Other fun things with Kate & Ali

We had too much fun to fit in just one or two blog posts, so I'm adding a few more photos:

On Sunday evening we made chocolate chip banana bread for Grandpa.  The chips were a new innovation that Ali and Kate suggested--delicious!  (Grandpa was still at church so we had to be creative with the self-timer on the kitchen window sill.)  Kate is wearing Great Grandma Scott's apron.

Of course there were several games of Around the World on the BB "court".  I discovered that although my aim is occasionally accurate, I need to work out more to be able to actually get the ball to the hoop!

Ali, Kate and Grandpa nailed a lot of shots

Competition was close between Ali, Kate and Grandpa

Sadly, that one did not make it

Ali and Kate each took a turn at Beethoven's Fifth with Grandpa.

After the ward breakfast at 6:30 a.m. on the Fourth of July, we hiked to Sabino dam.  Unfortunately, there wasn't any water in the dam, but we waded in a pool just below.  Grandpa managed to a bit more than wade!

The pool at the Ventana Vista condos was lovely and refreshing.  We also swam at Jessica Bullock's HOA pool.  

On Tuesday Ali, Kate and I visited The Mini Time Machine Museum, full of wonderful miniatures from different historical periods and different themes.  Kate took a lot of great photos--see a few below.

Photo by Kate

Photo by Kate

On Wednesday Kate had a manicure and Ali and I had pedicures.  Each took an hour and included a hot rock massage--we felt so pampered!

Voila!

Kate and Ali, we had such a great time with you!  We miss you already, but we're excited to see you and the WHOLE FAMILY at Christmas!  

Tucson - A Very Scary Place

No doubt you have heard that if you are bitten by a vampire you become one.  Well, that is not the only way you can become something scary–you could go to the Desert Museum and be bitten by a big-eared bat and voila’ you would look like this:

Be very careful not to be bitten by a turkey vulture or you could end up looking like this:



or this:



Fortunately we rushed Ali and Kate to get the antidote and were able to restore them back to abnormal.

Wednesday evening we ran into a colorful lot at the Gaslight Theater.  Maybe you have seen them around, after all they do have a sort of familial appearance.

There were Luke and Lea, the Ghostblasters, and of course the Lone Stranger and his trusty companion.

The show at the Gaslight was about the Freedom League of America successfully fending off the Romulan destiny by using their super heros: Megaman, Lady Liberty and The Streak.  Had it not been for the great encouragement from the audience (especially in section AAA on the eighth row) no doubt the earth would even now be under Romulan rule.



But, as you might expect, not everything was fun and games.  There were those times when Grandma and Grandpa were slave drivers.  Ali and Kate had projects to do, practicing to do, and exercising as well.  Each day was plumb full of to-dos.



At times they were so involved in the project that the project became almost a part of them.  There was no holding them down.

The girls were not only up to the tasks, they excelled!

They were simply maaaaaavelous!

Fun with Ali & Kate at the Desert Museum

Ali and Kate have written great posts about our adventures at the Desert Museum.  Here are a few more photos....

Enjoying a little refreshment in the air conditioned cafe

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After the museum, we headed over to SAS Fabrics to choose material for place mats.  Ali and Kate decided to make place mats for the dining room.  They found the perfect fabric with the same gray and white chevron pattern as the rug in the dining room--more on that project to follow!

Chinese for dinner!

We ended the day in suspense after watching the first episode of the second season of "Granite Flats" at www.byutv.org.  The first season is only available now on Netflicks, so we brought them up to speed on the story line before we watched the episode.

The Arizona Desert Museum by Kaitlyn Call

  I got the chance to visit the Arizona Desert Museum. I loved everything we did!!! On the way we learned how to make our pictures have a better look. Below are some pictures we took. Some pictures you will see are plants, cacti, animals, and something under a microscope.

  The picture below is the first picture I took while we were on the road. We also learned about the different buttons on the camera. Usually I press random buttons and hope one of them works but now I can use a camera without breaking it.The plant that you see is an ocotillo plant. Behind the ocotillo you may be able to see some houses and mountains. It was such a great view from on the road!!!!! 

