Zoo Trip

Last week was Spring Break and I took Friday off work so the kids and I could go to the Zoo. The weather was supposed to be nice and sunny, but it didn't quite turn out that way. At least it didn't really rain on us, misted a little, but the good news was the animals were very active when we were there so we got some good pictures.

 

Nick and his friend Riley with the bears at the gift shop.

The baby elephant Samudra. He's 7 months old now. He's with his Mom (on the left) and aunt.

A very hairy warthog.

The polar bears were very active. This one was playing with her ball right in front of the window. She's huge!

Ahh... a back scratch feels so good!

This is the male. He was having a ball playing in the water too.

This Cougar looked so uncomfortable in the tree, until you look close and see he's actually falling asleep there!

We can never seem to get enough of the zoo. There is a lot of construction going on there right now as they finish up the new African exhibit that will bring Cheetahs and Lions to the zoo for the first time! We are excited for that to open up this Summer. Also they are rebuilding the Orangutan exhibit and including an outside area for the first time ever. It's going to be beautiful when it is finished. Then of course they are updating the Tiger exhibit, making the walls higher and the people farther away from them since they realized after the San Francisco  event our Tigers exhibit is unsafe. Our tigers are pretty lazy and sleep ALL the time, but still, safety first! We love going and spending a few hours at the zoo whenever we get the chance. Can't wait for the summer season to start so the weather will be warmer!

Coastal Fun

   We went to Astoria and Seaside the Sunday before Gabi's birthday for some family fun, and I finally have a little time to posting the pictures. We were going to go to the snow to go tubing, but she didn't want to go to the snow, she said she's had enough snow for the year. However, the weather was pretty crazy that day. There was snow on the way to Astoria and snow at the column when we were there. It also started raining when we were up there. But just 7 miles west from there at Fort Stevens the sun and blue sky were out! It was a little chilly but beautiful. Then at Seaside the weather was nice too. But in the way home it looked like we were heading to the ski slopes with the amount of snow on the road! We even found out it had snowed at home when we got home. There was snow on the grass at the house! The weather sure has been crazy this year. Gabi was even lucky to have snow on her birthday. Lucky for the rest of us it didn't last long.  Looking South from the Astoria Column

  Yes, there was snow up there! And more rain coming!

 The rain coming in from the West.

 A barge heading down the Columbia River.

 Looking at the Bunkers from the lookout point. These bunkers were in use during WWII as a lookout, and were actually fired on by Japanese submarines during the war.

  Unfortunately they are extremely run down and falling apart, but they are trying to restore one of the guns that were here at the time.

  A close up of one of the guns they are restoring and will be able to fire once the restoration is complete.

  Seaside was beautiful. The weather was surprising good with no wind, but a little chilly.

 The kids loved the bumper cars there... and the arcade of course!  

What a weekend!

So what a weekend we had! This weekend was the first State Qualifier for the kids. It was at the indoor track in Eugene and Nick did pretty well considering he got sick on Friday. He missed most of the day of school on Friday with a sore throat, stomach ache and headache. No fever though which was a good thing. I think he ended up getting the cold I had the week before. He was determined to race though so we went down on Saturday to go racing. He was only at about 70% Saturday and still managed to get 4th place (out of 6 riders). Gabi did a good job racing as well, but ended up 4th which was last for her class. Gabi ended up staying down in Eugene at Grandma Sue's while Nick and I drove home for the evening so we could bring Bryan down with us for the race on Sunday. 

Sunday's race was crowded since it was a State Qualifier. They ended up with 46 or so motos, usually there are around 25 maybe. Nick's class ended up with 10 riders in it so they were taking 2 qualifiers from each round so he had a full gate of 8 riders in the main event. He ended up getting 5th place and avoided a big crash that happened right in front of him on the first turn. It was a great effort considering he was also not at 100%. Gabi ended up not qualifying for the main event in her class so she was pretty bummed out. Having just turned 12 she got bumped up to a new class so it was a little more of a challenge with the older, bigger and faster riders. We are looking forward to the National race in Redmond in 2 weeks. It will be the biggest event we've ever been to with over 200 motos! Riders from all over the country will be there, even the Olympic Medalists should be there! It'll be an experience and great for the kids to see what happens on a National level. We're just hoping to take it all in and make the main events. We're after the experience this time. Should be fun. 

