Yahoo! Yipee! Whoopee! It's a MIRACLE!

Leah went potty today...all day! She was still dry this morning and so I suggested that she go potty. She did it! "I make the potty yellow!" That's what she was saying. She went a second time, after she got her training pants a little wet. She knew what was happening, so she controlled it. She found a third chance to go potty for daddy, who made sure she knew how fantastic it was. She went big potty after dinner (FYI: Collettese: little potty= pee, big potty=poop) and was so proud of herself all day long! Now we're down to one size of diapers to buy (and change). She now has a little goat, bunny, turkey and play wishing well to show for her successfull day. I hope tomorrow goes just as well and we never look back (yes, I am being optomistic). It has been so weird to hear her talking like a 3 year old, but not be able to get her potty-trained. We are all smiles around here! (I'm glad we don't have any big road trips planned for the next few weeks.)

Waiting

Rebekah has had a fever for two days now. She started out really cranky on Sunday and started a fever in the early hours of Wed. This morning she had a febrile seizure. Her arms and legs were stiff and trembling and she threw up a little bit. She was HOT! (I was out shopping with the kids yesterday when I realized that her fever from the night wasn't going away. I spent the whole trip trying to decide if teething REALLY does cause fevers...it seems we've had them around here before.)

Well, enough of the fevers. I took her into the doctor this morning. He finally gave up trying to find something wrong and bagged her (for a urine sample), gave her some motrin, then sent us to get some blood drawn. She was already feeling pretty miserable. She completely lost her self-control when they stuck her for a syringe full of blood!

So now it's a waiting game. They said some of the results would be available by the end of the day. The blood culture needs to grow for 48 hours. By the time that comes back, she'll be back to Rebekah again. At least the motrin helped and she's cool again, dishing out smiles and begging for snacks.

##FOLLOW UP##

The first bag fell off in her diaper and missed its chance to be useful, so I had to get another bag from the nurse and start over (about noon). I guess it's kind of like a watched pot never boils because Rebekah didn't even do anything until nearly 5pm. That bag had been coming off, too, but at least it caught some so we were able to find out that she has a bladder infection. The lab results from the hospital confirmed it.

She's on antibiotics now plus a prescription vitamin with iron since her results indicated that she's a little anemic (Dr. says it's very slight and not really a concern...just take these vitamins for a month.). So it was a long day of not much. I love that we're paying for a culture to grow that we don't even need now. I shouldn't complain. I would be shocked to find something else was hiding out there in her blood that needed this little event to uncover it.

Leah Hona

It was quite amusing this evening when Leah made a comment during Family Home Evening. We were talking about the Liahona and Leah interrupts with, "I not a hona!" Chad and I laughed pretty hard and the boys looked at us, wondering what they'd missed. Now we know she was listening! Still no success with the potty-trianing effort. I wonder if she even knows she can control that function. Maybe this will the be the break-through week.

Fun in the SUN at Lagoon!

We went to Lagoon on Friday. It was the kids' first time, and the first time for Chad and I in quite a while! There were several thing there that I didn't recognize. I worked there the summer I was 16 (16 years ago for those of you who might be trying to do the math) and I had a lot of memories surface! We went with Grandma during her Stake Lagoon Day (thank you, Grandma) and a little of family & new friends. Here are a few pictures of all of us, goofing of and having fun. (Click on a picture to enlarge it.)


Everyone in line for the Terror Ride. Leah is already showing signs of terror. She didn't ride with us though...just got in for the picture.









Leah did enjoy the carousel. Here she is with Grandma at the end of the ride.









Daniel in an airplane. He didn't want to ride this ride at first because he thought it was a "baby ride." He was right, but when he saw that you could make the planes go up and down, he decided he could lower his standards just a bit! :)







Here are Leah and Nathan on the same ride.










Daniel and Nathan got to "drive" this car. I think the line was 10 or 15 minutes long and the ride was about one minute. Doesn't that figure?








