The Zoo and Other Things

We spent Memorial Day weekend with Rick's family. We went up to Winslow, AZ first for our niece's graduation party and we spent the night with Rick's brother and his family. When we were about 30 miles from Winslow we stopped at a gas station and there was a man on the side of the road holding up a sign that said "Winslow." I seriously have never seen Rick more excited in his life. He has ALWAYS wanted to pick up a hitchhiker, but I would never let him because I don't want to be murdered. This guy looked legit enough because he was wearing a work shirt with his name sewn on it and had a cell phone. And everyone knows that a cell phone and your name sewn onto your shirt means you are not a murderer. Before we picked the guy up we got gas and then Rick had me sit in the back seat and he got his knife out "just in case." The guy ended up being really nice. He works at the Purina dog food factory in Flagstaff and his truck had broken down. He was the father of 11 kids, and his pride and joy was his Volkswagen Beetle that had over 350,000 miles on it. Rick was so happy that we picked up a hitch hiker. Hopefully this doesn't become one of those things we do on every road trip we go on.

The next day we went to the Phoenix Zoo with Rick's brother's family. The animals weren't very lively, so it was kind of boring, but we did get to see some neat things. Here are the highlights.

 Turtles. Lots and lots of turtles.

 The otters kind of reminded me of dogs. They were very playful. I love otters because without them we wouldn't have otterpops.

 Stingray.

 This fish was huge. Like as big as Rick's back.

 The boys were "rawr"ing at the bear to try to get a reaction out of him. Didn't work.

 Me and the boys checking out the hissing cockroaches. 

 We were about to venture into the African Safari land and the airplane just made it feel like we were really there.

 Our nephews Brekken and Brock.

 Bryce loved the orangutan. He wanted to give him a hug.

I wanted to give him a hug too. Look at that face!

In Other News:

• Today in church this lady was bearing her testimony and she referred to the Spirit as the "Tickle Monster". Seriously. She was like in her mid 20s too. Also there was this family sitting in front of us and the little girl (who was probably 3 or 4) was turned around facing us. She had a water bottle and instead of drinking the water she was placing the spout into her nostril and then inhaling. Nobody noticed except for us and it was the most amazing thing ever. Her parents didn't even notice. After she would inhale it she would have water all over her nose and she would wipe her nose all over her parent's shirts. They still didn't notice. They were way into the meeting and I think they were just really feeling the Tickle Monster.
• Work is going well. Some days are stressful, especially because Rick and I are both starting new jobs in a new place with new people, but we seem to both be getting the hang of things.
• We got a home phone. Like a landline. We are so 90s. We got it because Rick doesn't have a set schedule, he gets called to work, and one time his cell phone had shut off and he didn't know it and after so many times of trying to call they marked him as "evading assignment". So in order to avoid that, we now have a house phone. The phone came with 5 different ringtones and we finally decided on "The Star Spangled Banner." I put my hand over my heart whenever the phone rings.
• I got a calling in our new ward. I'm the Activity Days Assistant Leader. Whatever that means.

The end.