Jan. 30, 2007

Happy Tuesday, everyone. Today began with a bit of Grandpa-induced confusion. My father wanted to see the stroller class, presumably so he could laugh at me. So this morning he picked Ariel up and met us at the mall.

8:30 Super fun stroller class. Everyone asked where I was. One woman said it was "quiet" without me. I wasn't sure if she meant because I'm loud and obnoxious or I have three boisterous children. Anyway, class was much more fun with Grandpa pushing Ariel and Alex not whining about having to walk (after his drama of not putting on shoes again this morning and it was freezing).

10:30 Went home. I went home a long way so Ariel could fall asleep in the car. But she didn't.

11:00 Home - since Ariel was still awake she had lunch. Mixed veggies and a bit of string cheese.

11:30 Nap.

1:00 Ariel woke up with a big poopy. And since she had such a small lunch, we had a lunch #2 - yogurt. She turned down the mac & cheese.

Then I decided to put Ariel hair in a bow. It took a bit of hair gel and took longer than it takes to style me own hair, but we did it:





Alex had a blue birthday sucker after lunch. I shudder to think what must be in those things:



Crissy asked how much snow we still have. We have this much:



We haven't seen the front yard since mid-December. Bah.

And then I messed around with my speedlight flash.

I tried to get Ariel to model, but she didn't think that was fun.



So then Adam posed:

Here's no flash at all:



And then the camera's on-board flash:



The speedlite pointed at Adam:



And then the speedlite bounced off the wall behind me. In theory I'd like to do a lot of bouncing, it's the closest to natural light that you can get with a flash:



4:30 Pick up.

Jan. 29, 2007

Happy Monday, everyone. I think I'm am recovered from a weekend of birthday parties. We had Alex's family party Saturday night and his preschool party Sunday afternoon. It was busy, tiring and fun. I have pictures here.

Ariel was a bit tired for Alex's party, but enjoyed it non the less. Here she is pushing a car around and around and around, and then a mild temper tantrum when it got stuck. She certainly throws better ones, but you can see what a big faker she is.



7:06 Drop off - Breakfast was mushed blueberries and apples and half a piece of toast (yes, we are out of waffles).

8:30 Super fun trip to the post office, then the grocery store. Ariel loved riding in the car cart with Adam. And Adam wanted a cookie so I gave them both one, but Ariel only ate half before dropping hers. Then they both held a big box of cereal. That would have been a good photo-op, but alas I did not have a camera.

9:45 Got home. Put Ariel down for a nap. Adam and I watched Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wererabbit while I folded laundry and knit (not at the same time. I'm good, but not that good).

12:00 Ariel woke up, had some lunch. Sweet potatoes and quesadilla.

12:30 Left to pick Alex up from preschool.

1:00 Pick up

1:30 Got home. I started dinner, chipolte black bean soup. I was actually using dried beans, hence the reason for such an early start. It's fun to have food!

Ariel found balloon from Alex's party:



She didn't pop it, but it would have been funny if she did. Well, funny to me.



2:30 Snack - frosted mini wheats. They were a hit, but holy cow did Ariel make a mess!

3:00 Put Ariel down for a nap. I'm not sure if she ever slept, but she was very quiet.

4:00 Got Ariel out of the crib.

4:20 Pick up.

Jan. 26, 2007

7:00 Drop off. Yes, I was showered, dressed and make-upped. I must have been feeling extra refreshed from falling asleep on the couch at 7:30pm. I did wake up at midnight for a little Adam bathroom drama, but other than that I had nearly 11 hours of sleep. Maybe I have mono?

7:15 Breakfast, apples and cherries and waffles.

8:40 Left to take Alex to preschool.

9:00 Dropped Alex off. Then Adam and Ariel and I hung out a bit waiting for the toddler class to start.

9:30 PALS class. You may remember that Adam did this class a year ago. I didn't sign him up last semester because I didn't like the teacher. It was a new teacher this class, so we signed up again. And I told the preschool director that I would have Ariel too, and she said that was fine, so I'm hoping this will be a bit of a two-fer. Adam was the oldest this time, because he is old enough for regular preschool (but they didn't have the space). Ariel was a bit young. She threw a huge tantrum because I wouldn't let her eat playdough. Then she sat and eat a quesadilla for a bit before getting in the big kid's way again.

Every time I mingle with the preschool moms I feel out of my league. Today two moms were talking about one's impending birth and whether or not she would get a baby nurse in addition to the au pair she already had lined up. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE???

