Day 4 --- The Zoo

DAY 4 (Friday)---The Zoo
So we had a late breakfast and headed to the Zoo.

We did some walking, and pushing strollers.

Then we saw a SNAKE! They were letting people hold it...LITTLE people. It was a rainbow boa, and Lydia said she wanted to hold it. So when it came to be her turn, she did really good. Never freaked out ONCE.
Hallie on the other hand....well see for your self...
But then she got a little more brave...
A little more walking...

Observation area for a HUGE bird
Everyone had to check their wing span
Then there was the reptile house, Cassie and Hallie are in front of the little crocodiles
And let me tell ya, this snake was massive!
They had these little statues of animals around, so the kids got on the monkeys back
Then I took it DOWN!


D mimicking the statue...
Then some how got into deep conversation, But Cassie wasn't buying what that bronze chick was saying...
Tami and I with our matching strollers
Tami giving the Giraffe Eskimo kisses. :)
Oh LOOK! Another statue! PICTURE TIME....how do you get on this thing?
Here, try this...
SUCCESS!

Long day=tired kids

For dinner we had pizza, then we had ice cream from two different places, that was some GOOD ice cream folks, let me tell ya!

DAY 5...you can tell it was the last day cause we took a TON of pictures. Like a lot of pictures from lunch...but I'm tired, so I'll post that later. so once again
Cincinnati Trip to be continued...

Day 3 and 4...on second thought, just 3

I forgot, Hallie, Lydia and Kennie played their own version of Rock Band nearly every day. Hallie would start them off " One Two Three Four" then they would ALL sing, and they really got in to it too. DAY 3 (Thursday)
Jeremy helped me get Danton dressed and ready to go for the day. It's nice to have willing help.
Danton didn't even say THANK YOU!!
He got his cup and he was fine.

We got all packed up and headed to the park/petting zoo. Got all the kids out, and the strollers up....
Nope hang on, we aren't quiet ready yet
We let the kids play
While we sat and watched them, and chatted a bit
And stayed hydrated...

Danton was done playing before the other kids, cause while he was trying to climb the chain ladder thing he slipped, and basically was hanging upside down by his knees. I didn't actually see it, I was taking kids to the potty, but I did hear him scream...that pretty much the same as seeing it right?

So then we walked across the park to the petting zoo. They had the cutest animals there:

And LOOK!!! They have Chickens just like Great Grandpa Adams!!

I'm almost positive she wanted to give the poor chicken a kiss
HEEEERE chick-chick-chick!
Kennie likes the chickens too

...oops...

They also had goats...
And horses...can't you see the horses? ...well you could SMELL them!

And Llamas

Then we went down the street to another park, got some ice cream, and some cold drinks and we went for a walk around the lake. The kids rode bikes...kind of
...and D and Tami took a picture...
Then we went back to Cassie's for Dinner. BBQ chicken, burgers and dogs, oh yeah, we ate gooood.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on here...
Ok Ladies correct me if I'm wrong, but Cassie's sister came over that evening and her 6 (?) year old son drew this picture of his dream (?) about getting sucked into a tornado.
Ok, so maybe you had to be there, but we didn't erase it for a day or so, we all thought it was pretty funny.
DAY 4 (Friday)
I'm not sure if it was Friday morning or Thursday evening, but at one point Lydia was playing out side with Hallie and she comes into the kitchen and says to me (very casually) "Mom, I pooped" Yep, she sure did...IN HER PANTS!!!! Oh can I TELL you how HAPPY that made me?!?!?! grrrrrr. If there was one thing I learned about Lydia on this trip it is how LONG she can hold it. I'll explain better when I talk about our trip home. She was just busy playing and didn't want to come inside, so she just pooped in her pants. Well when you poop in your pants you get all messy and we have to clean you up. SHOWER IT IS!!! (She is mortified of showers.) Don't worry, this time I at least warmed up the water first. :)
I may have given her a cold one if I didn't have to stick my arms in there to soap her and rinse her. I was just that thrilled with her.
So we finish the shower and wrap in the towel and walk up the stairs to get her some clean clothes and Lydia says cheerfully "I LIKE showers" ha ha ha trying to convince her self that it wasn't' that bad.
So anyway the kids rocked it out again....
And we headed to the zoo once every one was up and moving.

But I think we will stop here today. I have lots of zoo pictures, and this post is already pretty long.
We did TONS of stuff, it's no wonder we were all so exhausted by the time it was over. We did all that WITH 6 little kids.
...to be continued...

