Nature's Neighborhood

On Tuesday, Jeromy, Abigail, and I loaded up the car and went to the zoo to meet up with Mom, Kelly, Alex, and Elena. We arrived shortly after it opened and we decided to head right over to the new children's area, Nature's Neighborhood. It has been open for a month, but I have never taken the time to go over to it (there's not much for babies, of course). It was a really neat area. It had activities and a play area for the kids. Almost everything in this area was educational which added to it. Of course, it's only education if you take the time to teach your kids while they are playing with the stuff.

Here is Abigail playing in the "Baby" area of Nature's Neighborhood. I don't think she really knew what to do and to be honest I was missing the point as well. It did look like a cushy place to sit though.


Abigail seemed to like the turtle outside the "Baby" area a little better.


A honeycomb full of sweet honey.


Abigail was more enthralled by the teen volunteer than the guinea pig.


Alex and Elena helping the zoo out by watering their vegetable gardens. Kelly says she wants one of those for her backyard.


We packed our lunch and Aunt Kelly gave Abigail her first taste of a real apple! She loved it!


Just a cute picture of the kiddos outside the aviary.


Of course, the usual lion pictures. A trip to the zoo must-have.




We had a great day and it still doesn't surprise us that we have one of the top zoos in the country!

Abigail's First Bike Ride

(Okay and mine in quite a while!)

Last week, Jeromy helped me get my bike ready so that Abigail and I could go biking during the day. Yesterday, we finally went out on a bike ride. Mom called to say that she was going to the park with Alex and wanted to know if we wanted to come along. Abigail had just gone to sleep so I didn't think we would make it. Shortly, before she woke up, I received this picture:


Alex had made it ALL the way to the park from Grandma's house. When Abigail finally woke up, I decided that we would go on a bike ride also. I called Mom and they were still at the park, so we packed up and headed that way. Going down Brown was tough since it was against the wind the entire way. It became A LOT easier when we got to Lallendorf. Anyways, we met up with Alex and Mom at the pond. Grandma fed Abigail her bottle since she was getting fussy. Then, we packed up to head to Dairy Depot for some ice cream!


Jeromy had called because he had arrived home from work and we were gone, so he met us there. This was very lucky because Abigail had by now had it with the bike ride. She had screamed most of the way to Dairy Depot. So, after eating some ice cream Abigail went home with her Daddy while the rest of us rode to our our house to swim.




It was a lot of fun and I'm sure we are all looking forward to our next bike ride!

4th of July

Okay, I know this is almost a week late, but better late than never! We had a good time hanging out on the fourth. We had a picnic at our house with about 30 people in attendance! It was a lot of fun! Good food, swimming, cornhole, and Mexican Train Dominoes! Then we moved to Mom's house for our annual "Shock and Awe!" It was out of control!

Aunt Julie and "Future" Uncle Lee teaching Abigail to crawl!


Abigail is fascinated by the glow necklaces that the older girls are playing with.


Aubrey and Aunt Judy (Grandma to her)


Alex and his sparklers (Kelly said he looked like he was doing an island dance)


As Kelly or Julie put it: "3K in fireworks, 4 guys, 1 blowtorch, 1 ER doctor standing by, and a dream"