Christmas at the Zoo

(My girls aren’t going to believe this: my fifth blog post in less than a week! Yes, this is the kind of thing that can happen on Christmas vacation, with no outside activities or school demanding my attention. It’s also the kind of thing that can happen when a certain 4-year-old has a bad dream and ends up in our bed and I can’t fall back to sleep. ;-)

A friend and colleague of Mick’s generously gave our family a $50 Visa gift card for Christmas, so we decided to put it toward a zoo membership. We haven’t been to the zoo in probably 10 years or so and Mick was wanting to do something fun and different on his vacation, so we headed down.

In spite of the chilly evening, we had a good time visiting the exhibits (especially the indoor ones ;-) and seeing how the zoo had changed and grown. Between all the exhibits and the Christmas lights there was so much to see.

The orangutan exhibit was especially impressive (wish I would’ve gotten a picture of it from the outside – too intent on getting inside the warm building!). Not long after we got inside, one of the zoo staffers came up and answered all of our questions and more about orangutans. (Mental note: next time, hit the zoo in the morning. Orangutans tend to sleep from about 5pm – 5am!) We were all fascinated by one orangutan who walked right past us with a big wad of straw in her mouth. She made her way over to a nearby corner where she put the straw down and picked up a blanket, very deliberately smoothed it out, then laid down on it for a nap. You can see the blue blanket in the background of the picture.

After he watched this, Trent said “This is how they walk.” and gave us a demonstration by bending over and putting his fists on the floor. :-)

The dolphins performed to a standing room only crowd where we’d purposely picked a seat pretty far back to get a good view of the jumps (and to stay dry!). We weren’t disappointed!

Zoomed in from the rafters!

Here’s the thing I was thinking about while trying to go back to sleep a little while ago: with all the beauty and discoveries at the zoo, why would anybody want to be staring at a screen? I mean, some of us watched a short video in the snake exhibit, showing how snakes can move through the branches of a tree and a sidewinder moves through the desert (good thing: the live snakes we saw behind the glass weren’t moving much – except for one rattlesnake, who had just been delivered to the zoo and seemed a little skittish. :-O ). I’m talking about the screens of the handheld devices people can’t seem to be without these days. There was one dad who stood back in the shadows of the shark exhibit hunched over his phone while his kids were petting sharks. (Sharks!!) To be fair, it’s possible he had some family emergency or serious issue he was texting someone about. Maybe he was only on it for a minute and the rest of the time, he was right there with his family. I didn’t watch him for very long – too busy taking pictures of our kids petting sharks. (Sharks!!)

But more sad to me was the child I saw being pushed in a stroller holding an iPad. Again, I saw this for just a moment before we passed each other and moved on. Maybe it was just for a minute or two, but does a child really need a screen right in front of him at the zoo? When there’s so much to see, touch, hear and smell (orangutan exhibit)? I’ll bet we could’ve downloaded an “iZoo” app for Mick’s phone that showed the kids all these creatures and more, complete with snippets of audio, animated gifs and even video, but it couldn’t have been the same learning experience. Would the way an orangutan walks be so firmly embedded in Trent’s mind? I’m not calling for a universal ban on these things – I can appreciate their use – but there’s a time and place for things like this. In my opinion, Christmas at the Zoo is not it!

OK, stepping down from my soapbox now. I highly recommend a trip to the zoo, even in chilly weather. It’s good exercise (as you move quickly from building to building) and you’re pretty much guaranteed to learn something new. Trent learned that reindeer are not giraffes. They had a couple of beautiful reindeer in a small pen near the entrance. For being so short, they really have huge antlers! One of the kids’ favorite movies is Frozen, which features a reindeer “Sven” as one of the characters. Trent has seen that movie many times, and yet, while looking at these live reindeer, he asked “is that a giraffe?”  HA!  When I told him what it was and reminded him of Sven, I could tell he had no idea of the connection. Sometimes, entertainment is just, well, entertainment. But seeing and doing – there’s just no substitute for it!

 

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Vacation 2013: Day One

Day One began at the tender hour of 3:00 am. All 12 of us (Alix and Kate, too) piled into the van to head south. After talking about “the cation” and  “Ginia Beach” for weeks, Trent was a bit reticent (i.e., fussy) about being put into his carseat at 4:00 am. I tried to ease him into the idea, reminding him where we were going, asking him if he wanted to come, too. “No” was his repeated answer. Finally, I asked him if he wanted me or Daddy to put him in the car. He decided he’d rather I do it. ;-)  Once we got going, things  smoothed out and he started to warm up to the idea.

We met up with the Bruces, Mom and Dad and Uncle Kent and headed out, Rachel at the wheel and the rest of us wedged in tightly, hemmed in by suitcases, pillows, books and food.

Several of us napped (and Trent is still asleep at 8:08, thankfully), but I think a few of the girls stayed awake the whole time, chatting quietly in the back.

Breakfast was a mixture of granola bars, hard-boiled eggs, strawberries, Fig Newtons, brown sugar Pop Tarts and orange juice. Believe it or not, in spite of all that food and all these kids, it went pretty smoothly! I guess they really are getting older. And now we’re in Kentucky, watching the hills and pastures of grazing horses and cows roll by. We’re keeping in contact with the others via a walkie talkie, which we bought way back in 2000, when we started taking family vacations.

Lots of excitement and we’re just so glad vacation is finally HERE!!

