Spring Break

Hooray-We're on Spring Break.
The fun started on Wednesday, March 4th when Derek went with the rest of the 5th grades up to Science Camp near Prescott.  They spend three days at camp Sky Y. We helped him carry his pack/pillow etc to school on Wednesday morning, then he came home a bit dirty on Friday.  He did at least shower once (I was happy with that)  Derek had a great time, something that surprised me was he said the food was great and he came home loving scrambled eggs.  Derek would never eat eggs in the past.  I've never heard of a kid enjoying camp food.  I'm glad he had a good experience.

We didn't have any plans to go on a trip anywhere.  We just decided to enjoy our time home and explore some things in our area.
 Our first adventure was to the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch about an hour South (almost Tucson) at Picacho Peak.  I had heard about this place a few years ago, and it has even been featured on the Travel the Channel.   I have wanted to bring the kids for a while.  It was a fun day.  The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

They have us put pieces of oranges on the ends of poles and the Ostrich's bit them off

Very Agressive Beady eyed Ostrich

Riding on the Monster Truck.  They gave us a tour of the ranch

Dax feeding Lorikeets

Feeding these Lorikeets was my favorite part.  They gave us these little cups of nectar.  They told us to walk in the Lorikeet area, hold your arm straight out, don't remove the lid.  Immediately these "rainbow things" (Trey's term) started landing on us.  They take the lid off with their beaks and they start eating.  They were very friendly and so cool.  We even bought more nectar and went back for seconds they were so much fun.

Goat Penthouse-Trey's Favorite

Conveyor Belt feeding

This Goat Penthouse was Trey's favorite.  They said these goats love to be up high, and the goats race in the morning to get their spot in the Penthouse, so I guess this is their favorite too.  You could feed these goats from these conveyor belts.  you put the food in these cups then rotate the wheel to get it up to the goats.  Trey had so much fun doing this one.

Dax and the friendly goat.

 This goat looks so friendly.  Moments before this picture the goat hopped up onto the green trash can to the left and took a baby wipe from the holder on  top and started eating it.  You can see the wipe on the ground.

Derek and an Ostrich Egg

Our guide of the Monster truck passed around this Ostrich egg, they are enormous with thick shells.  She said one Ostrich egg is equal to 24 chicken eggs.  She stood on this egg and it didn't even crack.

We went in to the ranch and with our admission they gave us two cups of food to feed all the animals (Ostrich, deer, donkey, goats, ducks, and prarie dogs).  We went to the Ostrich area after the Lorikeets.  The Ostrich's are very aggressive greedy gobblers.  The ostrichs don't have teeth, but they about bite your hand off with their beaks trying to get at the food.  They get fed all day long by the visitors, but they act like they haven't eaten in days.  Soon after I started feeding them, one grabbed both cups of food from me, pulled it away and dumped it on their side of the fence.  Oh well, there went all my food.  Trey was so sweet, he said "mom I felt bad for you when that Ostrich took all your food"

Our little field trip was ironically the same time of the Annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler.  I told the kids we were having our own Ostrich Festival because the one in Chandler has just turned into a big carnival with a few ostriches off to the side.  We had a great day, enjoyed our lunch from Dairy Queen, spent some time outdoors and learned a few things, then headed home.  I hope to return again sometime.  There was an accident on the freeway which really slowed us down going home.  We got off the freeway and took the back roads.  Just another little memory to add to our Ostrich Adventure.

One of the days during spring break we got some rain so Trey and I had a great time putting a 100 piece Spiderman puzzle together.  He said let's do it in under and hour, and we did.We had a fun time doing the puzzle together.

Trey went to Hamilton Pool with his friend Soren and had such a great time.  A few days later Soren's family was going some where for his older Brother and Sister to do a tri-athalon.  It was not going to be ideal conditions for Soren so his mom asked if Soren could spend the day with us instead.  We went to Hamilton Pool again and Derek also brought his friend David.  The kids had a great time.  Trey met a new friend and loaned her his goggles, he kept asking her for them back and she kept telling him she still wanted to use them.  Trey was nice and let her use them, but then it was time to go we couldn't find her, or the goggles.  Trey was  mad.    I told him he just learned a tough lesson and you shouldn't loan things to people you don't really know.  He was pretty upset, then on the way out I told him to check "lost and found"  What do you know??? the goggles were there.  Trey was so happy, he loved those goggles.  Curtis' comment  "that girl has good parents"  I agree.

We got in the car to drive home and there was a bee buzzing around.  Then the darn thing stung me in my arm.  I was so mad at the bee, I was just driving along and it stung me.   I'm glad it died after that.  Better me than one of the kids. 

Derek went on a tour of the fire station with his scout troup.  His leader, Mike Cannon, is awesome and he always takes pictures of the boys and sends them out to the parents.