DENVER ZOO…on a hot day!

 We headed to the Denver zoo on a Friday…we knew it was going to be a little hot…but we decided to brave the heat and go anyway.  The kids were all so excited, and I have to admit I even felt like a kid again.  I have fond memories of going to the Boise zoo with my Dad and I was looking forward to making some of the same fun memories with my kids.  We left really early and ended up in Dever at about 9:45.  Everyone was feeling a little hungry since we ate breakfast at 5 am, so we stopped and had a snack before we got to the zoo.

 Here we are waiting to enter the zoo.  They said we came at a good time since there were a lot of baby animals, and most of the exhibits were open.

So here Courtney is checking out the baby giraffes…they were so cute…but we wanted to move on into some shade somewhere.

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We found the Polar bears out having a great time…we thought the water looked nice and cool to take a dip in.  It was so cold you could feel the coolness just being near the water.

Courtney has a squirrel on her shoulder…a black and white one…crazy!

This was the rainforest exhibit…of course this would be Trenton’s favorite because of all the snakes and creepy crawlers.  It was however our least favorite because of the humidity.  They had misters that put the water into the air regularly…it was almost so foggy it was hard to see at times.

a BIG snake…who’s excited here?  not me!

You can’t really tell in this picture, but these fish were HUGE HUGE HUGE…Brianna was amazed!

My little mermaid girl loves fish, she loved the aquarium exhibit and was happy to see many of her favorite Disney friends, Sebastian, Flounder, even Nemo and Dori were there!!

Of course we saw many different animals… I saw things I never knew existed like the Okapi, the 3rd picture here, its closest relative is the giraffe, but it has stripes like a Zebra  weird. 

another moment in the shade.

I  loved looking at all the different plants they had…I wish I had the climates and abilities to grow some of these things.  Look how big this flower is.

We went into the Lorakeet Adventure which is a place where you can feed the birds little cups of nectar.  The girls had a great time, but it was really a sticky mess…thankfully they had a cleanup station close by!

This Lorakeet took the cup right from Brianna…he didn’t seem willing to share.

Well we were pretty much done by this point…just making our way back out…Everyone was feeling a little exhausted from the heat, and the excitement…Time to go find some FOOD  to re-fuel!

At the gate we bought Brianna and Courtney a little animal to remember the zoo…Trent felt like he was to old (mature) for stuffed toys and opted out.  This pink monkey matched Brianna’s outfit perfectly, her new best friend!!

Courtney chose a purple and blue snake…she still hasn’t chosen a name for it yet and is open to suggestions.

We got in the car and decided to get out of downtown a little ways before we stopped to eat…Dexter got so excited as we passed Invesco Field, this is where the Denver Broncos play, and Dex is a huge fan!!!

We hadn’t been in the car for more than 10 minutes and Brianna was out.  She bumped her head on the car door getting in, and at first I thought she was suffering from a concussion, But really she was just so tired!

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We found a Chili’s and stopped to eat…we found a big corner booth where everyone could have some space to relax and just chill before we headed home…good food, good times!!

We had a really great time in Denver.  We thought about staying over night and hitting something else the next day, but we have dogs to take care of…so we headed home…plus everyone was so tired that the thought of seeing or doing anything else just wasn’t very appealing!

Wildcat Hills hiking

While Dexter was on vacation the middle of August we decided to make some memories with our family and do things a little out of the norm for us.   One day we had this “brilliant” (note the sarcasm, please) idea to take the dogs with us up to the Wildcat Hills and have a picnic and some hiking.  Now let me preface this by saying that riding in the car with dogs, our dogs specifically, is NOT fun!!!  Woody shakes nervously because he doesn’t know what is coming at the end of the car ride, and Chelsea is just a spaz who roams around the car looking out each window and climbing over and drooling on EVERYONE!!!   so we got all packed up with plenty of food and water for people and dogs and headed out.  When we got there we realised that the temperature had climbed quite a bit and we were looking at the mid 90′s.  so it was hot, and dusty…and everyone seemed a little cranky.  But we had already decided to do this so we found a little shade with a picnic table and let the dogs roam while we ate.  THE DOGS WERE EVERYWHERE!!!  it was fun for them to be outside of the backyard, but I was a little stressed thinking for sure that one of them would find a snake or something.  After we ate we thought it would be best to drive the dogs home before we did some hiking.  That way we could talk and visit with the kids and not be yelling after the dogs the whole time.

