Teeny Lizard

Spot the lizard!

The other day, I went outside to throw something in the compost pile and I spied a very small lizard in a plant right next to our house. So, naturally, I got Peter to come out and we observed it, and the tried (and succeeded) catching it and holding it.

Tiny lizard in my haaaand
(name that song- lyrics changed slightly)

Running up my arm!

 It didn't seem to be too worried of us. It would climb right into our hands. It was a really jumpy little thing. Peter decided to call it a frog lizard because it was so good at jumping. Whenever it would get to the edge (of your hand/arm/plant) it would just catapult its little body off and land wherever it hit.

Peter and the lizard

He's good at catching them.

Exciting day right there. Peter isn't scared of anything. The other day he caught a lizard and its tail fell off. He thought that was the coolest thing and carried a wiggling detached tail around for a bit, showing everyone. Sometimes I think he is braver than I am...learned that from his Dad.

The Critters of the 17 Acre Woods

A couple of things I'd forgotten about life in the south- it's humid, and bugs. There are so many more living things that we get to see on a regular basis. Some of them I love, and some of them I really really do not love. They frequently get into my house. Sometimes they get in because Peter brings them in, and sometimes they find their own way. It's exciting.

Lizards and Toads

These are some of Peter's favorite critters. We saw a lizard on the window one of the first days we lived here, and have since seen them most days. They hang out on the side of the house, the fence and the shed. Peter tries to catch them, but when they move he gets nervous and freezes and they get away. Jonathan caught one the other day and Peter held it for a second before it escaped. Then, the next time Jonathan tried to catch it, the lizard bit him. So, now Peter always asks if it's a biting lizard. 

Spot the lizard!

Peter has also discovered toads, and he is better at catching them. The other day he surprised Grandpa with a bucket of toads that he has caught with Jonathan. So then, a couple days later, Grandpa came to our door with a toad in a bucket for Peter. Grandpa handed it to Peter, and it got loose, which happens frequently. But this time, it jumped through our open front door and into the living room, behind the dryer. Grandpa got it out, but it was an exciting couple of minutes. Haha. Then, Peter was playing with the same toad outside for a few minutes, and it got away from him and escaped through the fence. Peter started sobbing. He wanted to keep the toad forever. Poor little guy. Luckily there are always more toads. 

The Crawling Ones

Peter is also expert at finding inchworms, caterpillars, roly polys and earthworms. He pronounced it Anchworm for a while, but he's got it now. He keeps asking me if they can be his pet. He tries to convince me that they like to be in the house because they don't like the wind. Not a good enough reason. So, they always get to live in the plant by the door. He's put at least ten inchworms in that planter. He's also killed a number of inchworms, on accident. He'll say, "Mom. He not crawling. Why he not crawling?!" So we've had many talks about how they have soft bodies and we need to be really careful with them and let them crawl onto a finger and not be picked up. I think they have a higher survival rate now. 

One of Peter's pets he brought me.

Caterpillars have been a more recent find. They were confusing to Peter at first. He asked, "Mom, what's this?" I told him, "It's a caterpillar." Peter replied with, "But it's not green!" I'm not sure why he felt it had to be green, maybe because the inchworms were green? But he finally accepted that they were indeed caterpillars. One day, Peter found one and let it crawl up his arm as he walked to the mailbox with Jonathan. When they got home, Peter said with a sad voice, "Mom. I lost the caterpillar." Jonathan just smiled and told Peter to turn around. The caterpillar had crawled up his sleeve (the outside), and around his torso and was on the side of his shirt by his other arm. He was thrilled to learn it wasn't lost, and added it to the plant, where all the crawling bugs live. 

Bug boy with his caterpillar 

The Flying Ones...with Stingers
One less fun critter we find on the regular are wasps and bees. I find and kill at least 4-5 wasps per week inside our house. I think they are getting in the eaves of the roof and coming though the pull down attic door. Sometimes they get in because the front door is open, but we find them most often in our closet where the attic door is. The first one that came into the house flew up to the top beams in our living room which is far higher than I (or anyone else- 20 feet, or so, ceiling) can reach. I called my mom to see if she had any wasp spray. Luckily she did, and she came over with it. I kept an eye on said wasp with a shoe in my hand, ready in case he came down lower. He was not going to hurt my babies. My mom arrived with spray in hand, I threw a sheet over our couch so it wouldn't get covered on spray fall out, and I shot that wasp dead. I kept the spray and have since used up the whole can and bought a second one. Peter has gotten used to it and he'll spot them for me, or if he sees me go for the spray can he says, "Where's the wasp mom?!"

