Discovery Kingdom

Last Saturday we cashed in the kids' Read to Succeed tickets they earned from Six Flags and headed for Discovery Kingdom, which is only about a half an hour or less unless you run into traffic, which of course, we did and sat in it for like - ever. None of us had ever been even though Yohn and I have lived here for almost ten years (can you believe it's been that long?). Animals and rides in one place, it's a great combination for kids needless to say.

The dolphin show was the first and best show we went to see. The dolphins were very cute and entertaining with all of their high flying jumps and tricks. I think the kids liked this show the most too.

We saw lots of characters throughout the park and the kids had, repeat had, to have their pictures taken with each and every one.

We did not get to see Oden in Oden's Temple only the other tigers that share space with him. We never really did find out why but the tigers were beautiful to see. Too bad my camera kept focusing on the fence because I took some great shots that got ruined because of it. One of these days I'll learn how to manually focus my camera instead of relying on the autofocus and then I will not whine about moments like this.

One of the tigers "tricks" is to dive for food. The older tiger got tired of doing it by the time he got around to our side of the tank, but when the 11 month old cub came out he seemed very excited to dive for his food.

Shouka is one of the park's main attractions and her show was absolutely packed out. We had this great idea for Yohn to go get us something to eat while the kids and I saved our seats. The show started and no Yohn. Elisha and Bethany spent most of the time watching out for Daddy who stood in line the entire time we were in the show and just barely had gotten our food when the show let out. Too bad, but seriously he didn't miss much. She was beautiful to look at and really soaked the audience (or those daring enough to sit in the very front, of which I was not because of my camera and the fact that it really wasn't that warm out) but the dolphins were more fun to watch.

After getting "showed-out" (meaning we kind of got tired of watching the animal shows) we found the kiddie rides. Bethany was very disappointed to find out that she could not ride all those big rides she saw on the way in because she is too short. I was not because #1) I don't ride roller coasters and #2) I hate those long lines. The only rides I like are the water rides and it was too chilly out for those. Elisha was neither disappointed or excited about missing the big rides so I don't think he really knows how he feels about them. However, he is a lot like me when it comes to these things so only time will tell if he'll be a ride kid or not.

This camel was cracking us up as we (Yohn and I) waited for the kids on the rides. She would not leave this stick alone. One time she dropped it over the fence and couldn't reach it by leaning over the fence. So she laid down and stretched out her neck as far as she could to reach it. Did you notice these are double humped camels. I seriously thought these were not really real. I mean I had seen them on cartoons but had never really seen one or a picture of one in real life so I kind of thought they were made up. Okay, okay, so I don't really know everything!

I love Elisha's face in this picture. This was his reaction the first time the frog "hopped".

The kids really loved this ride, but in Bethany's excitement to see the giraffes (and Yohn's need to use the bathroom) they only rode it once.

Bethany's absolute favorite animals are giraffes so, as you can imagine, we spend quite a bit of time watching them eat and walk around.

This is the park's baby giraffe (I can't remember his name). Did you know that baby giraffes are six feet tall at birth?!

The kids loved this tank where they could watch the dolphins and frankly, I think the dolphins like to be watched. They spin, swim upsidedown, and play a kind of peek a boo thing. Yes, we were here a while.

Yohn and the kids in line for the roller coaster in Bugs Bunny land (or whatever it's real name was).

Comin' around!

Elisha had a blast pretending to be Bugs Bunny. See him pretending to eat a carrot?

This is the one and only picture taken of me the entire time we were at the park. Hmmm.... Is that good or bad?

Apparently Yohn loves Speedy Gonsalez and I never knew it. See you can learn something new about your spouse all the time!

Oh no! Oden's loose and roaming the park! Or maybe it's just Bethany in her new costume.

Elisha had a hard time choosing what "friend" to take home but finally settled on this crocodile puppet. Beware you just might see him in a future posting if Elisha and Bethany's planning to do a puppet show we film comes through.

One last picture before we leave the park. Bugs is definately being himself here, eh?

Two very exhausted children sleep on the way home. You guessed it! They slept very well once we got home.

First Lost Tooth

Okay so it's not technically her first lost tooth because she's had to have a molar pulled because of a cavity BUT this is the first baby tooth that came out the old fashioned way. You know, losts of wiggling and playing with it until finally she can't stand it anymore. The little rascal waited until she was at VBS and then told her teacher (well, the teacher's teen helper) she was tired of it and asked if she could pull it. She apparently thought this was a great suggestion and pulled it. When I met this teen she reminded me a lot of Bethany and was very excited she was the first to pull Bethany's tooth. I knew instantly why they got along so well because Bethany has pulled one of her brother's teeth too and thought it was great.

