Fish and Flowers

Albuquerque has a very cool area that they call the Albuquerque Biological Park which consists of the zoo, an aquarium and botanical garden all connected by a little train. We love it so much that we got a season pass for it! We had already been to the zoo so we decided to go to the aquarium and botanical garden. The aquarium is small but not as small as the one in Utah. The kids had a great time despite the size. :)

 

Liv trying to get picture of the baby halibut that are buried in the sand.

This giant puffer loved the kids. He would swim right up to the glass and open his mouth really wide. I guess they looked tasty to him. ;)

They have 2 sea turtles that they hand feed every day. It is so fun to watch. They are so graceful and peaceful.

When we were done at the aquarium we headed over to the botanical garden. I didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. There was a "castle" that when you walked into you were "mini" meaning that everything inside was actually giant sized. The kids had so much fun running around inside there was even a slide and a maze. We had so much fun and plan on spending a lot of time there during the summer.

This is the kids standing by the dragon the guards the entrance to the castle.

There was a giant garden inside the castle. There were all different kinds of veggies you could play on.

This is inside the giant pumpkin. It was very real looking inside with seeds and strings hanging from the roof.

The slide went through a giant log. We could have spent way more time here but there was a lot more to see and do.

So oddly enough Harris is terrified of ants. Fire ants to be specific. We had to really coax him to get near this thing. He was quick to jump away when we were done taking the picture. It's funny the things kids are scared of. Liv was afraid of flys!

It was a wonderful day and so far I am really enjoying all that ABQ has to offer. Hopefully we get to have lots of visitors to share all this with. :)

Easter

While it was hard being away from family we had a great Easter. The weather was so warm that we were able to have our Easter Egg hunt outside for the very first time! The kids loved it! I was a little worried about hiding the eggs in the orchard because we have Roadrunners that live there and they are carnivorous. We avoided that problem by hiding the eggs while the kids were getting their Easter clothes on. Since it was Easter and Conference Sunday the kids got a more dressy and a less dressy outfit. I had them wear the less dressy outfit for the egg hunt. Aren't they darling?!

Looking for the eggs with the help of Disney. ;)

Harris finding his first egg and possibly a lizard. There are lizards living all over in the railroad ties.

Liv was the lucky one who found the egg hidden in the cactus palm. Yes she managed to get it out unharmed.

My mom used to make something called "sunshine eggs" every Easter with the eggs that we had found. Since I got married I have made them as well. Harris heard me talking about making them and said that he wanted to help. Well, he went and got his eggs and was putting them in the sunshine on the windowsill and then said "look Mom I made the 'sunshine eggs'". How cute is that...

It was a wonderful day of sunshine, fun and the spirit.

Spring Break

Two weeks ago we were able to go to Disneyland for spring break. I know that I have said that Christmas is my favorite time to be at Disneyland but I was wrong. There is something about springtime there, it's amazing. Living in Utah it seems like winter may never end but when you get to Disneyland you realize that there is still hope for good weather. It's warm and sunny and happy, not cold and cloudy and depressing. I think that my favorite thing to do while I am there is point out all the different kinds of flowers. My mom had an amazing green thumb (she got yard of the week in Orem 3 years in a row!) and was always telling me the different kinds of flowers whenever we would go anywhere. Seeing and knowing all these flowers makes me feel close to my mom and I know its cheesey but I hope one day Olivia and Harris will be somewhere and recognize a flower that I have pointed out and know what it is.

Harris was so funny this trip. He abbreviated everything! So here are the kids on Mr. Toad, Pooh Bear and Casey Jun Jun. I didn't get a pic of him on his favorite ride Pi's aka Pirates. Haha! Silly boy. We did actually get to do Casey Junior twice this trip! We haven't done this ride in years because the line is forever long but because we were there during the week it was pretty slow.

Since there are 4 of us we take turns with each other on the rides. Usually these are the two rides we end up doing the most ; Splash and "Autop". Splash is my favorite and Autopia is the kids favorite especially at night.

The last few times we have been to Disneyland my dad has come with us. I was sad this time that he wasn't going to be able to be there because we were going during the week. Well Wednesday morning he called and asked us what ride were on. I told him that we hadn't quite made it to the park yet but we were on our way. After I hung up I thought that was a weird phone call and then it donned on me "He's Here!". Sure enough when we walked into the park there he was leaning against a light post waiting for us. I was so glad he came the kids were too. They immediately started fighting over who got to go on what rides with him. It was a great surprise!

This is poor Harris on our way back to the Disneyland Hotel on the last night. He was so sad. He cried all the way back to the hotel that he "wished we lived at Disneyland". It broke my heart. Usually the kids are fine with leaving because they know that we will be back sooner rather than later. I think that he wanted to stay because it is a familiar place to him and New Mexico where we were headed "home" to was still very unfamiliar. Thankfully after a good nights sleep (and we promised we already had the next trip back booked.) he was fine with going "home".

 Goodbye Disneyland until next time!