Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch

Today we had some more much needed family time and it was a total blast!!!  Because we love any family time we can get, the kids and I tagged along with Matt on business to Sierra Vista.  While Matt was at worked, we played  of course.  Elena's 1st grade teacher has family in Sierra Vista and she was visiting them for the Holidays, so we decided to meet up with her at McDonalds for breakfast and let the kids play.  It was great fun talking and getting to know each other better.  Why I didn't get a picture, I don't know...I hate it when I do that.  Then we went to the ever so famous J.J's house....Cody's best friend across the street from when we used to live there.  It is always fun to see them together, it is like no time ever passes in between visits.

On the way back to Mesa,we decided to stop at a place we have driven past 100 times and have never stopped.  It is called Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch and it is just north of Tucson. We started out by riding in a gigantic monster truck...again, never got a picture of us right up against the truck...super bummed about that, but you can see it in the back ground of this picture of the kids with ostrich feather dusters.


And you can see them going up the ramp to get on the big truck.  

So on the monster truck you receive a fantastic tour of the Ostrich farm, along with a ton of educational information.  We learned all about Ostriches, Saguaro Cactus, Picacho Peak and more. Our tour guide/driver was awesome!!!  Then we went 4 wheeling, it was really fun!!

We finished up by "fishin' for Ostriches"

This is where you clip orange slices on to a rope that is connected to a pole (your fishing pole) and lower it down for the ostriches to eat.  So interactive and so much fun!!! What a cleaver idea!!

After the monster truck, we went onto the farm.  They give you a ton of food to feed the animals. You start out feeding the donkeys, then the deer, then the goats.  The goats cracked me up...They had this contraption thing, that you would put food in this yellow cup and then crank this crank and it sends the food up to the goats.  The goats were lifted up several stories high (remember how goats love heights?).

Then they had this other one where the goats stick their heads through these holes so you can feed them...so hilarious!!!! We all loved it!!

You also had another chance to feed the ostriches and then they had prairie dogs and the cabbage patch kids (miniature goats) you could feed.  Then we fed these beautiful white ducks.

 The last animal we fed were the Lorikeets, which turned out to be our favorite!!! You walk in and hold your cup of nectar...the birds take the lid off for you and gobble the nectar up.  It was SO awesome!!!!! Anyways....we TOTALLY recommend this for a very unique experience that is fun for the whole family!!

Here are some of the videos from the trip.  I think you will especially enjoy Elena's laugh in the Lorikeet Video.  Videos are not loading...but I put a few on my FB page.

Cody's AR Goal

Like a lot of schools, Cody's school uses the Accelerated Reading Program (AR).  I like this program mostly because it is so fun in the day to get an email notification that your son has just taken an AR test.  It makes me feel connected to him, even while he is at school.  One day when he was in first grade, I viewed one of his tests and he had gotten a zero.  When he got home, I asked him what had happened.  He said he accidentally selected to take his test in Spanish.  He tried guessing, but that didn't go so well for him.  Any ways the other day it was kind of fun.  I got an email notification that he had taken and AR test.  I knew he was just about to finish his forth book in the Harry Potter Series, so I was anxious to see if it was the one he tested on.  Sure enough!!  Check it out!!!!  Only a few days into the new quarter and he has already smashed his goal!!!  Great Job CODY!!!! 

Randomness From My Phone

My friend Melissa and I took the kids to the zoo a couple of weeks ago on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Both of our husbands had to work, so we decided to get out before the summer hits and the zoo becomes the last place you want to be.  We had a great time...I am not a zoo lover, I like it, but I like to have a look and move on to the next animal.  I am glad Melissa felt the same. The kids had a blast being together!!!



So somewhere along the way...this little girl has become high maintenance.  I had my first pedicure when I was 30 years old...I am kind of like a Honda, I am pretty low maintenance.  But Elena, well she is like....I don't know, some  fancy car that requires a lot of pampering.   I am so glad I have her to help me remember to slow down and do something for our self every once in a while.



On Dr Seuss's Birthday Elena came home wearing a Dr. Seuss hat she had made.  She then decided she needed to make Ruby one.  This girl loves crafts, so she worked and made it all by her self. Dog in the Hat is what she called it.  She also added a cute flower to her hat to make it Girl in the hat. 