As of recent, we have had a new variety of wasp come visit us. These new guys are HUGE. They are probably the length of my thumb and they do not die easily. I have to spray them a bunch of times. And their faces look angry. They creep me out. My mom thinks they are European wasps. We've had three so far get into the house. I've killed two and Jonathan got one. We have learned that Jonathan stays a lot calmer than I do when one is in the house. We'd run out of spray when the last one got in. I kept the boys in our bedroom while Jonathan threw an empty salt container at the wasp to get him down from the beam, and then, wielding a poster tube, he managed to hit the wasp against the window and kill it. Goodness. It's been exciting.

The Birds

One of the more fun flying things we see are cool birds. There is a pond on the property and we get some cool visitors. So far we have had ducks, geese, hawks, turkey vultures, lots of cute little birds and a pair of blue herons. My dad doesn't want the geese there, so he always chases them away. Peter saw him once, and since then Peter asks about different types of birds, "Grandpa want these ones?" Haha, he's keeping an eye out for Grandpa. The herons are by far our favorites. They are beautiful. They fly in, land and stalk fish in the pond. We've seen the heron catch fish from time to time. 

Not the best picture, but you can see him a little on the bottom edge of the pond.

Snake Scare

Peter and I went out to get the laundry in from the line and I looked down and saw a little snake! I almost stepped on it. I wasn't sure what kind it was, but I know we have copperheads and other poisonous snakes out here. So, I snapped a photo and sent it to my dad. I called and asked if he thought it was a copperhead or if it was safe. He wasn't sure from the picture (fair, I didn't get too close when I took it), so he came over with my brother to look/kill it. I kept an eye on it as it slithered along, and let Peter look at it, at a safe distance until they arrived. My dad wasn't sure if it was dangerous or not, but we decided it was a "better safe than sorry" situation. They killed the snake, and Peter cried. We took turns explaining to him that it could have hurt him and that we were trying to keep him safe, but he was still sad for a little while. We haven't seen any other snakes since that one, but our neighbor, Graham, said he saw a snake swimming across the pond...so they are there. 

Baby snake

Mice and Squirrels

Just over a month ago, I found a bunch of mouse poops on the counter. I told Jonathan I thought we had a mouse and he informed me that he'd seen one, that very morning! He saw it run under the couch! And then he and Peter tried to find it, but it disappeared! And he didn't tell me! Gah! So, we set a trap, and caught it! But, then when we had the Wheatleys and Olsons over during General Conference weekend, they said they heard some scratching behind the oven! Jonathan pulled the oven out and sure enough, mouse holes and Jonathan saw a mouse running back into the hole! Gah! So, we reset the traps, and caught two more mice. Jonathan blocked up the holes, and we haven't seen anymore. Soooo, hopefully we are done with the mice. 

About a week after the mice issue had calmed down, I heard more scratching...above. Jonathan and I had both seen a squirrel climbing up and down a pole outside our kitchen window. I mentioned to my Dad that I thought we might have had a squirrel living in the ceiling. Then, the next day, I for sure heard that squirrel. He was running back and forth. It was pretty loud, and I was a little worried that the squirrel would fall through one of the roof panels and into the house! Peter was sleeping in his room, but Ezra and I were in the living room. I grabbed Ezra and went into our room, just in case the squirrel did fall into the living room. I called the 'rents, and let them know that there was indeed something running around in our attic space. I heard him once again after that time, but I haven't heard anything since then. Dad said he read that squirrels didn't like nesting in loud places, so Peter's noise levels may have been a blessing in us not having a squirrel roommate. 