Thoughts on Mom and Dad’s Golden Anniversary party

You know how you look forward to a big event, worrying about all the details, wondering how it will all pull together ... IF it will all pull together? And then the day finally comes and it ends up being even more spectacular and memorable than you imagined! That’s how my parents’ 50th anniversary party went.

Back in January, Jennifer suggested that Glenn and I be in charge of taking pictures of the day, but I knew even then that it would be very difficult for me to devote the time to taking pictures, so Glenn agreed to be in charge of pictures. Good thing. I ended up with about 25 pictures (Erica took some of the decorations); he took over 500.  :o)  But I will share the best of what I have because I really want to document everything while it’s still fresh in my memory.

The tent

The tent was put up on Wednesday and Mom was so bowled over by it she could hardly describe it over the phone. It took up most of their small backyard! It was tempting to drive down there just to see it, but I didn’t want to take time away from the scanning for the PowerPoint Presentation, plus several of the kids got colds mid-week, so I reluctantly decided to stay home and let the kids rest. We went down on Friday to decorate and it was HUGE!  The tables and chairs had also been delivered and friend Dayla had lent some of her white lights to decorate trees and bushes. Even with no décor (except the bunting Jennifer and Kelly made), it was just enchanting at night.

It ended up being a lovely, sunny day in the low ‘80s -- not too hot or humid. But, it did get warm in the sun, so it sure was nice to have the big tent.

The Balloons

Something I realized through this: you can never have too many balloons. The balloons were used to frame the big screen and also camouflage the tent poles. But lots of balloons also say this: today is a really special day.

When we got there on Saturday morning, a lot of the balloons had already been put up by the “balloon people.” It was incredible. Glenn actually took a funny picture of me standing there staring at it all with my mouth gaping open.  :-D

Mom

On Saturday morning, Heather did Mom’s hair and a friend did her make-up. She’d picked out a dress just a couple of days before the big day and kept it hidden to surprise Dad.

She looked really beautiful. The kids were still talking about her the next day, “Grandma looked sooooo pretty!” Even 5-year-old Grant told her. She really looked lovely.  :-)

Mom is posing with James, the man who constructed the giant record, book and vinyl record columns.

I snapped this right after she came out in her party glory.  She was surveying all her domain.  :-)

Her wedding dress was on display on a dressmaker’s form, which was slightly too big around for the dress. She was only 18 when they were married and had a 24-inch waist.

Dad

Days before the party, Dad ended up trying on the jacket he wore on their wedding day and it fit! So he wore that. Most of the people I talked to didn’t know it was the same jacket, because he wasn’t saying anything about it. A cousin told me she guessed when, after she complimented him, he said “Thanks. It’s an original.”  :-)

 

 

Grandma

Grandma (Mom’s mom) turned 92 in June and has been in slowly declining health the past few years. None of us would’ve dreamed she could be at the party, but a good friend from the rehab facility where Grandma lives made all the arrangements and it was a wonderful surprise for Mom and Dad. It was such a tender moment when they wheeled her into the tent - definitely a highlight of the day for all of us! And then we girls had to sing right after that! Not fair! We couldn’t look at any of them.  ;-)

Pictures and Memories

With the help of Rachel doing the picture arranging and taping and sisters and Mom helping with milestones, we set up 5 boards – one for each decade – along with highlights from each decade. That was fun, and it reminded me of how important it is to document your pictures! Mom has told me for years to write down dates and names on the backs of pictures. I was glad she has been so faithful in doing that!

It was amazing to me how many pictures we have of Mom and Dad, just the two of them, together. Amazing especially when you think of how many kids and grandkids there are. In fact, there were so many good photos of the two of them that I decided to put them all together at the end of the presentation, one after another, in chronological order

This is a collage I just created of the ones I used (there were more I kept finding after the fact!).

The Program

This is a copy of the program we printed outlining the order of singing and memory-sharing we did to celebrate the day. We printed off 12 of them and put them in clear, plastic frames on each table. No, I did not get pictures of the actual presentation, which involved singing and a slideshow of Mom and Dad’s “story”.  :-)  But Glenn did (hint, hint, Glenn!).

More pictures

More décor …

More fun …

(Most of the rest of these were taken once the party was winding down, and I could catch my breath long enough to pick the camera back up. :-)

Watching the movie “Up” after it was all over.

Kelly made badges for each of us girls to wear. We decided to use school pictures of us, because the guests who haven’t seen us since then might recognize us in pictures from that time. I didn’t realize until I saw this picture how much Claire looks like me.  :-)

 

More love …

 

Mom and Dad

They have always demonstrated so many important ideals in a marriage: teamwork, sacrifice, selflessness. Through the years, none of us kids ever doubted their complete devotion to each other. Anyone who knows them (from their church friends to the cashier at the grocery) knows also of their devotion to the rest of us, but all of the stability and love in our family flows from their special relationship.

This is from a note I wrote to a friend earlier today:

There are some marriages that make it to the 50-year mark, and you get the feeling that the couple just sort of dug in and stuck it out, gritting their teeth through most of it. Not so with my parents. Of course, they’re human and have their faults and weaknesses and I know they had rough patches through the years, probably even some times of “digging in” and “gritting their teeth.” But I truly feel like their marriage has been a “labor of love.” I remember having a conversation with Mom about marriage when I was a teenager. She said “We hear people say marriage should be 50/50, but Dad and I have always felt like the other gives 100%.”