Big as Life and Twice as Scary

The weather was nice - gorgeous blue skies, slight breeze, warm sun, perfect, perfect day.  So rather than stay inside we loaded up on bikes and headed to the zoo.  Sounds nice, right?

While we were trying to leave the dog jumped up on the fence (a big no-no but nothing we have tried has got him to stop) and knocked another slat out.  This made it almost possible for him to squeeze out.  I panicked.  When he runs away he runs away fast and the only reliable way to get him is to bribe him with a van ride and the van currently has a dead battery thanks to the babies making it their play house.  So I made a grab for him and he completely bulldozed Grace trying to get away.  I managed to corner and put him in the house but was left with a traumatized four year old.  After trying and failing to calm her down I ran back into the house to grab helmets only to find myself locked out of the house by Libby.  I may have become a bit irritable at this point but we were going to the @!#$ zoo if it killed us.

I grabbed the helmets and threw them on the little ones' heads who had already loaded themselves on my bike while I was retrieving their helmets.  I knew I should have unloaded them before I backed it out of the shed door but I was just so frustrated I backed out with a fully loaded bike.  Half way down the bike slipped, the seat hit my inner thigh and my outer thigh crashed against the shed door.  My bike was wedged on the diagonal and the little ones were crying and screaming.  They were a little bumped around but mainly just terrified. I was wedged between the door frame and my bike so Ethan and Libby had to come lift them out of my bike so I could free myself.  Libby was crying at this point that she didn't want to go to the zoo because she didn't want to stress me out anymore.  It was a sad, frustrating, infuriating start to the trip.  I really thought about just throwing my hands in the air, going inside, reading a book, and letting the kids watch shows until their brains drained out of their ears.  But it was such a gorgeous day.  Sigh.  Stupid pretty day.

Once we got to the zoo things got better.  The monkeys were all out swinging around and not even being amorous (a rarity).  The kids were happy.  They each had enough money to ride the carousel.  The ducks and geese were waddling around with fluffy babies in tow.  We also kept hearing weird loud roaring noises.  We had no idea where they were possibly coming from.  Libby was afraid it might be the lions and made it clear we did not need to visit them if they were feeling that out of sorts, but we found the lions lounging around soaking up the sun.   After admiring them we went on a quest to find the source of the noise.  As we crept around the corner where the wallabies live we came face to face with a full sized, roaring, moving DINOSAUR.  Now I don't know if you have been to the Boise Zoo but we go there a lot and have never, ever seen a dinosaur.  We were shocked and amazed. The bigger kids were fascinated.  Sam immediately broke into hysterical cries. "I am ready to go home.  I am ready to go home right now.  I am ready to go home.  Let's go home."  I made a valiant attempt to hide my laughter from him.  I wish I had a picture but somebody who will remain nameless (head hung in shame) broke the camera.  Walking around another corner we discovered another dinosaur.  It was at this point Sam asked if we could just go look at the jelly fish.

I called Michael at work to tell him we had discovered two breathing moving dinosaurs at the zoo!  He did a little research and discovered our zoo is hosting eight dinosaurs for the summer.  The three older kids are in love.  Their love became all encompassing when we rounded another corner and found the life size T-Rex.  The zoo is awesome!  Unless you are Sam.  No amount of therapy is going to help him recover.  He would just really like to watch the jellyfish.

Bruneau Sand Dunes

We took a quick weekend trip up to the dunes along with our friends Spencer and Whitney and their four kids.  The kids saw snakes and lizards and lots of sagebrush.

There was also sand.

 and more sand.

Then there were dunes of sand.

Not as fast as sledding down a hill of snow but still fun.  The kids think we should go back when there is snow.  The sledding would be AWESOME!

This is the last photo our poor camera will ever take.  Someone decided to roll down the dunes with both the camera and cell phone in her pockets.  The phone survived but sand got inside the camera lens mechanism.  Seriously, what was she thinking?

Birthday Madness

First came Mother's Day.  Next day we celebrated Michael's birthday and the next it was Grace's big day.  By the end of it all I was barely functioning.

