Freeze-Dried Crickets & Baby Animal Days

A few weeks ago the boys and I took my parents to the American West Heritage Center (in Cache Valley) for "Baby Animal Days" and had the best time! The day threatened rain, so there were hardly any lines and no crowds.

Smarty loved the ponies; Sweety wasn't sure:

Smarty wants me to be sure to let you know that his pony is named Honey
and Sweety's is named Misty.


Having a chat:

One of the highlights was a candy-cannon blast. At first all the kids were too exited to actually pick up candy; they just ran! Smarty is in denim w/ a black yarn hat:

He eventually figured out what to do:

After gathering quite a stash for himself, Smarty helped Sweety grab a bunch:

The turtle in Smarty's hand couldn't have been more than 2 inches in diameter. So cute!
Sweety was determined to poke this poor snake's eyeballs out!

The kids were fabulous pretend tractor drivers.
In this pic, Sweety is "ba-a-a-ing" back at the noisy sheep:

Smarty is very proud of this shot he took of some sleeping pigs:

Sweety fell completely in love with this bunny. He's singing to it in this pic:

Riding in "Lizzie" (a Ford Model-T character from the movie Cars) was Smarty's favorite part. Sweety did not care for it at all! He spent the entire ride expressing his feelings in a high-pitched wail.




After our car ride, Smarty and I went to the Utah State Students of Science booth which offered a colorful array of edible, freeze-dried worms, beetles, and other creepy-crawly things in clear plastic wrappers. Smarty was really exited about it all. He must have thought he hit the Cheetos mother load or something; I'm not sure. But he never gets exited about food of any kind, so determined to let him have a positive experience, I stood behind him and tried not to hurl.

After picking out a particularly large cricket, Smarty unwrapped it and pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, which made it's wings kind of flair out. As he raised it to his nose, I tried so hard to be pleased about this unexpected streak of victual curiosity in my son. But when Smarty's little tongue came out to suck the thing in, I totally gagged and the spell was broken! Smarty didn't want anything more to do with the critters after that.

Ah well, perhaps it's for the best. I praised him for his bravery, and they gave him an 'I ate a bug' sticker and safari hat anyway.

Peek-a-boo, Grandpa and Grandma! Thanks for the great day!