Big Sky

It was a long time coming. Twelve years, in fact. And long overdue. This is why we decided to make the thousand mile trek to Montana when my parents resurrected the Big Sky trip. 

Los Angeles is a long way from Big Sky. It took a lot of leg work to get us there. We first flew into SLC, where Ana met up with her old buddies.

And I met up with my old buddy. And her new buddy. Well, he's not new to her, just me. It was the first time I met Natalie's beau. We ate at Yellowfinn, hoping to run into Susan. She wasn't there, but Greg was a nice second.

Our time together was too short. Always too short. But very sweet.

Don't tell the Highway Patrol that we seriously had that many kids squished in Natalie's back seat.

Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride from Utah to Rexburg because Grandma & Grandpa Z were in town that weekend. Their house was demolished due to a remodel, so we all had to cram into one bathroom. I caught this very glamorous shot of Mary. This is the secret to fantastic hair....a plethora of round brushes.

We spent lots of time at RMC. Les & Mitch showed up in town on the day we were headed up to Big Sky. Here Lily & Ella are demonstrating their butt dance.

We finally hit the road for Montana and had to have our ritual stop at The Gusher in West Yellowstone for pizza. They make a mean pie.

We finally made it. And it was glorious to see it again. We used to go every winter with all our friends from Rexburg. Had many fun times and made many memories up there. It was really great to be back.

Leslie & Ana on the ski lift. It had been a while since we had been skiing, but Ana picked it right back up.

Lily picked it up too, only maybe she was a little too confident. She sufficiently endo'd on her first run and hurt her wrist. Thank goodness for that helmet because she banged her head pretty hard. She was in a lot of pain the rest of the trip (still is 3 weeks later), but she suffered through it because she couldn't bear to miss out on the fun. We had to spend a while in the first aid office getting all splintered up.

There was a lot of hopping back and forth between the hot tub and snow drifts. Can you take a moment to observe the beautiful view from our lodgings?

Les had a birthday while we were there. Of course Mother Mary had to bring back the white board. Inside joke from a decade or two ago...

Some sista time

Tod had a gnarly adventure getting to Montana. He had stayed behind to work, but was flying up just for the weekend. He had a little snag at the airport, though, and wasn't able to get up there until the following day. He had never been on a snowboard before, but enthusiastically rented one and jumped on it completely oblivious to the difficulties of learning this sport. The guys in the rental shop were onto his oblivion, though, and graciously threw in a helmet and wrist guards free of charge.

He actually did incredible. Snowboarding is pretty hard to pick up, but he did really well on his first run. So well, in fact, that I encouraged him to do what many newbies don't attempt for their first year or two...toe side edge. It was mean and cruel of me I realize now. Todd caught an edge and did a number on his leg. A massive bruise developed and it has slowly moved to basically every part of his leg. Nomadic bruises. Who knew?! He's still limping 3 weeks later. He's such a trooper, though. Complains of nothing and just smiles through everything. I've got a pretty adorable husband and kids.

We stopped in at RMC again on our way back into town. Tod couldn't resist "playing" the decorations. Turns out that vase makes a great whale noise. :)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Ana has aged up to senior drama in our little community theater. She went from being the oldest, most mature and from getting lead parts in Jr. Drama to being at the very bottom of the totem pole with high school seniors getting the lead parts and poor Ana was in the ensemble. Those are the dues you gotsta pay in this game.

It's cool, though, because when we had barely moved here, we went to see a sr. drama production (The Drowsy Chaperon) and they do such an incredible job with them. They're always so full of energy and song and dance and great sets. When it was over I asked the girls if they would enjoy doing that. They both nodded with total stars in their eyes. Now Ana is one of "them."

The play was Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, based off the funny 80's movie with Steve Martin. The Broadway adaptation was actually more hilarious and also full of great music. Please forgive all the blurry photos. This is the best I can do in low light without a flash.

Ana played a maid,

a cowgirl,

a nun,

a tourist,

another tourist,

a music box,

a stewardess,

and a cocktail waitress.