11:00 After class we drove to a restaurant to celebrate one of the mom's birthdays. On the way over, Ariel fell asleep in the car. I took her in and she was still asleep, so I put her on the floor. There she stayed, the entire lunch:



And today I learned how this group of preschool moms divides up the check. Everyone there but me had a fancy coffee and/or a kids meal. Adam and I just shared my spinach/sun dried-tomato omlet. They split the check evenly, so my $6.50 lunch turned out to be $16.00. If there is a next time, I'll have to at least get coffee, it would cost be about $.25.

12:30 Left the restaurant to got back to preschool for Shabbat sing.

1:00 Left preschool.

1:50 After driving a bit out of my way to get Adam asleep, we got home. Adam transfers to the couch:



Ariel had lunch, sweet potatoes, yogurt and Might Bites.

3:30 Adam woke up, the boys watched a movie. Then Adam had to poop. I found him in the bathroom, reading this Scholastic flyer upside down:



3:45 I tried putting Ariel down for a nap, but she didn't wanna.

4:10 We went to liquor store to get wine, then to Wild Oats to get salmon. While there, I checked if they had Shabbat candles and they looked at me like I had two heads. So I called Jeremy to pick some up because I couldn't do a third trip with three kids. Maybe if I had an au pair...

5:00 Got home, made dinner.

5:45 Dinner. Ariel had string cheese and challah (her third challah today, one in PALS and another weird one at Shabbat sing that had blueberries, strawberries and bananas). She didn't touch the green beans or salmon.



6:10 Ariel and Adam took a soak and play bath:



6:45 Dried off, jammies on, tucked into bed.

7:00 Becky and Carl pick up. If you are wondering why Ariel was here an extra 3 hours today, it was so Becky and Carl to could celebrate their joint anniversary with my parents.

Jan. 25, 2007

And the winter dulldrums have fully set in. Blah.

7:00 Ariel arrived. I was not dressed. Blah.

7:15 Breakfast - apples and blueberry mush and waffles.

8:30 Nap. I did not go to stroller class, partly because I was feeling tired from not eating much the last 5 days, and partly because I found a new devilish puzzle in the paper - Kakuro. Somewhat like Sudoku in that it involves numbers, but way harder. I got half wrong, but I couldn't figure out where to back up to.

10:00 I took Alex's 5 year pictures.

Here Alex is with his new Bionicle. Yes, we have entered the world of Bionicles, or as Alex calls them, "scary fish." Jeremy and Alex have been looking at these on the website for a month and Jeremy got one for Alex for his birthday, plus one for himself and Adam. They put them together last night (for those not in the know, they are Lego robots). Today Alex took apart his and Jeremy's completely and then put them back together (which I thought was impressive, since the age level is 7-16. Speaking of, what sort of 16 year old demographic would still be playing with these???). With a little help with me, but only to help him find the itty-bitty pieces spread around the house. Bionicles and Ariel will probably not turn out to be a good thing.



Alex has also hit the age where he has forgotten how to smile. If I ask him to, he sucks his lips in and grimaces. I was trying to get him to relax and look at me, so I grabbed Pritak (the scary fish) and put him on top of my camera.



Somewhat natural:





And I really want a picture of them together. I haven't gotten one in a year. And this one is almost decent, but I screwed up the exposure and their faces are too hot. But the matching sweaters are nice, eh?



10:30 Ariel woke up.

11:30 Lunch - mixed veggie mush and quesadillas.

Get a load of the outfit Ariel had on today, and tell me she's not already a fashionista.



Leopard print pants AND poodle boots. Oh my.

And another Ariel story - when she's here I try to keep Alex's door shut because that's where all the tiny toys are. But every once and a while Alex or Adam leaves it open and she gets in there. And as soon I come in the room Ariel starts scooting away from me as fast as she can. And when I get her, oh the tantrum. She is mad. Today I put her down in the hallways and she threw herself backward and luckily her head hit my foot instead of the hardwood floor. I walked down the hall and as soon as she couldn't see me the screaming instantly cut off. Little drama queen.

2:00 Ariel went down for a nap.

3:00 Ariel went home.

And notice I never mentioned showering or getting dressed. I didn't. Lacking motivation today. But I did get some graphics stuff done, so it's not like I was in a coma or anything.

And Dad, we watched the first episode of 24 season 6. How Jack escaped the torture chair - uh, over the top gruesome. YUCK!

