Zoo Trip Summer 2010

We were feeling pretty bummed out this summer that we didn't have any family vacations planned. Sure we went camping a couple times and visited with the grandparents. However a fun day out of our norm activities - just too busy and not enough money.

Then Billy surprised us and said, "Wanna go to the zoo!?" Yay!
It was pretty funny when he asked the kids...he said, "Okay we can either stay home this weekend and pull weeds"....long pause, lots of pouting, frowning and NOOOOOOOO's..."Or" he continued, "We can go to the ZOO!". The boys jumped up and down for that one!

Billy Jr didn't know what a "zoo" was but he was sure it was excited. The next couple days  he kept saying "go to the zoo?"

We decided to just make it a day trip because we had obligations at church the next day. However we did make plans with my sister and her fiance to meet us at the zoo. They were pretty excited too, and soon-to-be Uncle Jeremy got us a great deal on zoo tickets.

We set out bright at early at 7am (we were supposed to leave at 6:30 but it was a pain getting those little boys - and big boys- out of bed!).

At the zoo, Billy Jr could hardly contain himself. This was the coolest thing he's ever seen! He LOVES animals and they were EVERYWHERE! Not just the normal cats and dogs either. ;)

We did bring a stroller for him, but he was running from animal to animal exhibit right along with his brothers. We thought he'd tire out, but...NOPE!

Unfortunately his excitement got the best of him and he was bulldozing through kids at each exhibit. It was a very busy day that day. In fact while I was trying to take pictures and Billy was sitting with the stroller, Billy Jr bulldozed through a little girl and the mother had a "talking to" Billy Jr. Oops! Yep...I have one of  "those" kids. ;)

 At the African Savannah, in the African school

Some of the African Savannah animals

In one of the African village buildings

See how excited Billy Jr is! Here he is in an hut of some kind in the African village

A full view of the hut

Such a cutie!

A bird in the rainforest exhibit

Riding the bronze hippo...the real hippos were hiding behind bushes :(

It was giraffe feeding time. Pay $5 and you can have the giraffe eat out of your hand! We just watched though.

King of the jungle (although Lions don't live in jungles do they? King of the...Savannah?)

He gave us a show and roared for us!

 An African Savannah monkey

The pretty Painted Wild Dog

Up close with an elephant (not really, just used my big zoom lens)

A Tapir - at once point, as told by my sister, a child asked her mom what that was and the mom responded, "uh umm that's uh....." in which Alex quickly stepped in and answered for her, "that's a Tapir" very matter of factually. haha

The komodo dragon was cool

The boys loved the komodo dragons

Merekat Manor! They are so small in person!

A pretty owl, not sure which type

The bears!

We spent the most time at the bear exhibit. I think they were brown bears? They were HUGE though. Billy Jr couldn't get enough of the sunken viewing room - where we were behind glass just above the water level with lots of big fish (trout?) swimming for us to see. Then the bears treated us to a show and one jumped in the water and swam right up to the glass, back and forth. It got pretty crowded then with people rushing over to see (wouldn't be so bad with just little kids but even the adults were cramming in to see!)  I couldn't even see Billy Jr or the other boys in the crowd, but you can be sure he pushed his way through to the glass to see that. ;)

 Billy Jr at the glass below water level in the bear exhibit

Bear coming closer to the viewing area

There were two bear in this exhibit, eventually the second bear got in the water too

Come on in, the water's great!

The last shot I got of the bear in the water before I was stampeded by kids and parents

We spent nearly five hours at the zoo and Billy Jr only sat in the stroller for probably 30  minutes! Gabriel just hung out in the stroller, watching it all, and not making a peep (well except his usual periodical shrieks he does! Thankfully he blended right in at the zoo though).

 A pretty snake, if you think snakes can be pretty

Elk? In the North American Trail exhibit

What do you get when you cross a Kangaroo with a Wallaby?....A Wallaroo! 

A sleeping crocodile..he slept with his eyes open. Super creepy.

The Penguins!!

Tropical rainforest bird

Feeding time for the black and white Colobus Monkeys

Brayden and Billy Jr checking out the fake cow...with real fake teats to pretend to milk!

After we were done, we decided to go the Rainforest Cafe as a fitting end to our zoo day.

The boys were amazed with the Rainforest Cafe and kept finding excuses to get up and look at the sharks in the big aquarium by the door.
The down side though was the "thunder and lightning" that happened every 30-40 minutes. It freaked Gabe out big time and every time it started he'd scream and try to scramble out of his high chair. That happened three or four times during our dinner. Also, the boys were just pumped up with excitement and not staying in their chairs. I think my sister and her fiance were more worn out then we were. ;) They were used to all of the crazy-ness.
We surprised my sister with a lava cake for her birthday. They sang her happy birthday to her embarassment and then we all split the yummy brownie and ice cream lava cake.

The boys were WORN out and I got a great photo of them all zonked out in the back.

It was a fun day!

Holy Picture Update Batman!

Yeah, so I'm wayyyy behind on pictures, and updating my blog for that matter.

Rather then break these apart in several posts (too  much work, not enough time!) I'm going to do one big long picture update post.

First of all - as you see in my first picture - Owen graduated from kindergarten! So fun! I've only had one other kindergarten graduation, Brayden's. They sure are fun for photo ops!
Here are a couple more kindy graduation pix:

Owen is cheesing out way in the back of this photo. The girl with the pretty dress on just in front of him was the girl he had a crush on most of the year!

Owen and his buddies!

Next we have our first camping trip of the season. It was still cold out, but we stayed warm AND had fun!

