a new zoo

Well, not really a new zoo… but new to us!  We’ve been to the Denver zoo, many many times, we’ve had memberships there a couple of years.  But over Sophie’s spring break I wanted to do something new!  So we drove to Colorado Springs to check out their zoo.  Big bonus that Cami came too and brought her girls!

  

Something really cool about this zoo was that you could feed the giraffes!  Maybe I’m the only one, but I’d never been this close to a giraffe before!  It was so cool!!  They really are very unusual looking animals, if you think about it.  We bought some over-priced romaine lettuce and joined in too!

 

Well, at least some of us did… Tessa is not so much of an animal lover, not up close anyway.  She was scared for Sophie’s life the entire time and cried for her to stop until she gave up and hid.  Of course I laughed at her! Just kidding, I just look like I’m laughing in this picture, more of a horse face really. He he he…

 

The giraffes were the highlight of the trip for me, but if Dan’s with me next time I’d dare do the sky ride with the girls.  They even have a petting zoo, a train, and the sky ride!  Pretty cool huh?  Oh and it’s up on the side of a mountain, which makes for some beautiful scenery and views, but it is a hilly walk. ;)

 

Did I mention their cousin Lily came too?  This zoo is halfway between both of our houses so we got to meet Cami and her girls there!  That made it an extra special treat.

 

Here are the kids (so nice of them to line up by height huh? my great grandpa Bay would be so proud!) looking at the meerkats.  Jacob especially like the meerkats, he called them “cute mouses!” he laughed at their quick movements.

 

Sophie likes statues…

 

They also had a neat play area for the kids.  I love how social Sophie is, she never has been shy and she hasn’t changed now that she’s older, sometimes she’ll ask me first, she’ll say something like “Mom could that boy/girl be my friend do you think?”  I tell her absolutely!  Go ask them if they want to play.  And she doesn’t hesitate in the least, she goes right up and tells people her name and asks them to play a game with her.  Sophie’s our social butterfly.

   

Tess had been asking to go down the slide for about 45 min (when we passed it the first time) before we finally stopped to play.

 

 

Sophie and Tessa acting like monkeys in the monkey house!  Tessa especially likes to climb and is such a strong little thing, she is regularly impressing us with her athleticism. 

 

We made our way over to the train, I think Jacob was the most excited about it, he’s boy alright and therefore loves trains!

    

It was a fun day, and I’m sure we’ll be back to “the new zoo” again!

I also wanted to tack on a few random photos to finish off March:

This group of women I had the pleasure of working out with every Thursday morning for the last year (or so??).  Chelsea (in the middle with the pink pants) was kind enough to choreograph dances and lead us in Zumba work outs in the church while we let our kids run around the gym, play with nursery toys, and/or watch a movie.  It was a lot of fun and I miss it!  I’ve NEVER been a dancer, like NEVER, I am a wall flower at dances and have been since my first dance in middle school so it was out of my comfort zone but, as I said, I ended up really enjoying it!  There is something therapeutic and really enjoyable about dancing, I guess that’s why people have danced to celebrate for centuries.  From L to R: Me, Lindsay, Liz, Natalie, Amy, Chelsea, Amanda, Rachel, and Debbie.  The other photo below is one of Dan’s favorite things, though it’s not a newly acquired taste. ;)  He loves playing Halo, especially with his brothers.

 

Silly Jacob… he loves to play in the toilet!  So gross.  We try to keep the bathroom doors closed, but every once in awhile I find a toy in there.  He also really enjoys using the rolling pin to roll out dough, this particular night we were making individual pizzas for dinner.  I think he could keep rolling forever if I let him.

 

Sophie’s Pokemon Party!!!

 

As the guests arrived we had them watch a Pokemon episode, since I was pretty sure that NONE of them had ever even heard of Pokemon before and I wanted them to catch the fever a bit so they would be more into all of the Pokemon games we had planned. ;)

  

Then we ate, I copied others’ ideas I found online and tried to be creative with the food a bit…

    

Next, we made Pikachu ears to wear, I was too busy helping the kids with their ears so I didn’t get any pictures of that… but here they are wearing their ears while Dan explained about the next game, the Pokeball hunt!  We hid dozens of “pokeballs” (which were actually practice golf balls colored with a red sharpie) around the house for the kids to find.  It was pretty competitive, some of the kids had already scoped it out and knew where lots of them were. :)

    

Next up was the Spoink race!  This one I thought was the most creative game (can’t take credit though, I copied).  A Spoink is a pokemon that has a pink ball on his head that gives him power, and he has a spring for feet so we did a relay race keeping a pink balloon on their heads and “spoinking” (jumping) from one side of the basement to the other.  Everyone seemed to like it!

    

The last game we did was a Pikachu Stomp!  I blew up tons of balloons (I can’t remember how many now, 40? I do remember feeling light headed though.) and put a picture of a different Pokemon inside of each one.  After Dan said go they all stomped on balloons and looked to see which Pokemon was inside, then whoever had Pikachu won!  Most of the kids liked it, but some do not like the sound of balloons popping. :)  This tower James made was not part of the game, but I did think it was pretty cool!

  

Lastly, we had cake and opened presents (of course)!

   

I’d be lying if I said it was easy to put together, but I am glad that I did it!  It was not without sacrifice, party planning makes me a stress case, I totally dropped the ball in other areas of my life during that time.  But I think it was good for Sophie to see how many friends she has and get to share something she loves with them (Pokemon!).  She is one lucky girl, we had friends from school, church, the neighborhood, our old ward, and family come out.  Thanks so much to everyone who came!!