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By Aimee, February 28, 2011

For part of our anniversary week fun, we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. It had been a very long time since I had been to a dinosaur museum, and this one did not disappoint! The one thing that I always think about when I see dino bones is just how amazingly BIG they are. And of course, that always has me in awe of how big they must have truly been when they had all their fleshy bits on. Can you imagine it?

This turtle-like dino was perhaps the most impressive to me. It was massive! The photo doesn’t do it justice, but it really takes up almost an entire room. Yes, there were larger dino skeletons, but there was something about this massive turtle that really caught my imagination. If only they were still swimming around the oceans today!

You may remember this little guy from Jurassic Park. The Utah Raptor!

We loved these fossils so much, we had to get a small slab of them for our house. They are some sort of squid like animal, and we just loved the patterns and textures. There were some truly amazing fossils at the museum, some of them were so intact you could almost see what the living animal must have looked like.

What is your favorite dino? Have you been to a natural history museum recently?

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By Aimee, February 28, 2011

Hardwood floors are the number one item on our house wish list right now. Ideally, they would be in every room in the house, because carpet is horrible for people with allergies (me). Of course, cost won’t allow that, but we are planning for doing our entire first floor in the future. We are looking into bamboo, cork, and hand scraped wood.

I found this image of cork flooring right here, and think it looks so warm and inviting. It’s also pretty unique, I really don’t know many people who have it in their homes, whereas hand scraped wood is on trend right now. Bamboo seems more unique as well. However, I have never actually seen cork in person (in a room that is).

Other things that I like about cork is that it’s considered “green” because it’s fast growing. It’s also supposed to be very soft to walk on, keep it shape well, and heal from scrapes easily. You don’t have to refinish it the same way as other woods, which is appealing too.

For an all over the home choice, cork sounds good too, because it’s supposed to be great at absorbing sounds, and good for keeping things warmer, which is very appealing for our family room which is always cold, even in the summer (it feels good then though). Of course, finding cork locally hasn’t been easy, especially because we would like to install everything ourselves.

We do love hardwood, including bamboo too. It’s been fun to research and dream about what we can eventually do (once that piggy bank fills up enough). Of course the second we do get our dream floors, you can bet that the next thing on my house wish list will find it’s way home. I really want a Roomba!

Do any of you have cork floors or have had them before? What kind of flooring do you have (if not carpet)? Do you like it?

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By Aimee, February 27, 2011

Do you have an XBox 360 and a Kinect? Are you looking for a fun way to improve your fitness? Read on, one lucky reader will get a copy of this game!

Your Shape Fitness Evolved is a great way to improve your fitness at home. I was really excited to give it a try because we have had so much fun with our other Kinect games. While this is less of a game, and more of a serious work out, it still had a lot of fun to it! With many options for play, including personal training based on your own personal fitness test and goals, to mini-games that you can play with others, it really has something for everyone.

I was impressed the most by how it utilizes the Kinect to help you make sure your body is in the correct positioning. Through talk and on the screen, you can see if you are doing the moves the right way, and adjust so you are in the correct position. You also see how many calories you are burning during the workout.

The game has workouts from celebrity trainer Michael George, and a special weight loss class lead by Michelle Bridges, trainer for all 5 seasons on Australia’s “The Biggest Loser”, as well as games, and more relaxing movements like Tai Chi. The workouts do work your muscles too! I know that I was sore after doing a training session, and I thought I used my muscles often too! Maybe I shouldn’t have done so well on the fitness test so I would have easier workouts! All kidding aside, they do push you to improve, which is great for those of us who want better fitness. It’s also fun to play with together, as you try to beat each other with punching, kicking, tapping, and balancing games.

Would you like a chance to win a copy of Your Shape Fitness Evolved? Here are the rules:

• Leave a comment on this post before midnight on March 7th. Tell me what your favorite way to work out is.
• You may comment daily until the giveaway ends.
• This giveaway is open to those in the USA only.
• The winner will be chosen at random and contacted by email after the giveaway ends. They will then have 3 days to respond otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

*While Ubisoft sponsored this review, the opinions I’ve expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Ubisoft, Clever Girls Collective and I promote Blog With Integrity.*