Bear World has a Petting Zoo?

In the wee-small hours of the morning, I was developing my new hobby of clicking "Next Blog" when I came across a fellow mom's blog that had an entry about going to the petting zoo at Bear World. Fascinated, and a little frightened, I read her entry in more detail to discover that they had not in fact petted a bear but other, safer animals native to the area. I can only imagine that only in Wyoming or Idaho, Yellowstone national park to be specific, will you find a place called "Bear World" that includes a petting zoo. I have included a link for the petting zoo for other curious observers.

Click "Next Blog"

Come on. I dare you. You never know what you may find.

Today I did just that. I clicked "Next Blog" and found a story about a coupon lady a woman encountered at the store that the Cashier did not kill despite endless amounts of frustration, an analogy of free shows and architecture of Las Vegas casinos, and a blog about Japan. Nothing too frightening or exciting, but entertaining enough to distract for a few seconds from my fighting children and the horrible pain in my abdomen. I wanted to leave a comment saying:

Dear Blogger,

I don't know you, and you don't know me. However, I am grateful that you took the time to blog about something that amuses you. It brightened my day and brought a smile to my face. Hopefully, I will find something as interesting as this the next time I click "Next Blog."

Hope you have a wonderful day.

A Hospital Visit with No Baby

We had an exciting Thursday this week. My body tried to go into labor. That would have been great except for the fact that we are only 32 weeks along, we just have a few more to go.

All I was doing was sitting on the couch working on a project and watching something on the computer when the contractions started to intensify from their normal rate of occurrence. After 2 hours of hard contractions and several phone calls trying to reach people, we finally made it to the hospital. The nurse scolded me for not coming in sooner, a major surprise after the way I was treated with my last pregnancy for going to the hospital, and I told her it took me a lot longer to reach people then I had anticipated or I would have been here sooner. I was hooked up to the monitoring machines and they ran some tests. The longer I laid there the less intense the contractions became and the more our little guy moved around. Listening to him move was actually very comforting because he hadn't been moving as much the last couple of days as he normally does. It feels like I have an octopus in my belly because he moves so much.

The test results came back with some plausible information. A UTI (urinary tract infection) was ruled out but they found trace amounts of blood and decided I could possibly be trying to pass a kidney stone. Having never passed one, to my knowledge, I said it was definitely a possibility due to my family history, but I didn't know for sure. So now I am suppose to drink about a gallon of water every day and take it easy for a few more weeks. But, thankfully, we do not have a preterm baby as of right now.

Pioneer Children

Our ward held a Pioneers and Pie activity during the month of July. We had yummy pie, the kids threw whip cream pies in each other's face (in a designated area), played pioneer games (tug of war and stick pull), and took pictures in pioneer clothing (please ignore the flip flops.) Aren't my kids so cute trying to be serious?

Building Towers to the Moon

The Ancient History (a.k.a. Dinosaur) Museum has a new set of exhibits about Nasa and science exploration. We spent over an hour exploring the new activities one day before we had to go do other things, and one of the things we did was build block towers to the moon (so to speak.) Benjamin built this one all by himself.

1,000 Calorie Marshmallows

Ok, so 1,000 calories might be a bit of an exageration but these marshmallows are huge! Bekah has taken one bite out of hers and it is still as big as her hand! The local grocery stores, Winco and Fresh Market but not Walmart, started selling these this summer. They are called Campfire Marshmallows and they are the size of 4 or 5 large marshmallows combined. Even my little sugar addicts couldn't handle more than half of one.

Rodeo Days Grand Parade

Apparently, I did not take as many pictures on Saturday as I did on Friday. We saw a lot of the same floats, plus a lot of princess floats, so I guess that sums up the parade. Afterwards we went to the park to play on the inflatable toys, eat junk and get the kids faces painted. It was a fun day and wasn't terribly hot, but hot enough.

Making Bows

Around Christmas-time my friend, Raegan, learned how to make these cute bows. I would trade crocheting for bows and Bekah has quite the collection. A couple of months ago I noticed that she didn't have any plain blue or red bows so I bought some ribbon. This week I finally got around to making them like Raegan taught me to and now I am done! I can now put the leftover ribbon away and check one more project off my list.

Rodeo Days Mini Parade

You can't have a parade without princesses, and Bekah was absolutely delighted to wave to all of them as they rode by.

We collected more than our fair share of candy.

The funny little man from the movie "Up" is being assisted by a group of Boy Scouts and chased by the construction workers.

Who thought? A purple polka-dotted cow.

"We all live in a yellow submarine"

A whale with a polka-dotted tale.

Honoring our local veterans and their families.

I wonder what he found in the backyard . . . . .

Horton and the Whos from Whoville

The three little pigs and the big bad wolf.

"How to Train A Dragon"

When Pigs Fly

Members of our ward pulling the Safari float

Ants at a Picnic

Manny from "Ice Age"

Sid the Sloth from "Ice Age"