Happy 6th Birthday Amara!

The bald eagle looks fake, but he's real, and he's really big!  His talons were impressive!

We went to Hogle Zoo for Amara's 6th birthday.  She was blessed to have lots of cousins come too.  We loved the bird show there- it's a must see!  And Amara got a picture with her favorite animal- a bald eagle.  Amara has loved birds for the past several years and at home she can be seen either pretending to be one herself or making one out of paper so that she can fly it around the house.  Eagles are her definite favorite.  Even as I'm typing this, Amara is flying around a seahorse puppet and saying it's a golden eagle.  She had me put my arm out so she could put on a pretend protective glove for the golden eagle to land on.  I love it.  If you're considering the bird show at the zoo, the 4th row on the end is the place to sit in order to have birds fly directly over your head, and I mean directly.  An owl actually grazed the side of my head as it swooped down to his trainer.  It was so cool!

There's a beautiful parrot in the brush behind Jaxon and Amara.

This an impressive golden eagle.  We see these flying around the desert near our house all the time.

And Amara was lucky to get to ride her favorite animal on the merry-go-round!

I think everyone liked their rides on the carousel so much that they paid no attention to me as I tried to get their pictures.  Here are the best ones:

Lily on the tall ostrich

Max and Mandy saw me, but Rex and Jaxon were busy looking elsewhere.

Missy and kids are in the background

It was a hot day, but we sure enjoyed visiting all the animals and exhibits.

Lily is as tall as a male gorilla, but her arms are not quite as long.

Amara is as tall as a female gorilla.

 There were lego displays everywhere.  This display was of and orangutan and her baby.

 The elephants were cute, especially Suri, the baby (sorry, not pictured).  They put on a show for us and even waved to us with bandanas.

 The statues were just as much fun for the kids as the actual animals themselves. :)

 Look out!  Bears!  I have recurring dreams about bears coming into my house, so it was a little eerie to be so close to bears with nothing but a waist-high, chicken-wire fence between us.  They weren't interested in coming near to visit (thank goodness).

 See the lego-polar bear behind Lily?

 There was also a wildlife show-n-tell that we sat in for.  Afterward, they let us pet the tortoise and opossum.  We skipped on holding the tarantula.

 I didn't get a picture I guess, but there was also a splash pad for the kids to get wet.  It was way crowded, but the kids went for it anyway and had a good time.

 At the zoo entrance, we could build towers using giant legos.

 Steve helped Amara make one taller than him.  Lily built one taller than herself all by herself.

Later that evening, we gathered with additional family members for cake and ice cream at Hindley Park.  Amara is so loved! 

Amara chose this chocolate fudge mousse cake from Costco.  Yum!

Reverence is Love for God

Note: This is a back-post that I found in my drafts folder, so today I'm publishing it.  Isn't 6-year-old Lily cute?  I love her little whistle through her teeth!

Lily had a talk in church on Thanksgiving weekend.  Amara and I were sick, so we didn't get to see Lily give her talk, but I had Lily give it to me before she left.  We wrote her talk together.  I wrote some generic sentences and I had her fill in the details.  And she drew a picture on the other side.  It was nice that Steve's parents were still in town and got to see Lily give her talk.  My mom also came to see her.  She did great!

Can you say "almost FROGS?" (back post)

Note: This post was written back in 2008, but I found it in my drafts.  So, today, I publish it.

This was my attempt at showing all our little "almost frogs." They like to hang out on the rocks, but they blend in pretty well, so good luck seeing them.

A Moth Funeral Apparently

I went outside and found this scene that intrigued me- a paper, a tupperware, and some marigolds arranged on the table.  I moved closer and this is what I read...

"Molly Krolly Christensen.  This once was the home of an injerd moth.  We aceddently killed her."

Poor Molly Krolly. 

Her final resting place is wherever the wind blew her a few days later. 

The girls accidently snapped off the moth's antennae when they were trying to catch her.  They tried to wake her up, but she just stopped moving.  So, they held a funeral.  For the funeral, they took some snacks outside and some water and sang songs and sat in the shade of an umbrella while Molly laid to rest.

10th Anniversary "No Show!" - (Part 3- Las Vegas)

We got a basic hotel room at a place that I've stayed at a few times, Main Street Station.  It is a clean place with a comfy bed, and was the best deal on lodging yet.  I used a promotion and got a 3-night stay for $70 total.  We ended up paying an extra $10 one night so we could have wifi, but all in all, Mrs. Frugalista did it again.  Excuse me while I pat myself on the back.

