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

A quick update

Wow, I can't believe that it has been that long since I had a new post on here. Sorry guys! But as you all know, with the holidays comes little free time! Since last posting we had many Christmas parties with family and friends and tons of presents to open. The kids have been super rambunctious, and the hubby is on vacation until the 5th (which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it!). The kids got some really great things this year, the biggest being a wooden train table with the whole train set, and a wooden play kitchen with lots of fun food and pots and pans. They also got tons of movies, and little people, which are always good times in our house. The hubby and I got some really neat things too. Mostly joint gifts, which is fine by us, new bedding that we desperately needed (the last new bedding we got was when we got married 4 1/2 years ago!), a 5 quart T-fal pan, some great cookbooks, a snowflake pancake pan, and most of all the 2 new tires on the car. We did end up having car trouble coming home from Christmas Eve at my mom's house, but luckily it was just because it was so freakin' cold and we were low on antifreeze.

The kids are having a great time playing with all the new stuff, and having daddy around all the time. They are all hopped up on holiday cheer I think! L actually got sick when we got home Christmas day from my dad's house, 3 times. We really think it was just all the junk he had consumed within the last few days, but mostly the 3 cups of orange juice he had at dad's house.

It felt good to be able to pay most of the bills on time this pay check too. That hasn't happened in a very long time! But I have a allergist dr. appointment tomorrow, so lets rack up more bills!! I promise to post some pictures from all the festivities later, but I'm too beat right now to do it. I'm typing this while waiting out the kids to go to sleep. You see, Santa the dear old man, took the kids pacifiers to new babies that need them and we are now a pacifier free house. It was a long time coming, and actually is going better this time around than the last. The kids don't scream constantly for hours before finally passing out this time. Instead we have them farting around trying to stay awake. L keeps getting out of his big boy bed, or stomping his feet on the bed or wall. It's very frustrating! And last night both kids were up from midnight until 4:30. Adam was up with them until 4, and I woke up at 1:30 and was up with them the rest of the time. I am exhausted! It is only quarter to 8 and I'm ready for bed myself! Well, I better go yell at L again. I can hear him out of bed.

I'll post pictures either later tonight or tomorrow!