While the boys were waiting in that line, Leah and I were in line for the little rollercoaster. We finally got in a car (after someone SHAMELESSLY cut in front of us and caused us to wait for the next go). We had been standing in the sun for over 15 mintues. Her face is so red!






This is the only ride all 3 kids rode at the same time. It was their 2nd ride (each) and I don't think Daniel knew it was a "baby ride" yet. :) They were so cute.







Rebekah's favorite ride was her stroller. She rode it more than anyone rode any other ride! She did get to ride the train, but was enjoying a refreshing bottle, so I don't think she got much from it. Even her cheeks are red from the heat. We Idahoans don't transition weather well!






Here are Chad and Daniel coming out of a water slide. My mom made me go on this despite my CLEAR PROTESTS that I didn't want to get wet again. We had been on a very wet ride earlier that I was still trying to get dry from. I was pushed and pulled to the line and Chad was pressured from the rest of the group. I went down with Nathan who seemed to have absorbed most of the water for me. What a good boy. I got the least wet of everyone that went. Chad had water dripping from his face. :)



Here are Grandma and Rebekah hiding out in the shade.









Of course, kids are kids and we did have a few tears. Isn't this the sadest face you've ever seen? (I mean Leah's, not mine.)








We spent most of our time waiting in lines. They sure look eager to get in there, don't they?







We had an "Old Time" photo taken in Pioneer Village. It was really easy for our family to not smile. I don't think we could have gotten Nathan to smile if we wanted to. The boys are soldiers...Confederate & Union. I thought that would be fitting since they fight so well. Brother against brother...history repeating itself! Hopefully, Lagoon will have better things to do than chase me down for posting this tiny copy of a copyrighted picture!



We were tired all the next day, but I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. I felt bad for the kids that they didn't get to try more things, but they probably don't know that they missed anything. We can go again next year and they will think they're doing everything for the first time.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever! (Ok, I know this is a little late - I'm not the best mom/wife ever!) Here are the kids after church last week.
I told them to line up for a picture and this is what I got. You may never guess that it was Daniel who started it! But, I'm learning, so I took the picture. And then I got them to turn around. Aren't they all so cute? Oh yeah, this is about Father's Day.
The kids all got a candy bar (well Rebekah didn't) from Primary to give to Chad and the boys got some candy from their teachers to give him as well. While we were walking out of the building, the boys loaded up their Daddy with sugar. Leah was holding the door open for Chad and as he walked through, she held her candy bar up to him and said, "I keep this." It was the funniest thing. There is a woman who knows the value of chocolate!

We gave Chad a bunch of stuff for his truck, from new windshield wipers, to a 30' tow rope. He's so hard to buy for! Of course, we personalized the gifts in silly ways and I loaded him up with a bunch more chocolate. He eats so much more candy since he met me! ;)

Chad is such a good Daddy and the kids, of course, love him! He does 95% of their baths and puts them to bed just as often. He stands at their doors and sings silly, made-up songs, and tells them "pretend stories" (off the top of his head). He's much better and more comfortable at it than I am, which seems strange, since I'm the one with the teaching degree. I guess I'm too grumpy by the end of the day.

Chad is good for a push on the swing, going fishing, riding around together in his truck, etc. He's so silly that sometimes I secretly record his antics! It's too bad no one outside of our family has heard him sing the ABC song cowboy-style or opera or underwater, etc!

My Girls

Here are some pictures of my girls. The first one is of Rebekah after she wheeled herself under the table. I was busy in the kitchen and was hoping she could stay happy just a little longer. I turned away for a bit and then had to look to find her under here.




About then, Leah walked in and I asked her to get Rebekah out. Well, Leah saw me with the camera and requested a picture first. This is what we got. Don't you love the hair style? She's a little anti-conformity when it comes to her hair. At least it's pulled back!

