Trip to the Phoenix Zoo

One of my favorite places to visit is the zoo. I really like to visit zoo's in other cities when we travel. The best so far was the San Diego zoo but I also like the Phoenix Zoo. They have done a wonderful job blending in the habitats so you don't see to much cage.

For example, I am standing right next to this sleeping bear. I did not use the zoom, I really could reach out and pet it. The only thing separating me and the bear was some bamboo. At first I thought it was real but it was actually steal bars painted to look like bamboo. Very cool

However, in other habitats, where the animal would escape if there isn't a cage, I was happy to know they fully caged them in. Like this jaguar.

At this zoo there are some randomly placed items that have nothing to do with the zoo but make you feel like you are in whatever part of the world the animals are from. It really adds to the experience if your surroundings are the replication of a jungle when you are seeing animals who live in the jungle.

One of these places is set up as if explorers had been living there. Heidi found this butterfly in one a drawer and took a picture.

A dream for me would be to visit the Galapagos Islands and see a Galapagos Tortuous in the wild. Until that happens, the one at the zoo will have to do. We don’t have these at the Como Zoo in St. Paul because it’s way to cold here most of the year.

I love this picture because it reminds me of what I was thinking when we approached this habitat. I thought, Oh, that's a nice little dessert area. I wonder if anything is supposed to live in it...
Well, something does live in there. It's the Rhinoceros Iguana. Do you see it? It's huge and has a horn on its head. It's on the log in the middle of the picture.

Of course we have to spend time with the Orangutans!! They spent a lot of time swinging around and having a great time. It was fun to watch but there were a lot of people watching and it was crowded.

This lion is another example of how close you really are to the animals.

We walked up to the lion from a side path. The male lion was standing on top of a hill watching us approach.

Shawn says “I think that Lion is staring me down.” And I said “sure looks like it!” We kept walking towards the lion when Shawn stepped to the side a little and the lion broke its gaze.

Turns out it was staring him down or sizing him up for that matter! It was crazy! I guess the lion thought that we were sneaking up on him.

It was not scary because we know that the lion is in a cage and cannot get out. But remember how I was saying that sometime it looks like they are not in cages? This was one of those times. And after I told the story a few times Heidi told me she did not want to go back to that zoo. I guess to a 4-year old it looks like the lion can get out.

I was only able to get a picture of the female. She paced the entire time we stood there. The male was around the corner laying down after his excitement of wanting to eat Shawn.

Heidi rode the carrousel a three times. Each time she rode a different animal. This may have been her favorite part of the zoo. We found a carrousel in the mall when we were picking up lunch before heading to the airport. She rode that one also.

This is just a cute picture of Heidi, Pinky, and Moose riding a giraffe.

We had such a good time at the zoo. I hope to see many, many more!

If you want to see more pictures from our trip to the zoo check them out on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnkaraandheidi/sets/72157621230971782/

Swimming in Arizona

I am finally getting around to uploading our Arizona pictures onto Flickr and posting them on our site. Sorry for the delay, I know some of you have been waiting for these!

We spent a week in Mesa with Grandma Sibben in March. We had such a wonderful time! It's so easy for us to vacation with Grandma.

We spent at least an hour in the pool every day. We love to swim as a family and will find a pool a few times a month all year round but this was a special treat because we got to swim out in the sun in March (not something you can do in Minnesota!!)

Kids swimming does not start until 11 am. Heidi was trying so hard to wait for the clock to strike 11! She picked a flower and put it in her hair. What a beautiful girl!

Heidi loves to be tossed around, on land or in the water. Here Shawn is tossing her to me. She would do this all day but mom and dad are always tired before she is ready to be done.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Thanks to Pam for taking the picture!! It really shows how happy we were to be together as a family on vacation.

Heidi is a fish. I was like this as a kid too. She has been in swimming lessons on and off since she was 12 months. She has completed 5 sessions and will be in level 2 when she goes back this fall. In this picture she is swimming across the pool. She had gotten even better since this was taken in March.