Our hotel was right next to the famous Fremont Street, so I took Steve to go see that.  The coolest thing we saw was a pigeon.  Yeah, Fremont Street has lots of "stuff," but if you're not into gambling, alcohol, or shopping, there's not too much to see, in the daytime, anyway.  The street lights up at night, but we went in the daytime.

It ended up being cheaper to eat the breakfast buffet where we were staying rather than go to IHOP, so that's what we ended up doing 2 of the 3 mornings.

Everything from Blintzes and bacon to miso soup and rice for breakfast.

The next day we were off to Henderson where we toured the Ethyl M. Chocolate factory (free).  The M. in her name stands for Mars, as in M&M/Mars company.  They had some tasty goods!

There's Ms. Ethyl M. herself.

The wallpaper looked edible.

If only...

There is also a beautiful cactus garden at the chocolate factory.  It was, however a sweltering 120 degrees outside (I'm not exaggerating), so we didn't stay out there very long.  And for those of you with young ones planning a trip there, a word of advice: I probably would not bring little kids here unless they are strapped to you the whole time and the weather is cooler.  These cactuses are so cool, they look like playthings, but I don't have to tell you that you wouldn't want to climb on them.

Don't sit there, Steve!

Don't taste that, Steve!

You can't really tell, but that is a big impressive plant.

There's an alien cactus sneaking up behind you!

We also visited the Clark County Museum.  Again, it was hot.  But it was COOL!  At least to us.  They have a street of historic homes that represent different decades in Clark County.  It was like going through a parade of homes but intertwined with history.

This is a jail cell where criminals were put to be humiliated and contained until they could be taken to a prison.  In 120 degree weather, I think Id' prefer death to that.

The historic leaning outhouse of Clark County, or something like that.

A Caterpillar Tractor from back in the day.  Almost looks like a "moss-covered-three-handled-family-gredunza."

Here's one of the homes:

And some of the old TVs from that last 100 years:

Our last day in Vegas, we got to experience some of the opulance of the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace.  We stopped by the chocolate shop of the famous Payard (is that even how you spell his last name?), and although it was incredibly tempting to try one of his specialties, we saved our money for the pricey fine-dining buffet, Bacchanal.

Steve and Mr. Payard both look a little disgusted by the prices of this fine chocolate.

The gears of this clock is made of chocolate.

Such a lucious-looking place.

Dessert anyone?  These treats looked so pretty!  I'm not supposed to have chocolate, but all I want is just one bite of each please...

Yes, there is real gold leaf on some of those.

You can't walk through the Bellagio without looking up.  It is such a pretty sight.

And they have a botanical garden inside with whimsical scenes.

The ceiling in the main entrance

I had so many pictures of the expensive buffet that I gave it a slideshow of it's own.  I must say it was a wonderful experience and certainly memorable.  Compared to the other expensive buffet I had in Vegas a few years ago at the M Resort, I think that I prefer the M Resort (plus they're a little cheaper), but they're both truly delicious.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we went to the Mormon Fort Museum/State Park that morning.  It was intriguing.

Okay, then we went to the strip, stopping off at Caesar's Palace and Bellagio.  I have to say, the forum shops are dumb for folks like us that shop at thrift stores and sport hand-me-downs on a regular basis.  But, the ambiance created by the architecture is pretty neat.

The ceilings were painted like the sky and the shop fronts were Old World Mediterranian.

Yes, this picture is taken indoors.

Had to show you some hideous footwear, but it'll be all the rage in suburbia soon, I'm sure.  So, look for camo and gold studded silliness at a shoe store near you in the next year or two.

Studded sneakers anyone?  They cost a fortune.

There was an indoor aquarium with cool stingrays and other fish.

The gelato looked yummy.  Stop licking your screen.

Then we were supposed to watch our first Vegas show, Ka by Cirque du Soleil, as the big finale to our anniversary- but one of the performers died the day before, so the show was cancelled.  It was really unfortunate for them, and quite uncommon for something like that to occur, God rest her soul.  Really too bad.

We did, however, have a lot of fun and we were exhausted from a week of sightseeing, so although our finale was a "no show," our ten year celebration was incredibly memorable!