Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet, Sweet Lionel!!!!!

Presents!

World Wildlife Zoo & Aquarium

We headed out for some family/birthday adventure today! The boys LOVED the aquarium part. Everett would look quickly at the exhibit and then say, "Come on guys, let's go deeper!" There were long dark halls, so maybe he thought it was like going deeper into a cave? And Lionel would run over and say, "Mama, look!" and sometimes there wasn't even an animal, just a food dish. Their excitement was contagious though. I thoroughly enjoyed it, too.

The first photo is great because Everett is mimicking the flamingo! We saw a ton of animals and had such a fantastic day!

Pete & Repeat

The Petting Zoo

Lionel really enjoyed petting the animals and seeing them up close. Everett did it, but wanted to go back to the playground. The best part was when a deer started eating Lionel's shirt. He was excited yet terrified! Look closely.

The Skyride

We got up close and personal with the giraffes just before we climbed aboard the Skyride. Everett rode with Billy, and Lionel and I went together. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about the heights. I was holding on to the bar with one hand and Lionel with the other. I just had visions of him jumping off of there! It was neat to be above the zoo and see the animals from a different perspective.

Happy Birthday to You!

Mmmmmm, Yummy Cake!

That is exactly what the birthday boy had to say! I like the extra hand in the pictures. Wonder who that is?

All Aboard!

We loaded up the car on Friday afternoon to head North up to Williams for the Polar Express! I know it is a bit early, but it's really hard to get tickets and it just so happened that it worked out for this weekend, so we jumped on the chance! The boys were SO excited! We get on the highway and not 5 miles into our drive, we hit a standstill of epic proportions. A "we moved 1 mile in the last hour" kind of standstill. We had no information on what is was, where it was, or how bad. We could walk to our house from where we were. People were getting out of their cars. It was bad. The car ahead said the accident was a good 15 miles away! We watched the minutes tick away and it finally occurred to us that we would miss the train if we waited another second. The boys did great (DVD player helped greatly with that!). So my road savvy husband turned us around and took a detour of his own invention. It was long, it was twisty, it was a close call, but we made it! Just enough time to pick up our tickets and get on board! I still cannot believe we made it! We didn't get to change into our jammies, but no one seemed to mind. Hearing Everett say, "Thank you for taking me on the Polar Express!" was worth all the madness!

Lionel slept through most of last year's trip, so it was interesting to see the little man come alive on the train! And boy did he! It's such a cute idea and I just loved it. Although we are a bit far from Christmas, it was nice to sing Christmas songs and see the excitement of all the kids.