover Dam. 

I learned so much! Did you know, the dam was finished almost two years ahead of schedule? What construction project is EVER finished ahead of schedule? The construction workers only got two days off work each year - can you guess what days? It was Christmas Day and the Fourth of July! I would have thought Thanksgiving, but the Fourth of July is a fun holiday to have off work, too, I guess. 

The original equipment is still in place at the dam for creating the power.

And...it took so much concrete, they actually had an AC type cooling system to help the concrete cool quickly enough that they could keep building.

This was the first time we got to drive on the dam bypass bridge. I think it saved at least an hour off of our trip on the way home, because we didn't have to wind down the mountain, stop for security, stop for dam tourists crossing the street and then wind back up the mountain. The only bummer is that the walls on the bridge are so high you don't know what a cool bridge you're on...or that you should be nervous you're up so high. It just feels like a continuous part of the road.

 A picture of part of the bridge from down at the Hoover Dam. 

Milestones

When Wil and I were dating (or engaged...it was either right before or right after we got engaged), we had a discussion about our cars turning 100,000 miles and what a big deal it is in the life of a car. Wil decided that he wanted to celebrate this milestone for his car by taking a drive and throwing it a little party. 

So when it was getting close, we bought horns and drove around until it turned 100,000 miles - at which point we cheered, blew our horns, pulled into a parking lot and took pictures of our party! 

This was then...

The car at 99,999 miles (please note the little frog and ninja toys on the dashboard). 

Blowing horns.

Wil with the 100,000 odometer.

The two of us with the Honda...we found a nice lady, well sort of nice, she mostly acted like we were crazy, to take our picture together.

On February 9th, Wil's Honda turned 200,000 miles! We went to dinner to celebrate, bought some horns and started driving around, waiting for the big moment. 

At about 199,994 miles, we realized we were in almost the exact spot where the Honda turned 100,000 miles! We didn't do it on purpose, we just ended up in the same area. So we drove a few more miles and then came back to wind up in the same parking lot at exactly 200,000 miles!

Wil blowing his horn. 

Addie fell asleep during the car ride. She woke up to us blowing horns but wasn't exactly sure what was going on or what she was supposed to do. At least she tried!

Wil and Addie with the Honda. There was no nice lady this time, so we didn't get a picture with all three of us.

Addie and me with the Honda (please ignore my really weird pose and note that I am six months pregnant in this picture).

Wil with the 200,000 odometer (now is the time to notice that the frog and the ninja are still there).

A lot has changed in 100,000 miles. During our party we decided it would probably be easier to list the things we haven't had to fix on the Honda than the ones we have fixed during the last 100,000 miles. It's not nearly as clean as it used to be! Wil used to clean/wash his car almost every time he picked me up to go on a date...I'm not sure he'd remember the last time he got his car washed now. The frog has found a more useful purpose as a cover to help hide the check engine light that has been on for a couple of years!

We've changed, too! We got married (possibly even got engaged - if only we could remember), bought a house, got a dog, had a child and have two more on the way! 

So far, it's been an awesome ride...and we're looking forward to the next 100,000!