Dancing the night away.

The other night, Ellie and I were watching movies while waiting for Jake to come home. She loves putting items over her head and then wrapping around her neck (like a scarf). She then scrunches up her shoulders. Well, tonight she was doing this with Jake's laptop protective cover so I put it on her head like a hat. This is what she does.

What a crazy girl. She dances to just about everything; even the opening song in Relief Society.

Denver Zoo

September 17th, we went to the Denver Zoo. When Ellie loves animals so much, we thought it would be great. (Yes we know she won't remember it, but we will.)

We got there and ate lunch. We left home as soon as Jake was done with class so none of us had eaten yet. It was also nice because it gave us some time to look over the map and the activities to come up with a game plan. Once lunch was done, we headed over to the lion cage. There is a little house for the lion cage and also the hyenas/wild dogs. (They are improving parts of the zoo so animals share time in the outdoor areas sometimes.)

The first activity was feeding a bone to the lion and scraps and blood-cicles to the wild dogs. A zoo person came and explained what would happen then another person started throwing the items off the top of the house. The animals have great internal clocks. They became more active and watching the top of the house about 5 minutes before it started. They had to remove the lionesses from the lion cage because apparently the lions don't share well.

We continued wandering around to the rest of the cat cages; leopard, panthers, tigers, etc. It was interesting to see that the tigers had a liter of 4 cubs. They were really cute. (There are 2 of them wrestling in the background of the picture. The mom just paced in front of the window where all the people were watching.)

We walked past the elephants and giraffes on our way to the sea lion show. It was just a simple demonstration about what sea lions are taught and how they are taught to do those things. Ellie loved waving when the sea lion would swim by.

After watching the show, we walked over to the sea lion pool to see the new baby sea lion. The baby was adorable. It would just sit on the rock. If it tried to get in the water, the mom would swim over, then the cub would sit still. After about a minute, the cub started placing it's nose in the water and would blow bubbles. Then it would flip water with its flipper. We could have just sat there for hours and watched the little guy.

We walked around and saw the giraffes again and the hippos and some other weird looking animals. We were on our way to the penguin show. The zoo guy explained that the birds had colored bands on right or left flipper, depending on gender, and the colors indicated what year they were born. They do this because there is no way other than blood tests to determine gender. They had actually guessed wrong on 1-2 of the newborns this year and will have to switch the bands.

As we were watching the penguins, Jake is holding Ellie so she could see the penguins eating. All the sudden he says, "I think she just peed." Not thinking anything about it, I said, "OK. We'll find a bathroom and change her." I then noticed a small splash by my foot. Yes, Ellie had leaked through her diaper. Apparently kids pee a lot more when given plenty of water to make sure they aren't dehydrated. It had only been 2-3 hours since her last diaper change so it was a surprise. At least I knew she wouldn't be dehydrated.

Unfortunately her pants were all wet. So I washed them out in the bathroom sink and she went pant less through the rest of the zoo. We did reapply sunscreen to her legs. No need to burn those cute chubby legs.

We walked through the bird house and then started for the primate walk. Sadly all the primates, although they had huge outdoor areas, were inside. These cute little guys have the greatest mustaches.

The gorillas were all up high eating hay when we got there and didn't hold Ellie's interest. The orangutan's had a new baby as well. We didn't get a good picture of the baby because mom was very protective. At one point, she walked the baby to the back corner, fluffed up the straw, and wrapped the baby in the potato sack blanket that was in there. Then she picked up the entire package (with the baby inside) and moved it to another location. When the baby would crawl out, mom would come over and put it back in.

Notice no pants. It was a short but fun visit. Some of the exhibits were weird because of the habitat sharing but they were working on improvements. By the end of 2011/beginning of 2012 they plan to finish the new Asian habitat and shift the animals back around.

At the end we wandered into the gift shop and of course Ellie had to pick up every stuffed animal she could get her hands on and cuddled it and AAAHHH!!! Since there was no afternoon nap, she was asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot.

AAAAWWWWHHHH!!!

Ellie cracks me up. Whenever she picks up and cuddles a stuffed animal, she places it under her chin and starts cooing, "AAAWWWHHH! OOOOHHH!" She does it with a small ferret, the dog that her Grandma Connie gave her, the toy of the little boy who sat behind us at church, and every one of the little stuffed animals at the gift shop at the end of the Aquarium. My only guess is that she has hard Jake and I do it to her and that she just picked up on it.

