SFR 08: Day 2

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

The sunset that night

The first thing we did this morning was make family Mardi Gras floats for Mardi Gras night. I was little disappointed in ours though. My whole plan got messed up when I was going to print up stuff for it and my printer wouldn't work and I didn't have time to fix it before we left home. Some people went all out. One of my uncle's even had a motor on it.

After, Ryan and I took the girls to this exotic petting zoo. We thought Kaelyn would love it. The one thing I thought Kaelyn would love is petting a zebra. She's been a little disappointed the past couple of times we've been to the zoo and she couldn't see the zebras. She loved the petting zoo so much. First we went to the goats and as we were walking in, four got out. Good thing they had the double doors so they couldn't get out all the way. Everyone was trying to help us get them back in. They were nuts (the goats that is)! That's when I realized these goats weren't like the goats at the petting zoo in New Orleans. They even warn you not to bring food in the cage because they would jump all over you. They were pretty funny. They were chewing on the girls' skirts, the sequence on my foot flops, and the strings on my pants. They had a baby goat the Kaelyn could pick up and carry around. She loved it! She was able to feed an apple to a reindeer. Morgan fed the reindeer reluctantly, but then giggles when it took it from her hand (I think she just wanted to eat the apple herself). Kaelyn's hands were too little, so I fed the camels. I was weird. Thank goodness for baby wipes. Kaelyn got to pet the zebra. Surprisingly that wasn't the highlight that I thought it would be. She got to go in and feed the deer. Then she would try to hug them. They didn't like that too much. She thought feeding the emus were funny because they would peck out of the cup. Shed didn't get to pet the kangaroos. They were just laying down in the shade. She did get to pet a zonkey (mix between a zebra and donkey). Kaelyn wanted to go back in with the goats before we left. Of course, as we walked in, on got out. She found the baby goat and just carried it around. She wanted to take it home. She said, "Daddy, can you buy me a baby goat?" We told her if she put it down that we would go into the gift shop and buy her a little goat. She put it down willingly. but we soon found out we should have said that we would buy her a toy goat. She thought we were going to buy her a baby goat. She left kicking and screaming. Going to that petting zoo was a little too perfect for her. Morgan wasn't too interested in the animals. She just enjoyed running around somewhat free. I think the goats ruined it for her. She didn't like them chewing her clothes.

That night we had a Mardi Gras party. I had brought all my left over birthday party stuff (cowboy hats, princess hats, princess skirts...). The kids decorated their hats before dinner so they had costumes for "Mardi Gras". After dinner, my uncle, Kevin, explained what Mardi Gras was all about for the newbies who weren't from Louisiana. We crowned my grandparents the King and Queen of Carnival. My mom had made them capes, scepter and crowns. After, the kids put on their costumes and we had a mini parade. Our "neighbors" loved it. Then we had a second line. My mom works at Wal-mart, so she was able to get the king cake dough at Mardi Gras time (back in February) and froze it. So we even had king cake. Yummy! We all had a blast.

Oh yeah. We were supposed to wear Louisiana or Mardi Gras shirts that night. Most people wore theirs all day, but I knew we were going to the petting zoo and didn't want to get it dirty. After we got back to the cabin, I was thinking it was a good thing I didn't wear it, because I got dirty. Well, right before the family picture, my sister in-law, Tina, said that I had something on the back of my shirt. I had some kind of stain on the back. I have no idea where it came from. But as I'm twisted around, checking out the stain, one of my sisters pointed out I had a hole in the front. I look and sure enough, I had this big line of snags going down the front of my shirt. I was so aggravated! I only had my shirt on for about 10 or 15 minutes! I guess my big ole stomach just gets in the way!

I know she's pouting, but I still think it's a cute picture of her.--Kaelyn's contribution to the family float: a mess!


Our float. We didn't know what to do, so we just decided to make it all girly then put baby boy stuff on the back.


We made a second float to attach to our bigger one. For the friends who don't get it, Ryan has been bishop in our ward for almost a year now. He rarely gets free time.


A few other floats.

To the right: Feeding the Zonkey.