Countless Tomorrows: Weekend Fun

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Weekend Fun

This last weekend was a blast. Saturday morning, we drove to American Fork to celebrate my cousin adopting 3 kiddos. But before going to the party, we first had to go to Cabela's. Josh must have caught me at a weak moment because I let him buy a new gun.

After Cabela's, we drove to Heather's house in American Fork for her BBQ. Someone forgot to tell the wind it was NOT invited. Everything else about the party was perfect, except the wind that was HOWLING! I didn't even get my camera out because the wind had me so miserable. The party was across the street from her home in the park. (How cool is it that they literally live across from the park!)

After the party, we headed to Salt Lake City. My mom had gotten us a hotel room so we could all go to the zoo the next day. Our hotel was only a few blocks from The Gateway, so we decided to walk down there and see what movies were playing. We bought tickets to "Snow White and the Huntsman" but had an hour to kill before the show started, so we decided to walk around and see where to eat after the movie.

After the movie, we went to Tuscano's. It was DELISH! Our movie ended around 10:20, so when we got there, it was pretty quite. Our waiter was awesome and the food was amazing. I told Josh that the pineapple was so good, it did things to me I thought only he could do. We were so full after dinner, we didn't even have room for dessert.

The next morning we headed to the zoo to meet up with my family. Unfortunately, Valex woke up with a fever that morning, so he wasn't feeling completely like himself. I think he had a good time, but you can tell in all of his pictures that he wasn't feeling well.

Waiting out front for everyone to show up. Josh had found some pennies for him to throw into the water.

Watching the train drive by. We decided to ride it just before leaving the zoo.

Valex did NOT like the lion water fountain. I did NOT like that it was the only lion in the zoo.

I have wanted to go to the zoo for YEARS. I have such fond memories from when I was a kid. My family went just about every summer, but I hadn't been in YEARS (like even a few years before I was married.)

Going with the boys was the only magical part of it. I was actually really disappointed in just about everything else. The first thing we saw when we walked in was..... a free roaming chicken. My in-laws have those too. Then the rest of the zoo felt like 60% monkey's and 40% everything else, with only like 10% of that being cool. For me, that was the bears. I was going to take a lot of pictures, but then it was "oh, its just more monkeys and look, they are sleeping, just like the last monkeys." I guess the zoo is one of those things that is cooler as a kid. Although, I told Josh that I would still love to go to a HUGE zoo, like San Diego. Maybe someday....

Riding the carousal with Daxsen.

Valex riding with his uncle Alden, next to his mom.

Okay, maybe it was 15% cool. I also enjoyed watching the sea otters, as seen in the picture above, and the seals, which I didn't get a picture of.

The polar bear was really fun to watch. His living habitat was one of the biggest in the zoo and he was very active. From the seal habitat, we could get glimpses of him diving in the water. Then when we got close, he was putting on his own personal show. He would swim under water and come out right at the glass. Then he would fall on his back and back peddle for a bit. Then he would dive under water and go to the glass again. I think he likes all the attention.

Here he is back peddling away from the crowd.

Then he would swim back for his close up.

They also had a grizzly bear habitat that I really liked. It had three bears. One was inside the enclosed part, but the other two were outside "playing". It might have looked like fun for them, but I'm pretty sure if one of them had "kissed" me like that, it would have taken my head off.