Saturday, March 31, 2012

Spring Break Staycation

It's the end of spring break. The end of a fun filled, but very short week. We thought about going away, but decided to save the money for a longer summer trip. It turned out to be a good decision. Julianna started getting a really bad cold last Thursday that led to a trip to the doctor on Saturday and a round of antibiotics. She wasn't really ready for much fun until Wednesday. With that and a rainy forecast, we made the best of it.

The boys had sleepovers on Sunday night. Adam spent the night with Aidan and Josh had a friend over to our house. Monday afternoon there were naps to recover.

Tuesday was movie day at home, Josh's first spring break request. Always a fun time for us.

Wednesday we all went to see The Lorax which was quite entertaining and reminded me how much I love taking my kids to the movies. Then lunch at Outback and dessert at Jamms. Pretty much a perfect outing if you ask me.

Thursday we headed to Spokane despite another day of rain. We headed way up north to Cat Tales, a cat rescue and training facility. (Adam's first pick.) It was just sprinkling when we got there and wasn't too cold, so we braved the weather to see the cats. The first cat we came to was this amazing white Tiger named Apollo. He is beautiful. But he apparently doesn't like umbrellas because when we got too close to the fence he roared at us to let us know to get back. And we did...quickly.


There were lots of other, less grumpy cats, too. Lions, tigers, leopards, mountain lions, and lynx. There was even a black bear to complete our lions and tigers and bears (Oh, my!) adventure. Since it was raining, there weren't a lot of guests, so we got a lot of attention from the staff. They walked with us and told us the story behind each cat. Some are rescues and some are movie and tv stars. Two of the leopard brothers were the first live leopard birth on tv.







And later, they took the cats out of their enclosures one at a time and went in and hid chunks of meat around for them to find. When they let the cats back in, it was like watching a big, furry egg hunt. It was really fun to watch the cats be so active and playful.





We had a great time despite the rain and were so glad we made the trek.

After Cat Tales we headed to Chuck E. Cheese's, Julianna's one and only spring break request. She loves going there and playing the games and climbing and sliding. She is an expert at the spider stomp game. Probably because it is kind of like dancing...and stomping spiders! She loves the place and the games, but she does not like Chuck E. Whenever he makes his hourly appearance, she dives under the table and hides until he is no longer in her sight. Then she's back on the go. Funny!

Spider stomping...

Spider sitting...

Alien hunting...




And finally, yesterday, we took Josh and Adam to see John Carter of Mars, Josh's second pick. You know I love going to the movies. I love going by myself. I love going with my friends. I love going with Arrty. But I especially love going with my kids. They are terrific movie buddies. All three of them started going to the movies when they were very young since we go to the free movies during the summer. (I think Julianna was about two weeks old when we took her to the movies for the first time.) Josh is great because he gets really into the movies like I do. He laughs and gasps and reacts without worrying about who might hear. I love that. I know that the day will come when he does worry about what the people around him might think. But that day hasn't come yet. And Adam. Oh, Adam. He vibrates with excitement. Literally. I sat next to him yesterday and loved being able to sense what he was thinking just by feeling. During the exciting parts he would just shake. I love that! And besides loving going with the boys, I loved the movie! It was really, really good! I know it hasn't gotten much good PR, but it deserves better. It's a great story and a well made movie. I hope it ends up getting the recognition it deserves.

Today we still have bowling to do. Adam's other pick. Arrty had to teach today so it will have to wait until this afternoon.

It's been a really great week off from school. Some fun. Some rest. I think I may just be able to make it through the last nine weeks of school now. Maybe.

1 comment:

Ada said...

Woo Hoo!
What a fun week. I'm worn out just reading it. You need a nap? Wait, did you at least get a nap???

Love that first pic of the kids. It is super cute. :)