Roarrrrr!

As you can see today we made it to the Dinosaur Museum.  It was the one thing Marina said she wanted to do while she was here.  I'm so glad we were able to go and Marina really enjoyed it and took tons of pictures of all of the dinosaurs and creatures.  As usual Ivan and Nick took off at 90 miles an hour and thank goodness for Lori, she took off right after them.  Anya, Natasha and I wandered around and Marina ended up off exploring with Lyudmyla.  Sort of nice to have four adults.  We had a little lunch in the cafe and then went to sea the African 3-D IMAX Movie.  It was interesting the kids really got a kick trying to reach out and grab the trees and plants that we were driving through.  I got a little motion sick and had to close my eyes through the driving parts, pretty funny.  Anya kept checking on me.  I don't know if it was to see if my eyes were still closed or because she was a little bored.  It was a tad long for her.

This is Lyudmyla, the adult that came along from the kids orphanage.  The kids were excited to show her the house and thier rooms when we got home Tuesday.  I think Marina has enjoyed having someone to visit with also.

So, the kids just played the rest of the afternoon.  I'm thrilled that my kids don't have school tomorrow and we can all just hang out.  I'm also thrilled it's the end of the term and I don't have to think about homework for a few days.  I'm truly behind in knowing what is going on in my children's lives after I've partied it up for two weeks.  Grant is excited basket ball try outs and next week, it will be good for him to try out and (we are sure that he'll) make the team.  The kids have been troopers and have been really responsible with their homework, but have totally quit doing their chores.  

So we had a lovely family dinner and ate some fresh Alaska Salmon.  Then we finally brought in the (drum roll please.......) PUMPKINS!  Yes, we finally carved the pumpkins and they had a great time.  I helped Ethan, but everyone drew their own faces (front, back and sides) and carved and gutted them.  We roasted some seeds, but Marina was the only one from Ukraine brave enough to try them.  Ivan was too cute and pestered Troy to play basket ball with him and Grant - the first Jazz game of the season was on.  They played some ball and a little baseball.  

 Ivan loves cars, trucks, jeeps, etc. this was his favorite part of the dinosaur museum, the jeep in the cafe.  Ivan has cracked me up, he loves to tinker with things.  This week he took apart a broken remote control car (it was gutted, I kept thinking of the sound those parts would make in the vacuum) and he re-built it and got it running, it totally works now.  He is fascinated with cars.  The girls were mad yesterday as we uploaded pictures because when he had the camera he took a lot of pictures of cars (on the road, in the parking lot, even the lights and gas cap of my own car).  Yesterday he and Nick spent the day tinkering and changing the wheels on Jordan's skate boards.  First thing this morning he asked if he could go get one of the skate boards and set up the bike ramp.