Out and About

Last week we went to the zoo, and the kids had a fabulous time. Eli and Tori have been reading a lot about reptiles and amphibians lately, so it was fun to see the specific ones they like. Eli particularly enjoyed the poison dart frogs, the gila monster, and the python. Tori liked the tarantula. Actually, her favorite thing is the wild cat, which looks like a fluffy cat off the street to me.

They loved the carousel. It had some unusual animals:We had a wonderful weekend with John's parents and his sister, Clara's, family. John's parents are going on a mission at the end of this month, so we won't get to see them again for a while. It's such a fun thing for us to go spend time with them. The kids love being there and love them.

We went to their county fair with them, which was fun. The kids were all quite tired at the end, and we concluded with hysterics from Eli. However, by the time we got to the car, and he'd had time to think, he said happily, "That was a fun time at the fair!" (They always say something like that after we go somewhere, which makes it very gratifying to do things with and for them.)

Eli is off-track (out of school) for the next three weeks, so we'll try to do some fun things. He has loved school. One of his favorite things is "show-and-tell" on Fridays. He'll often ask, "When we wake up, will it be show-and-tell?" This last Friday, he took a book of pictures from our DisneyWorld trip, so he could show them a shot of him with the Power Rangers. After school, I asked how they liked it. He said that he hadn't shown that. Instead, he showed them a grungy little ball he had gotten out of the treasure box earlier that day. (His teacher asked us to send little toys like McDonalds prizes or whatever, so that if the kids do something out of the ordinary, they can get a little prize from the box.) I was surprised by his show-and-tell choice and asked, "What did you tell them about the ball?" He said that he showed them how he could hold the ball between his first two fingers. It's a fun age.

Here's another Eli story: We were watching a movie with John's family and there was a scene with a family surveying the mess in their home after an earthquake. Eli exclaimed, "Wow, that's even messier than our house!" I think I'm not going to have many secrets anymore.

I wasn't going to write about this tonight, but I'll at least post a few pictures. Today, John had taken an additional day off work, so we went to the dinosaur park. Eli is into dinosaurs again and he's no longer scared of anything there, so it's fun. Tori and Jonah love it too. Jonah roars like a dinosaur. These are some cute shots John took:

One more quick thing: Jonah loves to have us sing the Cougar fight song. At the end, he sticks up his had and says, "Cougos!" Tori loves it, and keeps repeating how he says it.