Homecoming, Anti Homecoming

 Homecoming was a first and a last this year.  Cynjyn's first.  She wasn't old enough to go, but she still got to do the school stuff like spirit week and play at the football game.  She decided that she was going to ask Norma to "anti homecoming" and they were going to hang out that night and eat and watch movies.  So she found an idea on the internet and I made the poster for her one Sunday night.  She was in the middle of a lot of homework, so that's why I did it for her. 

 Tanner made some Mickey head cookies for her to take to Norma with the sign that night too.

They ended up inviting Kate and Kayla to join their festivities that night.  I told them since it was homecoming, they had to have a photo shoot, so I took them out to the park by our house and we shot some shots.  Then they made pancakes and had them for dinner, then settled in to watch Grease.  They'd brought chips and donuts and we made popcorn and sno cones for them too.  They had a fun night.

Taz had asked Rosemary to homecoming.  It was quite an ordeal.  He and Bryna had broken up right after school started.  He was sad, but was determined to have his last homecoming.  He wanted to ask a girl on the tennis team, Tiffany, but Lawson really wanted to ask her, so he decided to ask Rosemary.  This was cool because Rosemary was a pinochle player, so we came up with a really cute way to ask her:  Garry traced the cards and I colored them.  Taz helped a little when he could. 

 Then he went with Ryan on a Monday evening and asked her to homecoming.

Taz always gets himself involved in a huge group.  I keep telling him that he and Ryan and Andrew should just break off and do their own thing.  I know Taz would have way more fun that way, but alas he always ends up going with people he doesn't really like...anyway, this time he actually had friends in his group that he liked, so he had a lot more fun this year.  We all went to The District for pictures.  I always take a ton and so does everyone else, but it's fun that way. 

After the photo session, they went to a place James Skully had connections with and had an Italian dinner catered to them.  Then they all went to Blue Man Group.  That looked super fun and Taz loved it.  Then he and a few friends rode the NYNY coaster.  They then headed to Shae's house for dessert.

I guess they stayed there for awhile and visited and such  and then I think they came home.  He was in by 12:30.

He said it was fun.  Here is the cost:  $45.00 for corsage and bout. $175.00 for the rest of the evening.  Oh, and $15.00 for the mint green tie to match her dress that we bought three hours before the evening started (we had to walk the entire outlet mall going to all the stores we could think of to find the right color going off an IPhone picture of the dress.) We did pretty good with the matching.

A bucket list checked off

Bearizona was everything I expected it to be and more.  I had been wanting to go there for a couple of years.  Actually ever since we took Tanner down to BYUI where there was a bear world.  Then when we went to The Grand Canyon camping two years ago, I saw signs for Bearizona.  I told Garry that I wanted to go there Labor Day weekend.  The kids all except for Talon had Friday off work and school, so we got up at 6am and headed to Williams which was about 3 hours away.  I LOVED every part of it!! The bears did not disappoint.  They had an area of the park where you could drive through and in that part of it, they had a Junior bear section and in a different part, there was an adult bear section.  We actually drove through the driving part three times.  Once in the morning, once in the afternoon on the tour bus that the park has which is a big bus where they have removed the windows.  The thing that was cool about it was it was raining during that time and so the animals were active in different ways.  Then we drove the drive thru part right as we were leaving in the early evening.  Here are some pictures of the bears.  The Jr. Bears were in the trees.

 The baby bears were actually inside the park in a walk through are and we Cynjyn and Tanner went during their feeding time and got some pictures.

 As we were driving through at the end of the day, an adult bear stopped right in front of our car and unloaded.  I made Taz take a picture of the scat as we drove by, in case I ever am walking in the woods and see something similar, I'll know to look out for bears!

 The bears were just so fun to watch and did precarious things.

 In the enclosure area, they had 2nd year bears and they were very active and playful.

 The babies were precious.

 And one in particular loved to climb this tree.

 On the bus drive through, the driver knew every adult bear by name and told us a little something about each one.

Our second favorites were the wolves.  They had two enclosures, one of arctic wolves and one of regular.  These are the arctic wolves.  We believe they were a family and had the one pup.  They were very active and playful and so cool to watch.

 They especially liked their wood during the rainstorm.

 The regular wolves were sleepy and lethargic when we first saw them.

 But during the bus ride, they came super close to the bus and Garry got a good picture.  During out last drive through, Taz got some a good picture of them close by.  This one ended up coming right to his window and looking in on him.

The buffalo were majestic.  They had a heard of white buffalo and regular bison too.

They had some other animals in the drive thru part too.

We loved the walk through part of the park too.  They had adorable otters and we got to be there during their feeding time and so Cynjyn and I through them some little fish.

 Taz got a good picture of them sleeping.

We loved the foxes and the beaver and the javalina's and the badger and the bobcats.  We got to see them get fed too.

When we first got there, the beaver was sleeping in his little house, but we could see him.

Garry got a picture of the porcupines, but they were hard to see too.

But Tanner was obsessed with the badger.  It was almost flirting with him.  It would follow him around on the rocks and stop and let him snap a picture.  It was so funny.

Of course he kept reminding us that he is of the house of Hufflepuff!!

Then there was the bird show.  They showed the birds three times per day and we went to all three shows even though it was the same spiel.  It was just so much fun.  The birds would fly right over us and we were brushed several times by their wings.

The petting zoo was a bust with only some untouchable chickens and friendly poopy goats.  But it was a fun little break.

 There was one very pregnant pig by the petting zoo.

We were trying to take a variety of pictures and so I did take out my selfie stick at one point.

 We were trying different ways to use it. 

 Taz was horrified and claimed he didn't know us, but we convinced him to come for a picture at last.

 I had packed us a picnic lunch and there was an eating area and so we enjoyed a nice lunch together.

 More bird show fun...

Fun was had at a gift shop that they were working on. 

 They had a meet and greet session with a ferret and an armadillo.  Cynjyn got to "pet" them.  the armadillo was hiding.

When the keeper put it down, it finally came out of hiding.  We had got a hotel for the night, but we were done by 4:00 and so we cancelled the motel and stopped for some dinner in Williams and then headed home.  We got home about 8:30. 

 We ate at a restaurant called Kicks (on route 66).  We enjoyed some 1/2 price appetizers.

 Cynjyn and I were in love with the bowls they served the salads in.

 Tanner got some smothered pepper burger, he ended up not liking it very much.

 Taz got a bison burger that was delicious.

 Garry got a sandwich with homemade potato chips and I got a pesto pasta that I didn't really enjoy.

It was a long day.  At lunch I thanked everyone for indulging me and going on one of my dream trips.  They all admitted that it was a blast and there were so glad I decided to go there. 

As we left Arizona and headed back into Nevada, the sun bid us adieu and welcomed us home. A great family trip and so many fun memories made.