Jan. 23, 2007

7:00 Drop off. I was not dressed, make-upped or even awake (and it was not Jeremy's fault). Adam woke up at 4:30am again, rather unpleasantly.

7:10 Breakfast - mushed apples and cherries and waffles. And no, I did not go to the store, but Jeremy stopped by last night and got Ariel food. Thanks Jay-Jay!

8:30 Ariel took a nap.

And I'm going to play the sick card today. I still have no appetite (I had a few handfuls of Mighty Bites for dinner last night) and I really had no interest in stroller class. So I did nothing.

9:30 Tired of doing nothing, I took Adam's cupid pictures. I wanted to get something Raffaello like this:



But Adam does not take direction well, so this was as close as I got.



I also got









10:30 Ariel woke up

11:00 Lunch - sweet potatoes, yogurt and some fresh waffle I made for my breakfast.

12:30 I put Ariel down for a nap. I encouraged sweet Adam to nap but he would have none of that. Finally I took a shower.

2:00 Ariel woke up, er rather was awaken by Adam's piercing screams, so we did some errands. First, we went to the dentist office to buy some ritzy mouthwash that I was out of. And I found out it was $25 a bottle. I never knew that, it was always included in my bill. I think I use 2-3 bottles a year. But my gums are happy so I guess that's what needs to happen. And the dental receptionist was looking at Ariel funny, so I asked her if she like the hat. She said, "It's a little outside my level of comfort." I guess that's a no. Oh, and we also got two "free" kids toothbrushes so don't worry, Grammie.

Next, we went to the bank. I deposited all my found money. For the record, to date I have found $79.48, a $5 peso, 2 RTD coins of undetermined value, and $.06 in interest. Hot Dog!

On the way home, we drove by Crissy's old house. Yes, Crissy, your dresser and basketball hoop are still on the front porch, but the boxes are gone.

4:00 Got home, Adam was sleeping. Alex and I made cupcakes for his birthday at preschool tomorrow.

4:30 Pick up.

Jan. 22, 2007

6:50 Drop off. TOO early. Bah.

7:15 After I got dressed, finished my make-up, made the bed and put in a load of laundry, Ariel had breakfast. Mixed veggies (yes, I still haven't been to the store) and waffles.

8:30 Ariel took a nap.

10:00 When Ariel woke up, we played with some new props I had just gotten.





Isn't Ariel the cutest cupid ever? And this photo session was a learning experience for me. One, I learned that Ariel has a very difficult time butt scootching on plexi-glass, so I didn't have to chase her around as much. And two, when Ariel pees on plexi-glass, it turns into a slip & slide. I may try this session again after I wash my backdrop.

11:00 Ariel and I left for our Adventure of the Day - driving to South Denver to pick up the boys.

12:10 Met Grammie and the boys at mall. Grammie went home, the rest of us went to the mall for lunch.

12:45 Lunch - I bought a tuna sub from Subway and the boys asked for pizza. But it was a different brand of pizza so Alex wouldn't eat it. I let him "trade" his pizza for Ariel's bag of Mighty Bites cereal. So Ariel had mushed carrots, yogurt and 3/4 of a slice of pizza. I think she might have eaten more but I cut her off because I didn't know where she was putting it all.

1:30 We stopped by Picture People to see if we could do a session. Yes, I'm a photographer, but I have a coupon for a free 8x10 and I'm having a hard time getting one of the boys together so I thought I'd let some one else try. But their earliest appointment was at 3:00 so we passed. Alex and Adam got ice cream instead.

2:00 Left the mall. And I just realized I forgot to share some very exciting news. My found money hobby had an electrifying turn this weekend when I found 10,000 yen in the supermarket.





Jeremy and I looked up the exchange rate in his Economist and saw it was 120 yen/dollar so we thought I found about $84. Pretty exciting, eh?

Unfortunately, I do not know of any American businesses that take yen, so I had to exchange the bill for some dollars. After leaving the mall, we stopped at the first bank we found. Alex had to poop, so we had to use the bathrooms first, then we checked in with the lobby and were told that they do not exchange foreign currency. We were directed to another bank about 5 miles away.

After a bit of getting lost, I found the second bank. And I learned something fascinating - there is a market exchange rate and a retail exchange rate (which is a sneaky way to charge you a bigger fee without saying that's what they are doing). And the retail exchange rate of a yen today was 133 yen/dollar. Which means that after my exchanging fee, I found $70.25. I believe that takes my found money account to around $83. Which means either 25 cups of Starbucks or a pedicure and 10 cups of Starbucks. Or something else equally fun and frivolous.

