The Aquarium

This morning the kids and I joined a bunch of friends for a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Kids under 3 get in free--yay!

The building looks like the Sydney Opera House's demure cousin.

Joy loved the hands-on exhibits. Here she is petting some stingrays (sans stingers, of course). At another exhibit, she got to touch some anemones and starfish, too.

This large tank contained giant sea bass, leopard sharks, and a friendly homo sapiens.

Is this, or is this not, the freakiest thing you've ever seen? They claim it's a giant crab, but it could easily pass for a homicidal alien. [shudder]

Ironically, Joy's favorite part of the whole experience was the fountain out front, which we could have seen for free (OK--$6 if you want to count what we paid for parking). Kids appreciate simple pleasures.

Photo Shoot

Phillip's out of town at yet another conference this week (at least he says he's at a conference . . . perhaps he's resuming superhero work behind my back), so we headed out to visit my family for a few days.

Dad planned to photograph some items in his collection, but apparently he found something more interesting to take pictures of. Several of the shots turned out really well (thanks, Dad!):

Little Joy

Daniel Boy

The Sibs

Take Me To The Fair

A local parish had a family fun fair this weekend, so we decided to go have some family fun.

The kids and I rode the Ferris Wheel (captained by a very authoritative-looking dude with funky glasses).

It was fun to get such a great view of our town, and of the giant dragon bouncer next to the wheel. It was easily the biggest, coolest bouncer I've ever seen.

Joy was more impressed by the plastic ducks in the toddler area.

Peekaboo

Wheeeere's Daniel?

There he is!

Be Prepared

Phillip defines emergency preparedness as having a tent, some food, and a multipurpose knife thing. I would add that it's also important to have at least three sets of measuring cups (in case you need a 2/3 cup measure and you've already dirtied two of them cooking other things).

Joy defines preparedness as wearing a jacket for cold weather, shorts for warm weather, a pool toy in case there's a swim party, and her pillow in case she gets tired. I don't know what the blue ring is for, but I'm sure it could come in handy somehow.

Daniel likes to be prepared, too. He's got all upcoming holidays accounted for: pumpkin socks for Halloween, a bib for Thanksgiving dinner, and Joy's Santa bear for Christmas. Daniel puts the happy in "Happy Holidays." :)

Temple Building People

This evening I came around a corner and saw this:

Joy had decided to use her blocks to build a "tem-poh." Apparently our budding architect took the "Pillars of Eternity" as the inspiration for her unique temple design. When her Engineering Consultant suggested a more conventional design, the Architect summarily dismissed that proposal.

Unconventional design notwithstanding, I told Joy that the Prophet would be happy to know she was eager to build a temple in our town.

Meet My Hair

So, my hair needed a trim and I was in the mood for a change, so this morning I told my hairdresser friend to whack my long hair off at my shoulders.

She was worried that I'd freak out when I looked in the mirror . . .

. . . or that I'd hate the way my short hair looked . . .

. . . but I actually like it. It's still kind of weird to see a semi-short-haired* woman in the mirror, though.

*That phrase makes me sound like some sort of spaniel (e.g. The Californian Semi-Short-Hair, a fairly docile breed, fond of the outdoors).