The Last Hurrah

My kids start school on Monday. Hallelujah! So I decided we needed to do something fun before they go back. We went to the zoo with Nicole and her girls. Apparently her son was too good for the zoo. He was missed, but that's what happens when kids reach a certain age (preteens). We got to see the baby snow leopard. It was so cute. Our zoo is having a Madagascar exhibit where the main attraction is the fossa (pronounced foosah). He was asleep when I saw him, but apparently they are very curious creatures and are only found on Madagascar. Pretty cool. I really liked the hissing cockroaches. They were huge! I probably only liked them because they were in a cage, though. I wouldn't want them walking around in my house or anything. There was also a baby elephant, but we could only see him on a tv screen. The weren't ready to let the nine-day-old baby out for the public's viewing. I don't blame them.
Thursday, Kurtis took the day off (and Friday). We went to lunch at our neighbor's house. She was having a cafe. Our payment was a can of food. What a great idea. Then we went to Grandma's house. My mom has been telling my boys they could sleep over at her house all summer. That night they finally got to do it. They were so excited! Kurtis and I were even more excited! We went to the Heritage Theater's end of season banquet. It was so fun to see everyone again. After that, Kurtis and I went to see District 9 (the movie). It was interesting. I liked the way it was filmed. The documentary style of it was well done. I liked the story. But I didn't like watching people's guts fly all over the place. It was kind of gross. And the cruelty of one of the villains was disturbing, but I suppose that's kind of the point. It was a good movie, though.
Friday, Kurtis and I slept in. So nice. Then I balanced the checkbook. Something that took a lot longer than I thought it would. Then I made brownies, registered the dog, took library books back (errands I just didn't want to do with kids in tow), and then off to my mom's. We played Clue and Zach passed off some of his cub scouts stuff with Grandpa. Then we went to my parents' ward party for dinner, and games. Uncle Jeremy tried to win the pie eating contest, but was out bested by someone who moved into the ward after we left. Kaleb wanted to do all the games and drug me around. He went bobbing for apples. He loved the cherry seed spitting contest. Kurtis and I held our own private contest. He won by like an inch. Dang it. Then we went to the dunk tank. Kaleb almost dunked someone. But he didn't throw it hard enough. Then we watched as Uncle Jeremy got dunked. So much fun to see your little brother get all wet! Then Kaleb wanted to do the toilet seat throwing (did I mention the theme of the party was "Hillbilly Hoedown"?). He thought that was the greatest. He made it into the hula hoop a few times too. I was impressed with his athletic abilities. I think they had a pretty good summer. At least at the end. :)


This guy was so close to the cage, I couldn't resist getting such a good shot!


Zachary loved watching the penguins swim. He said they looked like they were flying in the water. I have to agree.


Here is the mommy snow leopard and her little cub. Apparently the dad has nothing to do with them now. Typical.


These are the hissing cockroaches. So cool!


Here's the sleepy fossa! I wish we could have seen him in action, but naps are so important, I wouldn't want to deprive him of that.


These radiated tortoises are endangered. I liked them a lot.