We're trying to potty-train Leah. It is not going well. I bought her a set of Fisher Price Little People to encourage her to use the potty. This trick worked VERY WELL with Daniel. So far, we haven't even opened the box! Of course, Daniel tried, so it's ripped a bit. I have found that it's a good time for conversation. Today we talked about the animals that she saw on her train ride at Lagoon (pictures and a report coming in the near future). She told me that the mommy "amimals" hug the baby "amimals." We talked about how I hug her, too. She was very cute...and oh, so serious. (Why is it that little kids have to talk so loudly? She was making the bathroom ring.)

Drive-In Sleeper!

We went to the drive-in movie one Monday night. The kids hadn't been to the drive-in since we saw "Shrek." The remembered neither the experience nor the movie! (We were kind of glad our kids didn't know what "Shrek" was. They know enough about unimportant movies as it is.) They figured out where we were and what movie we were going to see ("Cars") while we were sitting in line in the truck.

It was a lot of fun getting comfortable in the back of the truck. Nathan and I played a game of war while Daniel tried to keep Rebekah from escaping. Leah busied herself with the popcorn.




















The movie was good, but it started at 10 PM so the kids didn't have a chance. They fell asleep in stages, Rebekah having the hardest time settling in.

The next day we had some very grumpy kids. They all went back to bed after breakfast and were less than pleasant the rest of the day. I think if we make it to one drive-in a year, we'll be just fine! But they had fun!

Giving "Old Blue Eyes" a run for his money

Rebekah has blue eyes. They have been showing up really well in pictures lately. Here she is with dinner all over her face. She HATES having her face washed. It's not uncommon to find bits meals in spots on her face because she squirms and cries so much when we're washing her up. This is such a classic Collett face (food included).

Here she is after church a couple of weeks ago. Her face is a little cleaner. :) Those blue eyes just pop out at you! Leah has Chad's hazel eyes. Everyone else got my blue ones. Leah thinks everyone's eyes are black. She's only looking at the pupils. :) Rebekah is crawling on one knee and one foot. It's more like a lope than a crawl. We just say that she's almost walking. ;)

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Daniel's birthday party was this month. He's six years old! He wanted a dinosaur party and so we did what we could. Here's Daniel's cake. I was tired of decorating birthday cakes (already had done 2), so I spent big bucks and got this one. There is a volcano in the upper left corner, some trees and a toy dinosaur...and enough frosting to dye your entire mouth!



We played some games:

Pin the Horn On the Triceratops












Dinosaur Memory










A game to open presents (like a cake walk)











And a dinosaur pinata (go Nathan!)











It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad it's over!

Circus!

We went to the Shrine Circus earlier this month. It was a hot day, so we were glad for shaded seats. We got "free" tickets from a "donation" I made over the phone, so it only cost gas to Pocatello for the show. Here is everyone waiting for the show to begin. The biggest boy (not including Chad) is our cousin, Jacen, visiting us for the week.

They started by entertaining the crowd with clowns who came out to throw huge balls into the stands. The kids really liked this activity. I don't think the mommies and daddies really liked being hit in the head with a big ball as it came back to the clown! We were fortunate enough to escape injury!














This guy stacked several chairs as he climbed them. Daniel especially was impressed. He came home and recreated the act with our 3 little yellow chairs. I guess I should have predicted that, but it's really beyond my mental abilities to keep up with all the possibilties of life around here!



This was the center ring. It was a really good seat. The view was a little interrupted by the rodeo gates in front of us, but we learned to ignore it. Here is an act of bears. All I could think of during this part was how hot the people must be in those jackets!
















Our camera died (who would expect any less?) and so we have limited photo memories. The kids also liked the tightrope walkers, the guy who walked round and round in a metal ring that spun up and around, repeatedly, and the 3 elephants at the end (those were impressive). We didn't buy the $3 cotton candy (although the woman with the spoiled daughter in front of us offered us their half-eaten cotton candy to share around) and we didn't ride any ponies or elephants for $6 (the little girl in front of us did).

