We drove out to the International Wildlife Museum today, it is about 7 miles from the house and was easy to find, thankfully.
The children really enjoyed it; Cynthia's favorite exhibit was the 'Insect room' with all the butterflies, Jesse's favorite room was 'Sheep Mountain' but he enjoyed the buffalo and penguins too. Another favorite room was the 'Trophy room' they had a lion you could touch gently and a girafe you could walk underneath. I believe this was John's favorite room too, he kept running back and forth saying, "Oh, wow!" Another room they liked was the "Hands On Exhibit" were they could touch all the antlers and skulls. The least favorite of was 'Arizona at night', it was too dark for the boys.
They had a lot of exhibits involving predators and prey so I had to do a lot of explaining that the predators had to eat too.
I'm going to try and upload some pictures but the camera decided to be misbehave and the battery was low so we'll see what comes out.
Friday, June 15, 2007
International Wildlife Museum
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
I did it!
Today has definitely been a day for firsts. I decided today would be different since I was really bored and blah yesterday, especially in the evening when Loren had a meeting. I really hadn't realized especially lately how much I depended on IMing with friends or phone calls as my outside connection. It is different now that there is a two hour time difference back to Mississippi and four hours to my family in Canada.
We drove Loren to work, and went by the Visitors Center to get a Tourist Attractions Passport, it has some great deals on museum entrances. We'll be going to some museums and other attractions in the next few days and weeks.
After dropping Loren off we headed for a nearby park, of course I missed the turn, realized too late and couldn't get over to the turning lane. We turned around and got to the park, the children played for half an hour then we went to a grocery store. My first time shopping alone with the 4 children. They have a neat little car shopping cart, the seats are in the front of the wagon and thankfully it is MUCH easier to turn than the ones with the seats at the back of the cart.
We had a lot of comments from other grocery shoppers about the number of children and Rebecca sleeping in her sling. One woman said she had 6 children in 7 years.
Another first was parking the van IN the garage. When I've backed out I had to close the side mirrors to get out so I was a bit nervous going in but I did it.
We're picking Loren up in 30 minutes, to go to church, so I'd better start rounding things up now, it takes a good 10 minutes to get everyone out to the garage and buckled up.
I'm not feeling blah or bored, just hot! My thermometer on the window is reading 110 F.
I just need to get out and explore. Tucson really is a nice city. It does not feel like a city of a million people.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Yummy Sopapillas
Last evening we went to a Mexican restaurant. Loren had a green chili burrito was looked and smelled amazing. I had a sampler plate which was pretty good, one of the dishes was loaded with jalapenos. Loren could smell them across the table, I wasn't able to finish that 'sample'. John tried some mini chicken enchiladas, I had some on my sampler plate and they were really good. Cynthia tried a taco with a salad which she said was good, but she only was able to eat half. Jesse is the only one who had a good ole American hamburger and french fries which was shared with John. Of course they all ate the chips, and I was amazed that they tried the salsa, even the spicy one.
Loren ordered sopapillas (sopaipillas) which were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and you could pour honey on/in them. Everyone tried them with varying degrees of approval. Loren said that his mom used to make them at home, I went searching for a recipe and we're going to attempt them at home. Whenever we do, I'll try to remember to post a picture of my attempts.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Driving to Mt. Lemmon
We visited First Southern Baptist Church on Wednesday night and then again on Sunday. One of the first people I met there has the same name as a good friend in Mississippi.
The children really love their classes, I had been a bit nervous how they would react, but they seem to love all the new things we are doing. Even John keeps talking about his class and wants to go back. I know that I loved the class Loren and I visited, it felt like home. There were about 20 others in class, most are stay at home moms with young children and the one mom with school age children is a home schooler. Yeah home schooling. One of the Dads noticed my Black "Breastfeeding The Gold Standard" bag and said his wife had one in blue, yeah breastfeeding. One of the mom's had a cape she used to breastfeed her 5 month old in the class. I had Rebecca in my sling and wouldn't you know my child who rarely spits up drenched me!
Sunday afternoon we decided to take a drive up the mountain. Loren had wanted to go on Saturday, but the children were quite fussy after the morning exploring Saguaro National Park and the Indian Mission. Loren, Cynthia and Jesse stopped and did a little hike while I stayed in the van with the other two who were sleeping. At the next stop we pulled into a parking place and heard a weird noise. Loren had pulled too far forward and had gone over the cement curb so he put the van in reverse and we heard this horrible noise. He stops, gets out and this look of horror comes over his face. He comes back to tell me the bumper of our van is pulled off. Oh NO. I'm trying hard not to over react, there is nothing I can do to fix this problem. I get out of the van to see and the bottom of the bumper is caught on a 4 inch high piece of re bar that is sticking out of the cement. I want to scream, but I don't. Loren pulls the van forward and I try to get the bumper up and over the piece of re bar, finally we are loose. Loren takes a couple of pictures and we are able to put it back in place, sort of. Cynthia picks up all the fasteners that have pulled loose. We have a little snack and juice while we wait for the van to cool down so we can head back down the mountain. We're not comfortable going any higher on this trip.
We got an estimate today and it is 850.00 to repair the bumper, great, just great. I'm having to put the Pastor's sermon to use early in the week. Thank God in All Circumstances, It's not easy.
Here's a picture of the sort of 'fixed' bumper. 
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Saguaro National Park
The Saguaro National Forest was amazing, I'm downloading pictures as I type and will try to get them posted tomorrow. Cynthia and Loren hiked up onto the Javelina rocks, Jesse started up but said it was too scary. He said all the sticks looked like snacks so he came back down. I stayed in the van with John, who was sleeping, Rebecca who's nursing and Jesse. We had the van doors open and the breeze felt nice. The thermometer on the van started climbing, then a wasp decided to investigate the interior, oh boy. Some of you may know that I hate wasps, actually I am so scared of them and have been since high school when they got in my hair and kept stinging. Anyway, this one lands on my leg!! I am nursing Rebecca and I just freeze, I'm trying hard not to hyperventilate. I'm also trying to keep Jesse calm in the backseat who is yelling for Loren. I don't know how much time passes, maybe between 5 and 10 minutes, I just know that the temperature in the van went from below 104 F to above 107 F. Finally the winged beast tires of my leg and flies out of the van. I immediately close the doors, reach forward turn the ignition on and put the windows up. It's too hot now for me anyway, need a bit of AC. Loren and Cynthia arrive back in a few minutes. Cynthia definitely has Loren's love for hiking and adventures outdoors.
