Rain Forest, Animals and Crazy Kids.

I don't know what has happened to me, but my desire and ability to pump out entertaining posts - or any at all - has greatly diminished.  Maybe living away from home has me feeling like I have a greater duty to do more "update" type posts, which leaves me wondering if that's just incredibly annoying/boring to anyone non-grandparental, which in turn makes it so I just don't blog at all.

Do you understand this vicious cycle I am living in?

*

I'm not sure how I've let my narcissism waver.  I guess it could be that 1. nothing exciting has been happening, and 2. I'm just busy with all the STUFF I have going on.  (I was going to use a stronger word...but I thought my mom would rather me not say crap on my blog...oh oops, there I go saying it anyway.)

Anyway, prepare yourself for some random blogging update material!  

Last weekend, Marty had a nice long 4 1/2 days off due to Veteran's Day.  Seeing as I wasn't sure I could handle 4 days of staring at each other and sitting in our pajamas, we set off to do some "fun" stuff.  We went to the Rain Forest Cafe one day (quite expensive for not so much.  It's only the decorations you're paying for, which was cool for the kids.  Of course I did not bring my camera to that, so you will just have to imagine us sitting in a restaurant that looks like a Rain Forest...as the name would imply.)

Our next adventure was going to the Northwest Trek nearby.  It was just about a 30 minute drive (which felt like an eternity with our personal siren - Addison - going off the whole way).

Brielle brought her "journal" to draw pictures of all the animals.  It was pretty cute to look at when we got home.  Between the exhibits and a tram ride through 700 acres of wildlife, we were able to see all sorts of animals very up close.  We saw buffalo (or bison, whatever), elk, moose, mountain goats, deer, beavers, river otters, bears, wolfs, porcupine, owls, eagles, badger, cougar, and some that I had never heard of and can't remember the names.  It was COLD outside, but the kids had a good time.

(By the way...there is no animal in this picture, so you can stop trying to spot it.  It was just a pretty overlook of the preserve we were on with a nice glaring reflection from the window of the tram.)

*

Next...sister's coloring together.  Brielle and Claire like to sit on the hard floor and color in their coloring books, Addison has taken to joining them and actually scribbles on the paper.  It's so funny.  (To me at least...)

*

And lastly - because Claire hasn't been in many pictures lately (she's a busy/crazy kid, it's hard to catch her sometimes) here is what she has been up to lately.

(She had a push-pop ice cream/popsicle treat thing.)

So there you have it...maybe I will attempt to start thinking of funny things to write about again (I guess assuming anything I've ever written was funny)...but then again, maybe not.