SAFARI!

Well, not a real safari - but amazing all the same. Read on my friend.

We have had such a fun week with Erin and then Lucas here - I love hanging out with my family, and wish I could do it much more often.

Yesterday we drove Lucas down to SVU. Last week we were looking online for something to do in that area that might make the day of 8 hours of driving slightly more survivable for the boys. I was looking at going trough some of the caverns in the area, but Grant found the Virginia Safari Park. I was skeptical - my experiences with privately owned zoos in the past have been less than stellar, but we decided to try it.

In the end it was hilarious/terrifying/awesome. You drive through the park with your windows rolled down and buckets of animal feed, and while that may sound tame and boring... I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time. I got llama spit in my hair and our entire car was covered with animal spit and feed before we were through, but it was so worth it. I keep trying to type more about what it was like, but as they say "words can not express" so here are some pictures.

Before we went in, with no idea what we were in for...

A llama blocking our car with his "I know what you have in there and you aren't getting by until you get me some" stare

Jefferson feeding an Emu

Lucas feeding a Fallow Deer

Me feeding a bunch of Blackbucks

An Eland and a Zebra sticking their head in my window

The highlight of the day was probably Lucas wrestling with a camel for his feed bucket (Lucas won, but got thoroughly slimed in the process). Grant is working on editing the video he took of the event, and I will post the link when it is finished. While I'm somewhat unsure how they manage to keep it all safe, the animals all appeared very well cared for, and it was all very clean and well maintained, and like I said, we were all laughing so hard we could hardly talk, so I would say, if you are ever in that part of the world - go for it. But be prepared to vacuum your car out and take a shower after :)

Favorite Quote

I guess it was about 10 years ago now, when my sister Erin and I were roommates, and I was having a rough time with some things. One day she gave me a little card, with the following written on it:

I believe I am always divinely guided
I believe I will always take the right road
I believe God will always make a way where there is no way

A Forest Lost in Trees

This is Duncan trying to put one doll shoe and one of Jefferson's shoes on his stuffed frog, he was very frustrated the frog couldn't keep them on. 2 year olds can be so fun sometimes.

Thank you all for your comments and thoughts on yesterdays post. I really appreciated each of your perspectives, and it helped me step back a bit and look at the bigger picture and not stress about the details so much.

Erin sent me an email, and I wanted to post part of it, because I thought it was great -

About the shirt . . . I totally know what you mean. I like the quote, "don't take council from your fears." Today I was reading a book that said something like, 'We live in a universe that says 'YES!' It is a YES universe. If we believe we will fail, it says YES. If we believe there is a scarcity of something, it says 'YES!' If we believe the world is a dangerous place, it says 'YES!' But if we believe in abundance, it says 'YES!' If we believe in things turning out for the best, it says 'YES!'" Also, when I met with Kirk yesterday he was saying how our brain makes lists of evidence of things. For example, if we believe the future is insecure, we make a list of evidence in our brain to support that; when we want to ACT against that belief, it's pretty much impossible for us to do so because our brain says, "There's no EVIDENCE for that! I CAN'T do that!"

So he said if we want to change our beliefs and our action habits, we have to start actively recording/looking for/creating evidence for the thing we want to believe. Anyway, about Jeff making friends, I think in the end the shirt is only important in that it has given you greif. It will not matter WHAT he wears, really, in the end. What matters most is that you love him (which you do) and that you believe in him (which you do.) I know he'll make friends; he'll be successful; he'll have fun. He's a smart, friendly kid.

I really liked that . I know I already talked about the book The Social Animal the other day, but that quote made me think of that book, and how much what we unconsciously believe influences our actions. And so I have been trying to be more aware of the limiting thoughts I have, and change them for more positive ones.

Know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em

Sometimes as a parent I have a really hard time knowing when to give in and when to stand fast to a "rule".

Today I have 2 cases which I can't figure out if I should hold 'em or fold 'em.

Character t-shirts and honey nut cheerios.

First cheerios. I grew up in a house that rarely ate cold cereal. Actually only on Sunday mornings. and we had 2 cereal choices - plain cheerios and corn flakes. Sometimes on extra special occasions (like camping or something) we'd have kix.