4:00 We got home. Everyone fell asleep on the drive home, and then Adam and Alex came inside and fell asleep on the couch. Ariel played quietly by herself with Jeremy's mouse and other assorted computer cables.

4:30 Pick up.

PS - Ariel pooped a lot today. Too many times to keep track.

Jan. 18, 2007

So here it is Sunday night and I'm doing Friday's blogging. But I have a good excuse - Friday was extremely busy and I didn't have a chance to do blogging. So a summary of our sorta-fabulous weekend... I guess the story begins Thursday evening when Alex puked all over his bed. Jeremy used his puke-superpowers and cleaned it up so I didn't have to deal with much of it, but it did put a damper on our weekend plans (to be explained in a minute). But Alex woke up fine on Friday so we went ahead with everything...

7:00 Drop off. First, we waved good-bye to Jeremy and his new-to-him 2002 Honda Civic Si. I asked him to pose like a high school student, acting macho and leaning on his car, but this is what I got:



7:10 I made Ariel a new hat. I really wonder if it crossed some line between cute and ridiculous. It is a very silly hat.



7:15 Miss Ariel had breakfast - squash (I was out of fruit, but this seems to bother me more than her) and waffles.

8:30 We left for our adventure of the day, helping with Alex's preschool's field trip to the dinosaur museum (see why I didn't want Alex to be sick?)

9:00 Got to preschool. All the moms gushed over Ariel's hat and were amazed that I made it. Question, did they say nice things because the hat just begs some conversation?

9:30 Left for the dino museum. I had to relive my recurring dream of going back to college but not being able to find my classes. The museum was on campus but I apparently didn't hang out there so I wasn't sure what building it was in. Luckily the teachers knew and we found it.

10:00 Dino museum tour. Much fun! I wasn't expecting much for a college museum but they had a section of dino bones and some grad students did a very nice presentation for the kids. I loved how Adam just jumped in with the class and sat on a teacher's lap and had a great time. And Ariel amused everyone by scooting around in her silly hat.

11:00 My favorite part of the day, going to the UMC student center for lunch. On the walk over, every female student looked at Ariel's hat and many made comment on its cuteness. Ariel totally got into it and was waving at everyone. It was like I was pushing a baby Paris Hilton through campus.

11:30 Lunch at the UMC. Those poor college kids just didn't know what hit them. But our kids did great and even sang their Hebrew blessing over the bread. Ariel ate more than the boys, she had mushed mixed veggies, yogurt and a bagel. While still wearing her hat:



12:00 We got back to preschool. I had intended to stay at preschool so we could go to Shabbat sing, but Ariel fell asleep in the car and the sing wasn't until 12:30 so we ran some errands. First, I went to the bank. Then I dropped off the open enrollment form for both boys to get into Montessori school. Cause today was the deadline and everything and I'm so on top of these things.

12:50 We got back a little late for sing, but I was happy to have gotten those errands done.

1:00 Left school.

1:20 Got home. I had to hurry up and pack because Super Grammie was picking the boys up for the weekend (yet another reason I didn't want Alex to be sick).

1:30 Grammie got to our house. She entertained all three kids while I finished their packing.

2:00 The boys left, I put Ariel down for a nap and started on my packing - for a fun-filled-kidless weekend snowboarding.

2:45 Ariel did not want to nap so I got her up. This packing thing was taking a while because I had to clean up the house too.

4:00 Ariel went home, but the fun didn't stop...

And the rest of our weekend fun - Friday night I puked. NOT FUN. Saturday (after I no longer felt like death warmed over) we sat in front of the TV ALL DAY. We watched 2 episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 2 episodes of What Not to Wear, 1 Alias, 2 Prison breaks and lots of random things on the history channel and even some ski-cross and snowboarding (wah, what we weren't doing). By the end of the day I was able to keep some oatmeal and toast down.

And Sunday I felt well enough to go snowboarding. We chose Loveland since it would be on the way home. And we were hardcore. It was cold. Before we even started I bought hand warmers. After 3 runs we came inside to warm up and I realized my feet were starting to get frost bite. It brought back memories of another day at Loveland 20 years ago when I ended up in the ski shop under the jacket racks crying because my hands hurt so much. Once the blood got back to my toes it REALLY hurt for a bit (and I swear I didn't cry this time), then I was fine. And I sent Jeremy to buy me some toe warmers too (which, Crissy, I didn't buy in the first place because I didn't think they would fit in my already too small boots). But yes, they fit and we went out for another couple of hours. It never got warmer and it was was snowing all day which I dislike because the light is flat and it's hard to see the terrain. But we did have fun, then we (the we that is Jeremy) got to drive 2 1/2 hours to get home (it should have taken 75 minutes).

