Spring Break 2017

We were going to do a family outing to kick off Heidi Anne's Spring Break and to get out of the house and into warmer Utah weather to have a taste of Spring. We wanted to go to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. Everyone had some blue on their clothing in support of April 2 wear blue for Autism Awareness. However, that got postponed on account of rain. Once again, our plans were derailed by weather. 

One neat thing is Rory has learned a new word "Bubble". We have no idea where he picked it up. He knows the word but not the actual object bubble. 

On Monday we got to go to the dinosaur park in Ogden. It was a bit chilly but much warmer then Wyoming. Heidi still had her own guide book from her field trip last year. 

There was an indoor museum before you went outside to the park. Upstairs, there was an machine T-Rex, he's attacking a family of triceratops. It made Rory rather nervous. For most of the trip he was just sitting in the stroller, he wasn't strapped in, he could have gotten out at any time. 

We had fun looking at the different fossils, gems, and rocks located upstairs. Some of which were turned into beautiful works of art and lovely craftsmanship. I regaled Heidi Anne with the times my Granny and GrandDad would take us fossil and rock hunting as a kid about her age. 

We went downstairs to the museum where Heidi Anne could watch a paleontologist work on a fossil and ask him questions directly. Next was an activity table where Heidi Anne could trace "real fossils". 

There was a matching game next to her. Rory had fun just putting the wood blocks back in their slots. It may have been mismatched, but he enjoyed himself. That's the important part, after all.

Anastasia had fun just going along for the ride. It was a bit cold so, yes, her jacket is on backwards and she's tucked under a warm, fuzzy blanket.  

We walked around the indoor museum downstairs. Looking at the skeletons of different creatures, from a woolly mammoth, saber-tooth tiger skull, to different dinosaurs.  

Heidi Anne found a dinosaur eggs' nest, with mostly cracked eggs. She decided that the eggs hatch before they became fossils, that way the baby dinosaurs survived. Because if they died before the eggs hatched that thought made her very sad. So we went with her happier theory. 

Next we wandered around the park outside, with different life sized models of dinosaurs. This is the best picture of of all three kids together. We spent over an hour strolling around the park.

After we toured the park grounds went to the play ground. It was a bit crowded. We were going to have Rory go down some slides but they were all wet and a bit muddy. 

That's when Char found the baby swings. Rory LOVED the swings. He was grinning ear to ear the whole time he spent in the swing. I love his tee-shirt, it has a little monster and reads "Hear Me Roarrrr". I thought it was perfect for the Dinosaur park, and with his nickname of Rory. 

Here's Heidi on top of a giant turtle at the park. She had fun on the playground as well.

Rory tried to be a big boy and go through a "dinosaur skull" on the play ground. Unfortunately, there was a big dip that we weren't aware of and he fell down, hard. That pretty much brought our Dinosaur adventure to an end. 

On Tuesday we went to the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City. We got there just as 2 bus loads of children on a field trip arrived. There were a lot of kids running all around the place. 

Heidi Anne became the self appointed tour guide since she had the map. Every time we came to an enclosure she'd inform us of where we were. It helped that there little signs with pictures telling us what birds we were looking for. Which turned into an eye spy game. 

There was a large duck pond filled with different species of ducks. Char spotted an adorable family of ducks with ducklings. They were the only ducklings in the water. 

I like to think that Rory enjoyed seeing the birds, except for the time when two ducks swooped over his head. That startled him quite a bit. As did the loud children running all about. 

One part of the duck pond had pelicans. We were just in time to watch them being feed by their handlers. We saw geese, swans, and ducks as well.   

When we were looking through some of the enclosures I saw something bright blue near the ground. I told the others "Guys look at that bright blue bird!" Just as I said this I noticed a man kneeling in the cage and it clicked. He was wearing bright blue gloves. There was no brightly colored bird, in fact, there were no birds in there at all. The man must of thought I was trying to make a joke and replied "Yeah, like I haven't heard that 30 times today." But I seriously thought there was a bird in there. 

There were pairs of ducks everywhere waddling on the walkways, in the gardens, or on the lawn. These could have been the very same ducks that scared Rory for all I know. I got a lot of duck pictures. 

Heidi Anne's favorite bird was the scarlet ibis it was just the most beautiful bird she saw in the whole aviary. Also because she LOVES the color red and it was the reddest bird there. 

We went into a woodland birds section. We watched some little species of ducks swim fully submerged underwater. We even found a bird on her nest. I got a lot more pictures of the birds but there were either cages in the way or random children blocked the view. 

Near the entrance there was a merry-go-round sculpture that kids could ride. Heidi Anne got very dizzy on it. 

We saw some bald eagles and some golden eagles. Around this part of the park we asked out loud to each other how do the birds stay in the mostly cage free aviary? Out of nowhere a random employee responded "Most of the birds here are injured and unable to fly away." 

We had a lot of fun trying to find the owls that were blended into their surroundings. Here is Heidi Anne spotting an owl that I "couldn't find for the life of me." I love being a mom. We were going to the play ground but it was crowded by the kids on a field trip.

Anastasia did fairly well for her first fun outside adventures. It's so nice now that she isn't a new preemie and that flu/RSV season is over. I think we've expanded her worldview quite a bit. "You mean there's more to just home, doctor offices, and Grandma's house?"

Later that day Anastasia surprised us all. She took her first steps with the aid of her doll stroller / walker. Anastasia doesn't know she lacks the muscle tone to do this, so she pushes herself to be just like her siblings. 

On Wednesday, we didn't have any adventures planned. Char made us a lovely breakfast, since we didn't have to rush about trying to head out somewhere. We decided to do some deep cleaning and start packing up parts of the house. Strangely enough, that's when Heidi Anne went to go play with a friend. They then had a sleep over. 


Thursday Heidi Anne played at her friend's house and I worked on laundry. So here's some pictures of the babies being adorable.  

Rory has a large stuffed dog that he got for his birthday. You may remember that he fell in love with a stuffed animal at Christmas which was actually going to his cousin as a Christmas present. As you can see, he still adores his doggy. He also makes a little nest out of his soft, fuzzy blankets. 

Anastasia likes to drink her sippy cups the same way Rory does. Laying down on the ground. She's trying to giggle and drink at the same time. It didn't work out very well for her. 

Rory's begun lining things up now. It started with his matchbox sized toy cars. But now it's anything that matches. 

For example, when he got into a pack of diapers. They became fair game to be lined up. This was in a much better and longer line, until Anastasia crawled through it, destroying his hard work. Here he is trying to put everything back in order. 

On Friday, the busy week caught up with Heidi Anne. She was exhausted and slept on and off until noon. Heidi does this thing where she raises her arm when extremely sleepy. We were going to Bear River State Park but it was to windy. It just became more windy as the day wore on.