Rebekah did get pretty hungry during the show and Chad went out for the diaper bag (and bottle) during intermission. She finished off 12 ounces of formula! She's just wasting away before our very eyes.

We did stop and pick up some dinner in Blackfoot and eat it at the park on the way home. We were tired and dirty by the time we got home. It was fun.

Last Day of School

It was Daniel's last day of school today. He is sad. He came home with his report card. In Idaho they have a Reading Indicator test that they take 4 times a year. The last test was a couple of weeks ago. Daniel got a perfect score! We are giving him high fives for ending the year so well and with such a great attitude! This is the boy that would crumple his paper and throw his pencil when we made him write 3 lines of letters each afternoon! Next year we have to get him on the bus @ 7:30 instead of 11:30. Ugh.

Blessings

OWWW!!! My foot is slowly healing. But it can sure grab my attention! My kids keep asking me how the bump (bunion) on my foot grew there and if they will get one on their foot. It must seem pretty scary to a 4 year old! I got the dressing changed yesterday and got to see an x-ray of the screws in my big toe. Chad, of course, made a joke about me having a screw loose! My foot was swollen and black and blue, with a two inch long scar running up my foot, right over the bunion site. One more week with a bandage on, then a regular sock. I have to wear the boot for a total of 24 days. It's a pain to keep dry in the shower. So Monday I was still numb from the surgery and just sat in the rocking chair in the living room until bedtime. In the middle of the night, I got up (put the boot on) and went out to the kitchen for a drink and more ice. That was painful! I didn't get out of bed the next day except for 2 or 3 times to go to the bathroom. I finally left my room at 11:30 PM! Wednesday my foot felt a little better and I wasn't so bedridden, but I still stayed down much of the time. Thursday morning I spent in bed and then had my dr's appt in the afternoon. We went to Wal-Mart afterwards and I drove one of those motorized carts around. :) Today, I haven't been in bed much at all. Of course, I didn't get out of bed until 9 AM. My eye is infected with the dreaded pinkeye and so I feel like crawling back into bed since I can't open it all the way. It feels like one of those weird dreams where you can't wake up all the way and see what's right in front of you. Chad is taking the boys on the Father Son Campout tonight, so I have to prove that I can be self-reliant!

We have had some meals brought in and I have an awesome friend who brought me some movies and watched all four (pinkeyed) kids yesterday while I went to the dr. Another angel neighbor watched the kids in the morning (pinkeyed, also) while I had my surgery and got Daniel on the bus for school.

The kids have been coming into the bedroom to visit with me. Leah was especially attentive one day and sat with me for quite a while. They help Chad deliver meals to me and always come back in to ask if I want any more food. They have never complained about taking my dishes to the kitchen for me. There have been a couple times when all 6 of us were on the bed at the same time. My heart was full of gratitude for such beautiful children! I am truly blessed!

And on another level, Chad has been beyond amazing. He hasn't complained at all about having to be the mother and father and kitchen master. He has had pinkeye through the whole thing as well as just generally being sick (sore throat, etc.) Meanwhile, he's been trying to get work done while he waits on me hand and foot. How do I effectively express my gratitude to him? Make him a pie? Give him a night out by himself? (I don't think he'd go.) He is so amazing. It's earning him major points!

And so I just wanted to share how grateful I have been for my little family here and friends who have served so well. I feel undeserving such a reward!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all the mothers out there had a nice day. I went to church without my kids to celebrate!
Chad has pinkeye, Daniel had it last week but has a cough now, Leah has been coughing, but she and Nathan started pinkeye today...and Rebekah is too hard to take to church if I can leave her home instead! I'm crossing my fingers (with very little faith) in hopes that I don't get it. We got potted flowers in church today and my plant was very droopy from lack of water (the foil was covering the dirt). I thought it was very fitting! Luckily, it perked right up with a little water. So Chad has been looking like a prize fighter the past two days, and Leah and Nathan are starting to swell up. They should be in great moods for the neighbor who is coming to watch them tomorrow while I'm having my bunion removed. (She is fully aware of our germ condition.) YES! I'm finally getting rid of this ugly bunion. I'm hoping for better fitting shoes and a pain free (eventually) foot. I'll have to keep you updated...sometime soon. And now I'm off to get one last drink of water before midnight and take a quick shower!