Then the next weekend, or a couple weekends later, the guys did a father's day camping trip with just the guys (one of the many bonuses of having only boys...haha) and I stayed back at Billy's mom's house with the two littlest boys and we had fun just hanging out and playing with the babies! Much cleaner then camping, and a bit more fun too. haha

Gabriel was SO worn out from playing hard, look at him just laying there in Grandma's lap!

Gabriel and Billy Jr playing in Grandma's fountain

Love these pix - here they are playing with their daddy's old toys

My favorite pic though - the original size is cooler - but I love the colors of the garden and the way the sun is shining through Billy's crazy hair. lol

Okay, that's all the pix for now. Not too bad! I have more pictures from the boys' school picnic on the homeschooling blog though - check them out here: http://boysnbooks.blogspot.com/

Now you see him...now you don't...

Meet Prince! Take a long look because, in his case, a picture really may last longer....

Let's back up a bit....
About a week ago (not even quite a week yet!) I was perusing the Craigslist Pet section. Not that we were even looking for a new pet. Not that we even really wanted another dog. Yes, we had talked about it but quickly decided that, at this time, we don't want another dog.
Then I saw Prince, or Peanut at that time. He was so cute, and his story melted my heart. I've read numerous sad stories on the pet listings before, but I'd never thought about taking any of those animals home. However, somehow Prince just "spoke" to me. His story was such that his family was moving apart because of divorce. He was raised with two girls and they had pictures posted of him cuddling with this girls on the couch and giving them kisses.  However because of the divorce, for some reason Prince (aka Peanut) was being left behind. :( He went to a friend's house who couldn't keep him, so she found another friend. This other friend had three dogs too many already and her husband said she had to find Prince a home very soon or he was going to be taken to the Humane Society. This poor little doggy lost his family already, I couldn't imagine him sitting in a kennel at the Humane Society for who knows how long....
Also, he fit our original "requirements" when we were discussing a second dog. We wanted a male, not a puppy but not too old, well-trained, and CALM. He is all of the above.

What a sweetheart he is! He's super calm and laid back. He loves cats and kids. He's perfect really....

Yes, there's always a BUT.

He is also an explorer and "mountain" climber. After the first day of having him, he got out of the fence a dozen times because the kids are used to leaving the gates open since Lady is trained to stay in the yard and she no longer tries to escape.
So we began closing the big outside gate too (that closes off the whole property from getting to the main road).  We thought we had nipped this problem in the bud.

Today however, we almost lost him - TWICE.

First I noticed that Billy Jr was riding his bike in the driveway and I couldn't find Prince. Great. I run around yelling his name (which he doesn't come to yet since he still thinks of himself as Peanut). Finally I make sure the boys are secure in the yard and I run to the main road.
Yep. There he is. Cars honking and him dodging traffic. Great fun.
I catch him and bring him home. Angry, but very relieved.
Immediately Brayden and I get to work plugging up the hole he climbed out of. Which was actually a 5" gap between the house and the fence, which leads to a 4" ledge with a 20 foot drop to our driveway that slowly declines down to the ground. He had squeezed through this hole and then tiptoed down the ledge until it was close enough to the ground.

Celebrating our victory of catching him and plugging the hole, we walk back to the house to finish lunch.

The. Gate. Is. Open.

Billy Jr was playing with his tricycle again and left the gate open. I yelled a few "kid-friendly" swear words at that time (something like gosh DARN it I'm so flipping tired of this gosh darn dog getting out!).

We all go back to searching for him again. This time the big outside gate is closed though, so we should be good right?

No.

I run down to the main road again...not there.

I look around the house again to see if he's hiding. Not there.

Then I see the slope of firewood against the back fence that he probably climbed up on and jumped out over.
CRAP. Gosh DARN dog!

I debate whether its worth it to go track him down.
I decide it is.

So I load up the messy spaghetti-O faced babies and load them in the car. I circle the block....

And finally I find him, again. This time in a neighbor's yard. He happily jumps into the car like nothings wrong.

Yes I'm happy to have him back. Yes he's on doggy lock-down right now...supervised bathroom breaks outside only.

But I don't know how long this will last. I think we'll get him microchipped very soon. Although, then if he gets caught we'll just have to pay $100 to come pick him up each time.

Oh the joys!!!





Edited to add one more picture - Lady, our first dog, and Prince the new dog.
The names are supposed to be Arthurian - Lady Guinevere and Prince Arther. But we shortened them both to Lady and Prince. We had a Merlin too, but he sadly only lived a year. I posted about him in this blog a couple years ago I believe.

Apple Blossom Carnival 2010!

Its that time of year again! That time of year to spend way too much money and way NOT worth it carnival rides. BUT the boys love it. Ahh what we do for our children. haha

I took my long lens to the carnival this time to get some upclose shots of them way up high. I loved how the pictures turned out this year!

Before I get to the pictures, some quick updates: there's not much else to report...we've been so busy lately. Pretty much busy from sun up to sun down and beyond! There is always something to do, someplace to go, and somewhere to be. We're in the middle of Spring soccer for Owen, two boys in Scouts now, Billy's ever busy church calling, homeschool stuff, and Billy's classes to finish up his Associates degree. Aaack!
We haven't finished painting YET but we're close. Its on the back burner for now while we catch things up. We did get some thermal blinds for our living room, the school room, and the boys room. It looks sooo much better. Next I want to replace our old sliding glass doors with either some new sliding glass doors with the blinds built inside them or french patio doors with the blinds built inside the glass pane. :)
We have quite a "to do" and "to buy" list for this house...but we're slowly cutting down the list! Walls - check. Blinds - check. Floors - check.
I promise to try to update my blog more often...now to the pictures!!