Easter

Easter this year was quiet compared to what it could have been. We originally didn't have any plans except for the past few years some of the families in our ward had their own egg hunt. So we filled some eggs, dropped them off to one of the families, and the next day some of the men folk hide the eggs. There were about 10 families participating. After the kids played at the playground and a potluck lunch was available.

At first Ellie didn't understand what to do with the eggs. She would pick them up and try to hand them to Jake or I. Once we showed her to place them in her basket, she was all over it. 

Here's an egg in this tree.



 

I found some eggs.

It was quite fun. Later that night, Jake and I made a different kind of Easter egg.
 

First make rice crispy treats.

 

Make sure you wash the eggs first. And don't forget the jelly beans in the middle.



You have rice crispy Easter eggs filled with jelly beans.

Easter morning we didn't do anything special. We had been fairly busy the day before and I didn't want to worry about coloring eggs so we didn't. I didn't even make a special breakfast. We did have a small basket and some toys for Ellie.
 

She didn't want to stand since I was crouched.



Seriously, look at that cheese!

 Toys R Us had a sale of buy one, get on free on Fisher Price toys. So we cashed in a gift cert that Ellie got for her birthday and she was able to receive a shopping cart and a little people Noah's Ark. So far, great purchases.


What a cutie!

We did buy a ham (courtesy of WASCO and a Christmas gift cert) and had a traditional Easter meal with homemade rolls and everything. Now we have ham galore because 3 people just don't eat 9.5 pounds of ham.

And although we weren't able to read through the story, I did make an Easter Egg story of my very own. This is the scripture story of the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ broken into 12 parts, placed in plastic eggs with small tokens of the story in the egg as well. I can't decide if I want to make a second set with a Book of Mormon story or a kids version (not using direct scripture quotes).

I love Easter and have decided to make it more about Christ, even in decorations. Hobby Lobby had a Resurrection scene (like a nativity) and I would like to have pictures to put up dealing with Easter and its true meaning. Most of that will have to wait until after law school though. I hope that we all can remember the gifts we received on account that Easter happened so many years ago.

Ellie's funny saying

Ellie has started talking a little bit more and says some of the funniest things.  I don't think she understands the difference between "jes", "no", and "uh-uh" because no matter what you ask she always starts with "uh-uh" or "no". If she doesn't shake her head no, then she probably means yes so we ask "Yes?" If she wants it, then she'll say "jes" or if not she'll say "no" again. More often than not, she will just start saying "no, no, no, no, no". The best part, she has big pouty lips. 

No no no no no

If there is something that she wants, she'll start saying "Igeeit. Igeeit." over and over again until she got it.

She is very good at identifying animals sounds. She knows horse(hee hee), cow(moo), chicken(bawk), rooster(doodle-doo), sheep (baa), goat (blah), deer/moose/zebra*(blat), bear/tiger/lion/raccoon*(roar), dog(ruff), cat(maow), mouse/squirrel/chipmunk(geek), duck(cak, cak), chicks(peep), snake(ssss), fly(buz buz), bee(zzz), crow(a-aw), birds(weat, weat), owl(whoooo), elephant(bbphmf with trunk movement), monkey/gorilla*/chimp* (oh-oh), donkey(ha-ha), and maybe a few others. I know some of these aren't right but what does a zebra sound like? She is having a hard time learning "crack-a-lackin". If she doesn't know and we don't know, then she'll make up a sound for a creature that looks similar.

Today I tried to teach her to say our softball team name, Brown Chicken Brown Cow. It went like this.
Me: Ellie say Brown. 
Ellie: Brow
Me: Say Chicken
Ellie: Bawk
Me: Say Brown
Ellie: Brow
Me: Ellie say Cow
Ellie: Moo

Maybe we should work on saying actually animal names and not referring to them by their sound.

We also had a yes/no argument today about who knows what. She started with gibberish to which I replied, "Is that so?" She respond with "no" so I said "yes" and away it went.

She does understand quite a few other words and sometimes tries to say them. Some attempts are better than others.

Botanic Gardens Free Day

Here in Denver, the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) work with organizations to help promote learning and culture. These organizations offer days when admission is free. Last week, Denver Botanic Gardens was having their last free day until after the main season so we decided to go and take Stanley.

To me, the gardens are so fun to just walk around to enjoy and appreciate plants, trees, and flowers.  Something is always in bloom. The day was quite warm except for the wind but we still enjoyed it.


Tropical heat wave in the Tropical Conservatory.



Stanley, look at this pretty flower while Ellie cheeses the camera.

 

Ellie sitting among some orchids.

Do you know how hard it is to try to take a picture of an 18 month old smiling while looking at the camera when there are so many things going on around them?

Ellie loves smelling the flowers.

 Not only did we stop and smell most of the flowers but we spent some good time trying to tell Ellie that the squirrel could walk in the gardens, with the flowers, but that she couldn't. 

Look. A squirrel. Come here squirrel. I'm nice.

Because it is spring, there were only spring flowers out. Boy they were pretty. Sadly men just don't understand (and mostly because women can't explain it) why flowers make women happy, even if they aren't for us. We still like looking at them.