And, because of the newest snow (are we calling this one snowstorm #5?) the boys are marooned at Grammie's and won't be home until tomorrow. Which is kinda exciting because I don't think we've had the house to ourselves since Alex was born. We've already started off the party by having canned soup for dinner and reading the paper. Party animals, I tell ya.

Jan. 17, 2007

Today was... challenging. Yes, challenging will work. I first got up at 4:50am, when Adam decided it was time to eat waffles. Both Jeremy and I tried to keep him in bed, but to no avail. I think around 5:15 Jeremy finally got up with him. I went back to sleep until 6:40.

7:00 Drop off. I had not quit finished my primping so I still had no make up and wet hair.

7:10 Breakfast - apple/cherry mush and a mini bagel.

8:15 I loaded all three kids up to take Alex to school. I needed to visit a Kindergarten today and no children were allowed and I had no one to watch the kids so Jeremy had to stay home from work in the morning. He can work from home though, so we gave him some quiet by all going to Alex's school.

8:45 I got home with two sleeping children. And I realized that I had forgotten my purse on the first trip but when I went to grab it, it was not there. Closer inspection showed that I HAD NO IDEA where my purse was. Which was not a good feeling.

9:00 Kindergarten visit. We are interested in a Montessori program. The school looked very nice, and they have a preschool program too so Adam could start there in the fall too. If we can get in.

10:00 On the way home, I stopped by the grocery store to see if I left my purse there. I was really hoping I hadn't, because that's were I left my purse last time I lost it and by the time they found it two weeks later, we had already canceled all credit cards, bank accounts and I had gotten a new cell phone. And no, the grocery store did not have it.

10:15 Got home, Jeremy and the kids were alive. Ariel had slept most of the time anyway. I tried calling my cell phone and still couldn't find my purse.

10:30 Called Crissy. While I was talking to her, I remembered where my purse was! I forgot I had gone to knitting group last night and left the purse in my knitting bag. Of course!!! (and my phone wasn't ringing because the battery was dead. Good thing my head is screwed on, right?)

11:00 Lunch - Ariel had squashed squash and another mini bagel.

11:20 Jeremy called from the car dealership. Yes, Jeremy bought a "new" car today. He traded in his POS (yes, it is one. It hasn't started in nearly a week. Jeremy thinks it's the ignition starter, which when out a few years ago and was difficult to find and cost $200 used) 1987 pick up for a Civic SI hatchback. I believe it's a 2004, which would make it 13 years newer than any other car that he's ever owned. And the best part? It runs! And the whole family can ride in it. Anyway, he needed me to find the title to his truck and bring it to him at the dealership.

12:00 We dropped off the title, then we went to Michael's. We found lots of stuff for Alex's party, like a helium tank for balloons, space stickers and "space" rocks. Also at Michael's my left contact popped out. I was going to put it back in, but then it fell on the floor. Twice. So then I threw it away and wandered around with only one contact in, which made me slightly dizzy.

1:00 Went to pick up Alex.

1:30 Stopped by Whole Foods on the way home to buy the ever important waffles.

2:15 Finally got home (and put in a new contact). The boys showed a surprising amount of corporation and put together a puzzle together.



And Ariel was a vision in pink:



2:30 Ariel went down for a nap.

3:30 Ariel woke up. Probably when the Alex took something Adam was playing with and Adm was running screaming after Alex.

4:15 We had a nail clipping party. Except for Alex, who told me his nails don't grow.

4:30 Pick up

5:30 Ok, I really need to cook dinner. But I was playing some more with this picture, isn't Ariel looking beautiful today?

Jan. 16, 2007

7:00 Drop off. And no I WAS NOT IN MY JAMMIES. Seriously, they were my workout clothes and I had gotten dressed, washed my face and put in my contacts. I was not slacking today.

7:15 Breakfast - apple/cherry mush and waffles

7:50 We left a little early for the mall today so we could drop Jeremy off near the car dealership. Jeremy is interested in getting a car than runs when it's colder than 30 deg. We are all interested in such a car.

