Heat Wave Celebration

To celebrate the "heat wave" we had a week ago (which just means it was above 0 degrees and sunny), we headed up to St. Paul to the Como Zoo. It's a nice zoo, and also has a conservatory, which we enjoy as well. I think the building is kind of cool, so I snapped some shots. Then, we let the kids be fish food by trying to get the fish to nibble on their fingers. We probably aren't supposed to do that, but it was cute.


Got one!

The wolves looked pretty cool out in the snow, and were really close. Yikes.

Can you tell that this one is, uh, marking his territory? The kids thought this was funny.

The puma, looking like she needs to make that popular resolution to lose those holiday pounds...

And check out this picture...I think this is so freaky how close it is to my Sara! Thank goodness for glass. The lion was going crazy pacing around and even roaring! I've never seen one so active.
We thought the tiger looked a little mangy. Is that how you spell mangy?

And, I just had to snap a shot of the snow leopard of course!



I had Jared take this picture to prove I was there. Notice my new love, my WARM coat.

And this funny orangutan was just perched right up at the glass, so the kids loved getting in his face. It was cute.
Remember that I'm not such a big animal lover? (Although I do love watching my little monkeys watching the animals.) Well, anyway, the zoo in winter wasn't so bad--the smells were slightly more tolerable and a bunch of the animals were gone, so we did the whole thing in just over an hour I think. It was a fun little trip.

Thanks, Mom!

My mom sent us some goodies the other day, including awesome scarves and hats she made for us, and she also included this puzzle. 300 pieces was a little much for the kids, but we all worked together and it made for a fun family night on Wednesday night. We were so proud of ourselves, that I thought I'd better take a picture on Thursday morning to preserve the moment! What is it about a puzzle that's so fun? I can't explain it, but it really is fun!

John wanted me to take a close-up of the shark. I'm sure you all did, too.

Update and call for help for Team Ryan

Hello everyone! As many of you know, Ryan has almost won his battle with cancer--he is cancer free now!! Really it has been a miracle to watch this happen, and if you want to check it out, visit: http://teamryanhess.blogspot.com/ It's worth your time and one of the best triumph stories EVER, but they still need a little help. He is not going to be able to get back to work for several months, so they run the risk again of losing health insurance and his income. So, federal employees can donate leave time to him. If you can, or if you know of anyone, please spread the word. They really had an amazing response last time, and they have been so grateful. I'm sure the stability and love offered through that helped Ryan's soul be stronger to heal faster. I'm sure other donations would also be greatly appreciated! So, here's the post copied from their blog:

PLEASE HELP RYAN- One last push...

Please help in getting this message out to friends and family in hopes that they may know someone who can help.

***THANK YOU***

***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***

My name is Ryan Hess and I was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Over the past 7 months I have received enough donated leave from federal employees to help me keep a paycheck and health insurance throughout 3 rounds of chemotherapy and most recently a bone marrow transplant. After meeting with my Dr. last week (1/12/10), he said that I could possibly be back to work in July.

I have finished one year of residency at the Veteran's Hospital in Tucson, Arizona. All of your generosity with donating leave and spreading the word has kept food on our table and kept a lot of stress out of our lives during this time. I am now doing well enough to watch our two children so that my wife can work part time to help with the bills. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time so that we can keep our health insurance and so that I can hopefully continue with work later this year. Thank you so far for your help and prayers. We are beating this together!

We were told that any federal employee (ie: civilian military- not active duty, Border Patrol, DEA, FBI, IRS, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees and active duty military) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee.

We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate.

Thank you so much.

How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?

Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)

Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:

Brenda Joy - Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)
Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 4409
Fax # : (520) 629-1849 attn: Brenda Joy
E-Mail : Brenda.Joy@va.gov

ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!

How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:

PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook, e-mail...whatever you can think of.

Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!

***GO TEAM RYAN HESS***

If you would like this message e-mailed to you, please e mail me at:teamryanhess@gmail.com

Children's Museum again, but now with DINOSAURS!!

This picture above is from the troodon wrestling game at the museum, and the kids caught one! Meet our new pet...Just kidding, but I actually think it looks kind of real, and I love how John's got it in that hold. Anyway, the children's museum had a new dinosaur exhibit, so I've been wanting to take the kids again. I thought it wouldn't be so busy this time, since the last time was the day after Thanksgiving, but I was wrong! I think there were at least three school field trip groups there, so there were a million kids and no supervision it seemed like. Several times the kids got frustrated when other kids took things from them or butted in, so I was trying to stick up for them and not be mean to others at the same time, but it was kind of a losing battle. It was kind of sad to see so many kids so poorly behaved, although I remember a few field trips where I was not exactly the best example of good behavior, so I tried to still enjoy the day. I did exchange some knowing looks with other parents, so I don't think I was alone in the frustration.

Anyway, it was pretty fun, but we didn't get to savor all the different things as much as I wanted to. The cool restaurant and grocery store were totally overrun (literally--with kids racing their shopping carts all around like crazy), so we pretty much skipped those. Next time we'll have to go earlier in the week to see if the crowds are less then, or maybe this place is always crazy. Oh, well.

They got to dig for fossils...
And play...
And pose...
And play some more...
If I may critique a little more, the dinosaur exhibit was okay, but there were some big dinosaurs, but they weren't "actual size." Of course that would have been much cooler. Too bad they didn't ask me...

Sara doing a puppet show with the forest critters, while I'm trying not to think of all the germs...

They wanted a little face painting, so I did my best. John wanted to be a cheetah, and Sara just wanted a few hearts. They liked it and spent a little time in front of the mirrors. I didn't really catch it, but Sara was kissing the air at herself!




And just to prove I was there, I'll even post the no-make-up mommy!
The family cheetah...
And we spent a lot of time in the warehouse, where Sara was the boss, or so her hat said. There were plenty of other bigger bullies, I mean kids, running the show, but they had fun.



I shouldn't be so negative I guess, and the one thing that was great was that I only paid $2 to get all of us in, using that Library pass I've mentioned before. I think I would have been a lot more bugged if I had spent the $8.95 per person or whatever the regular price is. And now I know to not go on a Friday, right? :o) Oh, and don't take the kids to the gift shop at the end, even with the repeated warning that we weren't going to buy anything, and their promises that they just wanted to look--they just don't get that. John wanted a toy that was $6, but I didn't give in, and then gave $6 to the parking attendant, so he was mad and wanted to know how much she would give me back. Money is so confusing to kids, at least mine. So, everyone was mad and tired on the ride home. It was great. I was trying to be positive and asked them to tell me the things they did like at the museum to try to get everyone in a better mood, and I think I was just making them more mad, because Sara said, "NOTHING." Sigh. It might be a while before we go again.

New Favorite Freebie

Have you ever done this? Just had to share that Home Depot does a free kid build thing the first Saturday of every month (at least that's the day at the one here). I took the kids and since we hadn't signed up previously, they just had some leftover projects for the kids to choose, but they still had such a ball. They were SO proud of themselves for building their own toys, and it was a lot of fun! We'll definitely be going again. Oh, and Sara's ready for a tailgaiting party, I guess...


And I "trimmed" Sara's hair. A little bit more than I planned, but it was getting a little scraggly, so I wanted to even it out, and, well, I'm pretty sure it was more even before I touched it. Don't look too close! I actually like it a lot--Sorry, Julie! :o) You kept commenting on how long her hair was getting, so I feel bad for cutting it...do you have a thing for long hair? I think the winter static was just making hers extra flat and/or stringy and wild, so the long wasn't working too well...