 You know when you go to check on your kids and they just melt your heart?  Surprisingly it happens quite often around here.  Here are a couple of times that I was able to catch them in the act.  Sweet Cody reading to Elena and then the kids playing Lego Friends and Star Wars or Ninjago.  Heaven on Earth I tell you!! I have a couple of Awesome Kiddos!!






And how often do you cut into a pepper and it is shaped like a heart?  Thank you pepper for making me look like an awesome mom!!!






 

I Love these pictures of Cody cuddled up with Ruby.  It is a very rear occasion to catch him falling asleep on accident somewhere other then his bed.  These picture are both during Spring Break...so kudos to me for wearing him out!!!

You know those times when all the sudden you realize it is too quite and you become fearful of what kind of silent destruction might be taking place.  Well as you can see, I was pleasantly surprised to see Elena had made a numbers chain.  From 1 -101  

Spring Break

I have bathrooms to clean, floors to mop and weeds to pull....but my poor blog has taken the back burner long enough.  I eventually will try and do ALL of my past posts, but I am just going to start from the most resent first.  So Spring Break it is.  As always we toy with the idea of doing something out of town, something big like another cruise or Disneyland, New York, Hawaii and throw our Wedding Anniversary in there and it makes a big trip even more tempting...but alas there is something called responsibilities and money that always seems to bring us back to face the reality.  Matt didn't have work off, so the kids and I pulled out our POGO pass that we got a great deal on last June and mapped out the week.  Thanks to that pass, it was a really fun and inexpensive week.   I have tons of pictures and not really a whole lot to write about. So here are some pictures with a few snippets of narration.

Superstition Farms is close by our house and they happened to have a fee entrance day so I figured PERFECT!!!  They had a deal for $5.00 you get to feed the animals, have a hay ride, a glass of favored milk and a dish of ice cream. Elena and I had been there before, but Cody had never been.  He was surprised that it was so fun!!!  Although he did not want to ride a horse.  But Elena was WAY excited!!!! as you can see from her expressions on her face.

The horse's name was M&M and he only has one speed.....Slow.  I think after watching Elena ride, Cody was thinking he could probably handle a horse ride, but he still insisted that he was fine not riding it. 


The kids enjoyed the hay ride and we even got to see a baby cow that had just been born a hour ago.   

Then we  headed to the Milk Bar where the kids got to choose from 12 flavors to mix into their glass of milk.  Elena chose Strawberry and Cody picked Orange Cream.

 The petting zoo was really fun!  Again Cody was surprised at how much he liked feeding the animals.  You have to remember that as a young boy Cody was very shy and very unsure to try new things, he loved to observe.  And now that he is bigger and more willing to give things a try he is always saying, "That was different then I thought it would be...that was really fun!!!

And then we ended our day there with a nice dish of ice cream.  Cody  chose Blue Cotton Candy and Elena picked Pink Bubble Gum.

Jump Street

Several of my friends have the POGO pass, so the ones of us that did not go out of town tried to get together and hit a few places together. Jump Street was probably my favorite.  I knew my kids had energy but seriously one full hour of constant jumping and running???  They were exhausted by the time we got home. I got very few pictures here and what I did get were all blurry...I never use my big camera anymore or my small camera, my phone is just too convenient, but with it come a lower quality of picture.  Oh well. 

Bike Wash

Do you have one of those friends that always does the most adorable fun things?  Well my friend Brittany is one of those.  Just genuine wonderfulness ooses from her.  She put together this cute Bike wash for the Neighborhood kids to come and enjoy.  Elena scrubbed and scrubbed her bike multiple times and if her bike wasn't sparkly to begin with...it sure was by the time she was done with it.  Cody again said his famous words...that was a lot different then I thought it would be....That was fun!!! Our plan was to go to the park afterwards, but we were all so darn warn out from JumpStreet that we just headed home and watch a movie.  It was a great DAY!!!

Enchanted Island

Another POGO pass deal...I am not sure I would ever go to this park had it not been for the pass.  It was fun and all and we had an amazing fun time....but first of all I would have never knew it existed and second of all....well, I don't really need a second of all if I didn't know it existed.  But here we are and the kids loved it.  So glad we had our friends to come along with us!  Made it that much more fun.  Matt happened to have a meeting in Phoenix that morning, so he joined us for lunch  and even came on a couple of rides and that was awesome!!!