short visit

We ended up having a short but satisfying visit with my parents last weekend. They were only here for two days, but we managed to fit in a lot during those two days.

Sadly, I don't have photos of much of it...

On Friday, we picked up Charlotte & Emily and went to Diego's Taco Shop for lunch. We don't know if they had a new chef or what, but it was pretty disappointing. Think a tortilla filled with salt. So, too bad about the food, but the company was good. (Oh, I almost forgot, the nachos were really good!)

Then Mom and I went to go help dress my grandmother's body for burial. That was a first for both of us, and we felt slightly apprehensive, but we both agreed that it wasn't bad at all. More like a tender service, the last that you can perform for your loved one.

While we were gone, Eva roped my dad into playing Cooties, robots, and who knows what else. I wish I had pictures of that.

Then we dashed over to BYU's little paleontology museum to see the new dinosaur discovery that was announced last week. We got there half an hour before it closed, but they stayed open a few minutes longer for us.

It's pretty cool to be able to peek in and see what the paleontologists are working on. One of the employees was in the museum section and answered some of our questions. Eva wanted to know if anyone who works there rides a motorcycle. (The answer is yes, one employee has one, and it is pink. Eva was thrilled.)

She told us that she has been working on cleaning and restoring a dinosaur skull for over a year now, and has only finished a fraction of it.

I really didn't know that a Triceratops head was this big!

I had to have my dad stand by this palm frond to show the scale. Unbelievable.

Yikes, creepy teeth.

More creepy teeth.

Mom and Eva spent quite a bit of time drawing and coloring. Eva was most impressed with Grandma's drawing skills!

She also got a mani/pedi. Good times.

On Saturday, after the funeral, my parents proposed taking the kids to Borders to pick out a new book and then to get ice cream. We all set off, but for unknown reasons, Eva was whining about the whole expedition. Yes, whining about picking out a new book and eating ice cream. I know. I was about ready to throttle her. Completely mystified, I turned around and took her home. (In retrospect, I wish I had just ignored her and taken her along, as there is absolutely no doubt she would have had a good time. Also, the next day it became obvious that she had a sinus infection, so that explains it. A little. Darn parental hindsight.)

Max & Lucas enjoyed choosing a new book. Lucas was debating between several, but eventually used the page count to guide him towards his final decision (he chose the longest one).

We went to the mall to go to Cold Stone, but first we hit the Verizon store to upgrade my 5-year-old "Model T" phone. Now I have all new technology: a camera, mobile email, unlimited texting, and a pull-out keyboard! It's a whole new world.

We saw this girl working at a mall kiosk. We stopped to ask her where she got her cute flower clips. Answer: she made them, and is planning to start selling them. Covet. Covet. I've got to learn to make these things.

The kids were excited to not only get Cold Stone, but also to consume it before dinner. And Eva ended up being glad that Grandma brought half of hers back to share. Go figure.

On Sunday morning, we had a temporary reprieve from Eva crying about her stuffy nose while she "helped" Grandma put her makeup on. Some of her dinosaur puppets enjoyed sleeping in Grandma's makeup bag while she was here, and Eva offered to let Grandma take two of them home to snuggle with. Also a blanket, but Grandma drew the line and said that her suitcase could not accommodate any more unexpected cargo.

I realized when we got to the airport that we hadn't taken any self-portraits, and I could hear an exasperated Jill in my mind, so we took a quick airport photo before they were off. (Even though I was having a bad hair day. And a bad chin day. As usual.)

aquarium #2

On Tuesday, we needed an outing. Max had been stuck at home for a full week, and he was dying to get out -- somewhere, anywhere. He still didn't feel up to being outside much, so we decided to go see another aquarium we had read about. (Did I ever post about our other aquarium visit? I can't remember.)

We had a 45-minute metro ride to get there, but because we didn't have to change trains, no one cared. It was way out at the edge of the Bois de Vincennes.

A totally quiet area, so nice for a change (although Marc would take issue with that, he loves the hustle and bustle).

I loved the maps they had, showing the natural homes of the different types of marine life.

We all loved this color-coordinated tank! All pink and purple.

Seriously. This fish looks like it has rabbit teeth! The kids are in bed now, so I can't ask them, but I think I remember it as being some kind of puffer-fish. We read that it uses those teeth to crack open mussel shells. But, come on! I have never seen fish teeth like that. I was mesmerized in a train-wreck kind of way, just could not take my eyes off of it. It's embarrassing how long I looked at that fish.

I finally tore myself away to look at some more attractive fish.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is my favorite fish ever. Black and white, with polka dots, and a little yellow for punch? In all the right places, too. So cute. Come on, it has yellow lips, people! It was also the fastest fish I have ever seen -- darting hither and yon, almost as if it had body issues and didn't want its picture taken. I must have taken 15 to get one that wasn't completely blurry.

Totally cool sea urchin. The other ones we saw were back in the corners of the tanks, barely visible, but this cool guy was attached to the front glass! Thanks for the great view, buddy.

Lucas pointed out that all of the fish in this tank were looking out at the same thing, and there were no patrons anywhere around. Wanna know what they were looking at?

This film of crocodiles carrying their newly-hatched young in their mouths to the water. I am not even joking. We were dying laughing at the fish watching a movie.

In all, it wasn't the best aquarium we have ever seen. But it only cost 9 euros for all 4 of us to get in, and the kids had a great time. We stood and watched a giant display of turtles for ages. We even saw several kinds of sea life we had never seen before. (But I didn't start taking pictures until I saw Creepy McRabbit Fish. That forced me to get out my camera, as I could not possibly leave that undocumented.)

Everyone was a little tired on the long ride home. But, as I said, no changing so it was just a long relaxing ride.

When we got home, Lucas made a fort out of the couch. Eva, not to be outdone, made a fort cave out of all of the dining room chairs and this lovely duvet cover from IKEA circa 1999. It just so happens she created her cave right in front of the tv, thereby obscuring anyone's view but her own. And now she wants to re-create the cave every day. Luckily, Lucas just wanted to read inside his fort.