Boo at the Zoo

Saturday we decided to go back to the zoo for their annual "Boo At The Zoo."

Cooper, Addie and their cousins Beckham and Easton joined us.

All around the zoo there were booths set up with candy for the kids to Trick-or-treat. We were not sure how long the kids would last waiting in line, but they seemed entertained watching the animals while we waited, and I think the incentive of candy at the end was good too.


To be honest the lines really were not bad at all, and they moved quickly. Because we had just been to the zoo, this time we really just came for the Boo at the Zoo activities, but we had fun seeing the sites too.

And Valerie really enjoyed the candy.

We ended our day with a Halloween train ride.

It was great to have one more place to wear the costumes. The kids all seemed to have a lot of fun too.

The Great Mouse Trap

We have lived in this home for over 5 years now. It is a rental and there are a few things that we have fixed, but there are also a few things that we have just left how they are. One of these items is the floor boards. They are cheap and brown, and in a few small spots they are missing all together. One of these spots is the little space behind the door in the kids bathroom. The space is only about an inch wide, and makes it so you can see the gap between the floor and the bottom of the Sheetrock.

One day near the end of September, I picked Josh up from Kindergarten as usual. When we arrived home, he ran right into the bathroom. When he was finished he came out with a few questions. The conversation went something like this............

Mom you know that hole in the bathroom? The one behind the door?

Yes. What about it?

Well......Can mice be brown?

What!?

I know that mice are gray, but can they be brown?

Did you see a mouse in the hole Josh?

Well I don't know it had little ears and a tail, but it was brown. Can mice be brown?

I quickly went into the bathroom and started looking around. I was horrified. I have never had a mouse in my house before, and I did not need one now. I even told myself for a minute that maybe Josh didn't really see anything and it was just fine. But I knew he saw what he said he did. He had too many details about how it had come out from under the stool we have in front of the sink and ran towards the door. Josh was not sure if it actually went in that hole, or if it just went out into the hall.

To me it didn't really matter where it went, it was in the house. I called Ryan and told him to pick up some traps on his way home, and I went into major fall cleaning mode. I spent the next few days not just cleaning, but scrubbing out everywhere I could. I pulled out the fridge and the oven and cleaned out all of my cupboards. I watched for signs of the mouse. hoping that it had not been in my pantry. Luckily the only place I found droppings was behind my stove. We placed a nice pile of poison there and moved it back.

A few days passed and there was no sign of the mouse. The traps were not working. Than late one night I went into the kitchen and caught a glimpse of our friend over by the stove. By the end of the week we still had not caught it, so I called The landlord to see if they had any suggestions. They sent out a mouse person who placed bate boxes in a few places where we had had sightings of the mouse. I kept telling myself that it had to be only one mouse, because we were not finding droppings everywhere, and also because we had not caught any yet. It there was more than one we would have caught some by now.

Every day I kept checking for droppings in places. Especially my cupboards. Than one day I found some in my hot-pad drawer and my towel drawer. So I went through and cleaned everything again. And instead of putting my clean towels and hot-pads back in those drawers I placed bate boxes in them. As I moved the bate boxes around to the places that I knew the mouse had been, I noticed that one of them had been chewed on. But not enough to make me think we had more than one visitor. It gave me some relief to think that the mouse was eating the poison.

But then I began to wonder, how will we know when the mouse is really gone? Will it come out from hiding before it dies or will we never see it.

A little over three weeks after the first mouse sighting I was beginning to wonder if the mouse was gone. We had not had a sighting for days and the poison was being snacked on. That Saturday morning I had a hair appointment at 8:00am. As I drove home from my appointment I was thinking about what I could do that day to figure out if we still had mice. When I pulled into the garage the kids came running out yelling,

" We caught the mouse! We caught the mouse!"

I was so happy and I asked, "Which trap did we catch it in?"

Their reply was a little surprising to me. " It's not in a trap! We caught it under a bowl in the bathroom."

So I headed to the bathroom, and sure enough, there under one of my best Tupperware bowls was a mouse. Alive.

So I got my camera and took a few pictures while I decided what to do.

The story the kids told me was that they saw the mouse come out from under the fridge and head down the hall towards the bathroom. So they quickly got a bowl and caught it. I could tell that the mouse was suffering from the effects of the poison, and so it must not have been going very fast. But now we had a live mouse under a bowl. Ryan was at work, and I did not want to do anything that would cause me to accidentally have to touch the mouse.

I realized that Ryan's parents would be finishing up with their temple shift at any moment, so I decided to see if Grandpa would come take care of it for us. He was happy to.

He got a cereal box out of our recycle can and slid it under the bowl, keeping the mouse inside the bowl. The kids got excited at this point because when Grandpa did this the mouse started squeaking. When he brought it out I asked him how he was going to kill it. He told me that he was not going to kill it, he was just going to let it go outside.

At this point I remembered that Grandpa Bolander does not kill things. His job at work is to protect threatened and endangered species. Even when it comes to spiders he tries to catch them alive and release them outside. I told him he could not release it anywhere near my house, because then it would just come back in. Even if it was under the influence of the poison and going to die any day, I did not want it back in my house.

Joe did not want the mouse killed either, so he and Grandpa went for a ride and released the mouse back into the wild.
I hope our little visitor enjoyed his last days outside free in the wild.

Having one mouse caught and gone, we would now find out if we just had one visitor, or if we had a problem. Fortunately there have been no more mouse sightings. The droppings have not returned and we have been mouse free for a couple of weeks. I hope to stay that way for a very long time. The rest of my life if possible.

