Things to Do - 12 in 12, sort of (July 2014)

This month the 12th fell on a Saturday and even though I emailed Rebecca and Catherine earlier in the week, reminding them to participate, I still totally forgot to document our own day. And I forgot Sunday as well. But luckily, we took enough photos that I could salvage a post together, which is more fragmented than a true 12 in 12, but so goes summer vacation . . .



10:30 am - We have friends staying with us from out of town, but even with 5 kids (including a 3 month old) and 4 adults, we manage to make it to the zoo by 10:30, which is good because parking is already going fast.



11:15 am - After jumping on the bouncy pizza for awhile, we head to the rainforest and lament the fact that chytrid is killing off the world's frogs.



11:45 - The baby sloth bear makes a rare appearance. Coolio.



noon - F donates some of her allowance to saving elephants. Then P brags that she now has more money. And so the fighting begins . . .



1:00 pm - Misters are amazing. All the adults keep fighting the kids for room under the spray.



2:00 pm - T's new Bald Eagle "pet" likes to climb on things.

. . . [insert 4 hour break, during which: the guys watch Germany conquer the World Cup, the kids play wii, Jenny tries to convince H to sleep, and I take a (much appreciated) nap]



6:00 pm - Walk to Red Rocks for dinner. The girls insist on sitting at their own table.



6:15 pm - At least one of the three girls still thinks we're cool.



6:45 pm - T takes a break from the spray park to drink some lemonade and contemplate life.



7:00 pm - I find Red Rocks' food to be somewhat hit or miss, but their brussels sprout appetizer is consistently yummy.



7:05 pm - The baby wakes up while waiting for our dinner to arrive. Seriously, WHERE IS OUR DINNER?



7:45 pm - Last run through the spraypark before we head home.

All in all, a pretty great day (though somewhat exhausting), plus we managed to cross three categories off our summer bucket list - (1) fawn over baby animals (sloth bear); (2) tour a rainforest (Amazonia); and (3) eat dinner while your kids get wet (we love the Penrose Square splashpark/fountain).

Now click on over to Not-So-SAHM to see how her day went!!

Things to Do - This Untamed Life, Afternoon

A few weeks ago, we spent a relaxing (or chill-laxing as P would say) morning at home followed by an afternoon at Great Country Farms - picking black raspberries (or should I say "trying" to find black raspberries worth picking), riding the slides, climbing tire piles, swinging, eating, and petting the baby goats. A good day. (For more info on the farms, click here for my past posts).

Now click on over to This Untamed Life to see how everyone else spent their afternoon.

HAPPY MONDAY!!

Things to Do - Cherish This Day & Random Links

An extra photo of our picnic taken during the bus tour. Now click on over to Cherish This Day to see this week's amazing images.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!

RANDOM LINKS:

* Abandoned places.

* Three generations, one outfit.

* These optical illusion animals are just so cool. I wish I could see them in person so I could flip the paper around. and around. and around.

* How hard would you work to visit a secret pool in the desert?

* Motel families.

* I'm totally obsessed with this food blog lately.

* Everyone keeps talking about this video (which is amazing), but the song itself is even better.

* 67 Quinoa recipes.

* wow. just wow.

* 37 books every creative person should be reading. I loved Just Kids.

Things to Do - Around . . . (Summer 2014)

Some random snapshots from these summer days . . .



T became a gladiator.



And spiderman.



We all worked on our cool.





And tried to become sportier.



The girls joined a swim team with several of their school friends.





And cut off SEVERAL inches of hair.









We've spent several days at the pool, as T has FINALLY decided to go in the water this year.





And lots of evenings at the playground.





My amazing packrat mother sent us my old Hardy Boys board game, which we can't stop playing.





P keeps crafting and making us all sorts of marvelous things.



T spent Sunday creating an "electricity" machine (yup, I bet you assumed all the stuff in the background was clutter, little did you know it was science (albeit imaginary 5 year old science, but still . . . )



We spent a lot of time going out to lunch and watching World Cup games, even after the US was eliminated.



Last night a rainbow appeared in our backyard.



But most nights end like this.

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE, I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING A GOOD ONE!!

Places to Go - Acting like Tourists on the Double Decker Bus Tour (Washington D.C.)

A few years ago, as a final hurrah to summer vacation, a friend and I took our kids on a hop on/hop off double decker bus tour (you can read about it here). As parking in DC is such a total pain, we had an amazing day seeing the monuments and touring the city. I promised the kids we'd go again sometime, but well, way leads onto way and we never seemed to make it work.

Luckily, this year temps cooled to the mid-80s during the first week (actually it turned out to be only the first day) of summer vacation. So we decided to try it again. Last tour we bought the 24 hour tickets, which made the day seem a little over-full, so this time we spread it across two days with the 48 hour ticket. Also, in the last few years the tour company stepped up its game, as the bus price now includes complimentary tickets to Madame Tussauds and the Crime and Punishment Museum. Tickets for the 48 hour tour cost $59 for and adult and $29 for a child (children under 5 ride free). Click here for more info.

On the upside, this trip the kids LOVED the museums, but the top of the bus proved rather hot and crowded. Plus some buses took FOREVER to come (and when the did arrive, space was limited to standing room only, which is tricky when you're traveling with 2 adults and 7 children). Then they moved a bus stop without notifying the riders (not cool, so not cool). By the end of the 48 hours, we were all pretty sick of buses. Okay, VERY sick of buses. Though still, on a not-too-hot windy day, this really is a beautiful way to see the city.



The kids all had a blast at Madame Tussuauds (tickets are somewhat ridiculously pricey, so if you go try to find a deal).



Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped in at the Smithsonian American Art museum.



We lunched under a tree by the Lincoln Memorial.



Since T has proclaimed the Crime and Punishment museum his favorite place EVER, I probably should give it a good review. But truthfully I found the whole place rather gory and depressing. And it just seems inherently wrong to collect memorabilia of serial killers, thus giving horrible people superstar status. Oh well, on the upside, admission includes a driving game and a shooting game, which made the kids super happy (esp. since the lack of crowds meant that our kids could play over and over). Further, the interactive CSI crime scene investigation exhibit was quite a hit. Click here for more info.