Here is the entire cast and Kristy, the director, after the last show.

Yay Ana!

It was a really fantastic show. I saw it 4 times and I laughed hysterically every time.

Zoo

Here's another super long post that's overly abundant in photos.

I took the girls to visit the San Diego Zoo this week. It was super fun and educational. It would be safe to say that the things we learned most about were 1. the private parts of various creatures, and 2. the waste of those creatures.

First stop: PRIMATES!!! 

(Lily is obsessed)

I love watching these guys climb and swing. So entertaining.

I think the orangutans ended up being my favorite. 

On the way to the next exhibit, Lily was chased by this bird.

Fishies (we were looking for the crock...see below)

 Lizards

Back to monkeys! This time the gorillas. Also highly entertaining. These guys all lay right on the other side of the glass. This picture reminds me of the scene in Disney's Tarzan where the baby Tarzan puts his hand in his gorilla mother's hand right before Phil Collins busts out a cheesy song.

 

 

Ever inspected gorilla toe nails?

 

Note the feet up on the glass.

Profile line up

Okay, hold on to your stomach for the next set of pics. This was hilarious. The silver back perched up on this log and was quickly followed by the little guy...

And a female...

They were on the edge of their seats waiting for what happened next...

And then little guy did a little poking and prodding as he watched.

Soon after #1 came #2 and now we know why they were waiting so anxiously...

(Yes, she really ate it. This was not completely shocking to me, as I once watched a gorilla in the Frankfurt zoo continually regurgitate in her hand and eat it.)

Moving right along!

The chimps were a little boring because they were all huddled up and looked depressed (I think they were cold). However, I think that middle one was trying to make some sort of an announcement to her male friends...  (enlarge for full effect)

 Don't they kinda look like hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil?

Hippos!

At this point we circled back to the orangs for another visit. This guy was rolling those two peas around for a while. 

 

A zookeeper came out and started throwing veggies to the monkeys. This dude stole all the sugar snap peas and ran up the tree.

And now to Ana's favorite...GIRAFFES!  She's always loved giraffes and knows a surprising amount about them. They really are such a neat creature. God really got creative with this one.

 

Like that when they give birth the poor babies drop about 4 feet to the ground.

Look, he's looking right at the camera.

 

Speaking of baby giraffes, have you ever seen one dance? 

Rhinos. What the heck?! Can you get a good look at this dude? I swear that's fitted armor, not skin. (highly suggested to enlarge this)

This camel won the prize for the most gnarly looking animal. He was foaming/spitting in this picture. And looking directly at me. I'm the zoo animal whisperer.

These rings are elephant collars.

This section of the zoo was really interesting because it showed us all the prehistoric animals that lived in southern California 10+ thousand years ago. Check out this giant camelish thing. 

This elephant is named Mary. She's 48. Evidently the average life span of an elephant is 45, but they can live up to 55 or more if they're healthy. Mary was old and out of shape. The zoo keeper was walking her (using alfalfa pellets to encourage her to keep going).

The Columbian mammoths were the SoCal equivalent of elephants and they were bigger than these guys. Replicas below.

 

 

 

 

This falcon used to fly around these parts. :/

Little modeling sesh with Lily behind the camera telling me what to do (she needs a spanking, I know).

Lily especially loved this sign.

 We spoke to the lion keeper for a long time. He told us all kinds of information, like that lion urine is the grossest, stinkiest, stickiest stuff you can imagine. The lion sprays people all the time and there's basically no way to salvage your clothing. It's garbage after it's been hit.

Check out this bad boy. The prehistoric cats in these parts were 25% larger than modern day African cats. Would hate to run into this in the forest.

What do you want to know about this guy? Trust me we can tell you.

At this point it started to rain, so we hurried through what we could. 

And by the panda bear we were getting drenched so we left, but I couldn't resist stopping for a picture of this bear's back fat. 

Ever since the zoo, Ana is trying to figure out how she can have a pet giraffe. She's begging me to move to Louisiana because she seems to think it's legal to have one there. As if there weren't enough reasons to live in LA (the OTHER LA).