Museum of Ancient Life

After we visited Grandpa Brady for a few days we went up to the Provo area. On the day we arrived we went straight to the Museum. It's fabulous! Lots of things for children to touch and try out, plenty of dinosaurs to compare yourself to and things like an erosion table that shows how water can erode sand and such. (It had palm trees, sand and water.) This was our favorite and was where we spent most of our time. They have a sandbox with bones burried in it that you use a paintbrush to uncover it with. We were at the museum for hours!! Then we hit the shop where Tersa, Keddi and Shinara got stuffed dinosaurs and Mardi got a giraffe carved out of marble. The reason she got a giraffe was that before we began our dinosaur tour we watched one of their 3-D movies. It was a wild life tour through parts of Africa. Do ya love the glasses?

Trip to Utah

We love our October visit to Utah to enjoy the........ fall?!
Yep, grandpa's house in Monroe, Utah got some snow last Wed. night and we played in it for a bit before heading further north to Provo on Thursday. Mardi and Shinara built the "snowman". He was about a foot tall (before he melted.) The day before had only gotten up to 48 degrees and Shar didn't like it! She came in and out for a good hour or so. She would only stay out for 2-3 min. and would come in for 5-10 min. She's a desert rat for sure! And I think I may have converted. I didn't enjoy the "bitter" cold at all. (I know! Some family and friends are snickering at that!) More pictures and updates to follow.

DIVA

I know, she's had a lot of blog time lately. First Tersa was in the spotlight and now Shar. But, are you kidding me?! Just too dang cute!!


We're headed to Utah tommorow for a week so, we won't have any new posts til we get back. We love ya!

Little sisters

I went outside to check on everyone the other day and this is what I found. Shinara being put to good use by her oldest sister. And no complaints from the "horse" either. Gotta love it! (To be fair, Tersa took her turn too.)

Bird Sanctuary

Yesterday we went up to the northwest part of Las Vegas because we had been told of an orchard where you can pick out your Halloween pumpkins and also participate in picking the fruit if you like. Mardi had her last appointment on her knee (all healed over!) and since we were halfway there, mom decided to take us. The appointment took much longer than needed and after stopping at dad's office for a bathroom break, we ended up getting there just as it closed! It closes at noon. Well, we had stopped at the wrong place first which turned out to be a bird sanctuary with the same name as the orchard. So we went back to the sanctuary and took a look around. Not only do they have birds, but some farm animals as well. The girls got to see and touch miniature horses, pigs, goats, donkeys and llamas. We saw tons of very loud tropical birds and a few would say "hi" or "Hello" when you came up to the cage. One even laughed. I turned around looking for the source of laughter when Mardi pointed out that it came from one of the birds! We saw ducks and geese, some tiny little birds, pet kind of birds and emus and ostriches too. It turned out to be a lot of fun which is good since I hate driving a long way for nothing!


I wonder if there is a stay-at-home mom sanctuary. There is... bathtub... but only after children's bedtime! (Or a good friends house. Assuming her kids have gone to sleep.)

Time Flies

So, I've never been one to worry about being older. 80 has always sounded old but now my Grandpa is over that and still gets on just fine! 36 wasn't that bad. I have a few more gray hairs than I did when I first noticed them at the age of 33, but whatever! It really wasn't until my family was having a discussion (via e-mail) about an incident that occurred when we lived in Georgia that I really considered what being 36 meant. I realized that I lived in that house 20 years ago!! And was having my 16th birthday. Turning 36 didn't bother me much, but having vivid memories of things that occured 20 years ago was a bit un-nerving.
I made this scrapbook page for my Grandmother years ago. Unfortunately (or fortunately) most of the pictures are old and not good quality.