Stanley among double Daffodils.

Daffodils and tulips about the only flowers out in full bloom. The irises and some roses were still prepping to come out. There were still a bunch of them. The tulips came in many colors, some with smooth edges and some with frayed edges. I thought it was a great way to get into the "Springtime" spirit.


Stanley with the Tulips.



Starfest 2011 Denver

Get ready for StarFest 2011. A place for science fiction fanatics come out in droves to present their true feelings about reality by dressing up as SciFi characters.

(As a preface to this story, Jake works with the Young Men of our church but because the area is so close to the University of Denver our ward is not quite newlywed/nearly dead. It's more like young marrieds with kids under 4 and empty nesters. So what has happened is the primary, nursery and youth are combined from 2 wards but the adult classes are still separate.)

The bishop of the other ward works for a company that plans and prepares conventions of all kinds to come to Denver. So he allowed the Young Men, their leaders and the leaders' families to come see StarFest. Although I consider myself a "quiet" nerd (I like SciFi shows and learning interesting things about how life works but would collect memorabilia or wear costumes), I never imagined myself actually going to a SciFi convention. Secondly, I half believed that SciFi convention portrayed on movies or TV shows were typical over-dramatizations. I was wrong. I seriously think that we were 3 of maybe 10 people at this giant convention (a couple hundred to a thousand or more people) not dressed up or wearing a t-shirt with a SciFi design to it.

You could by collectibles of any kind (plates, posters, action figures, books, paintings, photographs, etc) for just about any SciFi genre out there (Star Trek, Star Wars, Supernatural, Harry Potter, Superman, etc) for any time (early shows and books to present). And there were costumes to go with it; Avatar, Sucker Punch, Storm Troopers, Sherlock Holmes (oddly enough), Klingons, etc. I didn't take any pictures of people dressed up but click here or here to see some photos.

I still enjoyed walking around and watching people interact and do their thing. Yes, I did laugh a ton at some of the stuff, especially chicks who acted like it was Halloween (an excuse to wear something slutty). For an extra charge, participants could pay to meet SciFi people; the chick from the TV show V, the guy who played "Crowly" from Supernatural, the guy who played "Chewbacca" the Wookie (who in real life is pretty scary looking), and other people I didn't know.

It was funny to see the creative things people would make to sell.  One of my favorites were generations paintings from the Star Trek shows (Original, Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and 2 or 3 others) with either all the captains, first mates, Klingons, medical doctors, engineering guys, etc. They were really good.

Ellie met R2D2

 

Jake and Ellie with the robot from Lost in Space. Danger Will Robinson.

There were 2 robots from Lost in Space. One for show and this one was plugged into a computer so one of the guys working there could type sentences and the robot would say them. Ellie thought that was great, especially when he asked her name and how old she was.
 

Ellie coloring an award at the World of Wizardry.

This wasn't only promoting Harry Potter but a new, more SciFi type novel about wizards.
 

Here are your Star Wars bad guys.



Yes, these guys are fighting with pretend Klingon something or others.



Room decorating contest

Since this took place at the Marriott, here's a look up at the room's from inside the courtyard. They were numbered so I'm assuming there was a contest of some sort.  

Check out the new and improved Ghostbuster car.

They also had the Jurassic Park jeep.  In the next hotel down, was the comic book portion of the convention. We just glanced at the stuff there. Some of the most interesting parts of the comic books were the newer artists who were trying to make a name for themselves and showing off their artwork.

If I had the money, I would definitely go to these things more often. It was just kinda fun to see all the people and do awesome people watching. Yes, also I am a nerd.

Grandma Wendy's Visit (days 4 and 5)

Day 4 of my mom's visit was Sunday so it was mostly a stay at home and relax day. Ellie did enjoy having Grandma come to nursery with her. My mom almost packed up one of the kids to take home because his parents were late in picking him up and he looks almost identical to my brother-in-law's, Devin's, baby picture. She figured that Calee and Devin could pass him off as their own.

We enjoyed some nice fish (halibut) and chips (homemade french fries) for dinner. I just thought my mom would enjoy some fresh (-ish) fish from Alaska since as kids none of us really ate fish and doesn't have the opportunity to eat it as often as she'd like sometimes.

Monday we drove out to Colorado Mills, our huge outlet mall. It was time to do some shopping.  We looked at clothes for Ellie, swimsuit for my mom (she was arriving home in Utah just to leave in 3 days for California), and just walk around. I like this mall with its wide halls and different stores, not to mention its an indoor outlet so its a little easier to shop in the winter.

We ate Panda for lunch because Ellie loves the noodles. We had to sit a one of the little kid tables they have so we could be near the carousel. Of course Ellie convinced grandma that she needed a ride, after Ellie snuck in the exit to the ride. We got on and Ellie choose her horse and the ride started. After about 10 seconds she wanted off. So I had her watch for Grandma Wendy each time we would go around. She giggled each time Grandma would pass because we would say BOO!


Not to sure about this, until we would pass Grandma.

We got some good shopping in. Ellie fell asleep, which was good, but then we came to the Build-a-bear workshop. They had these cute spring lambs and if you spent a specific amount then you received a free Easter basket. So we made Ellie a lamb. We wanted to have her record a "baa" sound but she was still asleep.

