Our Saturday

We had a full and busy Saturday. We decided first to go say goodbye to Tai Shan before he makes his long trek back to China. There was a special "goodbye" for memebers of the Zoo today before it opened. I told the kids about it, so they insisted we go. We had such a fun time, despite the cold and getting up early, but I am do glad we went. It will be sooo crowded next week when they have a special thing for the public.

We got so lucky today with the pandas. We had awesome views of all 3 pandas. The baby Tai Shan, well, he's not a baby anymore. He's 4 and a half-just a couple months older than Spencer. Was very busy. He was eating tons of bamboo and walking around. I think they must have liked the cold.

The mom was wandering around, then the dad was taking a nap. I was keeping track of Landon, and apparently missed a huge yawn when daddy woke up. Pretty typical I guess-daddy taking a nap:) We watched him eat and wander back to his house. Don't think you can get much closer to a panda than we were-even with the glass it was really cool. He was eating a fruit popsicle type thing.

The kids loved seeing the pandas. Jordan carried around her stuffed panda the whole time.
Here's the daddy eating.
I thought this was a cool shot, but haven't cropped it yet. Looks cool when I crop on the camera. So you get to see some strange lady:)

After we left the pandas, we went to all the indoor places. We loved the reptile house, great ape house and spent forever in the small mammal house-we stayed by the meerkats forever. The kids loved them-they were so cute. They would run up to the glass and jump up right in front of the kids, which caused them to burst into giggles. Seriously funny and entertaining. We stood there for a good 20 minutes. I was enjoying the sheer pleasure of the kids that I didn't even bother getting my camera out. I was laughing too much.

Cute Iguana. Did you know that and iquana can get bigger than this? 4-5 feet long!! And they are protected in Cuba. Darin told me that they walk around all over the place at Guantanamo Bay and you can't do anything to them. He said they will cross the roads, and if they stop then you have wait until they decided to move.

Here's a face only a mother could love.

After the zoo we came home and got some stuff done. Here's a list:

Kiddos: picnic in living room watching a movie, played on computer, played with toys, ate lots of snacks, etc. Spencer "helped" me with the car and ran around outside a while.

Darin: had a nap (he's been under the weather), put plastic stuff over the windows to keep out the drafts, played with kids.

Wendi: took the crib to a friend to use, cleaned out the car-and I mean really cleaned out the car. Since I had the carseats out I figured I would go vacuum it out. I did 3 cycles of the vacuum! I took all the seats out-well, I took 2 out and flipped the other ones up. When I got home, I wiped down the whole car with lysol wipes and windexed all the windows. I am in the process of washing 2 carseats, so the car will not be a petree dish so much anymore!

Landon: got busy with a marker...washable luckily!!!

Whew!!! We were tired and hungry by the end of our afternoon, so we decided to go to the Olive Garden for dinner since we had a couple gift cards. (In the end a lady gave us coupon as well and we paid only about 8.00 for our whole dinner!) It was quite pleasant!!!! We actually have not been out to eat in almost a month because the last time the kids were less than good, which is an understatement. But after calming Jordan down after her fit due to her unfulfilled demand of going to Silver Diner, we made it to the car and went on our way.

Oh my goodness-the kids were excellent. I dare say it was the best they have done in a restaurant. There was a wait and they sat quietly on a bench and looked at the kids menu. When we were seated, the biggest problem was the chairs on wheels moving too much, and Landon getting up. Jordan and Spencer colored quietly on their papers, we played tic-tac-toe, and ate a yummy dinner!!

Spencer and Landon have spent all day asking questions. Where are we? What are you doing? What is that man doing? Why are they doing that? In the car Spencer was asking non stop questions about Avatar. He is fascinated. I wish they had a kid version because he would love it. His interest was fueled by the McDonalds toys. Darin was exasperated, but it was quite funny to me:) My whole day every day is the boys asking tons of questions, so Darin needed a turn!!

When we got home, the kids actually took a bath together and got along so well!! Besides some water on the floor, bath time went well. The kiddies were playing and were so happy just to be together. Ahhh love it!!

And finally.....I just found an AWESOME photo editing sight and am having a blast with it. Thanks Lynette-I LOVE it!!! picnik.com. Check it out...totally awesome!!

Hope you had a fun Saturday, too!!! Here's to a great Sunday!!