My First Picture

  When we were officially in the museum with our tickets we rushed to the "Live Animal Show" but we couldn't wait to take pictures of these flowers until after the show. So since we had a few minutes until the show began, so we took these photos. The first flower in the upper left is a sunflower. If you look close enough there is a bee in the middle. The pictures on bottom left and upper right I don't know what they are but they are pretty so I took some pictures of them. Lastly, the plant on the bottom right is a cactus with a flower. We came at the perfect time, when there was previously rain. The plants seemed a little bit more alive after the rain.

A collage of flowers

  After we took pictures of the flowers we went to the "Live Animal Show". Since we actually made it to the show a few minutes early we got front row seats. The whole time I thought I am going to be the first one who gets eaten by these animals because we were so close. But the animals didn't even attempt to eat me because they were so well behaved. First the Parrot came out and the museum animal girl described the bird as "a flying three-years old with a hammer and pliers who lives to be eighty". The bird did some flips and tricks for us at the end. Next was the Chuckwalla and he is a relative of the iguana. It was hard to get a picture since the chuckwalla was in someones hands so I didn't take a picture of him. After the Chuckwalla there was a porcupine. I was SO scared because he was facing towards me. If the porcupine released his quills I would get quilled. When the Porcupine was gone I felt a little bit more calm but then a Skunk came out!!! Once again I was scared I was going to get sprayed. But, later on in the show someone asked if the Skunk could spray, I was relived to find out the Skunk could NOT spray me. It was a pretty cool show. I really enjoyed it.

The Parrot by Kate

The Hooded Skunk by Ali

The Porcupine by Ali

Below are some pictures of some of the animals in the Grassland habitat. The first picture is a frog. There was a pile of frogs in another spot. The second picture is a Algae Eating thing with it's mouth open. The third picture is an up close picture of the Harris ground squirrel. Ali and I found a "Kids Only Rock path" so we had to try it. There is a picture of us trying not to bonk our heads on the rocks through an opening .That was such a cool exhibit.

Frogs by Kate

Algae Sucker by Kate

Harris ground squirrel by Kate

Ali and I in a rock by Grandma

This is a picture of the mountain lion, also known as the cougar. The cougar jumped and ran around and put on a show for us. He posed for some pictures and he played in some bushes. Cruz, the mountain lion, jumped from rock to rock. I was so amazed at his skills.

Cruz, the cougar by Grandma

This is a picture of my arm under a microscope. You can't tell that your arm hairs are that prickly or your arm is that scaly. Under the microscope we played around by putting different objects under it. We put our hands under it and saw some dirt in our hands. It's crazy that you can see dirt through a microscope that you can't see without it. We continued to look around to see if there were any objects that we could put under the microscope. It was very amusing looking at every object closer. That was my FAVORITE part!

My arm under a microscope by Grandma

  Here are pictures of different kinds of cactus. The background picture has a Saguaro cactus in it. The picture on the left is a Saguaro cactus with fruit. The middle picture is a prickly pear cactus with fruit blooming. The last picture is actually not a cactus. It is a plant that looks like a cactus called agave. There were so many beautiful flowers, cactuses, and a lot of beautiful landscaping.

Cactus Collage

I had so much fun at this museum. All the exhibits were fun but they were all different. I want to come back here another time. I had so much fun and I learned so much.

Desert Museum by Ali

Visiting the Desert Museum was really fun. All the plants were beautiful. I thought that all the blooming flowers and cacti looked so pretty. Below are some pictures of flowers and plants that I took.

We went into one exhibit called the Hummingbird Aviary. It was neat to be in the habitat of the hummingbird. It was cool because they were flying all around us. I was able to capture this moment of one of the birds eating.

My favorite part of the Desert Museum was the show that we saw as soon as we got there. One lady from the staff did the show. She brought out different animals and told us about them. We learned about their sizes, diets, life span, etc. First, she brought out a beautiful parrot, who stayed with us the rest of the show. He was described as "a flying three-year-old with a hammer and pliers who lives to be eighty." He was pretty cool. Next, she brought out a chuckwalla, relative to the iguana (which I did not get a picture of). Then we saw a porcupine and a skunk. It was a fun and interesting show. After, we hung out for a little while longer and went over near the parrot. He enjoyed flirting with us. It was pretty entertaining.

The whole day was super fun. It was cool to see all the animals and different exhibits. I had a really good time and learned a lot.