Visiting NW trek

Today we went to NW Trek with Sean and Dakota (it's spring break, which is why Dakota is not in school). NW Trek is a wildlife preserve that includes a free-roaming area that you can take a tram ride through. It was a fabulous sunny day, and warm enough to not need a sweater, though we took ours along. We saw tons of animals--actually, quite literally tons of animals--when you consider how heavy bison are!
Anyway, here are pics of the day. Unfortunately Bryan had to work, so he missed out and we missed him! Also, thanks to Sean who has a family membership to the park, we did not have to buy tickets. It was great fun! Oh, and thanks Sean for providing our lunch as well, and also for the donuts, etc. . .

Walking to the entrance from the parking lot.
Note that Cea is carrying her backpack--Way to go Cea!
Coda, Cea and Moose
2 Owls--can you see them?
Pointing out the owls to Cea
Walking on the path to get to the tram
A Moose also walking to where we meet the tram. (It is a SHE moose)
Waiting for the Tram
Dakota gets a turn carrying the pink backpack--thanks Dakota!
Porsche, Casper, and Cea on the tram
As you will notice, we got a lot of "bum shots". These are goats.
Sean is wearing an appropriate shirt! Such fashion sense!!
Casper peaking about
More goat bums!
There are actually deer in this pic
Umm, what you want to see is behind the tree--so just look behind the tree
Dakota, Sean, and Casper
more goats--It took 5 pics before I got one NOT of their bums! sigh
Casper and Sean and lots of giggles
Dakota--he was actually quite good at spotting things!
Bison
"Hello, Bison!"
As you can see they were rather close to the tram. They are huge!--of course I knew this from the many trips we took as a family to N Dakota.
This one was outside our side of the tram--it was quite close! We kept all body parts inside the tram--though Cea tested that rule a bit!
There were a lot of antlers laying around on the ground
Elk
Another tram down the hill from us
some unhappy souls.
An elk
a bunch of bums
a herd
Again, if you peak around the tree you will see what I was trying to take a picture of.
A trumpeter swan. It and several others are permanently disabled and stay year round on the lake.
a melt down and a dirty diaper
Happiness. I think her favorite was this area, where she climbed around on the posts.
balancing carefully on the posts

Keeping busy

More balancing
The boys: Sean, Casper, Dakota
Ahhhhh
The girls: Porsche and Mircea
The remains of a donut with chocolate frosting and sprinkles
Dakota watching the donut making machines/process. (It was cool!)
Yum, donuts--what a great tradition: go to NW Trek, and then eat donuts!

Introducing: Nemo, Marlin, Dorie, Rey, Cody, Tom and Rebel

As you can see, we have now named the fish--well, Cea has named the fish. And we did get a frog--see we are just full of excitement and surprises in our household. The frogs name is Rebel. I don't know which fish is exactly named one of the above names--so just pick a fish and give it one of the above 6 names. If the next time you see that fish and you call it something else, I won't be offended! grin--and since Cea can't tell them apart either, she won't know the difference!
Now, I am sure you all want to know the history behind all the names that Cea picked for the fish. . . So here goes. . . Nemo, Marlin and Dorie are pretty self-explanatory--they are from the movie NEMO--and for those who have not see the movie--all 3 are fish. Rey, is who Bry carpools to work with (it is also the name of one of Cea's invisible friends--I will blog about them later--hmmm it will be interesting trying to take a picture of her invisible friends; I will have to think hard how to do that!). Cody is the name of a boy who was in a Barney movie; Cea fell in love with him. Tom is after Tom Sawyer, and Rebel is after Tom Sawyers pet frog Rebel--from a story.
You have just met our new family members--or should I say--surviving family members; and since they are all looking over my shoulder as I blog (I am sitting next to the tank) they all say, "Nice to meet you!"

Sorry, all I could get was a belly shot; but here is Rebel.

Feel free to count them--see, I told you there were 6!!!

