Day at the Zoo

Bridget has been asking me when we are going to the Zoo. We go about once a year. I'll just start this saying that I think the KC Zoo sucks. It is too much walking and too little animals. If we had not vacationed on the sun (aka Branson in 100 degree weather)a few weeks ago then I would have thought today was hot, but it didn't seem that bad. We rode everything available and saw just about everything I think.

As we walked thru the new "improved" zoo I was remembering what it was like when I was young. We had bears, a cool reptile house, the ape house, and easy to get to and view animals. I know that they are making more habitat friendly environments for the animals, but I miss that old zoo. Why don't we have any bears?

Bridget was a trooper and walked the whole zoo. Becca rode leisurely in the stroller. Becca really liked the hippos and Bridget liked the flamingos. We saw the sealion show and a hippo feeding. They drop whole, frozen pineapples in the hippos gigantic mouth!

Oh! We saw the camels in "action" too!

My favorite animal was the meerkats. They are so cute! They just sit there and watch the people watching them. They look like they are posing for the camera and they come when you call them! If I could have a zoo animal, this is the one I want.

When we went thru the aviary there was this fairly large bird sitting on the information display. He just sat there watching us and he posed with us too.

*ATTENTION*ATTENTION*

To ALL the readers of my husband's blog.......

He has changed the URL. He didn't like the "old" one. Follow my link to get there.

Finally

My husband has FINALLY joined me in bloggerland.

I have had this blog since March 2006. I have talked about it around him with family and friends. He has never asked me about it or shown any interest. I guess that is because he was really not paying attention. The other day her FINALLY listened and was shocked that I actually was able to figure this out and that people actually read it.

Here is the link to his blog. He has promised that he will keep it PG13. (He is really into sports, media, and politics.)

http://schaun1.blogspot.com/

Ballerina Babe

This is ONE of the many photos I have of Bridget in her dance recital costume.

Kindergarten Kid

It's official! I'm the mom of a girl in kindergarten. I feel like I cheated a little bit though. She is going to the private kindy at the Montessori school she went to last year. So I didn't have to deal with the fear I had of her being in the elementary school with the bigger kids. (I'll have that next year)


When we pulled up to the school this morning her teacher (same as last year) pulled in next to us. Bridget could hardly contain herself from the excitement of seeing her! She jumped out of the van and ran over and gave Mrs. Paris a huge hug.

It is almost time to go pick her up. I can't wait to hear about her day!

A visit with Summer Santa

We packed up all our stuff. Checked out of the cabin and decided to take one more drive down the strip. Initially we were going to make another trip to Silver Dollar City but we were just too tired of the heat and changed our minds quickly after we packed everything in the car. I was afraid our stuff might actually melt if we left it there too long.

So we drive down the strip a little ways and I see this store with a chimney and a Santa statue "climbing" into it. I tell the girls to look at Santa and Schaun went ahead and pulled into the store parking lot. It turned out to be a whole little shopping center. It was all Christmas stores. We went in and looked in the nice freezing cold beautiful stores. The clerk told me to stay a few minutes because Santa was coming. I told the girls and they were so excited!

Santa was awesome! He was in his summer clothes and explained to the girls how he saves his other clothes for Christmas Eve. Then he sat and talked with them and told them how big they were and how many days until he would see them again. He told them to not fight, put their toys away, brush their teeth. All the things I'd want Santa to say. He was perfect! Then he pulled out a bag and gave them little bell ornaments!

Bridget was so excited about this. She then told me that the other night when she wished in the fountain, that she wished to see Santa. Wow!

Cabin Time

The cabin had a great porch on it with a grill and two rocking chairs. We really only hung out there one evening. Thursday we grabbed some McDonald's and headed back to our cabin to chill out. The girls decided that the happy meal boxes were good hats. The rocks around the cabin became really entertaining. Bridget made a little decoration that looked like a little campfire area and Becca made a checkers game out of them.

The cabins all came with a fire box so you could build a campfire in the 100 degrees if you wanted. We did it for the fun of it. The girls got to cook hot dogs and roast marshmallows for s'mores.

And just a little note. The photo of me and Schaun was taken by Bridget. She did such a good job!

The Cabin

The cabin we stayed in was so great! It looked brand new. It is hard to take photos of rooms, but here is what I got. It had a kitchenette, table, bathroom, and an upstairs loft.

We rented a Pontoon Boat

Schaun really, really wanted to go out on the lake. We drove around from one marina to the next for about an hour and a half before we found a boat available for rent. We rented this nice pontoon boat. It had a nice shady cover on it, so I was good to go. We spent four hours out on the boat. The girls each got to drive it. Schaun and Bridget took a little dip in the lake at one point. I don't swim in lakes, so that was a no go for me. Becca wanted to, but I said no. She gets too freaked out sometimes and that was too risky for my taste.