We're going to the Zoo! Zoo! Zoo!

 How about You, You, You?

You can come too, too, too!

We're going to the Zoo! Zoo! Zoo!

That song gets in my head and I can't shake it!

On Wednesday of last week, I heard that my sister and some of her kids and grandkids were in Des Moines and going to the zoo that morning!  I'm not THAT far away and talked to my boss about taking the morning off to see her.  He said SHURRE!

So after attempting to wake up Leon unsuccessfully (he literally grumbled, "I don't WANT to go the zoo!", off I went!  and had a wonderful time with Ruth Ann and company!

Ruth Ann wouldn't let me pay my own way into the zoo since it was my birthday and when the worker heard that, he said, "We have things for you!" and let me pick out a birthday sticker and gave me a free pass to ride the train!  I'm not going to ride the train alone, so I had some of our party come with me.  A couple of my nephews, grand-nieces and a niece-in-law.

I was headed home around 1ish and got a call from Leon, who had just woken up. "Where ARE you?!"

"Um, I went to the zoo and am on my way back!"

Immediate tears!!  "You went to the zoo withOUT me?!!!"

It took some convincing to explain that  he is a sleep-liar like his dad.  I had asked him 3 times to go and he said NO.  So I promised him that we'd go again on Saturday.

And yes we DID go on Saturday too!  It took some convincing to get him to get out of bed that day too!  Cripes he needs to get to bed sooner in the evenings!!  School is starting in a month.  Might need to wake him up 15 minutes progressively earlier each day until then.

Jen, Ryan, Aggie and a niece and her family joined us and also my mother-in-law.  

I got there early enough to score a free wheelchair loan so she wouldn't have to walk all around it.  So I got a workout! Which I needed anyway.

So MORE fun at the zoo and the kids enjoyed their time immensely.

Leon is only looking like that because he tries to discourage me from taking pics.

I need to be sneakier.

And Aggie got to hang out with a 2nd cousin and the 2nd cousin's cousin!

If you can't tell, Aggie is the smiley one.

Lots of pool time this summer.  Aggs is enjoying the water a lot and Jen is enjoying our family pool pass.  She said they were going to be pool rats this summer and they're making use of it!

And we played Yardzee and with bubbles on the deck one day and I noticed that we were caught on our security camera. Gotta save those memories!

Anyway, that about brings us to current. My life is a rush and here we are.

Weekend in the Rearview

wOW.  Whatta weekend!

Started out with our car's recalls not getting done by the time we left town, so we got to the take loaner to the zoo!  We got Leon and his brother along with my MIL and headed to Omaha to the Henry Doorly zoo.

I love that zoo!  Leon had been there twice.  Once while gestating, so he didn't see much, and then when he was around 2 years old.

But on Friday, Robb's cousin put us up at a fancy schmanzy hotel in a very nice room.  The boys loved it!  

The first thing the boys did was to go behind the curtain and ooh and ahh at all the cars nine floors below.  The view was beautiful!

Plus, said cousin tried to buy their love by loading up one of the beds with tons of snacks, candy and pop before we got there.  It worked.  Leon and Finn both think they're being adopted by him.

and back to the windows in the morning.

On Saturday, Frank and his family already had made other plans so they didn't go with us to the zoo.  But we had breakfast with them.  We rented a scooter for my MIL and she tooled around at the zoo and was able to keep up with us just fine.  

We had also rented a wagon for the boys and they were fine if they stayed in it.  

The beauty part about Finn was that he could buckle himself into the wagon but he couldn't unbuckle.  hmm  worked for us!

So much remodeling around the zoo that except for the Lied Jungle 

Finn looks like he just popped out of the nose...

Focus on fruit bats this year!  Yikes!

and the awesome aquarium, 

 it was almost a new zoo to us.

We saw the same gorilla that Leon's dad had been so impressed with when he was his age.

We ate lunch at the King Kong restaurant just outside it and the boys enjoyed hot dogs wrapped in pita bread.  Leon found a new fave way to eat hot dogs!  Then headed back to the hotel.

FINALLY got them to take a nap before Frank called to see if they wanted to go swimming.  

It was 54 degrees outside and so was the pool, but we went anyway.  Well, myself and the boys did along with Frank's kids.  The water was heated so as long as you kept down in it, it was no problem.  The kids had a blast until AJ bit his tongue.  Apparently the daughter had brought candy into the pool and they were snacking while they swam around.  I'd already gone back to the room when this happened so I missed all the blood.

That night, we ate at the hotel restaurant and then hung out.  

Heading home after breakfast on Sunday.  Got home mid afternoon and Robb organized a really nice Mother's Day meal for that evening.  And I got an Instant Pot!!!  I can't wait to try out  all these recipes that defy the laws of physics!

Each of my kids gave me either plants or flowers this year!  LOVED them all!  Meri's hanging plant is on the porch and the rest grace the dining room table. A lovely bouquet from Maddy and Matthew and an adorable aloe vera plant from Ryan and Jen.

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day and feel as loved as you loved your kids.

