a spontaneous trip to the zoo.

There are days when the kids will wake up and ask, "what are we going to do today" as if I'm supposed to have a summer agenda. It's mostly Chelsea who'll ask me that, and being the mom I guess I should have a direct answer. 

On this day I didn't. When you have no clue what your plans are going to be you tend to become spontaneous, and I think a text from one of Sierra's friends made all the difference on this day.

Sierra had received a text earlier in the morning from a friend about getting together and "hanging out" for the day. Although I'm fond of this boy, I don't allow Sierra to go over a boy's house unless there are multiple friends there. Kind of like her graduation party. 

All of a sudden a thought popped into my head. The zoo. I then had Sierra ask him if he wanted to come to the zoo with us. He sounded excited and he did. 

And so did Chelsea.

We love the zoo, and you know the best part of this particular zoo is that it's free! Love it, love it, love it! I mean...who doesn't like going to a place that's free. 

We have started a tradition now when every time we go to the zoo we have lunch at Johnny Rockets. We all had delicious food, and Noah enjoyed the company of having another male to our mix. 

The kids love the carousel particularly Noah & Chelsea, and they always make sure that they ride it. Noah just smiles all the way through the ride...he's such a doll! 

Noah gets filled with so much excitement when we tell him we're going to the zoo. He squeals, and just has a big grin on his face.

We rode the train which was a little relaxing ride for all of us, especially for Noah. You can tell in this vine how much he loves the choo choo train! 

 

It felt so nice to have another teen with us. He blends in really well with our family, and it's nice to know that Sierra has good friends. 

The park is a big deal for the kids here, and after the zoo closed we let Noah release some energy!

This day was so nice, and I love inviting friends to come with us. I know how summers can be, and when it gets close to the end it can get a little boring...especially for teenagers. 

I also want to thank JC for taking a lovely photo of our family. So...inviting friends is an advantage because you don't have to hound some stranger in asking them to take a photo of us! 

cape may zoo & a lot of vines.

I know I mentioned that I wasn't going to blog for a few days because my inlaws are in town, but I couldn't help myself. Blame it on my addiction for writing, and posting pictures. I'm still going to make this post short & sweet because I need to get ready and start my day. I always manage to find the time which is usually in the wee hours of the morning to write, and blog about our day even if it's just with a few pictures.

So without any further rambling here are a few scenes from our day at the Cape May Zoo yesterday. Hope you don't get annoyed with all my vines. I love the zoo, and all the animals here were out in full force compared to the last time we came. Blame it on summer! I also couldn't help vining Noah's reaction when he saw a lizard from behind the glass. So I hope you enjoy them. and the pictures too!

burmese python & some little boy's hand.

And the vines...

World of Birds.
Burmese python.
sea turtle
Lizard behind the glass.
mexican beaded lizard.
red eye tree frog.
cotton top tamrins.
Noah's reaction looking at a potbelly pig.

Man...vining is addictive!

Happy Thursday! 

johnny rockets & the zoo.

When Jon is off of work all I want to do is venture out more around south Jersey, because when you have an active little three year old you just can't stay cooped up in the house playing legos, cars, and Ole million faces for too long.

This past weekend we decided to drive to Cape May to take Noah to the zoo. The best thing about this zoo is that it is free! Donations are appreciated and whenever we go we donate a few dollars (at least a dollar per person.) Noah is crazy about the animals. He loves being outdoors, and is so cute when he mistakes certain animals for another animal.

Before we left we wanted to make sure we had some food in our belly before driving to the zoo so we decided to grab a bite to eat at a place we've never been...Johnny Rockets.

It was pretty good food, and I highly recommend it. The cheese fries, and hamburgers were delicious! Very family friendly and the staff even did a little dance for us too. It was great entertainment while we ate! 

*******

It was an overcast kind of day at the zoo with a little breeze. Luckily this zoo is free because most of the animals weren't out. I guess it still feels like winter to them so the only animals we saw were some bison, zebras, and a cute little kangaroo.  

Afterwards we played at the park which is right next to the zoo. Jon & Noah had such a great time. I think Jon had a good workout with this kid. They kept going at it over, and over again even after I stopped recording them! 

The girls and I came here when Noah was two, and they also enjoyed it here. This day was just the three of us, and it was nice. Sometimes we have to do outings without the girls because they are are still in school. Hopefully Jon will have some Saturdays off where we can all hang out together as a family. Especially before Sierra leaves for college! 

Bye for now and I hope that everyone has a great week! 

Farewell to the Lazy days of Summer

As we all know Labor Day is the symbolic end of summer which meant that today was basically our last chance to do something fun as a family. My better half had to work today so before the routines and formality of Autumn set in, the kids and I decided to go to the Cape May Zoo.  

Since school resumes tomorrow we wanted to go somewhere where it's safe to break out the pocketbook, and just relax. The zoo in Cape May is FREE! It has a fairly good amount of animals and everyone seemed to be friendly.  

There is something so relaxing about walking around the zoo to pause, and overlook at the animals who were at a distance. 

We saw a camel...

A beautiful flamingo showing off its flexibility...

And zebras walking in unison...

Noah had a lot of fun watching and 'oinking' with the pigs...

He and Chelsea both enjoyed feeding the goats...

 He was fearless!

and they enjoyed a little train ride throughout the zoo...

Unfortunately it's time to go home...Noah became weary.

I really didn't want this day to end. There are days when I want summer to be over because I look forward to fall and days when I don't want it to be over because reality begins which means the girls have to go back to school. I've really enjoyed our summer as a family, but know that autumn joys are just ahead!

*How did you spend Labor day weekend?
*Ever been to the Cape May Zoo?