Call the Orkin Man!

We have got serious Mole problems! Or maybe these are gophers. It's kind of hard to tell.

Chad was digging holes for the trellis for our grapes. I should have a picture of that, but of course, I don't.

Bison and Deer and Bears...Oh My!

We went to Yellowstone Bear World recently and drove right through groups of real, live bears. The park is about 35 minutes from our house (not really in Yellowstone, but they're hoping you'll stop by and visit on your way to the Big Park!) and has bison, deer, goats and, of course, bears. It was the closest I hope to ever be to a bear! After you ride through the park, you can get out and go into an area that has kiddie rides, a petting zoo, some picnic tables (to eat some really over-priced food) and a pen of the cutest bear cubs you'll ever see. I should be getting commission for this. We got some pictures and some sunburns. I'm sure we'll go back soon.

Boys will be boys, regardless!

So here's a story to help you appreciate your own kids a little better!

A few weeks ago, earlier in the week, the boys were outside playing and asked Chad if they could fill up the window well of his office with water. I think they wanted something like a little pond. So Chad, of course, told them that would fill the house with water and so... NO!

Fast forward to that Friday when I was helping B get a costume ready for a Mutual activity that night. I heard some giggling in Chad's office when I went by, but was distracted and didn't investigate. (I've learned a lesson!) About 20 minutes later (or so), B came up stairs and said something about something. Chad went down to look, thinking she was talking about a spider. Seconds later he came rushing upstairs and said there was a flood downstairs as he slipped (literally) to the back door to turn off the hose.

There was an inch of water on some parts of Chad's office floor and two feet of water still waiting to come in from the window well. All of our towels and most of our blankets went downstairs to try to absorb the mess. It was already halfway down the hall and some of it was heading towards a drain in the water heater room (too bad Chad's office didn't have a drain!). Chad had quite a bit of stuff on his floor (you already know this if you know much about Chad) and the window is directly over the baseboard heater. The power strip for all of the computer/printers/phone, etc was sitting in water. It's a miracle he wasn't electrocuted!

So meanwhile, the boys have gone off to play at the neighbor's house and I send for them pretty quickly. They really were shocked to see what their trick had done, but it didn't keep us from sending them to their room for the rest of the night. I still had to get dinner on the table, get B to the church for a practice, rent a carpet shampooer from the grocery store, drive to Idaho Falls to get some carpet blowers and take the girls with me to the church to the Mutual variety show they were doing for the ward. Poor Chad stayed home and worked on his office. A neighbor lent us 3 box fans and we had 2 stand fans in addition to the carpet blowers. We were almost lulled to sleep by the noise coming through the floor to our bedroom upstairs. Poor B must have lost some hearing that night!

The boys were grounded from friends, bicycles, and playing in the front yard for a week. It was a hard lesson for everyone! A couple of days later, I went into Chad's office and noticed how clean the floor was. I told him we should lift the boys' grounding and thank them for the nice clean office!

Just tonight (two weeks later) Chad is finally replacing the last pieces of office equipment. We just hope that there isn't any mold in the walls.

What's the worst thing your kids have ever done? :)

Welcome Spring?

This is what we woke up to the day after Easter. Surprise! It was beautiful, but I'm glad it melted quickly. I was worried about my prized tulips that were already emerging!

Easter!

