Natural History Museum

Yesterday the kids and I found ourselves with no commitments so we took the opportunity to visit the Natural History Museum. Megan, Sadie and I had never been, but Jackson had been there once before for a field trip. It was enjoyable and I would totally recommend it!

There is quite a lot to do and see. First we visited the special parasite area that will be on display through September (just in case you want to go!). We learned all about lice, mosquitoes, ticks, hookworm, etc. They even had parasite pinball:







Obligatory cardboard cut out photos:





The big tank area full of little sharks was a favorite:





A couple of us enjoyed holding snakeskin:




We of course saw the dinosaurs. They were scary! Check out little Sade. She just might be the best actress in the family:






We all agreed that the area about Egypt was our favorite. These were quite heavy:





Sade asked me to take a picture of her punching this guy:



She happens to be our little wild card.
While wandering around the Egypt area we learned that in ancient Egypt adults and children drank beer, as it was cleaner than water.
Sadie remarked, "I need to go to Egypt."
We also learned that girls didn't go to school.
She remarked again, "I REALLY need to go to Egypt."
 She keeps us laughing.

Digging for fossils:




Miscellaneous pics:





I find it heartwarming that they still hold hands:



We spent about 2 hours at the museum and were able to see everything.



Another successful indoor activity.

24th Of July - 2012

I totally dread going to the 24th of July celebration every year. A big part is the heat, but after psychoanalyzing myself this year I have come to the conclusion that I miss Utah so bad on the 24th of July (It is my favorite holiday to spend in Utah!), that I cannot fully commit to a Nevada celebration. Anyway, this year was no different. I was filled with dread, and went anyway. Luckily I have Eric to tease me out of any bad mood I am in.

This year we mixed it up a bit and ate dinner (At Macayo's!) before arriving. But we made sure to save lots and lots of room for treats. First, snow cones:



And later, soda, pie, root beer floats, and these popsicles:



My girls first event was face painting:



Followed by lots and lots of water based activities. Sade was fearless this year and went on every single big slide and LOVED them:





Pure joy:



Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.......




She even climbed up this rope ladder and slid down. I was worried that she was too small, but she knew she could do it:





We all know that Sadie is a genius but for some reason she could not wrap her head around the Plinko game. The guy running the game demonstrated time and time again how it worked, but Sade kept throwing the Plinko chips at the board:



She's awesome:



I don't have near as many pics of Megan and Jackson because they were busy with their friends. But I did manage to get a few pics of Jackson and Carson dunking each other at the dunk tank:



They both got each other out using only one throw each:



The freaky semi-truck house was back. The kids were in there for at least 20 minutes!



Then weather started to get pretty dicey, and I started to get hopeful that we would all have to go home early! Just kidding!! (sort of).



We played a few more games in the wind:




And then headed back to the truck to wait for the fireworks to start:




We amused ourselves by taking pictures:




Luckily the weather calmed completely down and the fireworks went off as planned:



They were great.