We timed things so well that we left the mall, drove home to pick up my mom's stuff, and made it to the airport so she could fly home without much waiting. It's always sad when our visitors have to leave. Ellie asks for them for a few days after, but we make sure to have a good time while they are here.

Thanks for visiting Grandma Wendy. We love you. 

Grandma Wendy's Visit (day 4)

Saturday was a busy day for us. We woke up early, filled up with gas, put air in the tires and drove down to Colorado Springs.

Our first stop, the Cadet Chapel at Air Force Academy. Ellie and I have visited here before but Jake and my mom hadn't so we had a quick tour of the building. It was a sunny day but windy.


Ellie and I inside the Protestant (top) part of the Chapel.

This picture is no flash and it is all natural light coming in through the stained glass windows. You can see the 1 or 2 lights on at the bend in the ceiling. 

Holding on to Stanley for dear life.



The Chapel from outside.

It was so windy outside and for some reason, it really bothered Ellie. So after our quick stop, on to a new adventure; the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. They have a mountaineer sky ride and a large giraffe herd, so I was a little excited. Once at the zoo, we found out their special exhibit was naked mole rats. Can I say wow?

As you enter the first thing you come to is the giraffe herd.



Ellie is a little taken with the giraffe.

Ellie was super excited to see the giraffes this close. Then we noticed that you could buy food and feed the giraffes. So of course we had to do it. 



Yes, Ellie did really feed the giraffe by herself.

Jake had his own way of feeding the giraffes.

He tried a few more times and finally one was able to "lick" the cracker out of his mouth. In the video (on Jake's phone) it looks like the giraffe licks him, but he claims the giraffe tongue never touched him.

Please, sir, may I have some more.

There were around 15 giraffes that I counted in this enclosure.

We walked around and saw some other animals (wild hogs, monkeys, and a few others) and then ate lunch. After lunch, we looked at some small animals (insects and reptiles) but then decided try to ride the sky ride before it got shut down because of wind or whatever. It was basically a ski lift.  It moved really slow though.  Ellie actually seemed to like it, except when the wind howled past. We couldn't tell if it was because the wind was chilly, it shook the lift, or she didn't like the strong wind in her face.    

Look out at the top of the Sky ride, looking out towards Colorado Springs. 

There wasn't much up top as the ride could be accessed from inside the zoo or as a ride without zoo entrance. They had some Mongol huts, picnic tables, a small playground, and concessions. There was also this circle, cement room with about 12 foot walls covered in rock climbing grips.

I want to climb just like daddy.

Look at me go. Thanks for the lift, daddy.

We didn't stay up there long before riding back down. Then the real animal watching happened. We went to the primate house and saw the gorillas (there was a baby), the orangutans, and various other monkeys. This is also where they placed naked mole rats. We met another flat Stanley from Missouri and took their pictures together. Ellie was really tired at this point and acted scared of the big primates.

We then walked passed some hippopotami. The next enclosure had a moose with turkeys. When the turkeys gobbled, she giggled and mimicked them.

Brave Stanley standing so close to a porcupine sleeping in a tree.

Continuing on, we saw some river otters (one was swimming in circles, literally), cougars (who where just having a meal as we arrived), bears, leopards, tigers, and more.  The cougars, they gave one a snack to separate the 2 animals so they could feed them inside different cages. The workers said they have to feed them away from people and away from each other because they can become violent while eating.

Grandma, Ellie and mommy pretending to be bears. RRRAAWWWRR!



Look. Mommy tiger and baby tiger.

 

Help, I'm stuck.

Silly Ellie stuck her head all the way through and wouldn't let us help her pull it out, so it hurt her a little. We walked past the Wallabies just as they were being moved from their outside habitat to their indoor enclosure. The zoo helper was struggling with a stubborn wallaby who just didn't want to go inside. About that time, we started seeing peacocks. After standing next to them for about a minute, they would just open up. It was cool but a little creepy.

Let me show you how gorgeous I am.

We walked around and saw the elephants, who will be receiving a new habitat shortly, and some weird looking animals that looked like a mix between a giraffe and a zebra. It was about time to leave after that. We really had a good time. I think it was a fun zoo.


On our way to dinner, Ellie fell asleep in the car, of course. So we took an extra drive to kill time and allow her to sleep. We decided to go to the Garden of the Gods and let Stanley have his picture taken at Balanced Rock. Maybe one day, we will head to Garden of the Gods to actually walk around, hike, and maybe rock climb.

Jake helped Stanley climb up.

We stopped by Pikes Peak and Manitou Springs. Mostly it was just to show my mom what a cute little town it is and stop off at this little bath shop. While we were in the shop, Ellie woke up so we headed for dinner.  We ate at the BBQ place just outside of Manitou that we ate at last time we were down in the area.

It was a long but very fun day.

Extra pics

These are some extra pictures I forgot were on my phone when I posted about the past days' visit.

Ellie super excited about helping with trains. Silly girl, no monkeys on the table.

 

This we took for my dad. The grand kids call him Poppy.