Oh, Ichiro, you are so collectible!

I finally finished grading the big stack of essays that has been hanging over my head for two weeks. Thanks to the five students who decided not to write one and got me out of the building even sooner (I don't really mean that; now they are failing). I left work without homework for the first weekend in a long time, so the boys and I headed off to Friday night Mariner's game to celebrate. It was a really nice night and we didn't even need the extra sweatshirts and blanket that we took with us.


The M's got a slow start, but then Simon did some sort of magic dance.


Simon at the M's Game from Jen Robinson on Vimeo.

After the dance, we went to the team store for a foam thumb to cheer them to victory, and they scored 5 runs before we got back to our seats. I guess Simon's dance worked.

Saturday we were up early for a lacrosse game on Vashon Island. I can't really remember the last time I went to Vashon. It could have been almost 30 years! We did a little exploring before the game.





After the game, we had a bit of a wait before the ferry and stopped at this country store. Just in case you decide to go to Vashon sometime and find yourself in need of a pit stop after exploring, you should know that this is not the place. There was a sign outside that made it very clear there is no restroom. And the lady who runs the place was a bit cranky, so I wouldn't go asking if you can use the restroom that you know they have, but for some reason don't want you to use.


Actually, it wasn't really that bad of a place (the lady was cranky, though). We picked up a gummi pizza, because pizza and gummi totally go together. And they had these really cool mini boxes of Boston Baked Beans for only a quarter. You can hardly get anything for a quarter these days, so we had to pick up a few boxes.



You may have noticed the sign that says, "Sludge Fest." It was definitely not as cool as it sounds. Simon had visions of people chucking mud at each other, but it turns out that it was just a discussion of sewage. Like that deserves to be called a fest.

On the way to the ferry, we saw a sign that said "Road-Side Attraction Ahead." This is the only "attraction" we could find, although "attraction" might be a bit of an exaggeration.


Just in case you wondered about the history of Vashon: (apparently, it can be summed up on the face of a rock)


This is what Steve thought of the road-side attraction:


While waiting for the ferry to Tacoma, we enjoyed some sun. It was one of those days where you feel like living in the Northwest is awesome. Simon helped Grandma find some beach glass.


On the ferry, we were parked next to this giant daffodil.


We ended the day with some lunch/dinner at Chevy's and a trip to Trader Joe's. After that we were pretty much beat.

The Spring Break Report: Days 5 and 6

Wednesday we went to the Mariner's game. Ichiro was not playing that day, which was a little disappointing, but we did get to see Griffey. He even hit a home run. Our seats were nice and close, just up from third base. We never get to sit that close to the action at Safeco. It was fun to see a game in such a small stadium. We wished we could have stayed another day to go the game the next day. The boys and I walked out to the grassy area, where you can sit for only $6. The view wasn't as good as from our seats, but you can stretch out and relax while enjoying the sun and the game.



After the game, we had dinner at Cheesecake factory with Janet's friends who moved to the Phoenix area after retiring. And then we were off for another stop at Costco to see if they had anything different in Phoenix, and to get a book for the drive back to St. George.

On Thursday we started the drive back to Utah, but stopped in Camp Verde (about an hour North of Phoenix) to go to the Out of Africa Park. There was a lot of whining from Simon about stopping there as he wasn't feeling that well, but it was pretty cool and the whining stopped right away. We started off on a safari drive. The best part of that was meeting the giraffe. He was so friendly and even gave Steve a kiss. At the end of the safari we saw him standing by the gate, as if he were waiting for the next bus to come through with their treats for him.




There were other animals on the safari and other places in the park. You can see more pictures of our stop (and other Spring Break pictures) here. We ended the visit with a camel ride, which the boys and Stacey seemed to enjoy.



The rest of the drive was long and uneventful. There is not a lot to see once you are past Flagstaff; there is just a lot of red rocks flat ground. Every once in a while you will see a small collection of houses and wonder what those people do out there in the middle of nowhere.

We finally got into St. George around 8:30 PM and stopped for some burritos at Cafe Rio. I got the pork, which was good, but really not as good as the Cafe Rio "taste-alike" that my mom makes.

We now have to pack and get ready for the flight home. The week just flew by, and I'm not looking forward to going back to the cold weather and rain.

The Spring Break Report: Part 2, days 2-4

DAY 2:
St. George has a really cool park high up on the hill above town. I'm not sure why we've never been there before. It was obviously a well-known hiking spot judging from the number of people who were there, and on a Sunday, when you would think that most of St. George would be in church. The boys enjoyed climbing on all the rocks, but we couldn't stay as long as we might have liked due to being over-dressed. The weather report said the temp was 56, so we dressed a little on the warm side. When we got there, it was clearly over 70, maybe around 80 and, of course, we didn't bring water. Simon was quickly over-heating, so our stay was short. We can always go back another day.


