The Cincinnati Zoo

The Cincinnati Zoo is a must every time we visit. Unfortunately the cousins couldn't join us on our zoo adventure, leaving my kids so disappointed that they spent the first part of the morning down in the dumps. Even Noah's cool Indiana Jones costume didn't make him feel any better.

To add to Savannah's disappointment was the fact that the huge new lion exhibit would have its grand opening the very next day. Ahhhh! To miss seeing her favorite animal by just one day was such a bummer for her. She had to settle with taking a picture in front of the new lion statue. 

They seemed to perk up a bit as we sat in the shade waiting for the cheetah show. However, the wait was long (we had gotten there early to get good seats in the shade), it was hot, and I had forgotten the drinks in the car. The spiral down to meltdown city was in full force! Thank goodness I was able to get this picture before frowns became the permanent facial expression!

Little Savannah the cheetah who was a baby last summer, all grown up and chasing the ball.

Thank goodness Grandpa stepped up and erased all the blues - ice cream can cure all problems, at least for a time, and it did the trick with mine.  Back to all smiles! 

We took a ride on the slowest train in the universe.

Then we had some fun feeding the birds!

Unfortunately for Xander one of the birds he was feeding got a little aggressive and was fighting Xander for the cup of juice. I came over to help Xander but as I tried to grab the cup, Xander let go thinking I had it...but I didn't. The bird was victorious and Xander was quite upset with me. Poor guy. After that fiasco we headed to the bird show, something we've never done at the zoo. It was so much fun to see all the beautiful birds, especially the ones they sent flying over our heads.

We made a quick stop to see the gorillas; I just can't visit the zoo without seeing my favorites! I was saddened to hear that one of their males had died of old age in recent weeks but the one male they still have put on quite an impressive display for us.

Our last stop of the day was at the reptile house where the cobra came right up to us to say hello. Good thing that glass is there. It would have been ultra cool to see his hood up but I still thought it was neat to see him so active.

Hangin' Out

Although the pool was the big hit, the kids definitely found other fun things to do during our visit with family in Ohio.
We love our cousin Ciara! She is seriously the cutest thing ever! And she seemed to really love Noah...I love this picture of the two of them.

What could be better than Family Home Evening with cousins? My mom and dad did the lesson and it was a big hit with the kids.

Especially the smiley faced cookies for dessert.

We love our Grandpa!

Being an outdoor cat did not save Jackson from kids chasing him around though he didn't seem to mind Savannah the cat whisperer.

Hitching a ride with Noah!

Tooling around in the cars, working on their driving skills. Ciara approved.

Savannah loves having Aunt Heidi do her hair, especially since I'm lacking those cool "hairstyle-creating" skills.

Making bracelets with Grammie.

My summer rule is you can only play on electronics if it's raining.  Well, the boys must have been doing rain dances in their rooms each night because Cincinnati had a whole lot of rain while we were there, allowing the boys to be in Wii heaven! 

Helping Grandma with breakfast.

Games, puzzles, singing, reading, coloring - the kids did it all!

Cincinnati!!!

The summer trip we had been looking forward to finally arrived! We got to Cincinnati around 2:30 in the afternoon and the first thing the kids did was change into their swim suits and head to the pool. After 20 years my parents finally decided to put in a pool which obviously had all of us excited, even when we live 8 hours away. A huge part of the three weeks we were in Cincinnati was spent in the pool.

We perfected our cannonballs...

and our diving, which we can't do at the club pool back home.

Hangin' with cousins is the best!

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Heidi and I taught the kids many of the pool activities we did when we were younger, including Marco Polo and the famous George Washington hair.

Since David wasn't there the first week, the kids got Uncle Ryan to throw them in the pool. Good thing he's buff! Tossing 6 kids over and over and over is quite the workout!

Xander decided to give throwing a try but did not have the same success.

I LOVE this picture!

We love Grandma and Grandpa's new pool!

Fun Animals

Every once in awhile, just because I love animals so much, I just can't resist including a post about all the fun creatures we encounter in our daily lives. Of course we have our outdoor cats that we adore, Googie and Princess; yes, they're still around. We have almost nightly visits from raccoons and daily visits from our cardinal couple, Carl and his wife. Turtles and snakes have been scarce this summer (thank goodness on the snakes) but there have been plenty of frogs and toads around. Savannah is fearless and has no problem catching them. All I can say is Yuck!

Passing the poor little guy around.

Every one had to take a turn holding him.

We haven't seen too many bunnies in our backyard in recent years due to our cats but the rabbits are making a come back this year for two reasons - first, the delicious thick clover and second, they have finally realized our cats are well fed and lazy and have no intention of trying to eat them.

David found this cool leopard slug

and I spotted these beautiful bugs. I'm usually not into insects but there have been so many cool butterflies, dragon flies, ginormous ants, and praying mantises around that I can't resist taking pictures when I come across them.

Our funniest nature encounter came on Father's Day. I was coming down the stairs, ready to head off to church, and I could hear David yelling in the basement, "There's a bird in the house!" When I got to the basement I found David unsuccessfully trying to corral a small bird toward the basement door. We had had a robin's nest in the eaves of our back patio and had been enjoying looking at the baby birds the past few weeks. Apparently the time had come for them to leave the nest and they had made their way to the ground but not much farther. Xander had taken out the trash, leaving the door open, and one of the baby birds had chosen that moment to attempt to fly...right into our basement! I quickly grabbed a towel, cornered the bird, and picked it up. I spent a few minutes with it because, to be honest, how often does one get to hold a robin?

More Summer Fun

As we headed into the second week of summer I started hearing a few "I'm bored", obviously not what I wanted to hear so soon after school had ended. So every day we have tried to have some fun little activity in hopes of beating the boredom blues. We went on a nature scavenger hunt trying to find different items that included, among others, something beautiful, something fuzzy, and something green.

It always helps to have a little water to help us cool off.

Checking to see if there are any nests.

We held a sidewalk art show. Xander quickly drew some animals and made his way back into the house.

Savannah spent a lot more time on her artwork.

A favorite subject of hers is Carl the Cardinal, as she has named him, our local cardinal that hangs out around our deck and steals the cats' food when they aren't around.

And Noah's work.

We headed up to Broom's Bloom for a little lunch and some ice cream. It was such a beautiful day that we enjoyed our food outside.

This place has been voted one of the best ice cream places in the country and I'd have to agree. I thought we should stick to the "small" size since we had just had a big lunch.

If this is a small cone I can't imagine what the large must look like!

Yuuuummmmmyyy!