Bye Bye Monkey's!

It was time to put the Sea Monkey's out of their misery...Actually, we did them a favor...now they are in a better place where they can swim to their heart's content and feed off of so much yummier food than we had for them.. I'm sure they are very very happy now!

Is It Really The Middle Of Winter??

Is it really Jan 17?  The middle of winter?  You take a look at these photos and tell me??  It was 71 degrees today!  We couldn't let a day like that go to waste, so we spent a lot of time outdoors today...boarding, biking, and geo caching.

Meghan is learning really good how to ride her new longboard which she totally loves!  She has been spending the time when she is not riding her longboard, learning tricks with her yo-yo. She is getting good at that too!  I gotta get some photos of her soon with her yo-yo.

Sorry the video is so shaky.  I think we were having a slight earthquake. This is California you know!

Jacob was out riding his bike.

Then Jacob, Meghan and myself (Doug) went caching. We usually try to get ones that are semi close together along trails and paths and we take scooters to speed up the walking.  Yep..even I take a scooter!  Meghan took her longboard and we couldn't keep up with her! We found 10 caches along the trail today.

Here's one that the owner carved out the bottom of a rock to make room for the cache.

This one was hidden in a bush along the bike trail.

We were logging one of our finds, and Meghan looked over the field and said, "Look!  This doesn't look like California!  It looks more like Utah! There no trees, stores, or roads!" 

And an update on our pets...  I don't think the sea monkeys are going to make it.  They might 'disappear' one day after Jacob comes home from school.

The ants however, are doing very well. They are digging all over the place. Maybe we should dump the sea monkeys in the ant farm? 

Sweet 16! (Finally)

Well, the time has finally come for Meghan to be 16! Wow! Can you believe it? Yeah, neither can we!  How is it that she is older, but we aren't? Weird how that works out.

Each birthday person gets to pick what they want for dinner, and no surprise, Meghan picked Chinese food, Orange Chicken to be exact..so it was off to yummy Panda Express (fast and cheap!).

We ate it fast! Finger lickin good!

As usual, when the birthday person is away at school or work, the birthday decorating fairy's come and decorate the room. Here is Meghan trying to get her homework done in her newly decorated room before opening her presents.

Then we all congregated upstairs in the hall for the presents.

She got a nice necklace from Gma and Gpa Bingham...

Some money from Gma and Gpa Gwilliam, and some money from Jacob and Marissa....

Hannah spent a lot of time wrapping a special present for Meghan, complete with a ribbon and special paper. She was so proud of it and it looks nice!

 

Inside was an assortment of Hannah's things that she thought Meghan would like Meghan loved all of them!

 

She also got a CTR ring from her mom...

And a Yo-Yo to learn tricks on from her dad....

Marissa is looking excited...

So is Jacob.....

Then we came downstairs..there is a present hidden here..can you see it? Yeah, I didn't think so..neither could Meghan.

It was a longboard!  She has been wanting one SO SO SO SO SO bad!

She couldn't wait and went outside to try it out......

Then we went to Meghan's favorite ice cream place (besides Leatherby's), Coldstone and we all enjoyed some ice cream.

 

Of course, the day ended with the spanking tunnel. Meghan breezed right by it very quickly and she wouldn't let dad take another video of it. In fact, he had to sneak this one on here, so don't tell her it's on here.

 

Later on this week, Meghan is going to have some friends over for a pizza/movie/game night which will include a trip to Leatherby's also.

 

Happy Birthday Meghan!   We love you!

Our Pets Are Growing So Big!!

We are so happy! Our pets are growing so big!  It's amazing how fast they grow up..just like our children.  Before you know it, they (the pets) will be just like part of the family....eating at the table with us.....going places with us....maybe camping..six flags....church.....

They are becoming very special to us and thought maybe I could take some photos of them in candid shots without them knowing so you could get a true feel of what their personalities are like..  Some of them were very shy, and you really can't get much out of their photos...so you will have to take our word for it..they really are special and can do lots of neat tricks!

Want to see them??? 

Ok.....

Here they are....

First up, we have.....

These little guys....who are not

so little

anymore...

They are eating so much!!

They are very active!!

 

We all look at the ants daily to see their progress. It really is quite interesting!  Don't laugh! It really is!

Yep! It's an Ant Farm! Meghan got it for Christmas. They are in a gel like substance and they love it!

Jacob got our next pets for Christmas too..but they are still very small and you really can't see them on camera:

 

Yep!  SpongBob Sea Monkies!!  You know......we all had sea monkies when we were kids... I remember when I had mine..they were so special to me.. I loved watching them squiggle around in the cage...the way their 16-48 legs all moved in unison together to propel them through the water. It was mesmerizing... Then one day, as I was coming home from school, I ran into my room to see the cloudy, murky green water, and see if my sea monkies needed to be fed......

What? Where were they? They were gone! They weren't on my dresser anymore.....

"Mom, have you seen my sea monkies?" I yelled as I was running through the house....

"Oh, son.." she said...  Like a warning something worse was going to come out of her mouth...

she continued..

"They all died. They were sick and they all died when you were at school."

I was crushed! How could all hundred of them die??  They were fine in my glass mayonnaise jar before I left for school. What, did they all get a sudden sea monkey disease that is lethal in 2-4 hours?  I might have went into my room and cried...or I might have went in to the living room to watch Speed Racer and Gilligan's Island...

Then I had to use the bathroom...so between commercials since we didn't have a DVR back then, I ran to the bathroom...and guess what I saw?  A few of my beloved sea monkies in the toilet..swimming around...  How did they get there? I thought that was a weird place for them to be since they were all sick and dying with a toxic sea monkey disease. I tried to scoop them out, but I couldn't get them fast enough in the swirling water...and then they were gone..

I asked my mom if she knew some of the sick sea monkies had escaped and somehow jumped into the toilet.... 

She didn't know... and to this day, it still remains a mystery how the sick sea monkies found their way into the toilet. 

My theory is that when my mom buried the sick sea monkies out in the back yard, some of them may not have been all the way dead, and clinged to my mom's clothes as she was burying them, and then when she came back into the house, they were looking for water..and the toilet was the closest watering hole they could find...