So, that's the critters we've met recently. Toads, lizards, snakes, creeping bugs, flying bugs, birds, mice, and squirrels. We've also had tons of spiders in the house, fire ants outside the house, I found a caterpillar in our closet last week, dragonflies got into the house twice and there are 3 bumble bees that live in holes by our front door. Good times. There have been many times I've questioned moving here, especially during the mice and squirrel incidents. I've learned that although I grew up in the country, I am not a country girl. I am not a lover of creepy bugs or things that can hurt my kids. But, then I remember the herons and how Peter's face lights up when he finds an inchworm and how he is learning about so many different things and then I'm okay with it. Although I'd love to find a way to keep them all outside. Haha.

Play Day with Aunt Melanie

In late June, my mom's sister, Melanie, was in town (she lives in Colorado, and I haven't seen her for years) and wanted to get together. We decided The Living Planet Aquarium would be the best place to go to avoid the triple digit temperatures, and it was a perfect halfway point for us to meet up. Melanie drove up from Provo with my sister, Allison, and her little baby, Olivia. 

We started out in the fish area. There are a couple of touch pools, and we all got to touch starfish and rays. Peter loved them. The rays especially were happy for company and would swim up close to the edge and let Peter touch them. He thought they were the best. We saw jellyfish, shrimp, and tons of colorful fish. They also had a shark tunnel in this area. We walked though a huge tunnel aquarium and saw tons of sharks, turtles, fish, sting rays and brightly colored coral. 

Robin and Peter in front of the big fish tank

This shark was just hanging out on top of the tunnel

Coral, fish and a shark

The tank was about 4x this size!

After we saw the main fish aquarium area, we went and saw some otters and animals of Utah. There were lots of freshwater fish and some ducks. The otters were pretty fun. They were swimming around like crazy, back and forth and back and forth. After the Utah section we went to find the penguins.

Peter just saw this as I was writing the blog
and he said, "Look, Peter on Orca!!"

When he saw this one, he exclaimed, "Look, Orca and Baby 'livia"
Peter, and Olivia (cousins) riding the orca with Aunt Melanie

Peter liked the penguins, but they weren't terribly active, so they didn't keep his attention for too long. Some of the penguins were walking along and collecting rocks and taking them back to their nest. The rest of them were just taking it easy.

Peter and the Penguin

After the penguins, we went to the South American part of the aquarium. There we saw toucans, colorful frogs, an electric eel, an anaconda, cool fish and a caiman. Peter was beginning to be done with the museum. He still loved the animals, but he was more interested in running free and playing with anything. But, we had seen all of the big things we wanted to see, so it was pretty good timing.

These ropes were more fun than any of the animals he saw.

"Near, far wherever you are..."

We stopped by the gift shop on the way out and Aunt Melanie got Peter the coolest octopus t-shirt and a pink octopus that he loves. Initially, he found a stuffed octopus animal that was his size, and it was cool, but big, and we knew we were moving soon. Then, he spotted the little pink one, and said, "Oooo baby tiny op-a-tus!" So, we decided the small one would be a better fit for us now. He found it today and said, "Oh! My op-a-tus! And I touch starfish and ray!" So, he totally remembers this trip to see the animals. Aunt Melanie also bought us a cool cutting board with a turtle wood-burned into it! It's neat and the perfect size for cutting apples/oranges/any other fruit Peter feels like eating.

After the aquarium, we went out for lunch at Texas Roadhouse. The littles did pretty good and we ate some great food. After lunch, Melanie wanted to take us out shopping, but we had a small problem of what to do with our food left over from lunch. After a bit of discussion, it was decided to run to a gas station and buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler, and a couple bags of ice so the food wouldn't go bad. I ran to the store while Melanie and Allison watched the little ones. The people working the gas station were super great and just used ice from the ice machine instead of having me buy a bag of ice. And, the cooler came in super handy when we moved a couple weeks ago. After sorting out the food, and getting it all packed in ice, we headed to the mall.

Melanie was the best at the mall, pretty much she said, go pick some things and I'm paying. It was beautiful. We're trying to save up right now for a house (someday we won't be renting!) and a second car, so we don't really spend money on clothes unless it's a second hand place where I can get something for really cheap. And even then, it's only if it's something we've been looking for, or if it's a really good deal- we found Jonathan a great button-up shirt and it was exactly what he's been wanting for months, but way cheaper, and we also found him a grey sports coat which fit him perfect! (This never happens for him at second hand places- at least not with jackets, so it was a fantastic find.) Anyway, it was fun to buy things at a mall that had multiple sizes of things and you weren't searching through racks of stuff to hope to find something in the color and size and shape, etc that you want. It was fun to just ignore price tags, which is something I never do. And it was just really fun to hang out with my Aunt and sister and have some girl time. I didn't have any worries and Peter was being excellent. It was lots of fun. We had a great day all day!

