A day at the Con-Ag Expo

A big reason that we took Ethan with us was so that Grandma wouldn't feel over -whelmed by all three children, plus we figured that Ethan would be the best behaved at the Expo. We picked up our name tags the day before, which turned out to be a smart move because the line to get them the first day was a several hour wait. We got to the door and were informed by the guard that, "The young man needs a tag."

"I called beforehand and was told 17 and under didn't need a ticket."

"I'm sorry. I can't let him in without a tag"

He's six. Are you serious!!?!? We went over to an official booth that didn't have a line and told the woman the problem. She saw that I was pregnant, and we were both obviously just tagging along with Daddy. She took us into the next room with another line and brought us to the front. She explained to the other lady what the problem was and then as she was leaving she whispered to me, "I just saved you two hours." I thanked her profusely, and Ethan got his official tag (no, we didn't have to buy a ticket).

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was A LOT of construction stuff. I'm interested in it only because it's what Michael's interested in. As it was, I got my fill of construction in the first half of the day. Ethan wore out pretty quick with the walking and walking and walking.

We went and had lunch in the Hilton Buffet, which was...ok. We met up with Russ and Michael who gave me the keys to go home. Ethan asked if he could play one of the games. So, I explained to him about the age limits, laws of probability and how casinos make all their money.

Since the convention was going on parking wasn't free unless you were a guest at the Hilton or saw the Star Trek thing. I figured, "Hey, tickets can't be more than $30." I took Ethan over to where it was and asked for the ticket prices. $35 for a child and $45 for an adult...oh and pregnant women can't go on... and children can't go on unaccompanied. Right. Like I would have paid that much, even with $30 off. That's RIDICULOUS!

Michael had the car checked into the Vallet and I didn't have any cash to give him a tip. I felt a little awkward not giving him anything, so I gave him my certificate for a 1 lb box of See's candies that's been in my purse for the last year and a half. He seemed genuinely grateful. I was just relieved.

Unfortunately I left my GPS at Karen's house so I didn't know how to get back. I called Karen, who gave me directions like I actually knew how to follow them. I feel pretty competent in many areas but when it comes to directions I am a complete RETARD! I thanked Karen, but then called Michael who stayed on the phone with me until he got me all the way to her house. Mental note: do not leave home without GPS. That Garmin GPS and Google raise my IQ by several points. I guess it's OK to be reminded of my actual capacities every once in a while. Eeek!

My nephew Jared had a Chemistry project due Friday that he asked me to help him on. I started thinking of what we could do....baking soda volcanoes are so overdone. He wanted me to show him how to make Thermite. Uh...no. I looked at a recipe online. It was fairly simple, but decided that if he can't figure it out...it's probably better off for everyone.

I bought a red cabbage for the pH experiment that I did with Ethan a few months ago. We took pictures for his report. He thought it was pretty cool as the purple liquid changed colors, but still wanted to blow something up.

Recipe:

• Boil the snot (that's a technical term, of course) out of a red cabbage and drain off the purple liquid. The cabbage can be eaten.

• Acids turn the solution pink (lemon juice, vinegar)
• Bases turn the solution blue or green (milk of magnesia, baking soda)
• Neutral solutions remain purple (milk, water)
• For added interest, add base to pink solution or acid to blue/green solution.
  
• If balanced neutral, solution will return to purple
• If more of acid/base added than to bring solution to neutral, color will change to opposite color
  

The fanciest outdoor store EVER!

We headed out to Las Vegas for the Con-Ag Expo. It's only held every three years so Michael made a management decision to go. Ethan and I went with him along with Russ, another Heavy Equipment contractor friend of Michael's. We left at 5am and pulled into Vegas at about 2pm. We stopped at the Bass Pro Shop on our way to Karen's house. They had the most impressive outdoor store I have EVER seen, WOW! They had taxidermied animals in realistic poses including a pride of lions, a cougar attacking a deer, a leopard, a family of bears trying to get into a camper. The walls were covered with mounted heads of every kind of horned type animal imaginable.

I'm not opposed to hunting. But the scale of this display seemed over the top for me.

They also had an indoor waterfall with carp, ducks, turtles and a sturgeon. Ethan was impressed by the fish tank to be rivaled only by something from Monterey Bay Aquarium. I wondered how they could pay for such extravagance until I found that the other half of the store was a casino. Figures.

Playing in the surf

We took a family trip to the beach at Pacifica since Daddy had to go anyway to look at a retaining wall job for the city. We had a picnic in the truck and watched the waves. Lo and behold there were a pair of dolphins playing in the surf! They were hard to spot, and despite all of our pointing Ethan never actually saw them.

The boys had great fun running away from the incoming surf. Hunter thought it was much too fun not to get a little wet...and then a little more. Then he practiced writing his name in the sand.

Ethan and I read a book about the Pilgrims and he was curious about the well they used to get their water. At the time I told him that if we went to the beach you could dig a hole away from the surf and it would fill with water from underneath. I reminded him of the conversation and we dug a hole and tried it out.

After all the flirting with the surf, both boys ended up with the bottom half completely wet so their pants, socks and shoes went home in the bed of the truck. They thought it was great fun until we got home and they had to go in the house in their underwear.