I missed posting my blog last week because we left early Monday morning and I didn't have a chance. We spent a week visiting friends and family. We spent the first part of the day traveling, then visited with family in Nevada. The camera remained in the bag.
The next day, we headed up to Utah where more visits occurred. On Wednesday, we went to the rec center for swimming (without camera) while the Pro played golf with his friends.
On Thursday, we had a picnic at Murray Park. What a great park.
After the park, we visited another great-grandmother in the family and collected canned peaches, picked grapes, pumpkins, and a few tomatoes and apples. Here we have three of the four generations.
On Friday, we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. As indicated by the name, they have lots of farm animals and produce gardens. This was fun because they had reframed the experience as a visit to Oz. In the pony ride below, one of the white horses has paint behind the saddle-it is the horse of a different color.
They had painted the sidewalk and lawn to create a yellow brick road. They had poppies along the yellow brick road before the emerald city-which is the pony ride. You can see the green wrapped around the posts in the pictures above. They had a wagon with the Professor Marvel logo from the movie. The area that normally houses a jail and dance hall is now labeled as belonging in Munchkinland. It was all very well done and very cute.
We could not skip a ride in a wagon behind two very large draft horses. It took us around the outside of Farm Country.
Farm country helps kids understand where food really comes from including an interactive exhibit from soil to table. For people unused to gardening, it probably helps teach children about how food is produced. There were lots of people there with little kids.
When we returned, we had a party to go to-an 80's themed party. Mostly, that meant hair in off-center pony tails for our girls.
When I lived in Worcester, I attended church in the Worcester Ward. Many of the people who were my daughters peers have moved to Utah, as she has. Many of the earlier generation have done so as well. One of the younger ones hosted the party at his home to create a Worcester Ward Reunion only it took place in Bountiful Utah. It was fun to reconnect with lots of old friends. I was in the ward from 1993 to 1999. The host's parents are also celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. They still live in Worcester, but they set up the party to coincide with a visit to Utah so we could all reconnect. This was also a family visit, just a different sort of family, our church family.
It was a fun week which allowed us to visit all of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Now that the Pro is working only part time, we have more freedom to be with the family and look forward to many more such trips.
We took a trip to visit the Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary in Prescott today. My daughter and the older grandkids visited in the past. What a great experience. Because we were there when the park opened, we saw them feeding many of the animals. Here, they are giving the racoons a breakfast of what looked like my compost addition. It included eggs that the racoons took to their pond and washed before eating.
The season is just transitioning, so we got to see them returning the tortoises to their enclosures.
We saw the bears getting breakfast, the racoons above, and the tortoises. We saw a variety of big cats-bobcats, mountain lions, and a tiger; black and brown bears, 3 kinds of foxes, lots of different spiders and reptiles.
Another area of the park contains a 'petting zoo' and the kids were able to brush the goats. The goats were very friends.
The petting zoo area also included a play yard where new friends were made.
We left the play area to see the Bengal tiger get her breakfast. It was very interesting. Then we finished touring the exhibits and ended up in another playground area. Here are the three girls in a shoe.
The final play area had swings, slides, and climbing areas for those who wanted a break from the animals.
We spent about two hours at the zoo and had a wonderful time. The cost is quite reasonable. If the kids lived nearby, we'd probably get a family membership. This was a great way to spend some time. Each of the kids liked different animals. We learned about their natural habitats and something of the challenges they face.
Time is never wasted when you can spend it with your family. This was a truly excellent way to spend time and learn some interesting things.
