Wildlife World Zoo

Since the boys and DH were all home today, we decided to finally do something we had thought about many, many times - go to the Wildlife World Zoo! We regularly go to the Phoenix Zoo with our annual pass and we love it. But the Wildlife Zoo has the animals up close and personal. It's quite a drive for us, and more expensive, so it will never replace the Phoenix Zoo, but it's a fun special treat.

The weather was horrid, however. It rained almost the whole time we were there and dangit, I forgot to bring my jacket! I was so worried about getting jackets for everyone else, I went off and forgot mine. And I paid for it dearly as my teeth chattered and the wind blew and I quickly got wet. Thank goodness my shirt had a hood on it so I could at least cover my head when it rained. Of course, by the end of the day my hair was matted down anyway.

One of the big attractions there is the albino white alligator, one of the rarest animals in the world. It doesn't survive very long in it's natural habitat because it has no way of protecting itself from the sun. So the ones that get past infancy are captive, like this one: Looks like a statue, doesn't it? I stood taking photos of it for several minutes and it never moved a bit. I was beginning to think it was a statue! But later we walked by it and it had changed position, then it moved. So it's real. Heh. It's probably about 5 feet long.

Their entire reptile exhibit was pretty cool. Over the years, being a mom of 4 boys, I've had no alternative but to reconcile myself with looking at snakes and lizards, etc. They don't creep me out quite as much as they used to, but I won't be surprised if I have nightmares tonight!

Goings On

It's been a while since I've updated this thing, so...just the facts and a little fluff:

• Grant started Track last week - apparently he is doing pole-vaulting. Should be interesting.
• We recently found out Grant has an academic ranking of 1 in his freshman class of 752 students. We are very proud of him, to say the least!
• Kent and Kurt just ended their winter soccer season. We get to sleep in tomorrow - YES! They start baseball in a few weeks.
• Wyatt just got drafted to the Majors for Little League. He is very excited because he got on a team with some of his good friends. And I'm very excited because the mom of one of his good friends is my good friend! It's going to be a great season!
• I just got back from a quick trip to Las Vegas, with my sister, this past Monday. Of course, it was for work, not play. ;)
• I've been watching American Idol - have you? I haven't yet picked a favorite, but I'm leaning.....very excited now that it's down to the Top 24!
• On the other hand, I've decided NOT to watch The Amazing Race All-Stars edition that begins Sunday. I came across some spoilers (oh, OK, I went hunting for them) telling who the final 3 couples are and sadly, it's not worth my time to watch it based on those couples. While disappointing, because I had been looking forward to it for years, I'm also relieved not to have that commitment. Besides, Colin and Christie aren't in it - they are having a baby! And it just won't be the same without them.
• Kurt found the first scorpion of the season tonight in our downstairs bathroom. You have no idea how much I HATE those things and am just sick that we've already found one inside and it's not even March!

Also, because of this:

I've started re-reading the Harry Potter books. I just finished the first book - The Sorcerer's Stone. It has been about 7 years since I read it. It brought back some fond memories. Kent and Kurt were about 1 year old at the time and they were going through a phase where I had to sit in their bedroom until they went to sleep at night. That phase started when we were visiting my family in Missouri. The babies were in an unfamiliar room, to them, at my parents' house, and they cried like crazy if we walked out of there after putting them down for the night. They each had their own crib, heirlooms that my uncle, the carpenter, had made when my twin brothers and sisters were babies - my mom of course, had saved them and they had already gone through many grandchildren, just not both at the same time. So DH took to lying down on the full-sized bed (where Grant and Wyatt would sleep - all 4 boys in the same room - OY!) until the twins fell asleep. That phase continued when we came back home to Arizona.

Now with my older boys, I would rock them to sleep and then lay them down in their cribs. But with twins, you can't really do that effectively. I tried it once in a while, but then I couldn't get up out of the rocker without waking both of them up, so I would wait....and wait....and wait...for DH to come check on things and help me. Many's the time that I stomped on the floor, praying someone would hear me. Anyway, I digress. So we would put them in their beds and they would lie down, but one of us would have to sit in the room until they fell asleep. That's when I took to bringing in this new Harry Potter book with me, along with a flashlight. I would sit in the rocker and read, and every so often, either Kent or Kurt, would hear something and JUMP UP quickly, and look over at me, to make sure I was still sitting there. I never said a word, but just kept reading with my flashlight. Eventually the next time they heard something they would only peek out between the rails, then they would just raise their heads, and finally, they would be asleep. I read almost the whole entire first HP book that way. Heh. Very fond memories.

Of course, after that first book, I was hooked and read the rest of them as quickly as they came out. I tried hard to savor them so that they wouldn't be over so quickly, but I rarely held out more than a few days. OK, well, book 4 took me about a week. ;) I am quite sad that this summer will be the last installment of the saga. I so hope it ends satisfactorily. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy reading the story in it's entirety.