Zoo Part II

We went inside to see the elephants close up, Addison liked this. We taught her how to make an elephant noise and raise her arm like a trunk, it's pretty cute. 

Well we can't see the elephants, but here is Ryan, Evonne, and Addison at the elephants. 

She started riding on our shoulders more this summer, she grips onto Ryan's face pretty tight. It's hard because when she wants down, she means right this second. So it makes me nervous to have her on my shoulders!

This was so long ago that I don't remember what was in the display on the right.....

The lions were probably the best display there. They were right up close to the glass. Of course, it felt like everyone at the whole zoo was at the lions, but we still got to see them. 

When Addison roars, she puts her hands out like in the photo above. We think it's pretty funny. The lions apparently got fed while we were there, and two of them starting fighting. They slammed into the glass. It was pretty cool but also pretty scary when your two year old is nearby. Thankfully Addison didn't see them fighting, it probably would have traumatized her. 

The animals weren't entertaining enough apparently, so we played peek-a-boo behind a pole. 

We could climb up in a safari jeep and pretend to drive. There were lots of sound effects with it as well. She thought it was pretty fun. And she even let Grandma Evonne get in and ride with them. 

We chased each other around the elephant trailer. I think this was the trailer they used to weigh the elephants with. 

She LOVED the aquarium. And good thing there was a lot to see because she didn't slow down long. She just kept moving. We went through one area twice. And it was nice because it was air conditioned and it was a pretty warm day. 

 I apparently didn't get any photos but she really liked the rainforest and the cases with the frogs. There were some bright blue frogs that she thought were super cool. It was a good day. It was long and a little warm, but she was a trooper!

Off to the Zoo!

We decided to head to the Omaha Zoo for the day the first weekend in July. I was pretty excited, I love zoos. We got up early, packed the car, and picked up Ryan's mom on the way. We stopped for donuts along the way, Addison called me out that I picked one out for her with no frosting - ha! 

The very first thing we saw at the zoo was a big pile of dirt. This was in the dessert dome. I hadn't been to the zoo in many years, so the dessert dome was new to me. It was quite disappointing.

Addison liked the gorillas. But she didn't like to stand still at the windows very long, so it was great that the zoo had lots of gorillas and monkeys. We could keep walking but always saw more animals. 

They had a nice little bench for the little ones to stand on. There were lots of monkeys in this display, she loved it. 

You can actually get pretty close to the animals, I feel like the giraffes are always so far away! We couldn't get Addison to look and smile, but oh well. It was pretty hot that day but Addison was a trooper. It was fun to see her find each animal in the displays, she would squeal and then yell the animal name (if she knew it).

Happy Fourth of July!

So I knew it had been a long time since I updated the blog, I had no idea it's been over a month and my posts are at the 4th of July!! In the middle of August, we had the ISUAA Board of Directors Meeting which takes up a ton of my time and then Ryan and I went on vacation. Then we come back and it's football season, start of a new school year, and lots of craziness. Work has been stressful and I've been working a lot and the last thing I want to do when I get home is start up my computer! But I want to keep up with the blog and I need to get after it :) 

We decided to go to the 4th of July parade in Ames. My parents had gone the year before with Parker and said it was a pretty good parade. So we all met downtown Ames, they got there early and saved us a good spot under a shade tree (one of very few). It was HOT. And I like hot weather, but it was HOT. The parade was supposed to start at 10am and the first float got to us about 10:25. While other parents were chasing their toddlers up and down the street during this time, Ours sat perfectly still in her chair. I don't know that she got up at all. ha! I pointed out the other parents to make sure Ryan knew what a normal toddler acts like!

It took a while but she finally got up to get some candy. We got some squishy footballs that she liked as well. She did get pretty into the candy pick-up. But I took candy out of our bag and tossed them in front of the kids next to us.... we didn't need to take it home! Another thing we are appreciating right now, she doesn't know/think you can eat it. So she doesn't ask for it. If you noticed above, she was eating carrots at the parade. A few parents commented on her choice of a healthy snack. Kid loves carrots, cooked, raw, shredded, doesn't matter!

We made it through the whole 1.5 hour parade in the heat. We wouldn't have made it without that little shade tree! We went back to the Ames house and grilled for lunch. Then we watched the Cubs. It was a good day. Addison then stayed with Grandma & Grandpa and went to the farm. We didn't have daycare the next day so she played at the farm.

We did get to show her fireworks on July 3rd here in Bondurant. A bunch of people were shooting them off here and she was having a blast running from room to room to watch them. Ryan was on one side of the house and I was on the other and we would call for her when we saw some. Of course, half of the time the fireworks were gone by the time she got there, but she didn't care. By the time I thought to take a video (we thought she was hilarious), she wasn't even looking for the fireworks. Just ran from room to room yelling "go go go!".