The bottoms on Heidi's swim suit wore out so we went to Target and picked up two new suits for Heidi and one for Shawn. I like to have Heidi wear swim shirts since she gets cold easy at the in door pools and it helps to keep the sun off when we are outside. Here is one of the new suits.

Oh, and that's her tatoo. We went out to dinner and they had tatoos in a machine. Heidi LOVES tatoos! She wanted this on her thigh. It was a riot because it's a huge dragon. You can see it in some of the pictures throughout the trip but the spray suntan lotion takes it off pretty quickly.

If you want to see the rest of the swimming pictures check them out on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnkaraandheidi/sets/72157621106103361/

I do believe I have been tricked…

Right now Heidi has two frogs that turned out to be toads in an old fish tank in her room. She loves telling people that she has frogs (toads). She loves that they are named Froggy and Sara. She loves going to Petco (it’s where the pets go!) to buy food. She really loves the idea of her own pets.

The problem is that Shawn and I are the ones taking care of the frogs (toads). Last night we told her that the frogs (toads) are done on their vacation and are ready to return home. They liked staying with her but they need to go home and see their families.

We will be camping at the swamp this weekend and will be returning the frogs (toads) to their pond. We told her she could visit them every time she is up there. She was okay with that.

Shawn told her she could refill her fish tank with a lizard. She is very happy about this.

I have been tricked. This was all an elaborate plan to get a lizard.

This time I am really not taking care of it. It’s all Heidi and Shawn.

Yeah. Right.

Families

Last night when putting Heidi to bed she said “if you don’t live with someone you can’t be their family.”

I asked her why she thought this and she said “families all live together. Kristen moved out and so she isn’t family any more.”

This broke my heart. I am clearly not doing a good enough job teaching Heidi about the power of family. That you don’t even have to be blood related to be family let alone live in the same house or state for that matter.

I heard her tell Kristen the other day that she wasn’t family any more and I thought Kristen was going to cry. I told Kristen to remember that Heidi is 4 and does not mean everything she says.

Now I understand that while she may not be able to say what she truly means, she really is confused by the definition of the word family.

I told her that everyone we love is our family, even if we never lived with them. Grandma and Grandpa are our family. Granny and Papa are our family. Everyone in that house is our family. But also that Shannon is our family.

I probably made her more confused but now I know that I need to do a better job explaining family to her. And help her to understand that we are family first people.

And help her understand that her words have a bigger impact on the people who hear them than she will ever know.

This will all help her be a good person. And that’s all I want.

The Swamp

Shawn's dad, Cliff, has some property just past Pine City but before Hinkley right off Interstate 35. It's about a 90 minute drive so it's perfect for an impromptu camping trip. We leave our pop up camper there year round and have been able to enjoy it so much more over the last two years now that it has a permanent home.
No one agrees on what to call this place. It used to be farm land and some sheep graze part of it currently. Ryan and Jess call it the Farm. But to be a farm I think it needs to have a Barn and something growing. It has a few ponds and lots of low marshy land so our family calls it The Swamp. Cliff's family simply calls it The Property. Whatever the name it is a fun place to visit.
We spent the night there on June 13th but I forgot the camera. We also stayed there on June 20th and this time I remembered the camera. And we brought home the frogs.

The kids just love it here. They find all kinds of wild life. One night last year Shawn and Heidi were going into town to get gas and they saw a bunch of deer jumping a fence. We hear coyotes at night (they are always close to the sheep) and of course there are frogs, worms, and any other kind of bug you want to find. The above picture is Heidi holding a worm over my soda.

This is a cute picture of Emily. She photographs so well, even after a hard day of playing in the dirt.

Jess's sister Carrie and her kids have been staying with Ryan and Jess for the last few weeks. They are visiting from Kentucky. Above is a picture of Alex standing by the fire. This girl is rarely still long enough to take a picture and this one turned out so beautifully.