Michael opening his gifts.  Nothing really interesting to anyone but him.  But he seemed happy.  This was the first birthday in years I didn't buy him something for his bike. 

Michael requested Mango Sticky Rice for dessert.  Heaven in a bowl.  The kids don't enjoy it but that just means more for us!

Tuesday Grace asked for a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for her birthday.  I decided to go the easy route and had the kids make a wacky cake.  We can mix it right in the pan.  It seemed it would be less messy, but I must have temporarily forgotten I have four children who would want to help mix. 

Flip flops

and a bike bell!

And her very own chair,

and inline skates!  Talk about a spoiled four year old plus one mom who was very glad to crawl into bed.

Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime

 Our version of natural weed control.

Not only is it environmentally friendly, it is also a lot cuter than a sprayer full of chemicals.

 Playing in the river.

The water wasn't as warm as hoped for.

 Sandy bottom boy.

 And girl.

 Summer days are long and draining.  Good thing they can both sleep sitting up.

Forget dinner.  We have better things to do.

Petroglyph Day Trip

Michael took a day off work and we drove out to the Melba area to look at Native American petrolglyph rock carvings.  The petroglyphs date from 12 thousands years ago until as recently as 150 years ago.  Neither of us had ever been there and I've been feeling that we need to explore more as a family so we loaded up for a day trip.

Saw some of the rock carvings and went for a hike.  Crossed the Snake River on a historic bridge.

After hiking up.  If you look closely you can see a small building in the back right corner of the picture.  We started there, crossed the bridge and then climbed.  Libby kept wanting to go back because it was so steep she was afraid we wouldn't make it back down.

Taking a break to eat a snack and drink some water.  Thanks to the beast of a dog for carrying it all in his doggy backpack (bought in a futile effort to slow him down a little bit).

The highlight of the trip.  We drove for over an hour to inspect history close up and learn about our great state.  We spent a few minutes looking at the petroglyphs and a long time whining about the hike but the kids happily spent 1/2 an hour feeding Cheerios to the red ant colony.  It was high drama watching the ants finally make it all the way to their entrance carrying a Cheerio and then not have it fit down the hole.  Don't worry, the ants persevered and were able to get the second Cheerio down the hole much faster.  Next time maybe we should cancel the trip and just sit outside feeding bugs. 

The little ones were a bit pooped on the way back so Libby packed Sam and Dad packed Grace.  I was dealing with the dog and Ethan was far ahead. 

Examining the rocks.

Finding rocks with built in seats.

Gotta have a girl picture too.

Examining the structure.  Is it a teepee?  We should research that.  That's what a good mom would do.

Before we left we made a 13 mile detour and examined map rock.  The kids were finally impressed but alas the rock paled in comparison to the lizard they caught behind the rock.  The history lessons were a flop but I think we accidentally snuck some biology in there

Grocery Shopping

It started out as just another grocery trip.  We biked, we shopped, we loaded the bike with the groceries.  Then Ethan hopped on his bike and discovered a massive flat.  Being the resourceful mom I am a noticed a Harley repair shop next door.  We didn't even make it to the shop door before a very nice lady poked her head out and asked if we needed air.  A young guy filled the tire and sent us on our way.  Very nice people at the Harley repair shop on Fairview.

We turned around to haul butt home hoping the tire would hold.  It held!  For 60 seconds.  At first I thought our only option was to walk home.  Then I had a brilliant idea.  I threw Ethan's bike on top of the groceries where the little ones held on to it (my bungee cord was missing after Michael cleaned up my bike).  I threw Ethan up on my rack and pedaled slowly home.  People seemed to be very interested in what we were doing by the amount of rubber necking going on.  I felt like a one-woman parade.  I would have done the homecoming queen wave if I had a hand to spare.

After we got home Ethan said, "Mom if you put this on the blog you should say, 'And Michael thinks he can haul a lot on his bike!'"

Couldn't have said it better myself.