Riverside Zoo

Saturday the YM and YW from our ward went to perform baptisms down in Denver. Justin volunteered to help perform the ordinances along with other guys from our ward. Apparently, the drive down and back was quite entertaining with Justin, Keith, and Maleia talking up a storm. I was not looking forward to another day at home so decided last minute to drive to the Riverside Zoo. We stopped downtown Sidney before driving off to browse the annual sidewalk sales. Not much this year! I did find a cute antique-looking wooden car.

Phillip decided not to sleep the drive to Scottsbluff, it was a long 90 minutes. The zoo is small but pretty cute, with a $4 entrance fee, it was worth our time. Most of the animals were hiding in the shade by the time we arrived at 11:30. We walked around first. Last week I read that the zoo is donating or transferring about 30% of the animals due to low budget. At least the lions and tigers were still there. Phillip actually growled at the lion! Amelia wanted to ride the Zebra and feed it grass. I was a little worried about the time because we did not pack a lunch, just snacks. The snacks held over much to my relief. By 12:30 the temperature was over 100 degrees. The splash pad was water heaven for us. I slathered the kiddos up with "sunscream" and let them loose. The water was super cold, totally delightful on a hot day. Phillip crawled around the water enjoying the little puddles. Amelia was a little brave, running through the water once or twice. We got macaroni and cheese for lunch at KFC. The kids humored me with a trip to Target and JoAnn's. I found two new luscious backdrop fabric on sale...Courtenay...you will be most excited about the boy fabric. We headed home around 4:00 pm. Phillip once again was not so keen about napping even though he was drop dead exhausted. I think he slept the last 30 minutes.

At home I went outside to play with the kids. Amelia had to use the potty so ran in to get her situated. Three seconds later I came back outside to find Phillip sitting fully clothed in the pool, pleased as punch. About gave me a heart attack. Justin came home bearing apple cheesecake slices. Yum!

Yesterday we had the missionaries, the Campos family, and the Titus family over for dinner. They were all delicious. Just kidding. The missionaries had a cancellation so we volunteered to feed them. Since I was cooking we invited over several other people to eat food. I made my Mom's bread and calibicitos. At one point I went to pick some zucchini and summer squash for the meal. I last picked some squash 6 days ago. There were about four squash longer than my arm and about twice as thick as my arm. Holy squash, it could've eaten us for dinner. I guess I need to pick the squash more often. I also grabbed several carrots for the babies to eat. We all had fun chatting over dinner and a delicious pear pie. Phillip was entranced with little Emma (10 mths) he thought she was pretty cute. Towards the end we all started to get pretty silly pulling out old stories and tricks. Justin even coerced me into perform Myrtle the Turtle. Geeze, that is silly indeed. My car is in the hospital today getting a new axle and alignment. Homebound again! Amelia asked me to make Mimi a beautiful dress so we cut a sewed a ghetto dress for the poor monkey. She even got some more stuffing to fluff her insides a bit. Amelia now wants me to make mimi a bossy dress and cute shorts. At least I can look at Jessica's blog for ideas. My cousin is absolutely crazy! She crafts me to shame. LOL.