Paper bag puppets (we did a few days ago)

My older sister showed me a box she had bought for Samantha. Inside the box are several art projects for kids to do. They are VERY cool art projects, and are definitely awesome for the inartistic parent--which I am. So, I bought one for our household.
The following are 2 paper bag puppets that Mircea made. One is an elephant and the other is a lion. The parts were all punch out, and then you glue them on the paper bag, and then you add stickers (spots) as decoration. We chatted about what each part was, and then Mircea did the gluing and the sticking (sometimes I helped with the gluing, but she always did the sticking!) As you can see, the end result was fun! She liked to put the puppet on her hand and then say, "look mom, it's yawning like this, AAAAAHH."

The Fish, Bryan's trip to Canada, Learning to count

I am sure there are underwater candle light vigils being held right now across the country--maybe even all around the world; and that there are a lot of people out there on pins and needles, checking my blog every few minutes, just wondering how are those fish doing? OR, I wonder how many fish they have today? OR, did Bryan ever read Porsche's blog? OR, did Porsche sneak to Petco and buy more fish? OR, My blood pressure is rising, I can't stand the suspense! OR, How was Bryan's trip to Canada? OR, Does Cea even know that her parents are stressed about the fish? OR, ?????? . . .

Well, feel free to blow out your candles, please dry your eyes; the fish (the original 4 fish) are doing great!

Of course, a while after Bry got home, they started to not look so good--so we began to figure our fish had allergies!--they must be allergic to Bryan.
We went to Petco and bought some ammonia and water PH tester things, and some live plants to put in the tank. After putting Mircea to bed last night (she slept in the cart at Petco), we planted the plants and tested the water.
The water is fine, the fish love the plants, and the fish are swimming like they should. And Mircea and Bryan are right now at the store buying 2 more fish and another plant. (Personally, I am hoping they come back with a frog too--I mean how cool would that be!)
Now why are they buying 2 more fish? Because Bryan thinks it is really cute when Cea holds up 6 fingers to show how many fish she has. Sometimes she hold up one hand with 5 fingers and 1 finger from the other hand; other times she holds up four fingers with one hand and 2 fingers with another. I know many of you are probably thinking--Wow! Their child is a genius! Well, we very modestly agree! :)

As for Bryan's trip to Canada. . . He went with several other of his co-workers to go watch a hockey game. It is an annual trip that has gone on for several years now with his company. Anyway, he said while it was a fun time, he was mostly stressed/worried the whole trip thinking about the fish! GRIN!

I say, You should all get some fish too!--It is great DRAMA! Such an adventure! AND, they don't shed! (Of course the fish I did see Mircea flush--fish #2, she did kiss on the lips before she flushed it. That totally grossed me out!!!!!)

Anyway, I do believe my Fish Saga, should mostly be over! Hopefully all other posts about Fish will consist of boring information instead of a countdown! We appreciate every ones thoughts and concern for us during these past few "dark" days.

Coming home from the birthday lunch--what happened at Grandma's??

Again, this is a posting regarding something that happened last week or the week before--I disremember.

Beth, our neighbor Kirstin (who lived next door to us all our lives) and myself finally went out to lunch to celebrate our birthdays (all in January). So we were a couple months behind schedule--but then again, it is never too late to party! We had a nice lunch of WAY too much food at the Black Diamond Bakery. Mom was nice enough to babysit, Joe, Danny, and Mircea. (Casper slept through the lunch party until the very end.)

Kirstin holding Casper

Well, we drove back to my parents house. and saw the following in the driveway. As Kirstin said, "A lot of excitement has happened while we were gone! It looks like there was a head on collision, and then a tow truck was called."

The Head-On Collision!
Ouch my neck hurts! I sure hope Grandpa and Grandma have insurance!!

Another car being towed--probably double parked
Thank goodness we have AAA
(You have to look carefully--the red scooter is pulling the yellow vehicle)
With all the vehicles around it must be rush hour!

Later that day we were relieved to see everything working just fine.
This is the best vehicle, cuz one can drive and one can sit in the bed of the truck. There are a lot fewer fights over this truck than there are over the pink car we have that fits 1 kid.