Wildlife World Zoo

The Wildlife World Zoo... Wow! Who knew? It's actually a pretty neat place! Great Grandma and Grandpa Isaac were here in sunny hot AZ and thought it would be fun to see all their great grandkids and take them to the zoo. As it happens the Wildlife Worls Zoo had just opened their new aquarium (the only one in the southwest). So that is were we met up, but the Pezzelle's didn't make it and boy did they ever miss a show. Grandma & Grandpa were driving down from Pat & Wayne's in Chino Valley and the kids and I were making a mad dash all the way from the ranch to 162nd avenue and Thunderbird or something crazy like that! For the record that means I had to wake them up at dawn and get them dressed in order to be there on time. So they might be looking a little worse for wear, but they had a blast! Abigail is C.R.A.Z.Y. for animals. It's hilarious even to total strangers. She screams and yells and baby talks all fast like she has so much to say. It's funny. So she was in this frantic state while we were on the little train that takes you through the "savannah" when she just counldn't handle it anymore and she just had to touch the ostrich that was walking or swaying (if you've ever seen an ostrich move you know what I mean) right along with us. Apperently the bird could understand Abi perfectly and was quite interested in what she had to say. Then all of a sudden off comes her purple Croc (a shoe)......and there it goes! Right off the train and at the ostrich. Right now, at that very moment, everyone behind us on the train is laughing hysterically and I am frantically trying to come up with an excuse as to why my sweet daughter launched her shoe at one of the exhibits. In the meantime the train goes on and Abi's shoe does not. It stays right there on the ground where she tossed it. Thank goodness the ostrich didn't eat it. I think they do that sort of thing and who wouldn't think a purple rubber shoe wasn't a treat, really? At the end of the ride I had to explain what happened and surprisingly they didn't seem to bothered by it. We must not have been the first people to have something go overboard. They even went and retrieved the shoe so we could take crazy over to the petting zoo where she actually tried to move (push) the baby goat away from it's mother so she could find out just what it was sucking on under there. Have I ever mentioned she is crazy for animals?

What a Hoot!

Emi, Billy and Abi - June 2009

We went up to the Ranch recently. Travis had some "home improvements" to make and the kids and I tagged along of course! The improvements went great and so did our weekend.

Squishy.

Russell Maynard 7 years old

Helping Dad "do work".

Emily James 5 years and counting.

After the "work" was done there was of course time for lounging, a trip to Cherry Creek to cool off and playing with the horses...

And lest we forget the greatest part of the weekend.... Riding HOOT! Emi was ready to go. You didn't need to ask her twice! So she mounted up and off she went. A natural, I say. However, Billy who was not quite as excited as Emi seemed to be pretty comfy up there....We might just get a baseball playin', mule riding cowboy out of this boy yet!

Hoot is such a good animal. He lets the kids climb up there and bounce around all the while Russell (if you notice) is literally underneath his feet and Squish is screaming her encouragement to Emi and Billy every time they ride past and he never once gets grumpy. Good thing mules are so sure footed!

The Ranch - Young, AZ

Sleepover..zzz

How cute are these girls?

I had the opportunity to have BOTH Craft girls for the whole night. They had so much fun together and insisted on sleeping together in Emi's twin size bed.

...and not to be left out...He thought the big comfy bed I made on the floor for the girls was the perfect fit!

Serious Business!

DAD'S RULE!

Travis has instituted a new evening ritual around here....
Dance Party USA!

A Little Birdie Told Me...

I just had to include these terrible pictures of our "house" bird. For weeks and this being the second go round for this little mama bird. We had this very bird nesting in a bucket of fake flowers hanging from the outside of our front door (classy right?) The kids and I all knew the rules, not wanting to harm the newest members of our family... knock before opening the door, no slamming the door etc. Travis on the other hand had not been "schooled" on the details of living with a bird hanging from your front door. So on the first night of summer storms, having just recently completed a patio courtyard out front Travis decides we should go sit out front and watch. Great idea! Only he gets to the front door first.... As he swings open the door I quietly yell (because it is now after 10pm and the kids are soundly asleep) to watch out for the bird. The bird either hears me quietly yell at Travis or is jarred from her comfy nest by the blast of cold air coming from inside and she of course flies the coop if you will. She flies directly into the house. We chased this poor little bird around for over an hour trying desperately to get her out of the house (and snap a few pics). She was not cooperating. She was also letting out a rather loud chirp every couple minutes that sounded an awful lot like the smoke alarm. Mind you it is now after 10pm, 90 degrees outside, there is a monsoon storm blowing things all over the street and we now have every window and door accessible to us open to the elements! We were finally able to trap her in the kids playroom and shew her out that window after the ceiling fan got turned off, but I'm sure it was just because she was completely exhausted. Believe it or not but she was right back in her nest the very next day and stayed til the babies were grown. What a mom!

Long Time Gone...

It would seem I have abandoned my post as "Blogger Extraordinaire" to most. However, this assumption would be wrong. As fate would have it my extended vacation from blogging was due to neither a lack of photos, memories waiting to be immortalized or even time, but to something much more mundane....a lack of keyboard. That's right, I said keyboard. For most that know me well enough I managed to get along with a few functioning keys and spelled out punctuation, but to the login world I was lost. You see when a precious 5 year old darling drools, as her mind is being molded, on your keyboard as she plays noggin.com it dismantles things...mainly my use of punctuation and shift keys. To the login world this made me lost. No shift meant no @ to login into blogger. Hilarious? Perhaps. Annoying? Completely!



I am now back, thanks to my very thoughtful hubby, though. And I have some serious blogging to catch up on: I'll try to go backward in chronological order....

A Little Birdie Told Me
Serious Business!
Sleepover
What a Hoot!
Wildlife World Zoo
Auntie E's Birthday Bash
At the Beatsch House with the Pezzelle's
Strawberry Picking
Ooohh Dinosaurs!
Lake Pleasant
Theme Park Extravaganza!
4th of July!
Baconfield
Pleasant Valley Days 2009
Happy 2nd Birthday Squishy!

I think that ought to do it!