8:35 I got to the mall a little late only to find out that the instructor had canceled class. I had specifically checked my email before leaving and there was nothing at 7:45. 7 of us showed up, so we did our own little workout. It wasn't as hard as it normally was and no one wanted to think to much or be the leader, but we did do something.

10:00 We first stopped by Hannah Anderson to look for cute clearance knitted hats for my photography. I found one I liked, but it was $12 and not as cheap as I wanted. Then we stopped at Old Navy and found 4 on clearance - $.98 each. Can't make one for that, that's for sure. I got that and a pair of 5T pants for next year and matching sweaters for the boys next year.

And when I was paying for my Old Navy purchases, I realized I did not have my credit card. Which was a bit disturbing, to say the least.

11:15 On the way home, we stopped at a gas station that we had seen while driving Jeremy. Gas for $1.99!!! Can you believe it??? The only problem was there was a tanker filling up the wells. Which led to a huge conflict for me. My wise father taught me to always get the cheapest gas, never to go to Texaco and to never get gas while they are filling up because it stirs up crap that had filtered to the bottom. So what to do? I needed gas, the other stations are at $2.15... Such a dilemma. I got the nasty cheap gas, we were already there. Dad, did I pass the WWDD test?

11:30 Got home, Ariel had fallen asleep and transfered to the crib. And I also had a message from the Photo Store that I had left my credit card there last night. *whew*

1:00 Wake up, had mushed carrots and mac & cheese for lunch.

And here are the old Navy hats:

I took Adam's picture first and decided that the pompons had to go:








2:30 Ariel went down for another nap. I think she has an ear infection. She was moaning in her sleep. Very pitiful. I'm going to look into some homeopathic olive oil drops for her. I didn't give her any pain medication Becky, so you could dose her when you wanted.

Hey look, here's Ariel in black and white:



4:35 Pick up. And I left the last poopy for Becky to change. Oh, I guess I forgot to say that Ariel had 3 instances of hard pebble poops today. Great for flicking in the potty, not so much fun for Ariel.

Jan. 15, 2007

Happy Monday everyone. We had a relaxed weekend. On Saturday we took the boys to the museum to see Blue Planet on IMAX. We also looked at their space odyssey exhibit (again for Alex) and the dinosaurs). Then Adam puked all over his bed Saturday night (and super daddy came to the rescue) so we ditched our swimming plans on Sunday. But it turns out Adam had just found an old cup of milk in his bed and he is fine.

7:00 Drop off. And for the record, Jeremy did wake me up at 6:30 but I forgot to get up. So I was in my jammies.

7:15 Breakfast - apricot mush and waffles.

8:30 Nap. And I finally showered.

9:30 Wake up. I was very excited to try out the new tutu I made this weekend. What do you think? It was no-sew, just tying length of tulle to an elastic waist, but it still took all of Talledaga Nights (not recommended) to finish it.











10:00 Changed a poopy - Ariel seems very constipated :(

11:00 Quick snack/lunch. Ariel had green mush and cheerios.

11:30 Finally ready for our adventure of the day - the Stockshow. Now, I've lived in Colorado for 32 years, and have never been to the Stockshow. I thought it might be fun to check out. I also managed to rope Grandpa into coming (and he's 62 and has never been either).

12:15 Get to Stockshow. Grandpa is shocked at the $10 parking. Quote - "What is this, California?"

12:30 While waiting in line, a man gives us free admission tickets, saving us $24. I think that more than makes up for the $10 parking.

1:00 We wander aimlessly around the giant complex grounds trying to find the Super Dogs venue.

1:30 After going through 3 building and asking at least that many people for directions, we found the Super Dogs, only to learn that the show was sold out. Much despair all around, especially for Alex.

1:45 After much more wandering, we find the petting zoo. Alex refuses, saying that the animals stink too much. Adam was game though:

Adam's version of the petting zoo was quietly giving each animal a gentle pat on the rump. Ariel was in the sling (she was in the sling all day while Grandpa pushed Adam in the stroller) and she liked looking at the animals.



This mama-goat being sat on by a baby goat reminded me of my life:



Grandpa and Ariel:



Anyway, the Stockshow was very boring. Though we did see the cleanest cows EVER, that was worth something. Next year we will have to buy our Super Dog tickets in advanced, or maybe even see the rodeo (yes dad, I know you will not be joining us for a rodeo).

3:00 Dropped Grandpa off at home, and since everyone was awake we came in for a snack. Ariel had a piece of toast, yogurt and some oj flavored water.

3:55 Left for home.

4:20 Got home just as Becky was arriving to pick Ariel up.