Utah State Fair

Last weekend we headed to the State fair.

It is so fun to see all of the exhibits. Some of them make me wonder what exactly the categories are. Emily and Joe liked this dragon made out of metal pieces. A lot of them looked like they came off of bikes.

Valerie loved this picture of the pink chicken. Because it is pink that means it is hers. Even now as I type this she is telling me "Oh that's my chicken!"

Another favorite part of the fair is the really yummy, heart attack waiting to happen, treats .

The boys enjoyed fried cheese on a stick.

Grandma and Emily shared a plate of fried potatoes.

And we all had ourselves a scone......mine was stuffed with cream cheese, and it was very tasty.

After seeing all the crafts, animals, and other things on display, the kids ended the night with a couple of rides.

It was no surprise that Valerie loved the rides too.

While the kids were waiting in line for one of their rides Grandpa took Valerie on the Merry-go-round over, and over, and over again.

She loved having him for a ride buddy.

The final ride of the night was the big yellow slide. Emily, Joe, and Josh were not quite sure if they would like it, but Grandma asked them to give it a try.

They loved it so much, they declared it "The Best Ride Ever," and wanted to go for a second time.

Valerie talked Grandpa into taking her on it too.

I think the kids would have gone on it over and over again if we would have let them, but it was time to head home.

Valerie was not happy to leave. She wanted to keep sliding on the slide.

As always it was a great time at the fair.

The Zoo With Grandma

Grandma was here helping Jon and Jenny with their new baby for a few weeks. Due to unforeseen illnesses we didn't get to visit as much as we would have liked to, but the day before my mom left to go home she called and invited us to the zoo. Emily, Joe, and Josh were already at school, but Valerie and I were over our colds, and did not have any plans so we hopped in the car and headed to the Zoo.
This was Valerie's first trip to the zoo, and I was excited to see if she liked it. My Brother Jon and his son Jaxson came too. Valerie was excited to see Grandma and happy to follow Jaxson around.

It is still pretty cold so the Elephants and the Rhino were not outside. I was a little disappointed, but the rest of the animals made up for it. Some of them acted like they had not seen humans for days and were missing the attention. The Gorilla didn't like Jon taking a picture of him. When the flash went off he got really mad and started pounding on the glass.

These monkeys (I don't know what type it is so they are all monkeys) Came into their cage and started jumping around. Jaxson really liked it when this guy started hitting the glass, but Valerie wasn't sure.

The cats were also very active. When we got close to the Tiger exhibit we could hear it growling. It was pacing around it's cage. I think it must have been close to feeding time.

The peacocks were also happy to show off their stuff.

It was a great day at the zoo. Valerie loved getting to see all of the animals, and spend a little more time with Grandma. When the other kids heard about our exciting day, they were really sad they missed it. I will have to take them before the animals get hot and lazy again.

Fall Fun in Tooele

At the end of September my Grandma had knee surgery, so my mom came for six weeks to help her with her recovery. After the first couple of weeks my Grandma didn't feel good enough to venture out, but she was happy to have us come and visit and help her with a few things.

It turned out that the timing was great for us too, because the kids seemed to have quit a few days off of school while my mom was here . So we visited over fall break and then we spent the last two Fridays with my Grandma and mom.

The kids were happy to give up their days off, because they love Great Grandma's house, and the job my grandma needed help with was getting the leaves cleaned up in her yard. Something the kids also really like to do as long as they get to play in them.

The boys love jumping into the leaves

And throwing them at each other.

Valerie did not really like the leaves at all. She tried to get into helping for a minute, but mostly she just watched the other kids work and play.



Emily loves the leaves just as much, if not more, than the boys. The second time we went out she raked almost the entire front yard by herself, so she could get a nice big pile for jumping without it getting messed up in the process.

I think Emily was a little sad that Valerie did not like playing in the leaves. She even sat in the leaves for a minute with Valerie to show her how fun they could be. Valerie didn't buy it though and got out as fast as she could.

The first Friday my cousin Hannah (who is Emily's age) and the kids cousin Jaxson were also there visiting. Because it was the Friday before Halloween, my mom planned a special treat for the kids to have after the raking was done. They made Monster Eyeball cupcakes.

The weather was still nice so the kids spent most of the time outside. When ever Emily disappears at my grandma's house I know exactly where she has gone. Emily spends a lot of time next door at my uncle's house playing with the animals.



Valerie is obsessed with dogs right now and was happy to go with Emily to visit Sam the dog.

Joe and Josh love the animals, but they also love playing in the yard and orchard and climbing the trees at grandma's house.

For an extra special treat my Uncle Dean was home one of the days we were visiting, and he saddled up a horse and let the kids have a ride.

The boys were both a little nervous about it, but once they got on they thought it was great.

Valerie really likes to look at the horses and she was interested in watching the other kids ride, but she was not excited about getting on the horse.

She did end up getting on for a minute with Emily, but she only stayed on long enough for a picture.

Emily was in heaven. My Uncle let her take the reins this time and ride the horse for real. She was very timid with the horse and acted like she was afraid of hurting it. When my uncle told her to kick the horse in the side to get it to go she barely tapped the horse. Eventually she got the hang of it, and loved every minute of it.

This alone made the day worth it for Emily.

My Grandma is recovering well from her surgery, and my mom has gone back to her house. It was really fun to be able to go out and visit with my Grandma and my mom. It was also nice to have my mom close enough to see a little more often. I am grateful that we had so many chances to visit with them this last month, and it was a great way to play with the kids on their days off of school.