Finally though, it was time to head home. Peter fell asleep for most of the ride home and Jonathan was home from work by the time we got home. It was fun to have a play day with my Aunt and sister. The aquarium was wonderful, and lunch and shopping were an extra treat! It was great to get out of the house and do so many fun things in one day. Peter loved meeting his Aunt Melanie and he loved seeing his Aunt Allison and the baby. He still talks about the aquarium and the things we did there, so I'd say the day was a huge success for him too!

Peter and his octopus aquarium shirt a few day after.

This Is The Place and the Baby Animals!

Back in May, Jonathan had off work for Memorial Day, and we decided to plan something and have a family trip day. Jonathan's Aunt Glinnea had told us back in April about Baby Animal Days, at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. This Is The Place is a pioneer village where there are old cabins, schools, blacksmith, carpenter, a tepee, candy shop, panning for gold, a train, and tons of other things. Peter loves animals, and even though we couldn't make it when the babies were actually little, we still thought he would love seeing the farm animals. 

We went with Aunt Glinnea, and it was a great day! When we arrived, we first walked over to the barn and animals area. We saw some goats and chickens in one of the smaller pens. Peter was in love with them. We talked about how you need to touch them carefully and be soft, and he did great!

Peter and Aunt Glinnea meet the goat.

 We also saw a bull, who was very content to just lay and watch everyone. Then Jonathan stood in line for the pony rides while I kept Peter entertained near the pony ride area until it was his turn. Glinnea and I found an area of a little older than baby, but still cute, chickens. Glinnea caught one and held it while Peter petted it. Peter was a little tentative, but also thought it was fantastic.

Peter and the little chicken

 After not too long of a wait, it was Peter's turn to ride the pony. Jonathan walked around with him, and Peter loved it. He's ready to be a cowboy.

Peter and Jonathan with their horse

 After we'd seen all of the farm animals, we walked around and saw a couple of the shops, but then decided to catch the "train" that drove around the entire place so we could better decide where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. The train conductor was quite hilarious and good at keeping everyone interested in her tour. She talked about all the different buildings and we made mental notes of the places we didn't want to miss seeing.

Peter riding the train

 After the train, we went to a couple of shops and did the activities they had. Many of the shops had little things the kids could make, and with the entrance ticket, we each had a bracelet with 3 boxes on them. We could choose any 3 things we wanted to do. We first stopped by the tepee and Peter made an arrowhead necklace (he chose 6 colored beads and strung them on a necklace with the arrowhead already tied onto it, simple, but he loved that it was his). Then, we stopped and got some fresh made donuts- not a box on the bracelet, and you had to buy them, but they were pretty tasty. After getting a little treat we headed up the road to the leather man. At that shop, Peter got a little piece of leather, and borrowed a mallet and the metal punches and got to make whatever design he wanted. He had a little dangerous aim with the mallet, but was successful in not injuring anyone.

After those stops, we headed up the road towards the area when we could pan for gold. We stopped at shops along the way and learned about early medicine, woodwork and some of the early settlers in that area. We also saw a mill with a water wheel. There were some pretty neat things. Then, we made it to the section where they had the gold and rocks. But, we first got sidetracked by this tiny little train that rode around the pond. You had to check off one of the boxes to ride the train, but we had boxes to spare, since we didn't make an arrowhead necklace or leather patch. So, Peter had about 3 rounds of the pond before we went to the mines.

Peter and Jonathan on the teeny train.

Coming down the track and checking out the views.

 After the train, we went to learn about rocks and pan for gold. It took Peter a little bit to get a hang of it, but he got into it eventually.

Jonathan teaching Peter how to find gold.

We're gonna be rich!! (please note Peter's arrowhead necklace)

We panned for gold, and found gems in a "cave" and watched them break open a geode to see the beautiful crystals inside. We learned about a ship called the Brooklyn that took LDS pioneers to the west via a long boat ride instead of a long trek- they had a boat there that you could climb on and explore.