On a sadder note, we found out Muscles had a stroke this weekend. The poor kitty (who's only 4 years old) was acting a little strange on Friday afternoon. The kids said he was meowing really strangely on Friday but we didn't think much of it. He's pretty weird and does some strange things sometime. Plus he seemed normal sleeping on the couch Friday night. He still hadn't moved off the couch Saturday once we got home from racing, which is not out of the norm for him. But when we moved him off the couch to the floor so I could sit down we noticed he couldn't walk. He looked like he was drunk. After further investigation it looked like he had no real control over his front or back paws on his right side. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and looks completely normal when he is just laying on the couch, but he clearly can't walk normally and his right back leg sticks straight out when you pick him up. He stayed on the couch all day Sunday too. Last night I was petting him and cuddling with him and he finally started purring. He looked like he wanted to get down so we put him on the floor and he did hobble across the floor to the food and water bowl. He didn't eat anything but did seem to be in better spirits so that looked good. This morning he was able to run across the floor when Nick scared him which also was a good sign. I researched cat strokes online last night and from what I could find out they say most cats recover from a stroke, sometimes it takes a few weeks to a couple of months but they end up able to lead a pretty normal life afterwards. The vet can't really do much for them except run a lot of expensive tests to confirm he had a stroke, but there isn't anything they can do to help the recovery, so we will just keep a close eye on him and wait and see. I'm optimistic he will be OK, he just might need help with the stairs from now on. Or maybe we'll install a kitty elevator for him.  Poor boy. He's so young to have had a stroke, but apparently it can happen at any age. We are hoping for the best though. I'll keep you posted.

Well the kids start their long Spring Break this week. They have 2 days of school this week then it's parent/teacher conferences Wednesday & Thursday and then Grading day on Friday. Then all next week is Spring Break. Wish I had gotten a week and a half off of school when I was their age! 

Well, I haven't written in a while because I thought there was nothing going on worth writing about. We have been existing day to day quite normally. Nothing funny going on, nothing exciting, nothing nothing nothing. Work, school, evening relaxing, sleeping, do it all over again. So since nothing really has been happening, here is what we are looking forward to.

Gabi's birthday is Monday. She's going to be 12. Can't believe she's going to be that old already. Next year she starts middle school which is going to be difficult for me I think. I already got a little choked up at the middle school open house, so I can just image what next year will be like. She's growing up so fast and turning into such a strong and good young lady it's very nice to see. Now if we could only get her to love her brother, but that's an ongoing struggle.

Both kids have another ortho appointment next Thursday. We're hoping for better news than last time, but don't hold out much hope. It's going to cost us a fortune to fix their teeth. We know that. Still hoping the denial lasts a little longer. 

Bryan has Nick's room almost done and I am looking forward to moving him into it soon. We painted the 1st coat last night. Chocolate Froth is the color. So nice and neutral without being white. Sometimes it looks a little brown, sometimes it looks almost white. It's perfect. Tonight we finish up the painting. Then it's on to molding and closet organizer. 

Both kids have the first State Qualifier race next weekend down in Eugene. That should be a good weekend. Lots of racing and fun to be had. They have been training every day so even though we haven't been racing much recently they have been trying to keep in shape. 

Spring break is coming up in a couple of weeks as well. The kids actually get a week and a half off because parent/teacher conferences are the end of the week before the official Spring Break. That gives them 1.5 weeks off. Lucky kids.

Me, I'm getting over a cold and working hard on producing catalogs. They had another round of layoffs at work yesterday. 10 people were let go, luckily I wasn't one of them. However my boss and one of my employees weren't so lucky. They are doing a much needed restructuring which is a good thing. As long as we continue to meet our sales numbers, which we have been, we should be OK. Hope that economy picks up soon! 

Well, that's about it for now. Just wanted to let you all know what is going on around here. Hope all is well with everyone else!