Rear View Mirror

On Thursday night, we had our annual Irish night with my bestie and her husband.  While Robb wasn't impressed with how the food turned out, everyone else was.  His taste buds must have been on the fritz.  The cod cobbler was fantastic and so much else.  I'll go into detail on the recipes later this week if you want them.  Pics to come then too.

I "sort of" took Friday off from work.  Actually I DID take Friday off from work, but of course had my laptop in the backpack just in case and wow did I use it anyway.  darn it.

So anyway, on Friday, Robb, Meri, Leon and myself went to the zoo!  

So much fun!  

It's a small zoo 

and you can only meander around it for a couple hours.  

This pic reminds me of a paparazzi pic.

"Kate Winslet and her son visit the zoo."

Got lots of photo ops but none of Robb or myself.  Meri probably did but she hasn't shown me.  good. I took a nap when I got home, they wore me out...  Then I got cleaning for company.  

It was Robb's birthday.  So he and Meri made a recipe that Robb had been drooling over for the last past month.   This video.

They deep fried a little of it for a tester that night and then let it freeze in a bundt pan for lunch the next day.

Maddy, Matthew and his sister Alyssa arrived that evening.  We stayed up late and talked.  So good to have them here!  They brought Duke with them and Reedus and Duke even got caught up.

Leon invented a game. I had gotten him a kid pack of Jelly Belly beans.  So you had to sit on a certain couch, close your eyes and he'd place a random Jelly Belly on your hand.  You eat it (you can also open your eyes now) and think about what kind it is.  Then when Leon says Duck - Duck - Grey Doose, you have to tell what flavor you think it is.  If you're wrong, then you keep on guessing.  If you're right, then your turn is over.

In Iowa, the child's game is Duck Duck Duck Goose.  In Minnesota, Matthew says that it's Duck Duck Grey Duck.  So Leon blended it a little, to unsuccessfully annoy Matthew (at Robb's prodding) and he also mispronounced it.

What's a Grey Doose?

Robb made a great breakfast and we all visited and talked and played Leon's game until lunch time when the "ring of fire" was fried up. Not it's real name...

All we do is EAT!

Maddy and Duke  - chillaxing...


So then...  The Ring of Fire
 That's what they dubbed the Philly cheese steak frozen ring that got deep fried.  The kitchen was a mess of grease and I'm surprised the girls still have eye brows.

Meri stuck a meat thermometer into the ring when it got done and it didn't go all the way through.  WHOOPS!  The middle was still frozen rock solid.  Good thing the meat was precooked!  They stuck it in the oven for a while to finish off.

After lunch, all the kids wanted to go to Meri's apartment and then out for ice cream.  Leon stayed back with us.  His dad and Jen arrived just as everyone was leaving, so Robb and I played Catan with them after picking up a few groceries for supper.

This was Alyssa in any spare time she could get, working on lesson plans for her student teaching.

That night we had a super secret steak night with a loaded down dining room table.  All the china  and water goblets pulled out.  Birthday cake made with coconut oil because the girls used up all my vegetable oil and wow, did that cake taste great!  

For gifts he got a burger press, sheets for the bed and a My Pillow to name a few things.  

Then we played Pictionary...  Oh Leon loved it!  There were some words that he didn't know so someone would take him in the bathroom and explain it or draw it for him so he'd know what to do.  He is quite the artist.

Without anyone telling him what this meant, his word was second hand.

Here is his pic of what he considered "second hand".



While everyone else was trying to get their teams to draw two hands and were all guessing gloves, his team was checking out his brilliant idea!  No one guessed, but still.  I was impressed.

This one got Matthew's sister to say a bad word. ;) oops!

the word was rear...

I played a game of Ticket to Ride with the girls then and it was getting late.  JUST when I thought I'd won, Meri added up my points and nope, she won.  Makes me wonder if I should have counted them up a third time... Oh well.  

They took off on Sunday morning to head back to Wisconsin and while I had plans to sew, I spent some time cleaning my sewing area instead.  Got a bit ruthless but I'm NOT looking back!

So I'm back to work today, and it's crazy busy.  Our largest client just moved to a new server and things are being discovered that got missed.  Not much, but just enough to make us smack our heads. So while I'm waiting on someone else, I'm finishing this post up.

And actually things heated up even further so Monday's post became Tuesday's post.

I hope it slows down a little bit more tomorrow.
Got a date with my hair dresser and don't want to break it.

Have a good one!

They belong in a zoo

Road trip to the Omaha zoo on Saturday!  Had tons of fun!  Left the camera in the car that was parked about 3 miles away, or at least it seemed like it, so we made do with Meri's cell phone camera and my cell phone camera.  Mine are pitiful and the photos are below to prove it.  Meri hasn't downloaded hers yet, but there are so many great shots!  

Mostly of Leon...

The traditional shot with the bronze lions.  It was later in the day because we explored the zoo backwards.  By the time we got to the lions, they were hot to touch, so the kids couldn't sit on them.  

 

And we left the Henry Doorly zoo and then stopped for some ice cream to split on the way home.  According to some, it was the best ice cream EVER!  

It was pretty hot...