Memorial Day Weekend

The boys went to the Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration Campout at the beginning of May.  This pic was taken by our friends.  William had fun canoeing on the lake and watching kids fish.  He hunted for scorpions and found some (there was an adult present).  They had a yummy dinner the night before with a dutch oven dessert smorgasbord and a yummy breakfast in the morning.     

Memorial Day weekend we did a couple of fun things.  We had a Groupon to go to the Biosphere 2 in Oracle, AZ.  It was really neat and as big biology nerds we had lots of fun learning about the experiments.  Since we now have a year pass we want to go back around Sept and see how the insects are doing!!  There was lots of walking and William did great.  There was a rain forest room that looked, smelled and felt like a rain forest.  There was a Savannah room with an ocean inside.  There was also a fog dessert that's a little different from our Sonoran desert here in Tucson.

Biosphere 2 in the background. After our tour.

We also ventured out to the Desert Museum.  It was awesome!  We went to the reptile house first and saw all kinds of snakes, lizards, spiders, scorpions, frogs, and bugs.  Then we went to a man made cave that was neat.  As soon as we walked in we saw real bats sleeping.  Later, William put on some bat ears.  After coming out of the cave we went to see the mountain lion.  He was right by the window and sleeping.  We headed down the trail to see more animals when William says, "Is that a rattlesnake daddy?"  Sure enough, there was a real rattlesnake in the bushes off the trail.  It had no rattle but was clearly annoyed and wanted to get away from us.  Two guys came up the path and one went to tell a docent while the other waited near the snake to warn people and keep an eye on it.  Pretty cool!!

Rattlesnake!

Black bear in the shade.  Just his head is sticking out from behind the log.

Maren swimming.

We ended our day with a dip in the pool.  William is getting really good at swimming, diving for fishes and jumping in. Ashley floats around on her tube.  Maren loves the water and will kick and splash and she doesn't even mind if she gets all wet from William's splashes.