You can't really see it in the picture but the new one is already growing in behind it. That gap will not be there for long.

Farmer's Market

Every Thursday in Concord is Farmer's Market and they make it an all out thing. They have live music on stage while you shop. Lots of people make it a family event. We like to go with the kids to get fresh fruits and vegetables, get a bite to eat from one of the vendors and let the kids play on the playground for a while. It usually makes for a nice relaxing family night. Contrary to how this looks, I did not take these pictures last night. These are actually from last week since this week the kids are at an evening VBS at a church right next to us.

One vendor had this bee display next to his tent. Can you guess what he was selling? The kids were absolutely fasinated by it. It took a while to get away from there because Bethany wanted to find the queen.


Elisha enjoys some kettle corn. There's nothing like farmer's market popcorn.


The fresh strawberries are alway Bethany's favorite. They sell hugest strawberries here.

Aww... Aren't we all so cute?

I took this picture with you in mind Jackie. See the flag flower bed in the background?

Bethany found a friend from church to play with.

We ended the night with a trip to Half Price books upon Yohn's request. I love books too, but Bethany and Yohn just can't get enough of this store. Bethany could be there for literally hours just sitting and looking (and now reading) the books on the shelves. Her favorite, anything to do with bugs, lizards or any other kind of reptile.

Thursday's Playlist

Okay so as I explore more and venture out more into the blogging world I have learned about blog carnivals so this time I thought I would try one. This one is from a blog called Knowing Norrah. I keep stumbling back upon it, so I thought hey, why not try it out.

My song today is called "Strong" by Audio Adrenaline (click on song title to play it). This song has really been just popping into my head at random times lately, but I love it. I think God has been kind of using it to encourage me. Yes God, "Here I am, I am yours, send me."

Once your done listening pop over to her blog by clicking on the picture above and check out her song for the week. Then maybe if you are ambitious enough you'll join in the fun.

Enjoy!

Crocodile Dock

Every year (well, actually this is Elisha's fourth year and Bethany's second) the kids go to another church for VBS. They absolutely love it and since it was recommended to us a few years ago by friends we thought we'd recommend a few ourselves this year. We (I say we as if I actually did it, but Yohn really did) took five kids this year, which means we dropped them off and rummaged through the crowd to find them at the end and kept track of all their crafts and stuff to pass onto their parents when they got home. The picture above is all five of them after the first day. They all got t-shirts which they wore every single day. They got to specially design the hats.


Since I was "torturing" them with taking pictures, I made it worth their while and let them make a funny face.

The rest of these pictures are on the last day. This church does a lot of stuff for the kids, including making a water slide every year. This year they also made a merry-go-round. It was, of, course a big hit with the kids.


I took these pictures of the water slide just to show how it looked. There's the top, notice the crocodile theme.


Middle, with a jump at the end of the slide.


And end, complete with a shallow pool. Pretty creative, huh?

Looks like fun, huh? I'm so glad we were introduced to this church's VBS program. They really go all out for the kids and my children tell me so much about it every year. They really do make them feel special and they learned so much about Moses and Pharoah and the plagues on Egypt. They kids both had friends they remembered from last year too, so it made it all the better.


On Friday night they have a closing celebration and invite all the parents to come and see all their children's cheers and meet their group leaders and then have dinner afterward. I only got few good pictures because the lighting was terrible, but at least you can tell they had a blast. They've already told me they can't wait until next year.

Here's the kids at the end of the show. See how the background is decorated? That's how the whole sanctuary looked.

Success!

It's official! We have a seven year old who can ride a two wheeler!

Once he got the balance thing down he really struggled with how to get started. He couldn't coordinate pushing off and getting his feet on the petals.

But he got the hang of that too after about twenty minutes or so. I knew he was ready for the two wheeler for a while but he kept freaking out any time I would mention it so I really didn't push it. Plus, I really hadn't had the time to push him. Then when I saw him riding his razor scooter with all the confidence in the world I knew he had the balance and just needed the push. So there he is after only a few tries with me jogging next to him, hand on his back. Once he realized he could do it there was no stopping him. He took off laughing, "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"

Bethany is now extremely jealous and was begging me to take her training wheels off too. I think she'll be a little harder but with her adventurous spirit she will probably pick it up quickly. I just really wasn't ready to try to do both of them tonight.

Isn't her trick just amazing!

I had told Bethany she needed to watch out for her brother because he wasn't used to using the breaks without his training wheels and that he might crash into her. But, of course, Bethany forgot and rode right in front of him. I was trying to take a picture of Elisha and caught the mishap. I wasn't so bad though, he just kind of bumped her.