I planned ahead for Easter this year. It seems we always forget to color Easter eggs and then cram it into Saturday night, along with whatever else we plan. So I made it the FHE activity and was ready nearly a week early. It was nice just knowing that they were done. The night before Easter, I was making a quick trip to the grocery store and won an Easter basket with candy and cheap-o toys in it (at least it was free). When I came home, I told the kids that I'd met the Easter Bunny at the store and he sent them this Easter basket. Daniel was very skeptical! So they had fun ripping into the basket.


That night we set out the kids' Easter baskets and scattered some plastic eggs around the house. It looked like a pastel Santa had visited! All the kids were pretty excited and Daniel lost most of his skepticism. (He's easily convinced!) It rained that afternoon, so we hunted for our decorated eggs inside. When Daniel questioned why the Easter Bunny didn't hide those, too, I told him that he was too busy and asked us to help with that part. We found all the eggs (we double counted to make sure), B even helped.




After dinner that night we had an Easter Bunny cake (not the real one of course, that would put a damper on next year!) and it was very cute! I may have out-done myself. I don't know if I'll ever get really creative with cake. I just really prefer to eat it. Anyway, it was a good Easter, and we made a valiant effort to include the real Easter story in it all.

Spring Break (the bank) PART FOUR

Day Eight: Long Beach, CA to Las Vegas, NV We woke the 3rd morning of our motel stay to more rain. I did notice that it stayed nice for the two days we were out and about. We checked out of the motel and headed back to Las Vegas. Daniel and Nathan were acting up on the trip, including throwing crayons, coloring books and shoes at Chad and me. The more we threatened, the more they enjoyed themselves. So long about Baker, CA, we decided it was time for a stop to get rid of some energy (to say the least). We pulled into the parking lot of a newly built outlet shoopping center and went for the back, where it was still pretty empty. We released Daniel from the car, but then all our frustrations came out and Daniel's rear end paid for the disrespect he dished out before. Then in was Nathan's turn, but as he was still in the van, he only got it from me. They were quite shocked! I felt better, and then wondered if there were any cameras around. (Do you remember the story of the woman caught on a Wal-Mart security camera beating on a little girl?) Anyway, they all ran around a bit, despite the freezing wind. They were much better behaved after that. We tried not to spank, but actions really do speak louder than words (occasionally)! We arrived in Las Vegas with the rest of Southern California, mid afternoon. We had decided to head back to the Strip and go to M&M World. It took us forever to get to it. In case you don't know, Californians flock to Las Vegas on the weekends. We were swept up in the traffic. We enjoyed the M&M's and B bought a T-shirt (her only souvenir of the trip). Because of the hour, we went from there to the Price's house, stopping to get some things for dinner. We visited that evening and bedded down.

Day Nine: Las Vegas, NV to Shelley, ID We got a pretty early start as it was General Conference weekend and Chad was trying to make it to the Priesthood Session in Taylorsville. We said good-bye to Steve and Amber through their girls as they weren't "up" yet when we slipped out. We made another stop in the St. George area (Santa Clara actually) and visited with Michael's (my step-dad) parents. Before the boys could actually break something, we were on our way again. We stopped in Beaver, UT for a snack and ice cream. I bought a little Easter train that was marked down (a souvenir for me! ;) ) and wished we had more room in the van to get a windmill they had there. We made it to Taylorsville with just enough time for Chad to have some dinner and then head to the Stake Center with everyone. The girls stayed home and visited while the cousins played/fought. When Chad came back, we loaded everyone back into the van for the last 3 hours of our trip. (We had intentionally planned to stay one more night, but this way we could actually watch a day of Conference and have some time to recover from our trip before Monday). We traveled fairly well until the last 40 minutes. By the time we pulled into the driveway, it seemed all 4 kids were crying. B may have been, too. I nearly was myself!

