Just Another Ordinary Day

This past weekend was great! We didn't do much...Saturday we did some home improvement stuff and had planned on going to the zoo in the afternoon. Well we ended up having afternoon rain showers so that plan was nixed. So we just opted for a quick early dinner out and then watched a couple of movies from the Redbox. We played with Hannah in the basement while the movies were on and just got to relax as a family. Don't know why but it was just a great day. Then on Sunday we got up and got ready for church. We've been going to the 8:45am service because Hannah gets grumpy during the later one because it's right in the middle of her nap time. So we did our usual routine...Jon dropped Hannah and me at the childcare building and then went to park the car. I took her in, signed her in, put her name on her sippy cup, and handed her over. Cries...loud, contagious cries! Did I mention that I started work last week and therefore Hannah went to daycare for the first time ever last week?? Yeah, so I guess Hannah wasn't going to be dropped off in "random" places one more time...so I made an executive decision to just bring her with me (her crying and making the other kids cry DID play into my decision making) to the service. I met Jon in our usual spot and he saw Hannah with me. We decided to go to the more child friendly place, instead of into what our college kids at Henderson Hills would call "big church." Jon looked at me and Hannah (both of us were a little stressed out still) and asked if we would rather just go to the zoo. I felt incredible relief and agreed, so we left...and I am SO glad we did. We drove across town while Hannah took a little snooze in the car and then grabbed some breakfast at Panera before heading to the zoo. We had so much fun at the zoo. We have a season pass, but haven't gone since Hannah's birthday...she has become A LOT more aware in the last three months and noticed EVERYTHING! It was so fun to just watch her explore and discover the animals and flowers and grass and trees. She also got to run free most of the time which was even more exciting for her! I just love watching her learn and have fun. There's nothing better for me!This is her watching the giraffes. They are awesome...I think I have mentioned them before but it really is a cool exhibit. It's the first one when you go in to the zoo and you could literally spend thirty minutes to an hour at that one exhibit...feeding them, watching their ridiculously long tongues, etc! As you can tell, Hannah was loving it! She just sat herself down, at a safe distance of course, and watched them and talked to them...so cute!
Monkeys! We love the monkeys! And obviously so did Hannah...very focused!

She loved getting to walk around like a big girl! She pushed her stroller part of the time, ran after us part of the time, and ran in front of us the rest of the time...do I need to say that she was pooped when we left??

I think this picture exemplifies the day. Content...cruising on my own...and slightly flushed from exerting all of my energy running around.

"Oooo!" Something caught her eye and when that happened she would sit down near the fence and start "talking" about what she was seeing!

Turtle! "Are you turtley enough to be in the turtle club Hannah?" Actually it's a tortoise...they are land animals, while turtles are water animals. Interesting huh? This guy, Floyd maybe, was cruising around the zoo getting petted my little kids. Hannah's not so sure about it...

"Oh my goodness I touched it!" It happened so fast that I missed it! But she did touch it...I was so proud because normally she is a total chicken when it comes to touching animals. I mean she once freaked out about Jon trying to get her to touch a ceramic turtle...that's right and inanimate object freaked her out big time! The chipmunk that was racing around our feet though, not so much. She screamed like a baby when he got close!

And, nothing like an ice cream cone to end a good zoo trip. She likes ice cream can you tell???