We headed home soon after this. We had a worn out little boy, and we'd had a good day. It was a fun place to go and it was a great way to spend the day.

Monte L Bean and the Animals

A few weeks back, Peter and I went to a cool animal museum with our friends Crystal and Marshal. Peter and Marshal are just a month apart in age and Jonathan and Ben (Marshal's dad) both did the Flagship program, so we were in China together. Crystal and I try to get together frequently because the boys play well together and we like to visit and have adult conversation together. Crystal and I mostly plot out future homes, talk furniture and kids. Anyway, Crystal and Marshal were going to the museum and invited us to come along. We jumped at the chance because I know Peter loves that place and I needed to get out of the house. 

The Monte L Bean Museum is perfect for these boys because it is a small museum, packed with taxidermied animals. The boys don't get too tired walking around and there are cool animals everywhere they turn. They ran around, played on the slide for a while, found the elephant and the hippo, we went upstairs and saw the deer, lions and bears and we went downstairs and saw birds and snakes. It's just big enough to keep them busy but not to big to bore them. 

Peter learning about a brown bear.

Walking through the African safari...

 It looked like they were working on setting up some new exhibits while we were there, so we'll have to stop by again sometime soon to see if there are any new animals to learn about. Also, the museum does live animal shows- we've never been, but I really want to take Peter sometime. I think he would enjoy seeing some living animals up close.

Marshal, Crystal and Peter

Learning about underwater creatures

It was a great day with the Jones. The boys were happy and they saw lots of animals. Crystal and I got to talk about future plans and hopes for how they turn out. We will miss these guys a ton when we move.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

I just found a bunch of blog post drafts that I started when we were living in China, but then things got busy and I didn't finish them. So, the next couple of posts will be some catch-up posts from China days. There will most likely be less detail because it's been a number of months since we did these things, but I'd rather have something than nothing.

This day was when we were going to pick Jonathan's sisters from Shanghai when they came to visit. We had a day in which to spend in Shanghai before they arrived, and we went to a museum that I'd read was great for kids. I figured Peter was a trooper going to things we were interested in, so it was only fair that we found a place for him.  

Cool dragon statue outside of the museum

When we entered, we first went to the animal museum section. Peter loves animals, so we thought this would be a great place to start. We were not let down. There were so many different displays with animals from all over the world. Peter was in love.

Jonathan and Peter on their African safari

Kicking it with the big-horned sheep

Walking along the rocky terrain

There is something I really love about any picture I have with Peter holding Jonathan's hand. I love watching these guys together and when they have cute...manly...moments.

Also, as we walked along, we were momentarily adopted by a college-aged Chinese guy. He was fascinated by Peter's hair, and that we were living in China. He was amazed that Jonathan spoke Chinese and that we could get along just fine every day. He asked lots of questions. The only one I remember is him asking if we had mosquitoes in America- he heard that they didn't exist there. Tragically they do. He was a little hard to understand, but nice. He wanted to spend more time with us and show us around Shanghai, but we were leaving the next day, so we didn't get to take him up on that.

After all the animals, we walked through a small section that represented the landscape of a western part of China with huge rocky- almost similar to some of the rocky areas in Utah, only grey instead of red rock. After we walked around the big rocks we came to insect land.

Giant rocky landscape....of somewhere...

Insect Land!

In the insect area, there were giant animatronic bugs on the walls above our heads! There were displays that talked about the different stages of life that bugs go through and how they grow, what they eat and how they live. There were also a few terrariums with live insects, snakes and lizards in them. Peter loved these as well.

Up next was a small aquarium area. It wasn't too big, but that worked great with Peter's short attention span.

Peter and Jonathan looking at the fish

We finally left the animal section of the museum and had to decide where to go next. We went through a robotics area- but not all the robots were working, so it was partly really cool and partly a let down. We saw a section on the human body and walked through it, but it wasn't super kid friendly, so we didn't spend too much time there. There was a spider exhibit, but for obvious reasons, I avoided that. I don't remember all the other options, but we could have very easily spend 2-3 days here I feel like...except for the small part about having a little boy who wants to run and explore, that's why instead we went to the Children's Rainbow Land.