The boys saw a couple of lizards out there, which was followed by lizard chasing. I'm not sure what they thought they would do with the lizard if they actually caught it. I know they were able to keep some backyard frogs alive in the house for a long time, but I'm not sure if the lizard would have survived the trip home.



There were some big rocks to climb that didn't require any real rock climbing skills. That was fun!



DAY 3: Day 3 was apparently so uneventful, I can't remember what we did. I'm sure it included swimming and shopping at stores like Target. This may have also been the day that we took the boys to one of those bouncy places. I sat on a couch and read Stolen Innocence and paid no attention to the boys and what they were doing. Afterwards, I was chastised for not taking any pictures. Stolen Innocence, by the way, is a very interesting story of a young FLDS girl who was forced to get married at 14 to some guy she didn't like, who then abused her. Since I spend most of my days and weeks with 14 year olds, I am quite aware of how immature they are and how they are still children and should not be getting married and having babies. Also disturbing was the 18 year olds being married to some guy in his 80s.

DAY 4: We were up early and off to visit the Best Friends animal sanctuary in Kanab, UT. Kanab is in the middle of nowhere, but it is a cool place to visit and they really take care of a lot of animals. I wish we had had a chance to visit with more animals, but I guess you need to take the time to volunteer to do that. Some people make a vacation out of volunteering at Best Friends. That might be fun to do sometime when the kids are a bit older.


We sat all the way in the back of this big van:

Torsten in one of the cat houses.
A very friendly dog:
A donkey?
A mean pot-bellied pig:
A lonely dog named Chico:
Another strange creature:

After Best Friends we had a five plus hour drive to Peoria, Arizona. The drive was long, and only sometimes scenic. We stopped at a dam, and got out to see the dam view.




Shortly after that last photo was taken, Simon attempted to kill himself by running across the highway in front of an RV. Steve's scream scared me and apparently scared Simon enough to get him out of the street. Simon is just one crazy kid. I hope soon he gets enough common sense to keep himself alive for a few more years.

After finally arriving in Phoenix, we went out for some dinner. And do you even need to ask where? There was a Mexican place just a block from the hotel, so of course we ate there.


On the walk back to the hotel I spotted a Trader Joe's just across the parking lot. I can't believe we are so lucky to have picked a spot right next to Trader Joe's. I went in for some after-dinner snacks and also got some yogurt to have for breakfast. Steve noticed that on the other side of the hotel is a Costco. I think I know at least one place we'll be going tomorrow!

The Spring Break Report: Day 1

We were very tired on our first day of Spring Break. Our plane got us in to Vegas a little bit late and by the time we picked up the rental car and drove to St. George (with a brief stop at Smiths in Mesquite for some stay-awake snacks), it was 2:30 AM SG time. The boys were up early the next morning and ready for some breakfast and swimming. I skipped the pool (thank you swimming lessons for making my boys independent swimmers) and took the role of documenting the experience.



We then went out to run some errands. After a stop at Target, we hit Bajio for some lunch. Torsten got my favorite, shrimp tacos. I ate one of his tacos; they were good. Steve got a burrito classico with chicken, which I had some of, but it wasn't as good as the tacos. The chicken was a little dry.


It was nice just to be out in the sun. The temp was under 70, but it was warm enough for us to be out in shorts and t-shirts. Notice our rental car, a mini-van, so that we can blend in with the locals.


And who can resist a stop at Costco? We had to make sure that St. George didn't have something ours was missing. I think they had most of the same stuff, but the biggest problem was that I was exhausted from our lack of sleep the night before. I sat down at a patio set while Steve and Torsten were looking at books, and I fell asleep. After a quick nap it was time to check out the food section and, of course, the samples. But there was something strange about sampling here. They just stick the food on a tray for you to pick up with your hands--no cups, no napkins, no eating utensils. One particularly disturbing sight was the lady with plastic gloves covered in mango goo placing small cubes of mango on the tray for people to pick up with their bare hands. I mean, have they not heard of toothpicks in St. George? And the ironic thing about it is that at every sample station there was a sign that said, "Due to health code, please wait for food to be placed on the tray before touching." So weird. What about all the germs hitting the tray from people's hands as they pick it up? And I saw several people taking more than one serving. I skipped the samples altogether as did the rest of the family despite Torsten's protests.

After a post-Costco nap it was time for dinner. We decided to try Samarai 21, which everyone but me had been to before. It is one of those Asian restaurants where they cook the meal at the table. I was tired and cranky and didn't like how the hostess wanted to seat us so that we were squeezed in at the corner of the table. It wasn't the best set-up for conversation and kind of awkward since we were seated with a group of people we didn't know. But the cooking part was kind of fun and the boys enjoyed it.





Later in the evening we played some Yahtzee and Uno, and even got Steve to break away from the computer to join us.
There is not much planned for today. We are going to head out to a park in St. George for some rock climbing and exploring. Then, who knows?