All packed up and ready to roll…

This is the view of us hiking back up to the car with the dogs…they are of course leading the way!

After we took the dogs home and arrived back at the hills…we decided to take the northern lookout trail, which would take us about 2 miles to a lookout area.  This was a little scenery as we hiked northward, and when you live in Western Nebraska, this is about the best view you are gonna see   

Taking a little break on our path, shady spots are few and far between..so you rest in them when you find one.

 We found that we were hiking in very deserty conditions with all the yucca plants and cactus to dodge along the way.

We finally made it to the Northern lookout.  it was beautiful, but it looked out over the highway.

 We had to take some time in the Nature Center and check out the cool things to do there…the kids always love this!

Courtney is making some leaf rubbing here…she even looks like she got a little too much sun.

 It wouldn’t be a family activity if we didn’t end it at DQ!!!  it felt nice to have milkshakes and sit in the AC after our hiking expedition…

We had a great time…these kids look a little tired…

Bathroom update again!!!

So I have decided that I must have a disorder or something…what is it called when you decorate, then redo it after only like 6 months?  if you know, let me in on what it is that I have.  So my bathroom was nice, a little while ago I added the wainscoting and painted it burgundy…it looked great with my cream cabinets,  but just recently I had been dreaming up a new bathroom decorating scheme.  I kept thinking that I would store the idea in my memory bank for a larger house somewhere in the future, but I just kept thinking about it and thought, what the heck, I already have the paint, and Dexter was out of town (which is always prime project time at my house)…so i went for it!  I love, love love it!!!

So I decided to paint the cabinets a satin black, with brushed nickel hardware, and paint the wainscoting cream.  It made such a difference in how I feel about the bathroom, and it feels larger too!  it looks so modern and pretty…eventually I will either take down the medicine cabinet and just replace it with a mirror, or I will paint it black too.  Hopefully before the end of the year, I will tile the tub surround…so exciting!!

I got a new shower curtain that was perfect!

  and this is the sink area …it feels so nice…I still have a few paint touch ups, but it is pretty much done!!  we’ll get new fixtures and such when the tiling is done, that way everything will match, so we will continue to live with the tacky gold until then 

Hair pretties galore!!!

A very good friend of my told me about making pretty little things for her girl’s hair.  So of course I had to go over and see them…that was it…I was at the store that afternoon buying stuff to make my very own.  I was surprised that a box of 100 clips was only like $6 at the beauty supply store.  I spent a total of $25 on clips and flowers and even some headbands for Courtney.  I started at 5pm, and didn’t stop until well after midnight.  I am hooked.  It was so fun to mix and match buttons and ribbon and try different things…so here are the results…first the big flowers……………………………

Of course I have to make everything in sets of 2…since I have 2 girls!

these are all of the smaller ones…for ponies, or just clipping back the bangs…the way they are made they even stay in Courtney’s hair which is growing in very fine!

This is the HUGE mess that I made…it was worth it though…think about it 100 hair accessories for $25.  I looked at walmart just today and they wanted $3 for 2  of them…and they weren’t even as cute as mine. 

And this is how I organized them…I was kind of having anxiety about how to store them so they didn’t get lost and would stay nice.  I hung ribbon from the inside of the cabinet doors in the bathroom with thumbtacks.  The clippies stay on nice and tight and I always know where they are.  I gave the girls a talking to about them not being used for their dollies, and this way I will know if some are missing.  Notice there is room to add more when (not if) I decide to make more!!!

I will post a short tutorial on how to make them and the secrets that make them stay in the hair so well early next week…so check back!!  and thanks for the inspiration Krista…you pretty much rock!!