Denver Aquarium

If you can't tell, I am enjoying living in a new city. Last Friday we went to the Denver Downtown Aquarium. I was so excited. At one point in my life I wanted to be Marine Biologist. I became a little discouraged when there wasn't a program anywhere at any Utah universities and I had hated the Wildlife Biology program at Utah State.

The Denver Aquarium is a lot bigger and more interesting than the one in Sandy, Utah (with exception to the Penguin exhibit). It walks you through all the different habitats around the world. To say Ellie LOVED it, would be an understatement. She put off eating lunch for almost 2 hours she was so excited.

Here were some ducks that were across the walkway from the otters. (We didn't get a good picture of the otters.) Ellie occasionally says "cack cack" (quack, quack), but only when she wants.

Ellie and Jake watching some sharks on the bottom of the huge fish tank.

Oh my, look at that shark. Ellie stood in front of this tank and walked back and forth using the glass for balance for about 15-20 minutes. We had to stop her from tapping on the glass. Most people would comment about how brave she was.

Where are the fish going? You can partially see how big this tank really is. That fish in the background was actually about twice Ellie's size.

Ellie and Jake looking at the Lion Fish or something like that. Their fins flatten down while they swim but will puff up like a lion's mane occasionally.

Of course they have a ray tank. Ellie was dying to get in and swim. I don't know if it is because she likes swimming or if she wanted to touch the rays. She did try and touch them a few times, but as parents we didn't think fish water was the best for her to play with, especially since her fingers are always in her mouth.

I just thought this picture was hilarious. That star fish just really loves that pipe.

At the end, there was this worker with a bearded dragon. As you can see, Ellie wanted to snuggle it so much. Again, for her's and the worker's safety, we didn't think this was such a good idea.
Some of the other cool things we saw there; shark egg pouches (called mermaid purses), sharks with noses that looked like saws, jellyfish, and oddly enough a tiger. There were also these fish that spit to knock bugs off plants so they can eat and they could really spit.
Since it was just after 3 and none of us had eaten lunch yet, we decided to stay and eat at the restaurant. Even though it was after 3, a manager allowed us to order off the lunch menu. We were sat next to the fish tank. Ellie was just the biggest cheeser for the staff. This video is of her eating at the restaurant. *Notice her small yummy shimmy.*

As we were finishing up, the manager who allowed us to order lunch came by. Ellie cheesed and waved. It was then we were informed that it was because Ellie was so cute that she allowed us to have lunch.
It was quite a fun afternoon. One day it would be fun to go back when Ellie is older. They have all sorts of programs and activities; snorkeling in the tank, scuba diving, eating lunch with Mermaids, etc. Maybe after law school.

Labor Day Weekend (Taste of Colorado)

Monday, Labor Day, Jake needed to finish up some homework after taking time off on Friday afternoon for shopping and Saturday for Mount Evans. So while he was working, Ellie and I went to a little fair that Denver holds called the Taste of Colorado. I think they have this to compensate for the fact that the Colorado State Fair is held in Pueblo, Colorado (about 2 hours south of Denver). We had plans to go to the state fair until we found out it was that far away.

I love the Utah State Fair. My family has gone for years. When I was little my mom, her sisters, and her parents (my grandparents) worked in the information booths so my sister Annie and I spent quite a bit of time wandering the park. Now as we are older, we love to go for the Dairy Farmers of Utah event; an All you can eat Ice Cream tent.

Anyway, Ellie and I drove to downtown Denver to see what this Taste of Colorado was all about. Basically it was a mini state fair in my mind. They blocked off all the streets in front of the Capital Building and the Civic Park to set up the fair. There was a section for all the fair rides and the rest of the area was for vendors and 4 stages. The idea is an area where people can go an taste a wide variety of foods from around Colorado, costing anywhere from around $2 to $10 for the food. The restaurants present are both local and national places, offering food choices from donuts to ice cream to wines and beer to ribs and turkey legs.

Of course, I loved to because it allowed me to see the kind of people that wander the streets of Denver. Here are a few of my notes -

• There are quite a large number of older middle aged people who dress like how any teenage kids imagines their parents dress when on vacation or when trying to embarrass them; weird length shorts, socks, sandals, and bright colored shirts.
• People with colored skin out number white skinned people slightly.
• Almost everyone there had at least one tattoo that was visible to the public.
• I felt a large number of people were large people.
• About 3 guys (mid twenties) had their hair sticking straight up. Not spiked but like they had grown it out 4-5 inches and turned their heads upside down and sprayed with 2 cans of Aqua Net hairspray straight up.
• At least 10 girls (early teens to early twenties) had peacock fans for hair. Imagine the 80's 4 inch bangs flipped to the back of their head spread out in a fan.

