Giggle

Family Weekend

This has been one weekend full of family!

We started the weekend on Friday evening when my brother Bryan and his girlfriend Caitlin arrived. They were on spring break and planned to come down for the weekend to see us and the kids and do some of their own things too. Friday was pretty low key as they arrived after dinner and just before Zach's bedtime. We stayed up late chatting and catching up.  

On Saturday morning as we were all getting ready to leave for the Minnesota Zoo we learned Dave's parents decided to come up for the weekend too. It had been a crazy busy week so we hadn't checked our email and did not realize that plans had been made for a Saturday afternoon at Dawn's house (Dave's sister). No worries, we made plans for Sunday morning at our house instead. So Bryan, Caitlin, Dave, Zach, Elaina and I all headed to the Minnesota Zoo.

It was a chilly day for the Minnesota Zoo being only 26 degrees F outside but we braved the chilly temperatures to see the animals that were outside first.

Zach and Bryan checking out the Amur Leopards

She wasn't hiding today as she normally is. Ta-da!

We only ventured to the Russian Grisley Coast exhibit seeing the sea otters, grisley bears, wild boar, amur leopards, and siberian tiger. We skipped the outer loop of animals: bison, wolves, camels, moose, asian wild horses, takin, caribou and prairie dogs and went indoors to check out the marine animals (Zach's favorite).

Uncle Bryan and Zach looking at the sharks and bat rays swimming.

One of the sharks splashed a tail out of the water.  So much for petting the sharks for Zach.

In the Discovery Bay area the zoo has added a few new smaller aquariums since we were at the zoo last. Zach really enjoyed watching this fish.

We left Discovery Bay and headed to the "Tropics"

Uncle Bryan and Zach on the old tortoise

Bryan and Caitlin

Zach LOVES to watch fish

Elaina watching all the people and kids running around

Zach checking out the black and white colobus monkeys in a special tunnel designed for a kids perspective.

It was difficult to get Zach out of the special kids tunnel - he was having too much fun watching all the animals in the exhibit!

Zach finally out of the tunnel. He really liked the colobus monkeys. Can you see the monkey sunning himself behind Zach?

Then it was time to continue down the trail. That's when we came across this smell. It smelled like rotting death. What is that smell from? It came from this flower...

This is called a Voodoo Lily. This unique lily, stands about four feet high. It has a foul, nauseous odor which is supposed to attract insects to the plant for pollination. It is native to Japan, China and Indonesia.  Voodoo lilies are also known as "Devil's Tongue" or scientifically as Amorphophallus konjac. It is a member of the Aracae family (Arum family) which includes the native Minnesota species, Jack-in-the-pulpit as well as the familiar Calla Lily. Calla lillies would NOT be popular wedding flowers if they smelled like this flower - yuck!

This orchid not only is more fragrant it is a much more beautiful flower as well.

Zach checking out the aquarium in the tropics area. He really enjoys watching fish and sharks swim around.

Zach was pointing out this fish as a "BIG FISH"  It was bigger across than his head.

We continued down the tropics trail at Zach's pace stopping to look at everything. Zach is VERY observant - too observant at times! *giggle* When we reached the end of the trail we decided to skip the Minnesota Trail and instead head out to McDonald's because it was almost 2pm. After lunch and letting Zach run off some more steam after lunch in the playland we said good-bye to Bryan and Caitlin. They zoomed off to do some shopping while we headed home with the kiddos for some much needed nap time.

This morning (Sunday) Dave's parents came over to visit. Zach and Elaina got some good grandma and grandpa time in. Both Jim and Linda commented on how much Elaina had grown since they saw her last in December. She has grown and changed a lot since then!  They stayed with their college friends Maggie and Larry who live in the cities area as well. Larry and Maggie and then Dawn and Brady all came over after attending church. We had a fantastic time visiting and catching up while Brady and Zach enjoyed playing with super heros.

 
Grandma Linda, Zach, Brady, and Grandpa Jim

What a great whirlwind of a weekend! Zach and Elaina enjoyed seeing everyone as did Dave and I. The kiddos are now awake from their nap so my blogging must come to a close.

Have a great evening!

Thanks for reading!

 

Mommy's Time Out

There is nothing better than soaking in a tub while reading a favorite magazine or book to relax. I decided to take a Mommy's Time Out and headed up to our soaking tub with a glass of ice water and the newest edition of Real Simple.

Mommy's Time Out [mom-ees tahym out] 1. Much needed and sacred time alone without baby, kids, and spouse; girlfriends can be included in Mommy's Time Outs from time to time. 2. Wine (Mommystimeout.net).

As I sat there reading and soaking in the lavender and grapefruit salted water I felt like I was being watched. I looked to the door and saw two little eyeballs about 40 inches from the floor staring at me through a crack in the door. Then we made eye contact and a little giggle emerged and then ran away.  I  thought hopefully that my Mommy's Time Out would continue but knew it was coming to a close very soon.

The door to the bathroom slowly opened some more and Zach sat there with his back to the door jamb, butt on the floor and his little Toy Story Woody's Round-up Guitar in his lap. He started to strum his guitar and sing Hickory Dickory Dock and other assorted nursery rhyme songs to me. I could not help but smile and say, "hello Zachary."

To which he quickly responded, "Mommy I take a bath with you?"

If I said "no" there would be tears of disappointment but if I said "yes" my Mommy's Time Out would be over after only 10 minutes. Isn't the rule of thumb one minute for each year of your age? I had at the very least another 20 minutes to go gall-darn it!

So what did this mommy say? I said, "Yes" because not long from now this tub time will need to go away.

As soon as I said, "Yes" Zach responded with, "I get my toys!" Off he ran to pick out toys to bring into mommy's tub. He returned with three Buzz Lightyear figures two large and one small, a batman motorcycle, the Penguin bad guy and a penguin. He placed all of his toys on the ledge, took off his clothes and started to climb into the tub. I asked where his Johnson &  Johnson's baby shampoo was. He jumped down and ran to his bathroom to get his shampoo and returned with the bottle and then climbed into the tub.

He remembered the last time he climbed into the tub with me that we used Birthday Cake to wash his body (from Philosophy) so he insisted on washing with Birthday Cake again. After he was all washed up and smelling very much like warm vanilla birthday cake I hopped out and let him play in the BIG BATH all by himself. He swam from one end to the other and got everything all wet from his splashing.

So much for Mommy's Time Out today. Although. being seranaded by my three-year-old is pretty priceless.