Beauty

We had so much fun last year seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Oregon Ridge Dinner Theatre, that when we heard that Beauty and the Beast was coming, we decided to get tickets and go again!  And since it was right around the time of Nana and Papa's birthdays, we decided to take them too.  I ended up staying home with Ella (who we knew wouldn't sit through it) and Tanner (who had no interest), so Dave went with his parents, Lacey and Riley.  And they even got to meet Belle/Beauty after the show.

And speaking of beauty.... these two beauties also both lost teeth this week!  Lacey lost #9 (or so she tells me - heaven knows, I've lost count!). And if that's true, it has been almost two years since she lost her last tooth - thank you blog for that info ;)  The tooth fairy had a hard time fitting these salt and vinegar chips under her pillow, but they're her fave, so she somehow managed!

And miss Riley J just lost tooth #2!  I heart this baby-toothed smile.  It will absolutely kill me when those top teeth start coming out :(((

Kilgore Falls

A typical weekend for us is jam-packed with sports and other such things that have filled the calendar.  And in fact, the next four Saturdays in a row we will spend at swim meets.  But today, aside from an afternoon birthday party that Lacey was going to, the day was open!  Since that almost never happens, we decided to take advantage of this glorious warm, sunny day and explore Maryland!

We did our morning chores, dropped Lacey off at her birthday party, then hit the road!

We drove a little more than an hour until we reached Rocks State Park.

We hiked the Falling Branch Trail and found this little toad friend along the way.  He was very cute!

Our destination was Kilgore Falls, Maryland's 2nd highest vertical-drop waterfall.

I came across an article/on-line children's magazine that I frequent that listed "100 Days of Summer" with a different Maryland activity for each day of summer from Memorial Day through Labor Day.  Kilgore Falls was #21 on the list and we'd never been there, so we decided what better time to check it out?!

Dave, Tanner and Riley at the top of the falls while I stayed below with Ella Grace.

This little daredevil..... she saw people jumping off cliffs into the waterfalls and wanted to do it.  Dave was totally opposed, and for good reason.  She slipped and fell on her first attempt trying to scramble up the boulder.  But if she wanted to do it, I wanted her to do it too.  After she fell and started crying, I was sure she was done.  But after comforting and telling her we could come back next year when she's older and try again, she told me she wanted to try again right now.  I helped her up the boulder and she got to the top and then just froze.  We all encouraged her, but she just couldn't do it and ended up in tears.  I told her to come back down because people (grown men - I can assure you, there were no other young kids up there and no females of any age) were waiting.  So, she came back down.  Several minutes later, she insisted she was ready and wanted to go again.  She was nervous up there (I've cliff jumped enough in my day to know it looks 10 times higher from the top of the cliff than it looks from the bottom), but by golly, that girl jumped!!  I was SO proud of her!  I couldn't believe it!  And it was 100% her wanting to do it, setting her mind to it, getting over her fears and taking the plunge.  I would not be surprised if she is the only 6 year old kid to ever do that.  Everyone was amazed!  Dave got the whole thing on video, but I've never had much luck with video on blogger....

so this happy reunion at the bottom of the falls will have to suffice.

You go girl!  My fearless Riley J!

"As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing."  ~John Muir

On My Honor

I will do my best, To do my duty, to God and my Country.  ~Boy Scouts of America

Today was the last day of Tanner's week long Scout camp. And I volunteered at camp today, so it was fun to see the boys in action! 

Here is Tanner with one of his best buddies, Matthew.

Another one of his best buddies, John.

Webelos rule!

On our way to our next rotation

We made bug catchers (Tanner was very excited to use the saw to make this - you have to be a Webelo to use the saw and he just became a Webelo at bridging a couple weeks ago) and then went out and caught bugs. 

"A week of camp life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room."

~Lord Baden-Powell

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

Glad as I can be

Clap my hands and shout for joy, then climb upon his knee

Put my arms around his neck,

Hug him tight like this

Pat his cheeks, then give him what?

A Great Big Kiss!

Happy Fathers Day to one of the very best!

Birthday Buddies

Me:  "Tanner, what do you want for your birthday this year?"

Tanner: "I want to do something special with you and nobody else."

Here's what we did.....

We pulled out of the driveway at 8:00am Friday morning and headed to Pennsylvania where we stopped at Fallingwater, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces.  And it went with our birthday weekend theme perfectly since FLW's 150th birthday was just last week (June 8th).

FLW built this home for the Kaufmann family.  Edgar Kaufmann loved to hike and there is a huge painting of him in the main room of the house holding a walking stick.  For that reason, all the guides use walking sticks and they sell them in the gift shop, and of course Tanner talked me into getting him one ;)

Is this amazing or what?  The stair case leads directly into Bear Run.

The iconic view of Fallingwater.

