A Zoo to Ourselves

A midweek day in October is a wonderful time to go to the zoo. Older children are in school and most people don't take days off in the fall, in the middle of the week, to go to the zoo. As a result, C and I were one of a dozen or so people waiting at the gates to enter the zoo. The place is so massive that once inside, you feel as if you are alone with the animals. It was so peaceful. We stood at the Savannah overlook and watched the giraffes do their morning exercises with the trainers. In the same spot we saw two wild dogs chasing each other around their habitat. And two elephants eating fallen leaves. C was especially fascinated by this.


We had the best time. C notices everything these days. She gets so excited when she sees an animal that she knows. She makes several animal noises, namely the elephant, lion, and dog. We didn't go into the exhibit that has the gorillas, but she pounds her chest for gorilla too.

All the animals were active and exciting for us to watch that morning. With hardly anyone there, we could do so much more and get hands on... In the family zoo C got to put on some costumes and play around. First she was a little bird in a nest and then she got to be a lemur and climb in some hollowed out logs. Very fun.


She also pet a baby chick, fed the goats, touched a tortoise shell and much more. Like I said, we had so much fun. On the way out of the zoo we saw this brown bear, who apparently loves pumpkin.

Ella-O-Lantern

The pumpkin I hand picked from the apple orchard last weekend has a new face--Ella's face. I carved two big eyes and three teeth in corresponding spaces on the pumpkin. Then we tried our best to get Ella to pose with the pumpkin to show the similarities. Well, this is the best we could do.

Apple Orchard

I didn't want this season to pass us by without doing some fun fall activities. So Heidi, Hannah, C and I all went to Edward's Apple Orchard (about an hour and a half away) to sip hot apple cider, eat caramel apples and experience such things as apple cinnamon donuts. High sugary treats aside, we also got to see some farm animals including goats, chickens, a calf, pigs and a turkey. C got all excited when she saw the chickens...I think it's because they were the most active of all the animals in the barn.

After visiting the animals we went across the street to the "Pick Your Own Pumpkin" field. Hannah and I traipsed through the mud and selected our pumpkins. I must say, that was a lot of fun, and a new adventure for me. I never picked my own pumpkin from a pumpkin field before.