Cincinnati!!!--Day 1 and 2

I took my kids to Cincinnati last week for a little reunion with some of my friends from BYU-I. We haven't all been together in 7 years since; Tami lives in Washington state, D lives in Virgina, Cassie lives in Ohio, and I live in MO. Makes it hard for a get-together.
We started planning this trip like 6 months ago, and it seemed like it'd NEVER get here, but it DID...finally. We chose Cassie's house cause it was the most "central" location.
The drive there, not bad. Would have been impossible with out Nancyann though. It was about a 9 hour drive, 10 with stops.Everyone was already there when I got there (the longest part of the trip was that last hour) They were all across the street at the park eating White Castle...Tami LOVES white castle :) The park was a little chilly, but the kids didn't care. Lydia found her Best Friends Hallie and Kennie. (Cassie's kids) later that day we went for a walk, and went to the dairy bar by that point Danton was less then happy...I think we had ice cream EVERY day (my kind of vacation). We got the kids in bed when we got back and stayed up talking and laughing (we laughed a lot last week), oh and we played some rock band too.
DAY 2 (Wednesday)My kids and Cassie's kids are on the same sleep schedule. Which is basically getting up FREAKIN early. They were all up by 7 (6 my time) every morning. So we waited for Nancyann, Tami and Gavinn, and D to wake up. Poor Tami and Gavinn. Gavinn is a late sleeper, and on top of THAT, they were 3 hours ahead of home.
So Anyway, Jeremy (Cassie's husband) had to work that day, so it was just the girls and kids. We went shopping at IKEA---cool store. PLUS they babysat your (potty trained) kids for an hour while you shop!!! That hour went by FAST!
Dropping kids off to play while we shop
Danton and Gavinn
After we picked up the kids and we were headed to the check out.
Then we went to Jungle Jim's. It's a CRAZY grocery store. With CRAZY bathrooms. Check this out, this is the bathroom:
Yes, it's inside. And yes, that is actually the bathroom...well the ENTRY to the bathroom anyway. It's bigger on the inside then it looks. :) It just looks like a normal bathroom once you get inside, stalls sinks, changing table and everything. IT was funny though.

They also have this one, for pictures:
Tami and Gavinn on the fancy potty:
The place was huge and had a TON of different kids of food, and decorations.
This is just outside the exit. Tami, D and Kennie.
Then we went back to Cassie's for dinner. She made Skyline Chili. It's from Cincinnati, and it's SUPER good. Spaghetti, skyline, cheese, onions. Yummo.
I took too long getting Danton food, he had to fend for him self...

This is Zachie, he is Cassie's
Hallie and Lydia, instant best friends
AND Kennie
Danton after he was done eating...I think I actually gave him food and didnt' make him just eat a plate...but honestly I don't' remember.
After dinner we went on another walk. And then a ways into it Lydia announced that she had to go potty. Which wasn't a big deal cause we were heading to Cassie's sister's house. Well we got there and no one was home, by this time Hallie had to go potty too. Luckily they were distracted enough that everyone made it back with out peeing their pants.
This is Cassie being super mom, pushing one in the stroller, one riding on her shoulders, one just hanging on, and one "helping" push.
Kids were all sleepy when we got back.
Gavinn and Zach

We stayed up a little latter that night, till like 1 or 1:30. EESH. I haven't done that in a while. But we couldn't help it. It was so fun talking and joking and reminiscing with out the distraction of the kids.
...to be continued...

give me a day or so

I don't have time to post about Cincinnati this morning. I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow. got home Sunday, and basically went to bed, Danton didn't sleep great AND got up at 5:30, but I still managed to get my trip mess cleaned up and the Laundry mostly done, Yesterday Danton still didn't sleep great and STILL woke up at 5:30 ( I think he missed his Daddy) About the only think I got done yesterday was dinner, and I straightened up a bit.
Cincinnati was the funnest vacation I've had in a VERY long time. Stay up late talking, get up early with the kids, eat breakfast, pack the back pack, head out for several hours, lots of walking, little bit of shopping, lots of telling the kids to stay with us, and come back here, a little bit of "crap that car got in front of me, can you still see the van?" (speeding to catch up) get back, eat dinner, kids play out side, go for a walk, kids go to bed, Stay up late...ect.
I was slightly sleep deprived when I got back and I'm just starting to feel on top of everything again, and GUESS WHAT....I have an hour this morning to get ready, put some dinner in the crock pot, and drop the kids at a friends house for the day. (glad I got my house cleaned yesterday) Cause in about an hour and a half my Mom, Sister, Grandma, Aunt, and Cousin are going to pick me up and we are all going to World Fest at Silver Dollar City. I'm SOOOO excited. I"ve already been twice this year, but the weather was less then fun.
Mark is going to pick up the kids after work and I have no idea what time I"ll get home.
So I need to go through my pics, pick out some good ones to post. Between the 4 of us we took almost 600 pictures. Let me tell ya, we had some FUN. Cassie has an awesome town.
*deep breath* ok, I got to get moving. SDC today, Tap (with Nanc) tomorrow, Date this weekend. But in the mean time I should be able to find some time to tell you all about my awesome trip and make everyone jealous.