It has been called "the most unique home in the world" and was nominated a couple years ago to be the 8th Wonder of the World, but lost to Machu Picchu.  And even though this home was pretty incredible, I'd have to say Machu Picchu won the rightful prize in that contest!

After leaving Fallingwater, we continued on to our destination, the Cleveland Zoo, where we had booked an overnight adventure.

Tanner and I getting settled into our tent.  He ended up being the only boy, which actually ended up being a really good thing because everyone else had to share tents and we got our very own tent.  And that ended up being a very important thing because T got sick:(  When we first got to Cleveland, we stopped at a McDonalds.  He said he felt sick and went to the bathroom and threw up.  He had been feeling nauseas on and off for a good chunk of the car ride.  After he threw up, he said he was feeling better and I crossed my fingers, headed for the zoo and hoped for the best!

Our sleeping quarters.

It's set up like a safari next to the Kenya section of the zoo.  Very cool!

We gathered around the fire pit and started learning about animals.

Unfortunately, it was right around this time, that he looked at me and said "I need to throw up."  I told him to run to the bathroom behind the tents.  Unfortunately, there were a couple buildings behind the tents and he went to the wrong one and threw up all along the way.  Poor kid.  After that, he went back to his bed in our tent and just tried to recover.  

They planned a walking safari to see some of the African animals after hours when we had the whole zoo to ourselves.  It would have been really cool, except for we got to the first animal (a rhino) and this is what Tanner looked like.  Right after taking this picture, he told me he needed to go back to our tent and lie down.  So, we did that for the next couple of hours and missed the walking safari, craft, snack, campfire and smores.  

But we both kept praying he would feel better and I told him I wanted him to at least try the Night Hike because I didn't want him to miss out on the entire night.  The bad news.... They normally get to go on an awesome hike seeing lots of cool nocturnal animals wearing night vision goggles.  But it started to rain, so we couldn't wear the night vision goggles and we only got to see the tigers before heading back to our campsite.  The good news..... Tanner said he felt okay and thought the worst was behind him.

I prayed and prayed that he would have a good night and would wake up feeling better so that our birthday weekend we had been planning for so long could be salvaged.

Prayers were answered!  He slept great and when he woke up in the morning, he said he felt good!

Here we are, the morning of our birthday in front of our tent and ready to go!

We got a behind the scenes tour before the zoo opened to the public.  Here we are at the Rainforest.

We got to see a mother and baby spider tortoise. The only place in the world it is found in the wild is in Madagascar. It is endangered due to the extensive smuggling and illegal trade that goes on.  

More Behind the Scenes....

This was super cool.... if you look closely, you can see a bunch of bats gathered together between those two branches.

All of a sudden, they started breaking apart, one by one climbing up the branches.  It was super cool to watch!

After the behind the scenes tour, it was 10:00am and our overnight safari zoo adventure was over.  We had the rest of the day to spend however we wanted.  First stop:  Camel ride!

Petting zoo

Bird feeding

Koalas

Communing with Kangaroos

Ok, how cool is this??!!!  Unbeknownst to us, the zoo shares our birthday!  And it wasn't just any old birthday, it was it's 100th birthday, so they actually carved our birthday into the shrubbery.

Picture perfect!  Happy Birthday to all three of us!

A montage of our day.

Next, we went to check out the water animals and Tanner connected with this stingray.  These women watching got such a kick out of watching T with this stingray.  Everywhere Tanner's face/eyes would move, the stingray would follow.

Tanner finally looked away and it dropped to the ground.  It was pretty amazing.

His first photography lesson

Always makes us think of Lacey!

Giraffes

Black Rhino - we made sure to go back and see them when Tanner was feeling better!

We loved watching the Orangutans, especially the baby!

Next stop.... Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

I am trying to go to as many of places in the 1000 Places to See Before You Die book and this marked #189!

It was around 4:00 when we got out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I realized Kirtland was just 30 minutes away, so I decided to squeeze that in too!

The Newell K Whitney Store

There are quite a few original things here, including this floor where Tanner is standing, the exact floor that Joseph Smith walked.  It was here that he received revelation for the Word of Wisdom.

 The first LDS Temple.

I asked one of the tour guides to take a picture of us so that I would at least have one of us together.  And this is that I got.  Seriously?!  And this is after some serious editing - I had to straighten it and crop out a ton of pavement - like half the picture was pavement.  

But as Tanner said, "she's a tour guide mom, not a photographer, what do you expect?"  Ha!  What I expect is for her to take the picture vertically!  Oh well ;)

Kirtland Temple selfie - major bummer that I left our selfie stick at home!

And last but not least, we wrapped up our birthday seeing Captain Underpants.  That was a major concession on my part, but when I found this theatre with these sweet seats, I was all good!

Thanks for an unforgettable weekend and jam-packed awesome birthday, Tanner!  You are the best birthday buddy ever and I'm so glad you were born!  June 17th babies are the best ;)