LA Zoo

On Saturday we decided to spend the day at the Los Angeles zoo. We have a season pass to the Idaho Falls zoo, and the pass let us get half of the entrance fee to the LA Zoo. You know how we like a good deal!

Checking out the armor on the rhino.

It was a very hot day and Uncle Quin had told us the ice cream was super yummy; he was right. It was like eating frozen whipped cream, it was so creamy and smooth. Just the right treat to cool down.

The Koalas, Orangutans, and Hippo were all great, but my favorite exhibit was this one. Aren't those little monkeys the cutest?! ;) (Seriously though, sometimes it feels like we are a zoo!)

Chinatown, Tar Pits, Hollywood Stars

Halle had two requests for our trip. To see Chinatown and to see Halle Berry's star on the Walk of Fame.

First up, Chinatown. We asked Halle if she understood what Chinatown really was. It was like hearing Mrs. Ball straight from the mouth of Halle. "It's a place where Chinese people live if they want to keep their culture but still live in America." I thought it was great that she really did know and understand. Now, if Chinatown lived up to her expectations remains to be seen, but she did leave with a paper lantern in tow.

Resting in Chinatown.

I was excited to see the La Brea Tar Pits. We learned a lot here. For instance, I never realized that tar isn't hot. It's just bubbly because of gases escaping.

Examining Pit 91. This is where most of the fossils have been found. Everything from Woolly Mammoths, Saber Tooth Cats, and American Lions to little tiny mice and bugs. Pretty neat.

Checking out the turtles in a pond (water, not tar).

Soaking up the sun.

Be sure to grab the correct child when you go to leave. Note to self, yours is the Caucasian. LOL!

And here they are from the front.

We decided to check out Griffith Observatory. Wow! What a view!

And finally, it was time to find Halle Berry. (I honestly don't think Halle has ever seen a movie with Halle Berry in it. She just loves that someone famous spells her name just like her own.)When Halle saw her star, she laid right on the ground in the middle of the sidewalk to get her picture taken. It was SO funny.

There are so many stars my kids don't know, so it was fun to find a star they actually cared about. We just watched Michael Jackson's "This Is It" last week, so he was very fresh in their minds.

And now, we're all tuckered out, ready for a full nights rest so we can go again tomorrow.

On Our Way

About 4 months ago, the airport got a new flight direct from Idaho Falls to Los Angeles. For one day only, they did a promotion where tickets cost $40 round trip. Since it is NOT cheap to fly an entire family of 6, we normally drive on our family vacations, but with such a great price on airfare, we just couldn't pass that kind of deal up. Our kids have been waiting and waiting for the day to arrive that they'd get to take their first airplane ride. (Well, Carter and Kate have both been, but they were too young to remember.)
Waiting to get on the plane. Alyssa was so anxious. She could hardly stand to let go of her bag for fear of missing the loading time. They all learned a little bit about patience.


They all giggled and clapped on the take off. The landing was a little different story. Despite the gum I had them chew, their ears really hurt coming out of the sky. But once we got on the ground and blew our noses a few times, we were rip roaring ready to hit the sites of So. Cal.

First up, the ocean, where we all PROMISED we wouldn't get wet since we didn't have the right clothes on and it was freezing cold.

And as you can plainly see, we all got wet up to our waists. But we enjoyed doing it, so I guess it's all good. Stay tuned for more Manwaring Adventures from California.

The Quin's Come To Town

Cameron, and Quin & Natalie ;) , came to visit last week. It was so fun to get to know sweet little Cameron's personality better. He is the sweetest, most happy little dude ever. And his little army crawl is just the cutest. Man he's fast! I was so afraid he'd want nothing to do with us Idaho folk that he doesn't know, but he warmed right up and boy were we glad.

Halle was in heaven as always when there's a baby around.

Kate even tried her hand at holding Cameron. However, he was a little too wiggly for her to handle. But seriously, look at that little grin. He ALWAYS had a smile for everyone.

He even humored us and grinned through tired tired eyes while we dressed him up in the right school paraphernalia.

We're gonna miss this little guy.....okay, we'll miss his mom and dad too!

Sleep Overs

As if Lyme Disease wasn't "exciting" enough, we've also been praying for our sweet little 7 week old nephew who has been in the hospital because of seizures due to low sodium. It's so not fun to see a tiny baby not well. We're still not sure why his sodium is low and he's not quite in the clear yet. Although his seizures seem to be under control for the moment and his sodium levels have come back up. (Keep him in your prayers.) So while his mom and dad have been sleeping over at the hospital, their dog has been sleeping over at our house. And Carter has been sleeping in his own bed!! Meisha has attached herself to Carter and it is just the cutest thing. She follows him everywhere and lays right on top of him when he sleeps. Do you think I could talk Ben into letting me keep Meisha? It sure has been great for me to be able to get a full nights rest.

There's a Lyme in Your Coconut

Okay....I think I'm ready to do this post. This is one of those moments that I would have really not liked to have experienced. It's not my best mother moment, although maybe it is my best worst mother of the year moment. Ughhhh....I don't know. No matter what you consider it, don't judge me too harshly. Please.

So....WARNING WARNING WARNING.....NASTY pictures ahead. These just might even make the strongest stomach a little squeamish, they certainly do mine.

Remember how I poo-pooed Jarom's "you're gonna get a tick, Kate" comments from our Yellowstone adventure? Well, even though I've never had a tick from Yellowstone, when we got home from camping I still had everyone do the tick check. I washed Kate's hair, braided it and didn't pay much attention to it for the next couple of days.

