A day at the zoo - Take II

This past week Ms. Barb asked me if I would help her take the kids to the zoo one last time before summer ended.  I had to rearrange my schedule a little bit, but I am so glad that I was able to spend the day with Chance, Savannah, Isla and Ms. Barb.

 We met Ms. Barb at her daycare in the morning and then together we packed up lunches and snacks for all of the kids and then headed off to the zoo.
We were much better prepared this time and everything went so smoothly.  

The zoo was not packed at all and we were able to get really close to so many of the animals.

Savannah was super observant all day.  I think she loved being out and about. 

It seemed like every animal was awake and ready to entertain.  

We made it half way around the zoo before lunch time and decided to stop at the carousel to reward the kids for being so well behaved.

We had a picnic lunch in the park next to the carousel.  The weather was perfect and it was so relaxing.
It was amazing to see Chance in his element with his friend Isla and Ms. Barb.
These kids LOVE each other and Ms. Barb really does treat them like her own.
We are so lucky to have found someone who takes such great care of our babies while we are at work!
I just adore these pictures of the kids loving up on Ms. Barb. 

Savannah lounged in the shade for the entire lunch.  She was awake for the entire day and seemed content to just be out with us.

Chance and Isla ran and ran and played and played.
It was adorable.  They are buddies for sure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we wrapped up the afternoon by looking for rabbits,

yelling at the penguins to jump in the water,

 and playing in the Elephant Passage.  

We managed to make it around the entire zoo with three kids under three, zero meltdowns,and eight diaper changes,but who's counting?
I guess all that adds up to a successful day at the zoo.
It sure beat spending the day at work!

 

Living Room Camping, Blues and Brews Fest, and Sailing

This past week in pictures is random. 

We wanted to plan a camping trip with the kids, but realized we were running out of warm weather and time.  We decided to do a trial run in the living room just to see how the kids would handle it. 

Chance loved reading books and playing in his tent all night. 

If the weather in the mountains stays nice enough we may brave a camping trip with the kids in the next few weeks.  Fingers crossed...we'll keep you posted. 

On Saturday we made breakfast at home and played with Chance and Savannah because we had date night planned for later in the evening. 
Me made breakfast. 

Watched cartoons...

and learned to draw monkeys. 
This picture below is Chance's disapproval of my attempt at monkey drawing.  He scribbled all over it in orange and said, "NO Mommy! That is not right!"
I'll have to ask Nick to help me work on my monkey drawing skills...

Max got out his old micro machines and has been playing them with Chance every night as well. 
I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I don't want to jinx ourselves, but I think we are.this.close
to being out of the tantrum stage and into the reasoning and thinking stage with Chance. 
Feel free to say...Hallelujah!

Saturday evening we took the kids to Ms. Barb's for an overnight. 
Max and I went to the blues and brews fest on pearl st in our neighborhood and had a blast!

On Sunday we followed our normal routine with the farmer's market and the park, but I thought you might not want to see those pics again :)

Cook came by after lunch and asked us to go sailing with him at Chattfield Reservoir.  We packed up the whole family and made a day of it on the fake beach. 

Savannah lounged away in her little sun tent while Max, Cook, and Chance set up the boat. 

I lost the battle with trying not to pack too many things.  I'm slowly accepting the fact that babies need lots of things and I enjoy myself more when they have them. 
Does it look like we brought enough stuff to enjoy the beach for a few hours?

Chance was hysterical in his little life vest with the safety leash. 

 

The wind was very calm so there was no extreme sailing.  It was still nice to get out. 

I love this photo just because of the expressions on both Max and Savannah's faces. 

I guess a bad day of sailing is a good day on the beach. 
Nick showed up and we ended up having a picnic, playing football, and relaxing in the sun. 
All in all it was a great weekend. 

 

Australian friends, a family day, and jazz

This past weekend we had an amazing time with friends and family.
On Thursday night we got a call from some of Mike and Carol's friends from the time that they lived in Australia.  They left Max a voice mail message on his phone stating that they were going to be in the Denver area and that they had some Australia t-shirts that they wanted to give to the kids.
We called them back and scheduled a time to meet up on Friday night.
Nick Seglie's parents, Lon and Jill, were also in town from Leavenworth and Nick asked us if he could use our place to bbq for them.
Max was sure that his parent's friends, Terry and Carol, would not stay long and he invited them to come by our house.


We had no idea how much fun we were all going to have or how late the night was going to be.  

Terry and Carol ended up staying for hours and telling us all about their memories of young Max in Australia.
I loved having two "grandma's" around in Carol and Jill to help with Chance and Savannah
and Nick ended up making our entire dinner. 

It was a great evening with great conversation.  

Terry and Carol were wonderful to meet and I hope they feel free to come back anytime!

Saturday morning we took full advantage of cartoons and cuddling with the kids in bed.  Max has been working so much on the garage that we rarely have a lounge day so it was really fun to do nothing at all in the morning.  

I realized that I'm usually the one taking the photos and I'm usually holding Savannah.  I tried to get some pictures of Savannah when she is not in the stroller or the car seat, but I was unsuccessful...unless you have a sense of humor...I did get some pretty great photo "fail" shots.  

After a few hours of lounge time we decided to head out to Wash Park and take our new stroller for a spin. I am unreasonably excited about this double stroller.  I can not even explain how f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c it was to be able to walk to the park with out having to carry one or both children for a few blocks of the walk!!


We fed the ducks,

and learned that the squirrels in Wash Park also like crackers.
Seriously, have you ever seen a squirrel beg for food?  

Max trying to make the double stroller look cool. 

We had a great walk and I feel in love with Wash Park again.
It really is great to have such a quick get away so close to our house.  

We walked through all of the flower gardens with Chance and he loved stopping to point out all of the bees near the flowers.
Seeing the park through Chance's eyes was so enjoyable.  

After the park we took in lunch at Sexy Pizza on Pearl St, 

and then came home to relax and watch movies for the rest of the day.

True Story...it is at this point that I realize after getting an email from Max's mom that I have accidentally been texting Max's dad (thinking it was my dad) all day long.  Max had updated my phone for me and somehow our contacts for "dad" and "mom" all got merged into one.  Max's dad got to hear all about...complete with picture texts.... how excited I was about having a double stroller and the process I went through to find one on Craigslist.  I'm sure he thought I had lost it, but Max and I got a big laugh out of it.
Max even did an impression of his dad receiving the odd texts and making a comment to his mom about it.  It was hilarious!
Sorry about that Mike :/

On Sunday we worked together to complete some much needed work on the inside of our house.  Max and Nick moved the ski press to the garage and I can now start painting to put together a toy room for the kids.  This means no more plastic toys in the dining room!!!
Did I mention how lame Max and I are now...this is very exciting news....really it is!

Okay,  we understand that it is not exciting news to anyone but us. So we decided to head to Jazz in the Park with Nick and Kristen on Sunday evening.
We had to stop and play at the playground first, but we are quickly realizing that we have to make ourselves go out sometimes or we won't have anything except for double strollers and toy rooms to talk about.  

Also, we like our friends and jazz in the park with a picnic and a bottle of wine is nice.