One Wild Summer!

We had one wild and exciting summer this year! Because we were not 

taking an extended vacation anywhere this year we made sure to fight 

boredom and plan activities throughout the hot summer months. 

Visits to the library, summer movies and swimming lessons were regular 

weekly activities. One of our first stops was the Wildlife Zoo. Abi had a field trip

here in Kindergarten and she wanted us to go as a family during the summer. 

We had a great time seeing the shows and getting up close and personal with 

the Jaguars and Lori birds. But I think the favorite exhibit was Dragon World-Land of

the Reptiles. There were some AMAZING reptiles in there, the girls went through 

it twice! There were large lizards, big alligators and snakes! 

Leah had fun dancing with a bird-it would follow her when she moved to 

the other side of the window. Maybe the bird was bored because it was the only one 

behind the glass. Right now Leah's favorite animals are zebra's and flamingos so

made sure to visit them while at the zoo. The flamingos had some eggs laid and a 

couple of babies walking around which we enjoyed watching. 

Another place Abi wanted us to visit was the petting zoo. The animals in there

were very obnoxious! They are so used to humans feeding them that they expect any 

and all to have the feed in their hands. If you don't then you fall victim to them having 

your clothes for a snack. Well, Leah was that victim. And for the record, I didnt know I

 had this picture until I looked at it closer. I wouldn't feed my kids to the animals,

 on purpose anyway.The Lori birds were actually really neat and I'm glad we stayed

 for the last feeding. We held out apples for them in our hands and they landed on us and ate! 

        

Caleb's P.O.'d look, probably because I asked him to smile for the camera.

Saying Goodbye to Clyde
Clyde was our Rat Terrier for many years. She was a good 
pup and put up with a lot from three kiddos. We said our 
goodbyes, buried her in the backyard and placed a Hong Kong 
Orchid tree above her. Kisses and we love you Clyde!

Summer Sillies! 
Our Sunflowers did really well this year! Abi pulled out her
first tooth and we partied with family and to music! We  also visited the
chocolate factory where the girls got to be candy checkers before going on 
tour! Not only did they come out with a huge bag of taffy each but they got 
a dollar too! They were super excited!  

The Beach!
Well we were able to escape for just a few days this summer and enjoy some 
beach and Sea World time! We have beach loving and sea life loving kids so we 
loved these few days!

Soak Zone at Sea World! Oh yeah! Except......we stayed dry!
Abi loves dolphins so we tried to see as much of the dolphins as
we could. This one here came up to greet us and we were able to give
her a pet! Yay! The tide pools are the best for picking up Star Fish and
other sea creatures.
Thanks to the Beluga whale Abi got a little lesson about the birds
and the bees, it was pretty funny.

Back to the Beach!

Sand dolphin!

Happy 4th of July!! On our way home we stopped at a firework
stand and picked up some fireworks of our own! We had sparklers
and a couple of little shows to celebrate America's birthday!

Abi made really good friends with this little boy in Kindergarten but before the
year was over he moved up north. She was really sad but we made arrangements
to go and visit during the summer.  It was like these two didn't skip a beat with the
time they had spent apart. We had an amazing time swimming, playing and
being buds. We were sad to come home but we plan to visit again soon! 

Sea Life Aquarium!! We love visiting aquariums! The world
underwater is filled with amazing life and we just love to
see and explore it. Some of the fish we saw here we also saw while
snorkeling in Hawaii a couple of years ago. One of which was a
puffer fish, so cool! The octopus was SO active and it was really fun to
 watch. Some of our favorites to watch are the sea turtle, sharks and sting
rays as they go swimming past us! After our time at the aquarium
we went to have lunch at Rainforest Cafe. The kids really liked the
atmosphere and eventually got used to the thunderstorms that
go off every 15 minutes or so.

Wet summer fun!
The girls did really great this year
in swim lessons, I can't help but be a proud Momma and hope
one of them takes to swimming so they could follow in my footsteps.
I took the kiddos to the art museum as a way to keep cool and they
seemed to really like it. Abi is my artsy one so I hope she
was encouraged by all the creativity around her. Leah on the other
hand called a piece of contemporary art "garbage".
To her defense it literally was a giant piece of crumpled up
paper! LOL!  

Auntie Jen comes into town from time to time for work and
we get to visit and she takes us to lunch to her
favorite spot! They have great ice cream sundaes and malts!!

Camping!!!
We have not been camping in years! So now that the kiddos are older
we figured it was time to go, and wow was it a great time!! The
weather was cool in the morning and evening and warm during the day.
 Abi has wanted to fish since last summer so Andy took us out to try and catch fish.
The first couple attempts didn't go so great, he and Leah got stung by some hornets,
then we got rained on but eventually we had success and caught a bunch!
Our campsite was nice, not too many people, bathroom and showers
but every night about a half hour after dark the skunks would come out! Ewe!
The last night one stubborn skunk would not go away and I thought we were going
home stinking of skunk because Andy was "trying to get it to go away". Well he
was successful and no tomato baths here. :)  We also went on a really
nice hike to some wading pools, picked blackberries and crab apples to make
pies out of later!
 

By far one of the best summers, I am looking forward to what
lies ahead for us and these amazing kids we have been
blessed with.