Family Portraits

So, family pictures were an interesting endevor this year. We have always gone to Kiddie Kandids but they don't make appointments and I was tired of getting everyone all dressed up and then having to wait an hour or more or finding that they were busy till closing time. We have to wait until Joel gets home from work and by the time we get there an hour wait is a bit much. Anyway, my family got our pictures taken at Olan Mills in Georgia and I found a listing so I decided to try them. They took appointments. But they also took forever! The studio is now a hole in the wall at K-mart and she insisted she had to take 8 different poses and they only offer 3 sizes of photos! Except for custom sizes that are larger than 8x10! Needless to say, we were lucky to get any decent shots and they are only just decent! And Shinara was in tears after we'd been at it for 45 min. and still had 4 poses to go. Luckily we were in K-mart and Joel took her to look at the toys and Halloween stuff while we posed the other three for pictures the photographer knew I would not be buying!! We only bought one sheet of this one because we just couldn't pass it up! The girls weren't actually being difficult, she was testing lighting and took a shot and this is what we got. I wonder if she's ever had anyone buy one like this. ( The three looking to the side are looking at themselves in the monitor.)

A no go

Well, the votes are in and Tersa was not elected Historian for this year. She was a bit bummed for an evening. But now that she won't be so busy with the duties of a Historian, she will be able to sign up for a class at the Rec. or a sport. Life goes on and so does Tersa!

Random pictures

As I expected, our cool weather was a fluke. We will have temperatures back up into the mid to high 80's all week. I suppose one could say that is Fall weather for Vegas. Still it's too warm to pull out winter clothes (which I already did) so we will have to pull out all the boxes again.


Here is a picture from the Fourth of July stuff we did. The day was packed with events that were shared with friends. The little guy in the back is Connor Wilson (the Wilson's have been close friends for years.) And the one to the left is Spencer. His family are good friends with the Wilsons too.
(Also a shadow of things to come? )

Fall has come to Vegas

Fall came to Vegas- yesturday. The sky clouded late Wed. afternoon and it rained most of the day on Thurs. That rarely ever happens! Temperatures dropped to the high 60's low 70's (yep during the day!) and though the sun is out today, it has been in the 70's. The wind is picking up now and I wonder if we are in for more rain with all the clouds that seem to be moving in. Truth be told I could have handled another all day rain. It smells cleaner, windows are open and we really enjoyed the hot muffin and hot chocolate we had for snack yesturday. Shinara is the one that alerted us to the very large and rather intense rainbow that was right out our door. Something caught her eye out the window and she told Tersa to look at the colors. So we went out and enjoyed the colors and bare feet in cold wet grass. Then we had our own little photo shoot. I was experimenting with my camera and the girls experimented with hair flipping and poses.

Tersa's Speech

She did it! But it's not over yet! Track two is out and she has to come back to school on Mon. to give her speech again. Then they will vote and the winners will be notified Mon. night if they have won. Those who do need to come to school by Tues. morning to be part of the morning announcements. (sounds like alot of work already!) Then they have council meetings every Friday after school. Plus their individual duties. Perhaps it is a shadow of things to come.

Track Break

As many of you know, the girls have year round school. So throughout the year they have track breaks. Today is the last day of school before our first track break of the year. Several years ago we began a short tradition of going to Grandma and Grandpa Brady's during our October break so that we could enjoy some Fall weather. Richfield Utah doesn't always have much of Fall weather by October either but the mountains are close where we have enjoyed cooler weather and changing colors. The reason we started this little tradition was because I yearned to see the changing leaves and smell Fall in the air. Anyway, this will be our last year because Tersa will be attending Jr. High (Did I hear small gasps all through the country?) next year and will no longer have track breaks. This year it looks as if we will go as far north as Provo and spend a day or two there (And Provo knows how to do Fall!) as well as visiting Grandpa for a day or two.
Also for your information. Tersa is running for Historian at her school. She will be giving a speach in front of the other kids today and they will vote. GO TERSA! We made posters together and she and Mardi have been talking to the kids they know in their own classes as well as the kids they know in other classes who are in other tracks. She is optomistic about winning. I hope they don't make her wait until after her track break to know the results. We may be making a call to the school during our break!