Sunday at the Zoo, or, A Break in the Heat

If any of you are wondering why there was no blog post of our weekend activities last week, the answer is simple: we barely left the house. We were bad parents. It was hot, and we were exhausted. Such is life. To rectify, and because there was a break in the heat on Sunday morning, it was off the zoo. Sean's parents were also in town on Friday and Saturday, so we hit the Farmers Market on Saturday morning, but Farmers Market mornings are crazy, and I spend 90% of the time making sure neither of our children are lost or kidnapped (this is a typical parental fear, right?), and the other 10% of the time scoping fruits and veg, thus there is no picture taking.

First stop, Happy Gills Cafe and Hangout. We need energy for the zoo walking. Lauren can have nuts now, and went nuts (sorry) for the yogurt with fruit and granola.



Half of the fun in going to the zoo is riding on the various forms of transportation: trains, trams and sky lifts. Above and below, Lauren checking out some of the animals from the tram (today's favorite animal: elephants).

Above, Lauren is almost too close for comfort to one of the gorillas (there were two more to her right). I think the glass could be thicker. Personal opinion.

The pictures below are from the new sky tram at the Kansas City Zoo, which takes you through the air over "Africa." Jack and I stayed behind, but the reviews were positive. And Lauren even came back with her boots on (I was sure they would fall off, which of course I didn't think about until they were well on their way, but Sean thought of it, too, and held them on). I like the progression from terrified to enjoying the ride. Next stop: skiing in Colorado this winter.

And there you have it. Now we're back to oppressive heat. It was nice while it lasted!

Nikita

This morning's early morning activity: visiting Nikita, the new polar bear at the Kansas City Zoo. There was a wonderful break in the heat and we got there when the zoo opened, as did a good portion of Kansas City. Everyone wanted to see Nikita. Fortunately, Nikita is a bit OCD, and so Sean figured out her pattern and staked the perfect spot.

Our favorite part was the swimming.

The back float.

Lauren was both fascinated and terrified.

Nikita comes in for a smooch.

(Makeup) Father's Day

True confession: we rescheduled Father's Day. It was the Sunday before the big party at our house, and yard work needed to be done, and it wasn't fair to make Sean do yard work on Father's Day. Most people would then just give their husbands the day off. Not me. Sean and I pulled out our calendar and rescheduled it. So these photos are from our makeup Father's Day. Although Sean could do whatever he wanted that day, he decided he would like to spend it with us (Laur and I did, after all, make him a father in the first place).

So we went to the Kansas City Zoo and it was a whole new world from when we took her last summer (obviously). Her favorite was the petting zoo portion, in particular the deer and the sheep. She went nuts. She laughed so hilariously that people were watching her instead of the animals. This week I read a post by a friend of a friend on Facebook about how dangerous petting zoos are and about how many different diseases you can get from the animals. And then multiple comments to these posts from people about how they would never take their kid to a petting zoo. They have obviously never seen Lauren at a petting zoo--I can't deny her that.

The carousel she thought was just OK, honestly. We had high hopes, though.