Aquarium

Yesterday I took these weird kids to the Living Planet Aquarium.  We used to go from time to time when Kenzie was little, but since moving to their new location in Draper they raised their prices dramatically.  This was the first time we were able to go, because there was finally a discounted evening and I used my Christmas money!  We were all pretty excited to finally go.

Kenzie with the giant model of the humpback whale.  

Watching some little rays swim around.  Thankfully almost everything was at a good height for Cameron, so I only had to lift him up a few times to see something.

The kids could not come to a consensus as to which picture was the "goofy" picture, so someone (usually Cameron) was always making a silly face in these pictures.  I spotted the caiman in the background of this tank first, and waited to see the moment when the kids spotted it.  Quite funny.  Parker was admiring the turtle when he suddenly jumped and shouted, "Crocodile!"

Watching the river otters swim around.  They were so fast I couldn't get a good picture.

More goofy poses.

Any big fish elicited a, "Wow!" from Cameron.  (I love Parker's expression in the reflection, too!  He told me, "I didn't expect this to be so interesting!"  He also rattled off random facts about any fish he knew of.)

Case in point - you can hear Parker muttering to himself about the size of the fish in this tank.  Kenzie and I were both creeped out by the really large fish in the background (I have now forgotten the name, but I couldn't pronounce it in the first place), and Cameron was just amazed by it all. 

Kenzie touching a starfish.  Interestingly enough, Parker could not be convinced to do that.  I reminded him he has held a tarantula and has touched a shark before, but he still did not want to touch the starfish.   

Watching the penguins swim around.

This makes me chuckle.  You can hear Cameron excitedly pointing out that there's a rock, and then at the end he loses interest and says, "Let's go!"  He loved everything, but he wanted to run from one thing to the next and never wanted to stay at any one exhibit for long.  

Finally, the shark tunnel.  We stayed here for a bit and several sharks did swim right against the glass.  Parker had been looking forward to this most of all, and he let us know all sorts of facts about sharks while we walked through. 

 Another fun day with these goofballs!

Discovery Gateway

Yesterday was a grading day off of school, so we went up to the Discovery Gateway children's museum for a few hours.  The last time we went I was pregnant with Cameron, so he had never been.  I knew he would enjoy it, plus I wanted to go once more before Kenzie and Parker were too big.  

Kenzie was a big help to me, since the boys tended to wander different directions at any given time.  She also did have fun, too.  We played the giant xylophone together a few times and made up our own games in the ball area.

 The boys were in the construction area for the longest time.  They loved it.

  I said, "Come on, Cameron, let's go see something else!"  He was busy putting blocks down the giant chute.  "I'm trying to work!" was the only response I got.

  I do think they're cute in the little smocks.  We raced ping pong balls around for a while.

Parker building a car to race.

 Cameron ready to race his car. 

When they played at the helicopter, Kenzie and I had to stand in a little booth and clear Parker for take off over the intercom.  When Kenzie came over for the picture, Parker kept pointing to insist she head back to the flight control area.  (He really gets into character!)  Cameron was just pushing buttons and claimed he was shooting things.

I thought this was cute.  Playing the piano in the little house.  He also delivered the mail several times and pushed a lawn mower around.  When it was time to go, he didn't want to leave until he remembered he had a granola bar in the van.  He had worked up an appetite, so that combined with the promise of a Frosty from Wendy's on the way home got him out of the museum.  Kenzie and Parker both said they had fun, too, so I was glad it was a successful outing!

Pizza Month

Here's a great picture - a good looking guy making pizzas!  January is usually the most boring month of all (hence the lack of pictures here on the blog), but we've declared it to be, "Pizza Month," which has made it infinitely more exciting.  The snow actually had mostly melted by Wednesday (it was back Thursday!) so we took advantage of the break to finally fire up my pizza oven.  Quite impressive for its trial run.  There was a lot of cheering from the kids.  (Ok, I was excited, too).  Parker ate 6 pieces!