Spring Break

My last post generated more comments and visits to my blog than I've seen in a long time.  I should babble on about not blogging, writer's block, my lack of gumption and all that nonsense more often!  That being said, I'm actually going to do a real post...

Last week was our kids' Spring Break.  Aside from a trip to the library and the park, we didn't do much with our first couple of days.  Not wanting the remaining days off to go to waste, the kids and I tried to make up for it from Wednesday through Friday.

WEDNESDAY

That morning I took the kiddies to Kangaroo Zoo.  It's a fun place for the kids to be noisy, run around, get all sweaty and wear themselves out for a while.  Once they'd hit their energy limit (which I'm always shocked actually exists) I surprised them with a trip to a farm store nearby.  They had dozens of chicks, ducklings and baby rabbits for sale for the upcoming Easter holiday.  We weren't permitted to hold any of them but one of the employees was nice enough to hold both a chick and a duckling so that the kids could pet them.  It if weren't for the lame-o zoning laws and such around here, I would have come home with a handful of chicks.  They were SO cute!

Next it was off to a really nice local grocery store, Harmon's, where we chose what we each wanted for lunch from their deli, salad bar, bistro, Chinese buffet, etc.  Aside from the great fruit and such that all of us shared from the salad bar, my lunch was hands down the most expensive and worst tasting of the three meals...NASTY Chinese food.  It smelled fabulous when I was serving it up and I was so excited to give it a try.  What a total waste of money.  Sorry, Harmon's, but I would pick the hole-in-the-wall cheap place here in town or Panda Express over your Chinese food any day!  And either one of them would have cost me about half of what I spent.  Thankfully the kids both made really delicious (and inexpensive!) choices...Claire had homemade macaroni & cheese and Hudson opted for the fried chicken.  Next time I'm going for the deli/bistro.

After lunch it was across the shopping center to a really nice new play structure out in front of the theatres.  A friend had mentioned the playground in a FB post a day or two before so I figured that as long as we were in the neighborhood, we ought to give it a shot.  I was so glad we did...the ground was covered in nice rubber bark (bouncy to walk on - kind of fun!) and the play structure was made to look like a tree house, complete with a couple of "board" ladders, a climbing wall, "stone" steps, etc.

Our last hurrah for the day was a trip to another theatre (closer to home) to see Mirror, Mirror with Max.  It was such a fun movie!  I thought the beginning scene with Julia Roberts - aka the Evil Queen - giving a bit of a prologue was very interestingly done in terms of animation and very funny in some of the things she said.  The whole movie really was entertaining and generated some good laughs.  We all enjoyed the movie and while it wasn't the greatest flick ever (I never want to say movies are super awesome...gets peeps' hopes up too much), it was a good choice for the whole family.

THURSDAY

We were headed into SLC to stop by a cousin's place in Sandy that morning so I decided to make the best of being that far south.  After our visit there, we headed to IKEA for lunch.  I know it's not gourmet food or anything but I seriously LOVE their meatballs with gravy, potatoes and lingonberries...I also get a side of steamed veggies every time.  And most importantly, the kids and I always get a piece of their chocolate cake to share.  It is so very tasty!  I would gladly pay Harmon's prices for an IKEA meal.  It just goes to prove that cheap things aren't all bad and pricey things aren't always good!

After IKEA we headed down to Thanksgiving Point to go to the animal farm/park.  It was fairly cool with a very cold wind outside and while I was sorry to have worn short sleeves and that none of us brought jackets, I was glad that I'd made the kids wear long sleeved shirts that morning.  In spite of the cold, we had a wonderful time.  I've always been a sucker for animals and springtime is my favorite time to visit there with all the baby animals and such.  While there were a few animals still expecting babies (two cows, two ponies, a couple of goats, etc.), there were already a number of chicks and lambs there, three of the lambs having been born just hours before we arrived.  The kids loved petting and feeding the goats, the big draft horses, a few bunnies and a couple of the lambs that came over to the gate.  They also enjoyed their pony rides...Hudson rode Cosmo and Claire was on Elvis.  I'm hoping to make it back down there soon so we can see the goat kids and foals that were due any day.  This was the only day that I remembered to bring along my good camera...

FRIDAY

We stuck around home Friday morning as it had snowed 6-8" overnight.  We were supposed to have a neighborhood Easter egg hunt at 11:00 that morning but it was postponed for Saturday in hopes that the snow would be melted.  Instead the kids had a blast playing the snow while I shoveled our driveway and walks.  After lunch I took them downtown SLC to see the new City Creek shopping center.  I took Claire there for a quick visit a couple of weeks ago but didn't get to see everything so it was fun to really explore this time around.  We did a bit of shopping (Disney Store, Go! Toys & Games, Macy's) but mostly just walked around and took in the sights.  Fountains are always a favorite, the waterfall is really something and watching trains and people from the sky bridge was fun...but the hands down favorite for all three of us was the trout pond.  I think we could have easily sat there watching the fish dart around all afternoon.  We were there for a good 2-3 hours and I was shocked at the end when both kids complained about leaving.  "Please, just one more store!"  is not something I usually hear come from my almost 8-year-old boy's mouth.

That night it was a last minute dinner from Papa Murphy's pizza since I hadn't thought ahead enough when I was home that morning.  Not that take-and-bake pizza is normally something to rave about but if you haven't had it, you really ought to give their Herb Chicken Mediterranean DeLite pizza a try.  They use olive oil instead of sauce and it has chicken, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese and a sprinkling of herbs on top.  Three words: yummy, tasty, delicious.

I think that's about it for our uber-exciting spring break...

Next up: Easter!