More Weekend Fun!

After the zoo, I took the boys to do some mall shopping, while Dan went to some bicycle shops to get some new gear for his road bike. After all that shopping, we checked into our hotel room...and checked right back out! I had booked the hotel online, at a "suites" hotel--the pictures made the place look newly renovated, and very nice. What false advertisement!

The room was very much under par for what was advertised, and since it was our anniversary weekend, we had wanted to stay at a nicer place...this was the kind of place I'd expect to find bed bugs. Yuck. =( Despite our disappointment in the room, we were trying to get over it...then we took the kids to the swimming pool. Double yuck. The pool was nasty, and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months!!! We promptly checked out--they were kind enough to give us a full refund--and found a much nicer hotel down the street. It wasn't a suite, and the price was a bit higher, but the beds were comfortable, and the pool was clean!

Before heading home on Sunday, we went for a family bike ride around a lake, took the kids swimming again, and did a bit more shopping (we took turns in the stores, because our boys were asleep in the car!). We splurged on the kids a bit. We bought Toby a bigger bike, since he was maxing out the space on his old bike--that kid is growing at lightning speed! We also bought Zach a trike for his birthday--he's loving it!

Saturday night, after the zoo and shopping--Zach fell asleep on the way back to the hotel after we'd eaten out for dinner. Toby snuggled right up to him...

...and fell fast asleep. Precious boys!

Trying out his new trike!

Toby and his new, "big" bike!

Zoo Snooze!!!

We had the opportunity last weekend to stay overnight at the zoo! We arrived on Friday night and were served pizza and soda, then went into the theater for a small animal presentation, followed by a post-sunset zoo tour, in search of nocturnal animals. Unfortunately, most of the animals were hiding from us that night--all we saw were a couple of peacocks. We set up air mattresses inside the education building, and after sleeping, got to spend all day at the zoo. They opened the zoo an hour early for our group, so the beginning of the day was nice and quiet. By the time we left in the afternoon, there was not a parking spot open for a half mile away! Here are some pictures from Saturday--we saw LOTS of animals!

My boys...I LOVE them!

By the monkey display, pretending to be monkeys!

Goat petting zoo! In case you can't tell, the boys loved it! ;-)

Zach didn't want to go down the slide by himself, but he loved going down with help!

Lions!

There were a bunch of people gawking & taking pictures of the female, when out of nowhere came the male lion--he climbed onto a ledge and started roaring, claiming his territory. It was cool!

Eagles! I don't think I've ever seen any standing on the ground before.

California Sea Lion show! Our Zoo Snooze group was allowed free entry into the show--fun fun!

BABY Elephant! The highlight of our zoo experience! The mama elephant was very protective of her baby, not letting the baby get more than a foot away from her. =)

Baby Jaguar!


End of the zoo day for us--the kiddos were tired, but we all had a blast! Toby's already asking when we can go back!

Frustration!!!

I have so many pictures from our zoo trip to put up here, but am having problems...I'll keep trying, but this is getting frustrating! Check back later! =)

Fresh Start...Again?

I was embarrassed to log into blogger and discover it had been more than a year since my last post! At this point, I am not going to apologize for my lack of posting, or even ask if I have any readers anymore (I'm just going to assume that is a big NO).

So, I am starting fresh here--now--today. Hopefully my old readers will come back, and I'll gain some new ones. So much has happened in the past year! Looking back at that last post about Good Friday (in 2010), it seems like a lifetime ago! Dan had a work relocation, and we moved to Southwest USA this past fall. We've been blessed with so many new friends here, yet we miss our Upper Midwest friends and family so very much!

I'll keep things short tonight, as this is my quick "comeback". Our family recently visited the zoo (actually, we stayed overnight there!), so I will plan to blog about that fun trip tomorrow. Check back--we have some great pictures!

Oh yeah, one more thing...I decided to make my blog public again, at least for now. So when you comment, please don't write specifics about our location, etc. Thanks! =)