Wild Animal Park June 2011

Earlier this summer while visiting my family, we went to the Wild Animal Park.
They've since renamed it and made lots of upgrades to the place, but to me, it will always be the Wild Animal Park!

The tram ride is SO awesome!
They made it a lot nicer and you can see the animals so much better while you're out on safari!

Family picture in front of the elephants.  We have to tickle Mason to make him smile for pictures. :)

Mason looooved the petting zoo!
He walked right up to all the big animals to pet them and wasn't even scared.
We were pleasantly surprised.

Classic picture on the rhino!

Mason's most favorite thing by far, though, was the lorikeet exhibit.  It's a large, caged enclosure you walk into that's filled with colorful lorikeets that land on you.  You can buy little cups of nectar (for a pretty penny of course) and the birds land on you as they drink the nectar.  Mason really likes birds and was excited that they landed on him even though he seems stunned in the video.  We just laughed. :) I think he was afraid that if he moved the bird would fly away off of him.  And he wasn't thrilled about the flapping by his face at the end.  But he didn't want to leave, it was so much fun.  P.S. When these birds poop on you, it's clear poop.  So it's not AS gross as normal....and they have very nice washing stations upon exiting complete with soap and paper towels. :)

More petting zoo.  He wasn't even afraid to walk up to these full size deer all by himself.

Marcos and I in front of the beautiful landscape and big hot air balloon.
  We had such a great time!

Game Night

After the parade we went over to Dave & Amy Noalls (young married couple in our ward) and played Monopoly for about 3 hours. It was a new version where the money was all in hundreds of thousands and millions. (crazy inflation) It was really fun, except that the math with those large numbers gets pretty sticky! The game had modern places on the board (i.e. you can buy Disney World).

We put the scores in the picture. I have a sad face, because I went bankrupt when I landed on Times Square (aka Boardwalk) with a hotel and couldn't fork over the $20,000,000.00.
If you have ever played games with Marcos, you'll know 4 important facts:

1. He always wins.
2. He sometimes cheats.
3. He plays exactly by the rule book.
4. He argues 'till the death.

For those who have played games with Marcos, I'm sorry. :) You'll understand how it is the MOST fun you've ever had being annoyed during a game EVER.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Last Wednesday night Marcos and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. Have you seen it? It's AMAZING! I don't even know how to describe it...it's like nothing we've ever seen. The pictures and video clips don't do it justice at all. Their style takes getting use to at the beginning, but I VERY much enjoyed the concert, and Marcos and I are sure to go again!

WHAT I LIKED:

• INCREDIBLE light effects in sync with the music
• LOTS of fireworks, flame effects, and other such pyrotechnics. (Marcos' favorite!)
• The musicians had way more of the spotlight than the singers *refreshing*
• Very funny "duels" between 2 electric guitarists, and then 2 pianists (my favorite!)
• Exciting variety of rock versions: Christmas songs, classical songs, and even Charlie Brown.
• Cool (punny) fake snow dropped on audience during Christmas songs.
  
• Band very generous with audience contact: ran through aisles in the back, brought a random kid on stage and gave him one of their guitars, meet & greet with fans after show.

WHAT I LIKED LESS:

• 3 hour concert....long, but they keep you entertained! You sure get your money's worth.
• A lot of rockin' out with electric guitars. Good thing the insane light effects keep you visually stimulated...I think I could only watch them hand-bang for so long.
• If you don't know what to expect (like I didn't), the beginning is SENSORY OVERLOAD with all the C.R.A.Z.Y. lights and loud music. But you get used to it, and then you want more!

We sat in the cheap nosebleed section, but they turned out to be great seats. You'll see why in a second. In reality, you don't even notice the railing, but you sure can in pictures. *great*

See the huge machinery frames the lights come off of above the stage? These machines invert and rotate all sorts of crazy ways to make different designs above the band. As you can see, this pic looks way different than the previous. We called these machines the "transformers" because that's exactly what they look like when they move. SO COOL.

Remember what I said about excellent audience contact and how our seats weren't that bad? Half way through the show, performers come to the far back on a raised stage and are front & center for the people (like us) that got cheap seats far away. It's funny, because they're hooked to poles so they don't fall off. The girl (left) is playing an electric violin.



Right as we left, we realized we never took a picture of ourselves at the event, so here's our makeshift photo as we were leaving, trying to get the souvenir shop in the background. I highly recommend this concert. It is a treat for the eyes and ears!

The Freeze Out

What do you do when it's 40 degrees outside?

Answer: Go out for ICE CREAM!!

I was so excited to break out my Uggs!! Happy feet!!

We got vanilla with Reese's peanut butter cup mixed in. YUM!

"It's COLD!" But FUN! :)

The Grizzlies Game

Marcos and I went to a baseball game a few months ago. The fireworks were the most exciting part! This pic looks cool.