Walking With Dinosaurs!

We took Lincoln to see Walking with Dinosaurs, the Live Experience today! And it was so worth the wait. (We actually bought the tickets back in October, because we had heard how great the show was and how fast the tickets go. So it seems like we have been waiting forever for today to come!) The dinosaurs were so lifelike and so huge! We didn't pay top dollar for the tickets, so were near the top of the bottom level, and it was still easy to see everything. Although I think it would have been really cool to be right next to the rail were you could look eye to eye with the Dinosaurs.

Lincoln was pretty much glued from the moment the show started, he got a little antsy at the end, but the mommy T-Rex gained his full attention again. She was huge and loud!! Or perhaps it was the toy that Nana bought that gained his full attention! :) It is a light up spinning dinosaur wand thingie. And he loves it! You should have seen his smile when we got it out of the bag for him! He was so happy!!

The one thing we wish might have been a little different, is the fact that all the dinosaur scenes had some type of conflict and/or fighting among the dinosaurs. Yes, we agree that was probably how it was, but could we not have just given us a glimpse of what they might have been like without that. But overall, we all had a great time. It was truly amazing what they did with those dinosaurs.

Touch-A-Truck Experience

Now the name is a little weird, but the event was great. Basically, they bring tons of large vehicles together in one place and let the kids have free reign of them. I guess they have done it in years past, but we had never heard of it before. The only reason we knew about it this year was a flyer we picked up at Mirabelli. It sounded pretty cool, so we decided to take Lincoln. It was held in the parking lot of the New Orleans Arena, and they probably had 75 or more different types of big vehicles. Everything from a big Diesel truck to a fire engine. The kids were allowed to drive, push buttons, honk horns, climb on, run though, and touch pretty much every part of the vehicle that they wanted to. They even got a chance to spray water both from the top of a water truck and from a fire engine.
There was tons to see, so we basically let Lincoln guide us through the displays. He liked the big rigs and had a great time running through the trailer of one of the trucks, but his favorite things were the buses. He couldn't get enough of the different buses. There was a tour bus, a city bus, and a very colorful school bus. He had a great time running up and down the aisles, jumping from one seat to the next, and driving them. Here he is driving the city bus! It was hard to get him to give up his position as the driver, but he did pretty good taking turns. :)

The Tunnel

If you read my previous post you know I am pretty much annoyed with all the construction around here. But there is one postive thing that has come of it, Lincoln has a tunnel to play in! Right now there are about 60 giant concrete square pipe pieces all laid out in a row a mere half block from the house. We took him down to see the work that was being done and then let him run through the pipes. He loved it! He probably could have stayed there all afternoon. At the time the tunnel went almost entirely down the street, so we got a pretty good workout. I was a little worried, as there was a small crack between each pipe, but he had no problem navigating his way over these small obstacles!
There was also an access ladder he climbed up and down, and that this Daddy scared him through more than once! (Justin was on the outside of the pipes -as he could not walk upright on the inside and it was starting to crick his neck- and he would run ahead to the opening and then yell as Lincoln arrived!)
I then decided it would be nice to use the timer to take a family picture, but once Lincoln saw this awesome feat of technology. He wouldn't let me take a picture using the normal method. He would make me put the camera down and set the timer to take his picture! :) We did this over and over again, but we did get some pretty good pictures!

Petition to Change Nevada State Tree

Okay so if you don't know the current state tree of Nevada is the bristlecone pine. They grow in high elevations, generally right below the tree line. Because of cold temperatures, dry soils, high winds, and short growing seasons, the trees grow very slowly. Due to the harsh conditions they live in they are usually small and contorted. The wood is very dense and is thus resistant to attacks of bugs or fungi. Due to these factors they are not very plentiful, but are considered to be one of the oldest single living organisms, one has even been dated to be 4,789 years old! So yes, this sounds like a pretty cool tree. The problem is, no one ever sees one, there is not much first hand knowledge of this specimen with the citizens of Nevada.
My suggestion for a new tree is the well known, it can be seen every where, they seem to go up in seconds and are around for what seems like 4,000 years. They come in varying sizes and seem to multiply at a moments notice. They can be enjoyed by everyone throughout the city and probably the state for that matter, although my first hand knowledge is limited to Las Vegas. They are resilient and can rebound from direct hits quickly and are easily moved from location to location without any damage to the from itself. The colors are bright and generally hard to miss, unless of course they have been moved into inappropriate places. I think my choice of replacing the Bristlecone with the Traffic Cone is a good one and I hope you are all with me. Because it's the only thing that might make all this craziness around town, a little bit easier!

Okay, if you can't tell I'm completely annoyed with the amount of road construction in this town. Every time I turn around more cones have gone up. Now in general this would not bother me, but I never seem to see anyone working in this areas that have been closed off to traffic. If you are going to close it off, at least make it look like you are doing something.

What can they come up with next?

This is not an illusion, it truly is a giant birthday cake. My sister somehow got roped into creating "decorations" for the Cub Scout Blue & Gold dinner last night, even though she is not on the Cub Committee. All she knew was that the theme was a birthday party and that it was celebrating 100 years of scouting. She wasn't really sure what she was going to do until Tuesday, when she thought it might be fun to make a giant birthday cake. So of course with one day notice and thought my Mom and Sister were able to build this cake using supplies that they already had. And just as a side note the top tier rotated! Now although I did go and help them complete the masterpiece, the creativity was all theirs.

It's pretty scary isn't it!

Boys will be Boys

My boys went camping this weekend and left me to fend for myself. (Which I must say led to a very relaxing couple of hours!) And from what I can tell they had a great time themselves. They went out to the dry lake beds yesterday afternoon and came back right around noon this afternoon, so it wasn't a very long trip. But they filled the time they had with friends, food, and fun. It was a pretty large group that ended up going. I believe this is a list of those that went; Justin & Lincoln, John, Rydman, & Cutler Terry, Allen, Tyler, Matthew, & Micheal Weinand, Lars, Henry, & Jack Larsen, and Clark Orme.
According to Justin Lincoln had a good time. A few melt downs, but overall he did really well. Justin took his Big Wheel so Lincoln rode all over the dry lake bed on it. He also spent a lot of his time with Micheal. And he managed to only fall into one Mud Puddle. (The boys were a little afraid the dry lake bad would not be dry considering the amount of rain we have gotten in the last few weeks. But I guess the skies have been clear enough to let a large majority of the space to dry out)
When they finally made it home today, Lincoln was a mess. He was so dirty! His face was covered with dirt! I hope Justin just did not wipe it because he wanted to show me how dirty he was, but if it had been me I could not have left his face like that very long! :) But I guess dirt is just a part of camping out!

See My Pretty Flowers!

What a great husband I have :)