Weekend Adventure

With the long weekend, the boys out of school, Ricky in NYC for a convention and Grandma Tutu in town, it was the perfect recipe for fun adventurous weekend. The first day we took the boys bowling.  Logan did quite well with the bumpers and ramp while Lincoln tried his luck at just using the bumpers. My favorite part of the entire day was watching the boys be so kind and encouraging to each other as they took their turns bowling. They would give each other high five's, hug, congratulate each other on great throws, etc.  It was so nice to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  They do really love each other. It gave me a glimpse of what I hope the future will be like between the two of them. I've tried to instill in the them (since they were babies) that brothers are best friends. Since our little family of four is complete, they are all they've got so it's important to me that they grow up being close to each other. It was a memory I won't soon forget.

We had beautiful weather for the weekend and wanted to make the most of it so we headed out to the east side of the valley to see what fun exploring we could do.
Our first stop was south of Casa Grande at an ostrich farm.  It's somewhere I've wanted to take the boys for a while but we never really made a point of going until now. The big draw was the 45 minute monster truck tour that the boys were so excited about.  We started out by feeding some of the animals in the petting zoo like the donkeys and deer before we headed off on our tour.  The actual tour itself was a lot of fun but it was educational also. We learned a lot about the ostriches and the desert plant life. We did get a bumpy ride over some good size ditches and bumps which brought a nice blanket of dirt over us at each turn. The boys could hardly contain their laughter and excitement every time the driver stepped on the gas. During our tour we also got to hold an ostrich egg and touch a dead frozen rattle snack and rattle.
Once our truck ride was complete we finished with feeding the animals at the petting zoo.  The thing that turned out to be the favorite for all of us was feeding the parakeets. We held a small cup of necor in our hands and the birds would land on our arms, take the lid off the plastic container and begin to drink the nectar until there wasn't a drop left.  At times Lincoln had up to three birds on his arm and Logan had one land on his head.  They were both very brave to try something new like this and it was a memorable experience for us all.

 Logan feeding the donkeys. 

 Feeding the deer. 

 With Tutu on the monster truck ride. 

 Ostrich fishing...really just feeding the ostriches oranges from a rope. 

 Both boys were brave and touched the rattle snake. 

 The is the monster truck we rode on. 

 Feeding the goats in the penthouse by turning the conveyer belts that took buckets of food to them. 

 Feeding the goats in the wall. 

 Feeding the ostriches. I have to admit I was very worried about one of the boys getting pecked but they were both very careful and aware of their surroundings. 

Lincoln was pretty quick to jump in and want to feed the birds. I think he was nervous for a second but he caught on pretty quickly as to what was going to happen.

 Logan was quite nervous but I could tell he wanted to try and was being brave. There's a certain level of trust that you can see in your children where you know they aren't quite sure what's going to happen but they trust that you're taking care of them and that all will work out. There was a bit of that at first but after the bird landed on his arm and realized that it was just drinking from the cup he tried really hard to stay still and let it eat.  It was adorable.  By far my favorite part of the day. 

Later that night we went swimming at the hotel which the boys loved, particularly Lincoln who might have been a fish in a previous life. {smile} We had a good night's sleep before embarking on our next adventure. The next day we visited Butterfly Wonderland.  The center is new the AZ within the last year and we had never been.  We started with a laser maze race and a mirror maze.  I was surprised at how much the boys loved both of these activities. We then watched a 15 minute 3D movie about butterflies before see several different exhibits including bumble bees, fish, scorpions and a massive room filled with 2,500 different species of butterflies that we got to walk through. It was another day filled with fun, excitement and learning. 

Logan 

Tutu with the boys outside of the laser maze.  

 Logan and Lincoln inside the mirror maze. We had to wear gloves to help keep the mirrors free from fingerprints. 

 Lincoln inside the mirror maze. 

 Waiting for the movie to start. 

 Lincoln knows daddy doesn't like bees so he wanted to take this picture for him so that we could text it to daddy in NYC. 

 A butterfly landed right next to Lincoln. 

Lincoln tried hard to be very quiet and still so that a butterfly would land on him. Unfortunately it didn't happen and by this time in the day Logan's patience had run out so it was time to go.