Kate is just starting to get old enough to wash her own hair, so for the next shower, she washed it herself. I helped her brush it out, fixed it and, again, left it alone for a couple more days. When I would brush her hair later in the week, she kept telling me she had an "ouchy bump" and asked me not to push hard on it. So, like the good mother I am (okay laugh now), I avoided the spot all together thinking she had a goose egg. I was extra careful to not touch the spot.

Father's Day rolled around, a full week from the time we'd been camping, we were visiting my in laws and I just happened to touch Kate's head on her "ouchy spot". Well, the ouchy spot was NOT a goose egg, but rather, something BIG and soft and squishy. I immediately pulled her hair back and this is what we found:

Oh my lawsy lawsy!!! Talk about NASTINESS!! A BIG ol' tick had found itself a happy little home in Kate's scalp. I'm telling you, I will NEVER not look at an "ouchy spot" on a child's head ever again. Tell me, (okay really don't because I have enough guilt of my own) HOW does a mother miss a tick that big in her baby's head??! And finding it in front of my inlaws....sheesh....where was a hole to hide in?

Luckily, they are all just as fascinated by disgusting things as I am, and soon, Kate's head was the event of the night. She was so funny. She laid still as could be, didn't make a whimper or a peep, while we surgically removed the tick. She kept saying, "The tick is sucking my juices out." LOL!
I LOVE Halle's disgusted expression and Kate's bored out of her mind expression in this shot.

Now....remember when we all were kids and we were told,

"NEVER pull a tick out. You might pull it's body off and the head will stay inside, alive, and make you REALLY sick? Just try to burn it out with a hot match."

Remember? Tell me I'm not the only one. Anywho...first we tried to freeze it out with some cold numbing spray stuff my brother-in-law had on hand. That seemed like it was going to work, but then, I think we froze the tick and it quit coming out. Next up, the match trick. Nothing. THEN, another brother-in-law read to us from the good ol' internet, "Never try to remove the tick by anything that will cause stress on the tick i.e. burning with a match, as this can cause the tick to regurgitate leading to illness." Whoops....

Apparently, the proper tick removal method is to pinch the tick as close to the head as possible with tweezers, and GENTLY pull. The tick will slowly loosen and the entire thing will come out. So now you all know....don't ever forget.

In Idaho, Lyme disease is basically a non-existant worry. For example, one site I found reported 9 Lyme cases in the entire state of Idaho in 2009. Nine.
This is what the Lyme rash looks like if you get Lyme, and IF you're lucky enough to actually get the rash before other symptoms develop. See how it looks like a target? This can develop anywhere from 3-30 days after the tick bites. Sometimes the rash never develops, and sometimes it can develop months after the bite. Lyme is a tricky thing to diagnose.

Well, 4 days after we removed the tick (so about 10 days from the time we are assuming the tick bit), Kate's bite did this:

First it started swelling with no redness. (I was brushing her hair and she told me she had an "ouchy bump". You'd better believe I looked this time!) About 24 hours after the swelling, the redness showed up and started looking very suspiciously like a red target. She also ran a fever of 101.5. So, we ran her to the doctor and they began treatment for Lyme Disease. About a month on amoxicillin, 3 times a day, and that should do the trick.

If treated early, there is a VERY high success rate for curing Lyme. Within 24 hours on antibiotics, Kate's fever was gone and the rash is slowly going away. It is now about the size of a dime. We feel very confident that we caught it early enough that no serious symptoms or complications will develop. What a blessing.

The moral of the story? Well, just be a better mother than me, and THOROUGHLY check your babies' heads after camping. Oh, and Lyme really does exist in Idaho.

Smiths in Yellowstone 2010

After postponing our annual Memorial Day trip due to cold, we finally made it to Yellowstone....and it was still cold. But it was fun and we made memories as we do every year. Get ready for a slew of pictures.

First animal sighting of the trip. "I want to see! I want to see!" And just what were they looking at? You can see a little black-ish dot in the middle of the sage brush meadow.

It was this Grizzly Mama and her two cute cubs. (The cubs had just popped back down below the sage brush.) Later that night the park rangers came to our campsite warning us of a Grizzly sighting in the campground.

We decided we'd take the opportunity to get a couple of close up shots with the bear.

Okay, not really. We never saw the bear, and the rangers patrolled the campground all night long with their trusty bear spray. In all my years camping at Yellowstone, I've NEVER had a bear come right into the campground. It was a little exciting.

Ants on a log. We had a fun time with cousins.



Halle and Liberty had a great time coming up with poses for the camera.

Silly girls.

They even came up with a pose of two for Grammy.



We picnicked outside, until the we could no longer stand the chill. (Then we had to move things indoors.)

We played in the fire.

We used the outdoor outhouses.

We enjoyed the wildlife.

We climbed trees. (Kate felt SO high in the tree. She was so proud of herself. It was hilarious. Jarom kept telling her she was going to get a tick from the tree. We all poo-pooed that. I've never gotten (is that a word?) a tick in Yellowstone.)

We raced back to the car after playing on Frog Rock.

We played so hard, some of us had to squeeze in a nap, right on the boardwalk while waiting for Old Faithful to blow. (The best part of this was when the Asian tourist whipped out his camera and took a couple shots of the sleepers. HILARIOUS!)

In the end, we went home warn out, dirty, and smelling like campfire. Until next time Yellowstone!