That place was a blast. There were rainbows all over and once you followed the rainbow path in, there were different rooms with different things that could play with and do, it was super engaging and bright. I loved it, and so did Peter, and Jonathan. There was one area with little egg shaped chairs, and soft flowers and trees with glowing lights all over, there were slides and little tunnels to crawl through (see below picture).

Part of the play room photo cred

More play rooms photo cred

Entering Rainbow Land!

Learning about bubbles

There was a really cool hallway with colored lights that went from red to orange to yellow and so on. It was really cool to walk along. Along the hall there were different play rooms with lights, sounds, slides, animals and all sorts of other fun things. Peter was tired by this point, so he was carried through most of it, but if we had started here, he could have spent the entire day just in this section and been a happy camper.

Following the rainbow road out.

Giant lite-brite board

We loved this museum. I would have loved to go back or have discovered it before the end of our time in China. There were so many different places to explore and it was a great place for kids and adults.

Hogle Zoo

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin, Briana, sent me a message saying she was coming down from Idaho to Salt Lake City and wanted to know if I had time to get together with her. She has a little boy who is a year and a couple months old, and they wanted to know if we wanted to go to the Hogle Zoo with them. I thought that was a great idea! We ended up riding up to SLC with Ryan, other cousin and sibling to Briana. It was a great ride up with him, catching up on life. The group ended up being my cousin Briana, her husband- Damian, son- Parker, cousin- Ryan, and their mom/my aunt- Pam, and me and Peter. I haven't seen these guys for a number of years, and it was fun to get together. 

Peter and the zebra

King of the Jungle!

Peter and Parker with the lion statue

The two little ones got along great with each other and had no fear of anyone around. Both boys would let anyone in the group hold them and they traded strollers from time to time. Although, they weren't in their strollers much, there were too many exciting things to see in the zoo and too much space to run.

Peter with a cool elephant statue

Peter with a live elephant

Peter absolutely loved the animals. He knew a good number of the animals there, and learned some more while we were there. He loved the elephant and the rhino a lot and was enthralled by the birds and tortoises we saw.

Also, there was a carousel, and Aunt Pam bought us tickets to ride it. Peter loved seeing all the animals and had a hard time choosing one to ride. Then the music started and we started going. He wasn't quite sure what to think about it in the beginning. He didn't fuss at all, but had a serious look and held on tight. Then, I pointed out Ryan and Damian as we passed and he would do a little wave, but still held on pretty good. I think he liked it once he realized it wasn't going to do anything too crazy.

He started on the tiger...

Until he spotted the panda! Peter Panda and Mom!

Ryan with Parker and Peter, learning about the rhino.
Peter liked putting his hand in its nose.

Peter in the eagle nest

We saw an otter pool, but the otters weren't out, but Peter found a little otter statue. Tragically, I missed the photo when Peter approached the otter and gave him a big hug. I tried to get him to hug it again, but he didn't want to. So, here he is holding hands with the otter...or possibly being his bodyguard.

Peter and the otter

We saw a polar bear pacing back and forth from his enclosure to his outdoor space. Peter had been talking about the polar bear all day, so I knew he'd be excited to see it. It wasn't a huge bear, but I was very glad to have a wall in between him and me. I would not want to encounter such a beast in the wild.

Peter meets polar bear

We also saw some seals swimming and playing in their enclosure. They were probably my favorite. They were really active and fun to watch. There was one that seemed to be swimming laps around the pool. He was swimming with his belly up and he'd barely move his fins at all, but even that small movement was enough to propel him at a good speed. I think it might be neat to be a seal.

They also had an area for Asian Highlands- mostly there were big cats here. But, it was cool because there were posts with Chinese characters on it and Tibetan prayer flags strung around. It reminded me ever so slightly of China and some of the field trips we went on there. As much as I love being back in America where everything is familiar, I really miss parts of China and living abroad, and this part of the zoo reminded me of that.

Ask Jonathan what it says...

It was a great zoo day. The weather was great for us the whole time. The little boys were awesome. It was great to catch up with some of my family who I haven't seen in a while. Peter had a blast seeing so many cool animals and getting to run free (well, kinda free). Maybe he can be a zoo keeper when he grows up.