An African Adventure

To celebrate surviving four days without Dad, the boys and I planned a trip to the zoo and asked Nonna if she would like to come along. The Chaffee Zoo just opened up an amazing new addition called "African Adventure" and Reed has been waiting for it ALL Summer. C, Lyla, Kieran, and I actually did a Tot Class on birds last week and then took a quick peek at the new area but while Reed knew about the class he would have been heartbroken to know we went to "Africa" (as he calls it) without him. Anyway, on Sunday we spent 3 hours (versus 20 minutes on Monday) and got to see so many different animals including most of the ones now living in African Adventure. I didn't take a stroller so that meant the boys did a lot of walking and were wiped out by the end of the day, but it was fun letting them run around and since Nonna was there we could take turns being with one or the other and letting them lead the way. We went to Sea Lion Cove, then Sting Ray Bay, the Tropical Rainforest (where Reed insisted on trying to find all of the birds listed on the guide sheet), visited the Super cute Sloth Bears, and then ended with Rhinos, Impalas, Ostriches, Giraffes, Foxes, Lions, Zebras, Elephants, and more in African Adventure. Kieran also got to show off the one thing he took away from his zoo class - how to make talons with his fingers, which he is very proud of. We love the zoo and every time we go I appreciate, so much, what a gem it is to have so close to home!!!

Four Days with the Boys

Jon was gone for four days for work this past week/weekend so that meant I had the boys solo. I have done this quite a bit over the last four years and I can't say I was super excited about it going in. The boys are a handful most days and I'm usually absolutely exhausted and counting the minutes until Jon (aka relief) gets home in the evening. That being said I'm very proud of myself because even though there were some nights of bad sleep we were able to have a lot of fun, I got caught up on my to-do list, and we made some really good strides in the potty training department. I think I just embraced that I have two wild boys and looked at our time as an adventure. Kieran went pants free most of the time. We took Dodger on a walk every day, and the boys kicked up dirt, gathered sticks and rocks, and poked at dried up poop. We played outside a lot, ate what we wanted, and had a great time making messes together. My boys are such boys!

On Thursday we hung out at home, walked Dodger,  and really focused on potty training - there were a lot of accidents, but also some really good successes and I was so proud of Kieran's eagerness to figure this thing out.

Friday Kieran and I went to Trader Joes and took a yoga class while Reed was at school. In the afternoon Reed and I painted a pumpkin teal for our front porch to let trick-or-treaters with food allergies know we have non-food treats. At one point I went out into the garage for 90 seconds and came back in to find Kieran super proud of himself sitting on the toilet, declaring "I pooped." I made pizza, the boys watched Monsters, Inc. and Reed and I had a slumber party that night. My sensitive 4 year old was pretty upset by the scene where Sully and Boo have to say goodbye forever and even two hours later started crying on the phone when he was telling Dad about it. He did great sleeping with me this time and was out from 8:45 until 7:30 the next morning.

On Saturday Kieran woke at 3:30 am and never went back to sleep. When Reed finally emerged from our room we made pancakes, went for a run (and Kieran finally fell asleep in the stroller), made a much needed Starbucks stop, made cupcakes for Tio, walked Dodger, and played with the neighbor cat. We then spent the rest of the afternoon/night celebrating Tio's Birthday with Nonna and the Ketelsens. For some reason I have no pictures of Drew's sister Tracy but she was there, along with Marty and Bueno.

Everyone woke pretty excited on Sunday because we were going to the zoo with Nonna. It was a great excursion and I'll do a separate post on it because I took a lot of pictures. Jon will have a few more trips this off season and I'm genuinely excited to spend more one-on-one time with the boys!!!

Annual Pumpkin Patch Trek

We go to the Pumpkin Patch every year and every year not only do the boys love it but we have a good time too. The place is right across the street from Nonna and Pepe's and has become more and more popular over the years and we were hearing stories of 1 hour waits for the steam train ride. We told C and Tio that in the past we've gone late in the afternoon on Sunday and that there has never been a wait or too many people. They decided that they would try out our strategy this year. When we pulled up to the place there were a ton of cars and we worried that our plan wasn't so great after all, but a bunch of people were leaving and once we got passed the pumpkin area it wasn't very busy at all. We waited maybe 5 minutes for our train ride and all got to ride together per Reed's request. The kids all had a great time hiking around, walking the rope bridge, and then picking out pumpkins to take home. Kieran found the heaviest one he could manage to pick up and Reed went with the two is better than one theory. It was a great afternoon and at 73 degrees "almost" felt like Fall!