Jefferson won't eat cold cereal at all, but Duncan likes it, and recently, with me sleeping more than usual, we've been having it for breakfast a couple times a week. So I generally just pull out the cheerios and rice krispies in the morning, and then let Duncan choose which one he wants. So my problem comes in here - Grant, who grew up in a lucky charms/cap'n crunch house, doesn't like plain cereal much, so I buy honey nut cheerios for him. Well, on Sunday Grant was eating honey nut cheerios, and Duncan wanted some cereal, so he gave him a bowl.

Then this morning I went into the kitchen and asked Duncan if he wanted some cereal, and he said "no" and ran into our room. Grant asked him if he wanted some cereal, and he said "Yes, big cereal". Grant takes him in the kitchen, pulls out rice krispies and plain cheerios, and asks him which he wants, and he says "No! Big Cereal!!!" So Grant pulls out honey nut cheerios, and Duncan says "Yes!". I'm not entirely sure why honey nut cheerios are big cereal to him, but now I feel like if I let him start eating honey nut cheerios he'll never eat the less-sweet cereal again. But I don't know if I'm just being dumb, and it really doesn't matter. I mean, cold cereal in general is not exactly a health food, so does it really matter if he's eating plain cheerios vs honey nut?

Then t-shirts. For some reason I really don't like character t-shirts, and I think until yesterday I've never bought my kids any clothes or shoes with characters on them. I guess I've bent the rule a bit when it comes to free shirts/shoes/toys we've gotten from Animal Planet/Discovery Channel, but I'm pretty strict about disney characters and the like. And now that I am typing this out I can't even clearly say why I dislike them so much.

But when we were at the ward campout last week, one of the mom's was talking about how her son had a hard time going up to new kids and making friends, so for his first day of preschool she bought him a pair of Thomas the Train shoes that made "Choo choo!" noises when you walk, and the treads on them looked like train tracks, and a Thomas the Train t-shirt. And she said it worked. Kids would walk up and be like "I like thomas the train." And her boy would say "me too". And it gave them a reason to talk to each other, which led to making some friends.

I admit, I'm nervous about Jefferson making friends in Kindergarten. When we are places with lots of kids he doesn't know well he will often just stay by me, and ask me to come play with him. I'll tell him he can join in playing with the other kids, but he feels like he needs a personal invitation from someone, and won't join unless he happens to get one.

Now I don't think Thomas the Tank would get Jefferson very far in Kindergarten, but Jefferson loves the wii. Much more then I wish he did. Enough that most days I just want to get rid of our wii. But I admit it's kind of saving me this pregnancy, because I really can't seem to make it through the day without a nap, and I need something to keep him occupied while Duncan and I nap, and so it's usually wii. His favorite game is Super Mario Galaxy, which he can talk about for hours. Literally.

Yesterday I was looking online for sales for school clothes for Jefferson, and he was looking over my shoulder, and he saw a Mario t-shirt, and he said "Oh cool, they have shirts with Mario on them!". And so last night for a surprise I bought him a Mario t-shirt for his first day of school. But now I'm doubting myself, wondering if its a dumb idea and I'm starting down a slippery slope to... What? I guess just commercialization in general is what I want to avoid, but it's so prevalent in todays world, I don't know if I'm being a stickler over something dumb and unimportant.

So what would you do in these cases??

Netflix and internet

Grant sent me this article today
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/16/netflix-now-for-kids/

And I'm happy about that. I hope they continue with more changes to make a more customizable, kid friendly experience.

I've been trying turning my computer of during the days recently except for a couple set times when I check and respond to emails and such, and it's been such a welcome change in my days. There are times it's annoying when I want to look something up really quickly, and I can't because the computer is not on, but overall very nice.

Social Animals and Sensitivity

I've been reading the book "How to Teach Your Child Sensitivity" by Linda and Richard Eyre, as well as The Social Animal by David Books. They are both books I highly recommend, and they have led me to the goal of working on one mental skill (I don't know if that's the phrase I want, but I can't think of a better one at the moment...) a week. I'm roughly following the schedule laid out in the Eyre book, but adapting it a bit.

This week we are working on looking at people in the eyes when we're speaking to them or being spoken too. We talked about this at dinner yesterday, and started then, and I admit it's been a bit harder then I thought it would be. Already I've realized how often I'm distracted when I'm talking to my family.

So here's to change!