All in all, it was a good trip. We hadn't had a real vacation as a family yet. We're poorer than we were, but I guess paying that every 5 or 6 years equals out ok. You may notice that there weren't as many pictures near the end of the trip. Another sign of burn out! :)

Spring Break (the bank) PART THREE

(click on a picture to see it better)
Day Six: After a TON of rain, we woke to blue skies (Yahoo!) We had a pretty spacious pair of rooms at the motel and the laundry room was right next door. That came in pretty handy since we did several loads of laundry. We were about as far away as you could get from the free breakfast each morning. So ANYWAY, our first day was action-packed. We drove into the heart of Long Beach and started at the Queen Mary. We bought tickets for that and for the Aquarium of the Pacific at the same time because they were cheaper. We toured the engine room of the ship. Daniel and Nathan thought that was the best part. Next, we walked all over the outside and top of the ship. It was fairly breezy, and a little cool, but DRY! While we were trying to find the way to the observation deck (at the very front of the ship), Daniel and I paused for a 5-minute time out. How many people can say they had a time out on the Queen Mary? We happened to be on the Queen Mary the same day that CSI: Miami was there to do some filming. We didn't see any real action, but we did see one of the lead characters goofing off for the camera. Must be one of those behind the scenes things. I hope they enjoyed Leah's bloody-murder screaming as she threw a tantrum just below them! :) We got some ice cream from an over-priced, not so cordial ice cream shop and then went out and around to take a Ghosts and Legends tour. B wasn't sure she wanted to go. Buddhists are very superstitious and extremely nervous about ghosts. This tour was Long Beach's attempt at Universal Studios, complete with fog, lights, sounds and shadows. I was constantly waiting for Daniel, Nathan or B to tell me that they wanted out! Leah slept through the entire thing! I don't know how she pulled that off, but it's probably a good thing. Poor Chad had to carry her though. I jostled Rebekah around. It was fairly entertaining though. I would recommend it.

After we left the Queen Mary, we stopped at the van for some PB&J sandwiches. The girls in the ticket booth said we could catch a shuttle to the Aquarium and leave our van there. We were glad for that so we didn't have to pay for parking twice. As it turned out, the "shuttle" was actually the city bus system and we had to change buses halfway through the trip. At least we were in a "fare free" zone!

The Aquarium of the Pacific was really fun. We saw lots of neat things (including a sea dragon...a relative of the sea horse...picture included) and got to pet some stuff.




The manta rays were very tame and half came out of the water to be touched. One surprised Nathan and I, getting Nathan fairly wet! If you've never touched one, they feel like spit. There were some small sharks in the pools, too, but I just couldn't bring myself to go for it. A week or so after we returned from our trip, Daniel was giggling. He asked if we remembered when the manta ray waved at him. :)



At the aquarium, there was a lorikeet aviary. We bought a teeny cup of nectar to feed the birds. Wow! They really flock to you! We all had birds landing on us. I found some stuffed lorikeets at a good deal for the kids. Go figure: visit an aquarium and take home stuffed birds as a souvenir.

By the time we got back to the van, all the exit gates were wide open, so we ended up with free parking for the whole day. That was a nice surprise. We slept well that night.
















Day Seven: We spent the morning at the LA Zoo. We got in half price because we have a membership to the Idaho Falls zoo. (We love getting discounts!) As we were walking up to the zoo, B got confused. She wondered if we had left California and gone to LA. :) I guess they don't get that specific in Thai geography classes. There were a lot of school groups at the zoo. We were almost run over a couple of times. We knew we had left Shelley, ID when we didn't see any other blonde heads for hours! It was a pretty nice zoo and there was lots to see.


From the zoo we hit a beach. It was a pretty cool and breezy day, so I didn't get into a suit or the water. I stayed by the van with Rebekah wrapped up in a blanket. Chad took the kids out to the water, but Leah didn't last very long. Daniel was the only one that got completely submerged. Nathan had to be torn away from the beach (and the garbage that littered it)! We were the only ones in sight that were in the water. People now have one more reason to think Idahoans are strange! We slept well that night, too.




Can you find Daniel and Chad in this picture?