The Last Week of Summer Break

It is our last week of summer break and we're trying to pack in the FUN! We used up our last Groupon to Remlinger Farms and spent another day at their amusement park.

Our next day's adventure was the Reptile Zoo with our buddies, Jamal and Jelina. Here's Evan with the python - the size of this snake is unreal!

Ellena enjoyed holding the snakes, especially this corn snake.

We brought Rocko the Iguana out. We were warned that he tends to pee when he comes out, and sure enough, he let loose! Thankfully, he went on the bench that he was on, and not on us!

We had one more adventure planned, but Evan caught a little cold, so we took it easy instead. Tomorrow we go to both schools for their Open House/Meet the Teacher gatherings!

Summertime Pics

Summer has been great to us! Sunny weather and fun-filled days! Here are the kids at a very elaborate putt putt golf course. Evan had golf camp earlier this summer and enjoyed that. He loved putt putt. We found a $5 kids Nike putter at a garage sale so he makes intricate courses in the backyard.

I probably have a few pictures of this - every time we go to the Sammamish Farmers Market, Ellena insists that I take a picture of them on this sculpture.

Kids met Clifford at the Market. What a treat!

We went to Point Defiance Zoo and fed the birds.

A few more adventures coming up this week and then it's time to go back to school!

Reptile Zoo

Our second time to the Reptile Zoo and the kids loved it. We were a little worried because we got there at the same time as a YMCA camp, but they didn't stay long and we got to roam around the zoo at our own pace. You can handle a couple of the smaller snakes for free, but pay a little to bring out other reptiles - most people choose the baby alligator. However, Ellena is not a fan of the baby alligator, so we asked if there was another reptile that could come out instead. They said the iguana or the skink, but both tend to pee when they come out. Another family brought out the iguana, and sure enough, it peed! We were next with Bert the blue tongue skink. I got to hold him with some paper towels, in case he started to go. We quickly took our pictures and enjoyed our time with Bert, and he didn't pee on us!!!

It was a beautiful sunny day, so they had the tortoise garden open. Turns out they open the panel in the tortoise pen so that if they would like to walk out to the garden, they can. It's got some grass to eat and an enclosed area for the smaller tortoises. We didn't see that on the first visit, so this was very fun for the kids. We're going to make one more trip back to the zoo before summer is over.

Our Day at the Circus

The circus came to town! We surprised the kids with tickets to the Barnum Bash (you know that drove Evan crazy - not knowing what we were doing/where we were going.) Throughout the day we gave them vague clues - we told them we were going on an adventure, it was going to be fun, it would take about 45 minutes in the car to get there...

What is neat about this performance is that an hour before every show, they have a free pre-show, where you can go backstage and see the animals, watch mini-performances, and interact with the clown and other performers. The kids got in the limbo line but declined the dance party :) They tried balancing peacock feathers on their fingers and shoes and also got to see the unicyclers and elephant up close and personal. The time flew and before we knew it, it was time to take our seats!

All of the acts were great, but here are some of the cooler pics I got. Duo Fusion was amazing because unlike most balancing acts, the girl did most of the heavy lifting!

One of my favorite parts of the show - the Elephants! They are adorable and so well trained. There were protesters outside of the venue when we entered, but it's not like we were going to change our mind about going to the circus at that point.

We all enjoyed our day at the circus. When we were walking back to the car after the show, Ellena asked me, "So where are we going next on our adventure???" Oh goodness, that was it, girly!

Giant Slide

Today we went to Kidz Bounce. They have a giant slide there that Ellena has been afraid of during previous visits. Today, she went straight to the giant slide to conquer her fear. She went down the first time by herself and was a little overwhelmed with how quickly she went down. The video clip is of her second attempt - this time with Evan. She did much better and he was really encouraging. After that, she loved the slide and went down it many times! Hooray for brave girls and supportive brothers!