On our way back from Dallas, we planned to stop in Albuquerque for a few days to see everyone and wind down a little. We left our apartment on a Wednesday, and thought we'd leave for Provo on Friday, but we ended up dragging our behinds because we were having fun and we were worn out and happy to be in a familiar place. So we stayed until Monday, when everyone left for Logan's wedding later that week.
It is always so great to be home. TJ and Eli both warmed back up to my family pretty quickly. We've been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with them this year.
TJ was more than happy to bask in the attention of his grandparents, aunt, and uncles. He tried to get them to do anything and everything with him. I especially love some of these pictures of him and Haley reading together.
As always, the boys wanted to spend every waking minute in the freedom of the back yard. Tyler got out my mom's sprinkler and every time he set foot outside Eli would drag it over and ask us to hook it up for him.
He would use it to spray everyone. It was so funny.
The kids played outside in the water almost every day, even though they often came inside shaking and slightly blue.
Since we didn't end up leaving, we pounded our way to the zoo on Friday afternoon. We didn't get there until 4, and the zoo closes at 5. It was really nice because we were the only people there, and an hour of activity in the heat was just about right for my kiddos.
Flamingos are TJ's favorite. He watches this funny documentary on Netflix called The Crimson Wing and asks to go see "mingos" ALL the time. So he was bonkers for the flamingo exhibit.
The kids just loved it. They are both at such a great age for zoo's and aquarium's. TJ named most of the animals and learned the rest really quickly, and Eli was totally enthralled.
TJ still asks me about seeing the "seeba's" (zebras) with Grandpa.
The last time I took the boys to the zoo, I didn't get to see the expanded Africa Exhibit, so that's where we went this time. It was just the right amount of stuff to see in our short visit.
It was Tyler's first time at the Albuquerque zoo, so he wanted to see everything. It's an awesome (and big) zoo, so we didn't get to see even half of it, but I'm glad he's excited to go back.
We took this picture in the Polar Bear exhibit. After this, we went to the top to look down into the enclosure and the bear started chucking one of his big plastic toys at us! It scared the daylights out of me because he was mostly throwing it at whoever was holding Eli. He threw it at me and it got stuck on the rock ledge, then he just sat and stared at us and was all sad he lost his toy. My Mom was very concerned (I was annoyed because I thought the bear just wanted to eat Eli) and we finally located a stick long enough for my Dad to reach it past the gate and push the plastic toy back down to the bear! The whole thing was so hilarious. After he got his toy back, the bear put it away and turned his back to us. It was one of the craziest experiences I've ever had at the zoo, and it was awesome.
After that, I wanted to get a group photo so we spent several minutes trading camera men and trying to get the camera propped up for a photo with everyone in it. We got some really cute ones, but this is the only one with everyone in it.
On the way out, we stopped and fed the ducks all of our goldfish.
It was really quiet, because seriously nobody else was there. I really enjoyed feeling like we had the place to ourselves, and nobody busted us for feeding the ducks snack crackers! Win-win.
Turns out Grandma Alice is like the duck whisperer because she literally had them eating out of her hand.
TJ wanted to be like Grandma, and the ducks were totally willing, but they got close and freaked him out so he backed up and the followed him while he fed them.
The Flamingo exhibit is right next to the zoo entrance/exit, so on the way out we had to see them again.
1 comment:
I have some flamingo pajama pants and every time I wear them Finn points to them and wants me to say "flamingo!". He loves it. Looks like lots of fun! And also, the polar bear did that exact same thing to us and Noah was able to get the toy back in the water after a million other people tried.
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