We were sitting by the fire as the sun went down. Carrie and I took a ton of pictures of this sunset. It is rare that we see one without houses and buildings in the way. And it was such a wonderful color.

Shawn is tending the fire here. He is the unofficial Camp Fire guy when we go camping. He stays up to make sure it's out long after the rest of us have gone to bed. He seems to be doing a rain dance here.

The dogs really love The Swamp as well. Daisy Mae gets to run around without a leash or a fence. She is to timid to go to far on her own so we don't have to worry about her to much. Pig spends most of his time in the camper or the van, he is such a baby :) This is such a cute picture of Dasiy. You can really see the color on her face (note the gray beard) and the contrast between her coat and the grass. Too bad my foot is in the shot!

First, I need to point out that Heidi has a temporary tatoo on her arm, that is not a bug :)
Last year at the state fair we picked up a number of yard sticks for the kids to play with . Heidi is holding a pink one in her hand. They used these for everything - measuring each other, sward fighting, digging, you name it.
Carrie, Jess's sister, is sitting in the chair behind Heidi and Zack is standing behind her. That's Alex on the 4-wheeler, where she spent most of the daylight hours.
We keep talking about moving the fire pit because no one likes the location. Ryan and Alex dug this perfectly round piece of dirt out of the ground when making the hole for the new pit. It's like a piece of sod! We relocated it and we will see how long it lives. That's Emily admiring their handy work. I am sure Heidi is already in the hole looking for worms, that might be her hair in the corner... All of the kids just love to take the 4-wheeler out for a spin. Zack, Willy, and Alex are just taking off for a ride. The little kids have to go one at a time so there is always a little bit of crying envolved as it is hard for 3 and 4 year olds to remember who went first and who is next. Someday we will have a windmill in the yard. A very large one that feed energy to the power company. I am very excited about this as I love the idea of alternative energy sources. However with the economoy the way it is, there is a back up some where. No one is clear what the issue is - back order, a company in bankruptcy... I just keep hoping this will work it's self out and we will get our windmill. In the meantime there is a cement slab with some stuff sticking out if in the yard. In this picture Heidi and Emily are checking it out.

This is the best camper! My aunt and uncle were so wonderful in selling this to us. We didn't use it much right away but over the last few years we have really been enjoying it. Here is Heidi napping on the bed. The nap is a fake and she was up again as soon as I took this picture. There is just too much to do at the swamp when the sun is still up!!

Heidi's New Pets

As you know Heidi loves animials. She would have 20 cats and 20 dogs if we let her. So would I. Thank goodness for Shawn putting his foot down. However Shawn would like to have a lizzard if I would agree to take care of it. Thank goodness for me not agreeing to that!

But someone let their gaurd down and we now have two pet frogs. Or I should say Heidi now has two pet frogs.



Here is Heidi putting the frogs in their new home, with the help of Shawn (you didn't really think I was going to touch them did you?)

Here is Sara in her new home.

Here is the box we brought them home in. Heidi caught them at The Swamp - Cliff's vacation property in Pine City. We needed to find something to put them in so the $3 foam cooler would have to do.

Shawn removing them from the cooler...

Heidi transporting them - and a good shot of the frog house. We already had the fish tank from when I had fish some 10 years ago. The rest was picked up at PetCo on the way home from the swamp.

Above is Sara - she is slightly orange in color.

Here is Froggy - he is slightly brown in color.
Heidi named them and I assigned the gender (very scientifically I might add - Sara is a girls name therefore Sara is a girl, Froggy sounds like a boy name therefore Froggy is a boy.)

Heidi's Dance Pictures

Heidi danced thru the New Hope Community Program this year. Her dance is a Sailing Melody.


Last Saturday we had Dance Recital Rehearsal. That was a long day. I am very happy that at this age they only dance in one of the shows. Heidi will have her recital this Sunday.

Heidi - Age 4 - New Hope Dance