Monkey Business

The first week of summer went exactly how I expected.  There was plenty of fun and general happiness, but there were also a few moments when the kids didn't feel like doing chores and weren't sure how to spend their time when partying wasn't an option.  In short, they laughed, they cried and survived week one of summer.

Tuesday morning was our first outing and I took the kids to the Willow Park Zoo.  When we pulled in and parked next to this car I knew something was up.

 

 

Sure enough Big Budah from Fox 13 news was there to do a live feed. There are a few things about our small town zoo that really crack me up, like the sign at the ticket office that said, "All of the zookeepers are busy so just come in and when you see one of us you can pay us." Classic.

 

Jameson was in heaven.  Even though the older kids have been there plenty of times, they still enjoy a quick trip to the zoo.

 

Getting food to feed the ducks

 

 

One of the 3 full time zookeepers just happens to be in our ward so when he saw us he stopped and talked to us and the kids for awhile and then told us what time to go by the monkeys to see the news crew do their thing.  Here he is showing the kids one of the animals he was going to feature on the news.

 

 

Another zookeeper was bringing out reindeer for the newsfeed.  She was early so she stopped and talked to the kids and told them all about the animals and let them pet them.  Yup, only in a small town zoo.

 

Big Budah, who is well known in the state, filming a teaser line for the news.

 

 

Filming the live segment in front of the monkey cage.  Big Budah is interviewing Carl who is in our ward.  They gave the monkeys some coconuts so they would be nice and active and it was so fun to see the monkeys running around and trying to get the coconuts open.  It made our little zoo experience that much more fun.

 

The kids were in charge of mowing the lawn on Wednesday but our lawnmower was out of gas so I decided to run to the gas station so they could get the job done.  I had Jameson with me and quickly filled the container and secured it in the back of the van before heading home.  Before I got home, however,  I started smelling gas so I pulled over and found that the container had turned over and the cap covering the top of the spout had come off.  Agh, there was a big puddle of gasoline in the back of my van!  Ok, so I may or may not have panicked at this point.  I rolled down the windows and drove home with visions of hitting a bump and having a spark ignite the pool of gasoline in the back of the car and having Jameson and me go up in flames.  Adam wishes there was film footage of the way I pulled into the driveway and yelled at the kids to not to near the car while I pulled Jameson to safety as quickly as I could in full panic mode. Hey, all I knew was that gas is very flammable, I didn't realize it would take A LOT to ignite it in my car.  Adam came home from work for a little bit to help me with the initial clean up efforts and to calm me down.  He was nice, of course, but I'm sure he was laughing at me on the inside.

 

 

Spilling a lot of the gas in the car is not awesome.  We've gone through a lot of baking soda, we've cleaned it with a steam cleaner and a deep cleaning carpet cleaning vac and I'm sure we will continue to do things to get that smell out of our car. While all of it has helped, the smell isn't completely gone yet. For now we roll the windows down and try not to think about how many brain cells we are killing each time we get in the car.

 

On Monday I had my first bike wreck.  Fortunately we were biking into a strong headwind so we weren't going very fast.  I was drafting off of the bike in front of me and all I remember is she lagged a bit and I was trying to not hit her tire and bam! I was on the ground.  Fortunately no one was behind me and I wasn't hurt badly.  Sure, I had the usual road rash all down the left side of my body, but my bike was fine and my helmet protected my head so after a few minutes of being stunned I climbed back on my bike and rode another 10 miles home. I had five days to rest and heal before heading out to Little Red, a 100 mile all women ride with the ladies I ride with.  Fortunately getting back on your bike is just like . . .getting back on a bike.  Ha!  I definitely rode with a little more caution, but had a great time.

 

I'm the one in the blue and orange Academy Mortgage kit on the left

We had a large group of 13 women and had so much fun! The above picture is just before we started and the picture below was our group at the finish line. This year's ride was definitely easier for me than last year when I was just barely getting into cycling.  My legs aren't even sore this year and I felt like I could just keep on going.

 

Here we are at our lunch stop.  I am definitely a fan of any sport that encourages me to stop and eat every 30 miles or so. Oreos with peanut butter and a banana slice on top? Yes, please!

 

 

On Friday afternoon a local business had a grand opening that promised lots of free activities for the kids so we decided to go.  Unfortunately so did everyone else in the entire valley.  I'm not sure the business was prepared for how many people actually showed up.  This is one case where the marketing was a little too successful if you ask me, but for the short amount of time we were there the kids had fun.

 

 

Jameson, did you help yourself to some blueberries??

 

 

Why would you even ask that, Mom?

 

While I was gone riding Little Red on Saturday several families in our neighborhood had yard sales.  I came home to this:

"Look Mom, I got this FOR FREE from one of the neighbors!" Ugh.  There was a reason it was free, my dear.  I'm not super happy about "Bear Bear" but Korinne and Jameson couldn't be more pleased.