The two most important things I learned; first, Ellie is too cute for her own good. People stopped to say how cute she was then smile and wave at her. Over course she would cheese it up, smile and wave back. Second, there was NOT a single person, I repeat that, NOT a single person that I saw wearing those ugly, low rider skinny jeans with EMO sweep haircuts in their face. I was shocked because I felt half the teenagers in Utah do that "trying to be original" or "trying to express themselves".
Overall, I really enjoyed a nice walk around the crowds while people watching.

Labor Day Weekend (Mount Evans)

We didn't have any plans for Labor Day weekend which I thought was a little odd since we didn't have to worry about school or work, although there was some homework. Friday we had to do a little shopping because as part of our agreement to lease we needed to show we were taking precautions to block Ellie from the stairs. We drove to the Babies R Us to buy some safety gates and then decided to stop at the Park Meadows Mall. This mall looks fairly new and is very up to date. The inside is designed to fit a mountain/cabin type feel and most of the stores are high end shopping; Armani Exchange, Crate & Barrel, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, etc. But Ellie's favorite store, Pedigree Pet shop. It was full of dogs and she loved every minute of it. Her favorite part, when the sales person let Jake hold the Saint Bernard puppy and Ellie got to pet it.

Saturday we decided to take a trip to Mount Evans (warning, this part was posted by my nerdy side and contains nerdy facts). Unfortunately I didn't pay that much attention while doing my research so we left the house after Ellie ate lunch and we were dressed for valley temps, about 90 degrees.

Mount Evans is one of Colorado's Fourteeners (mount peaks that are higher than 14,000 feet above sea level) at 14, 264 above sea level. The real drive behind this adventure was the drive. Mount Evans has a paved road that goes to 14,130 feet above sea level, almost to the top. The road was started as a Peak to Peak Highway (from Longs Peak to Pikes Peak) that was never finished and after driving the road, its easy to see why. The Mount Evans road was opened in 1931.

As you drive up this road, you eventually drive above the tree line and enter what is considered Alpine Tundra.

Only specially adapted animals, like the Mountain Goats, live up in these areas.

At the top, to the West is the Continental Divide (as seen vaguely behind Ellie and I to the left).







To the East are a few small mountains, Denver, and then the plains. I couldn't find any information on how far across the plains you could see. This is seen behind us in the picture.

As you can probably see from the pictures, it was quite windy and when the sun wasn't peaking through the clouds, very cold.

The car registered around 50 degrees. Some information I have says the average temp is about 42 degrees up top and it can snow on any day during the summer.

Although I didn't snap a picture, there is an observatory used by the University of Denver, but even more interesting there are old ruins of the Crest House restaurant and souvenir shop. The building burnt down in 1979. The observatory is the highest in North America. From the parking lot, there is a short hike to the very tip top of the mountain.

Here is Jake and Ellie on the very top of Mount Evans looking down on Summit Lake. The environment around and above the lake is extremely harsh and although located in the alpine, it mirrors the arctic. The ground is permafrost and there are rare plants here that are normally found only above the Arctic Circle.

The tree Jake and I are standing next to is a Bristlecone tree, which grows twisted to have a stronger foundation in extreme environments. This tree is generally the last tree growing before you travel above the tree line.

I found this plant very interesting. I don't know what it is called

but it looks similar to Thistle but has more thin hairy spines in addition to the thicker thistle spines. As you were driving, they actually look like hairy, spiny eye balls.

Hopefully I can take my nerdy side back up to this area and spend more time enjoying it, but we took the trip when we did because the top 5 miles of the road close after Labor day (hence the rush and lack of preparedness for the weather conditions). Luckily we had the blanket in the car and I did pack a jacket for Ellie.

I may not be able to care for myself or my husband, but I will always make sure my child is cared for.

If you ever make it to Denver during the summer, I highly recommend this as a sight seeing location, even if you don't have a nerdy side to indulge.

Ellie

Okay, I will keep this one short because I have gotten way carried away with the past few blogs. Its about time I share more of Ellie. Enjoy.





Help! I'm stuck. (Back when I only crawled backwards.)














I am the great adventurer. Now how do I get out of here.












I love bath time. Especially all the foam toys that I can eat.











I miss the puppies. Luckily Grandma Connie gave me this doggie to play with. I love my doogie.











My very funny copy cat impression. Mommy or daddy would spit so I would do the same.