Hogle Zoo

I'm pretty sure the last time we went to Hogle Zoo was when Jr. was little, before Jr. Jr. was born, before I had started this blog. I remember my in-laws taking us and yep... I just found pictures from that trip from 2009. This is going to be fun.

 

First of all, the lion drinking fountain. I remember coming to Utah to visit relatives when I was a kid and we all went to Hogle Zoo. One thing I remember was the lion drinking fountain... from when I was a kid. Obviously it's had some changes to it over the years (compare 2009 to 2022) but the lion drinking fountain is a thing that has been around for many years.

Next let's talk about the gorilla statue. I don't remember it from my childhood. I do remember it from when Jeremy and I were dating and when we were first married and when we had just one child. I'm not putting the effort into finding those pictures but it is tradition (from even before we were married) to get a family picture with the gorilla statue. So I have pictures again from 2009 and 2022 to compare.

 

We had a great time this trip seeing a lot of animals. And just because I can, here is a comparison picture of an elephant from 2009 and from 2022.

Jet had fun flapping his ears like the elephant.

 

We saw a gorilla taking a drink so Jet decided to take a drink at the same time.

 

Because we are Dino Dan/Dino Dan: Trek's Adventures/Dino Dana fans (it's an Amazon Prime Video thing. Look it up), when it was time to move on to a new area of the zoo, we would say, "And we're moving," because that's what Dan and Trek's grandma would say when they visited the zoo and later a reptile house with Dana. When they were at the reptile area, they talked about how the crocodiles were like Deinosuchus, so when we saw crocodiles at Hogle Zoo, I kept telling Jet about them being like Deinosuchus. You know that kid likes dinosaurs (and prehistoric reptiles).

  

It was a fun trip to the zoo. We didn't see everything because it was getting hotter and hotter (It's been a hot Summer) and we decided to go home after a while, but it was awesome.

And I'm so glad we were able to get our family picture with the gorilla statue.

What We Also Did to Beat the Heat

One of our hot days (there have been many), we got out in our nice air-conditioned van again and drove up into some mountains.  We went to visit a very nice couple near Hanna who keep hummingbird feeders and have many many hummingbirds visit them.  Many many.

The couple was very welcoming and encouraged us to sit on their porch to see the hummingbirds and told us some great stories of experiences they've had living where they do.  We'll definitely be visiting them again.

That was a neat experience.

What We Did to Beat the Heat

It has been hot this Summer.  Yes, hot.  We've had to think of ways to beat the heat.  One way is by driving in our air-conditioned van (something I am very thankful for) to the Orem Library where it is also nice and cool.  One day we went out in the heat before going down to the library.  We did have a good reason, though.  For about a week around and after the 4th of July, our city had flying in a local canyon (hiking area) a gigantic American flag.  Huge.  Enormous.  Record breaking in size- "largest American flag to ever fly."  78 feet wide, 152 feet long.  We decided to go up to see it, though technically it's so big we can see it from our living room window through the trees.  To get a better look at it, we drove up to the trailhead then walked up a bit to get some pictures.  It was so neat- and big.

Afterward we did drive down to the Orem Library.  Jeremy got some work in, the kids and I got some reading in, and the kids went on a scavenger hunt.  They searched around the library for paper constellations then took their results back to receive a special prize.  The reward?  Solar glasses for the upcoming total solar eclipse in August (90% in our neck of the woods).  Jeremy and I also earned solar glasses from the library by answering trivia questions.

 It was a nice way to beat the heat.

It's Just Too Hot

It is way too hot to put effort into anything... including blogging. Our swamp cooler's not working right and we're hoping someone will come to fix it today. But the past several days our thermostat has read in the 90's- degrees, that is. It does not affect our moods in a positive way. Sigh.