I'm going to the zoon Mommy!

For Father's Day, we drove up to the Minnesota Zoo with good friends Heather and Adam. Josiah loved the "zoon". He was equally (sometimes more) excited about the constant airplanes overhead and the "BIG TRAIN!" (aka the zoo's tram). Here are a few fun pictures from the "zoon".

Josiah had no fear of feeding the baby goats. Notice that he had to open his mouth extremely wide - either trying to get the goat to mimic him, or in total nerves. Note to mommy: Remember lots of change next time.
The new exhibit "Russia's grizzly coast" makes the entire trip worth it. Not that the rest of the zoo isn't fun, but the zoos in MN aren't all that exciting once you've been to a great zoo. This exhibit actually shows an effort to catch up and make this a competitor. We were mesmorized - child and 4 adults alike. No, perhaps the adults more than the child. First you get to sit in a small cave stadium and watch the otters swim and play. The glass puts you inches from the otters - and goes from above ground to the bottom of their pool - so you have a total view of everything. So cool.
Note that the empty seat next to my boys represents pass #2 through the exhibit. Do not visit the zoo on a holiday, nor on any weekend day. We waited in line to get into the exhibit, and then waited our turn for a seat in the little stadiums. Well worth the wait - but keep in mind that everyone wants to spend their whole day in the lull of watching the animals swim.
Yes - next it is the bears. A much bigger area, and a much bigger glass wall. This is my kid about to do a high-five with the bear. (Thanks, Heather, for actually snapping a shot seconds later when the high-five happened). This was amazing. The bears were swimming and playing in the water or chasing the fish for the duration of our two visits to see them. They are amused by the dropped jaw folk staring at them and come right up to your face and give you a show. Once again, inches from the animals. SO cool.

At any rate, we took a ton of pictures and had a wonderful afternoon at the zoon. I can't get him to drop the "N". Two bummers - Josiah is going through a phase where he is afraid of loud noises. In the aquatic area, there is a water feature (where you can touch the starfish) that drops a zillion gallons of water every couple of minutes. He cried and clutched me so hard I had bruises. Secondly, the arena for the dolphin show is incredibly small. You had to wait for more than an hour to get a spot - and they don't have enough shows for everyone to get a chance. So no dolphin show. A bigger bummer is that there is no way to view the dolphins other than the show - so that was unfortunate.

We learned a few lessons for next time, but will definitely be back. On a random Tuesday morning with a bag of ice water packed.

Catching up a tiny bit...

Life has been a tiny bit hectic lately. We have put our first house up for sale- it is heartbreaking because of the work we have done and the fact that we love this house - aside from the fact that it was our first house, etc.. But at any rate, its going to be good and its keeping us very busy. Here are a few pictures from the past month or so.. i'll get more on here, I promise!

This is Steve and Josiah pretending to be frogs. We have moved on from kitty now - and are more concerned with frogs and tigers. Some days he wakes up and instead of "good morning mama" or "i want toast" all we get is a "ROAR!". The best part about Josiah's frog impression is that he does it in a monster-type voice - a growling scratchy thing like the scariest frog you ever saw. He won't do it when the camera is on though.

Another "ribbit"
This is Josiah sharing the wonderful pink cake that I made to celebrate AudrieAnne's first birthday. It was a great cake - and quickly devoured by all of the kiddos. Grandma was thrilled to have these "sticky hands!" in her lap. The house sure fills up with all of the kids and all of the running, and oh, the running. It is exhausting to keep up with them all!!
Josiah talked about going fishing with papa all weekend long. He was so excited to catch a big shark. He did NOT want to catch a fish - "NO mommy. I catch a big SHARK!". Then we go home for opening fishing weekend and guess what - Fergus Falls was still having winter! So here he is, turning his fingers into popsicles catching the fake fish because it wasn't even worth putting bait on. He was thrilled though and totally enjoyed catching the red fish over and over again until we had to drag him in because it was too cold. Then it snowed. Meanwhile back in Rochester it was a balmy 65 degrees!

We are keeping so busy with this little man. He is an amazing kid and makes us stare in wonder at least once a day. We are keeping a journal for him of all the random things he does - adding notes here and there when things jump out at us. Its comical to read through it and imagine him getting this earful when he grows up. Today I wrote three pages about him THROWING UP ON ME AT TARGET - and how this is not appropriate behavior.

He love to play, loves the parks, loves animals and worms. Find him a worm and he will carry it around for an hour (until it is completely torn to shreds and he needs you find him a replacement). He LOVES helicoptors - which we get to see a lot of here by the hospital. He shreaks with glee. He loves toast and would eat it for every meal.

Last week he got to be the chef at preschool. Steve and I got to go to have lunch with him - he had picked the meal and helped make it. Meatloaf - what?? We don't really have that at home, but the kid gobbles it down. It was adorable to see how excited he was to do this for us and his friends. I'll get those pictures up soon.

He has a whole dictionary in him. Today he told me he bounced on the teeter totter. He loved to say "o-noxious" when I told him that the book we read a million times a day (a look and find) is obnoxious. He likes to way "watch this" and do a trick of some kind. He is very tricky and will be the king of pranks from an early age. He reminds us at least 20 times each day that he is a big boy. You cannot call him anything else.

He has totally taken over.