Family Vacation

 This past weekend we took our first ever family vacation.  Yes, it was just a weekend, and yes it was only 2 hours away from home.  But we drove a distance, and stayed in a hotel.  I think that counts ;-) We headed to Ft. Wayne for a 2 day get away.  We have wanted to visit the zoo there for a few years now.  We have a local zoo membership that allows us to get in for half price, which for us would be like buy 1 get 1 free.  Not bad!  Here are some fun things that either happened or were observed over the weekend trip:

While passing a large fake bull, D yells, "Um, that is a fake one!"

2 back country road potty stops, thankfully we have this handy little helper!

When telling the kids that we get free breakfast in the hotel we are staying in, D gets excited about the hot tea.

L and D are both happy about the pull out sofa to sleep on.

I taught D how to do the Hand Jive in the car on our way there.

While eating at a nice Mexican restaurant the first night, L looks around and says, "why does this place look so Mexican?"

We took the kids to see the movie Rio.

We spent the entire second day at the zoo.  We got to see a cute baby Gibbon learn how to hang onto the trees.

In the African Adventure, L says, "Wow this place has soooo many habitats!"

During the Sky Safari ride, the kids were more excited to see a deflated blue balloon and someones dropped cell phone on the ground.

D stood by and corrected kids and adults at the zoo on some of the animals:
         sea lion was not a seal
         kangaroo and wallaby are different
         the difference between the peacock and a peahen
         the difference between a lion and a lioness
         and that the sitatunga was NOT a deer!

We stopped and found Johnny Appleseed's grave site.  While his actual grave is unmarked and still not found, there is a very nice memorial.  Adam had us all eat apples in honor, he left the core behind, and took a cutting from the apple tree there.

Coming home we drove through a very bad thunderstorm, but we had fun watching the lightening.

And on our way home we had to drive through Amish country.  I was surprised to see how many buggies were out in the storm.  Want to guess how many I counted? Well it was.....26!

The entrance to the zoo. L was doing his best Spider man pose!

Up close with the animals!

One very happy little girl!

L had heard that we could feed the giraffes.  He was looking forward to this all day.  By the time we got to them, none were near the platform to feed them at.  I told L that they must not be hungry right now.  He was so upset, "You mean I have waited for this ALL DAY and now they aren't even hungry!!!" Just broke my heart.  And just then one of the babies walked up to where we were standing and tried to lick his hand.  Needless to say, that made up for it!

Johnny Appleseed Adam!

The soundtrack to our trip:
I took the kids to the library to pick out music for our trip.  This is what they came up with!
Rock & Roll Playground-Putumayo Kids
Sunny Days-Elizabeth Mitchell
World Playground-Putumayo Kids
Reggae for Kids- Universal Music Family
Reggae Playground-Putumayo Kids