FINALLY!!!!!

Well after a week and one attempt we made it to thee zoo. It was a lot of fun and totally worth making the trip. 

The kids looking at the monkeys

 We were able to borrow a stroller from Kasiah's mom so we could have both girls in a stroller. I brought my wrap and backpack for Lydia, but it all worked out okay.

 Kasiah and Arlee looking at the elephants.

 Jens, Ulla, Brock, Kasiah, and Amy looking at the elephants. We did find out that the Hogle Zoo only has female elephants. The one that was by itself was a really old elephant. It is 52 years old and 3 years away from breaking the worlds oldest recorded elephant. She doesn't have any of the signs of old age so they expect her to break that record easily. We will have to wait and find out. They was making all kinds of noise and the kids loved it.

 Hans, Arlee, Brock and Kasiah with the Rhino statue

 in front of the river otters

 Landon loved watching them swim all over the place.

 Two otters up on the log by the rock

 Next stop was the seals and sea lions

 Playing with me and the camera

 another fun thing was to be in the shade. It was so hot and this was a pretty cool place to be. Needless to say we watched them for a while. The kids were chasing them back and forth.

 It took a lot of attempts to get this picture perfect. Hahaha as you can tell.

 Now the Polar bear! It was swimming up to the glass from under the water and then would poke its head up right in front of the children watching. Push off and float on its back and then repeat.

 It was a pink day for all of us.

 Grizzly Bears

The zoo went pretty well. If it had been about 20 degrees cooler it would have been perfect!

Housing around

Just thought I would share...

Arlee got a house for an early birthday present from Hans' brother, Jens and his family while we were in Utah. Arlee and I colored it. Well, I colored it. Arlee mostly just played and put in her color sense when she felt like it was needed.

 She absolutely loves it. I am so glad that it can come back down since I have nowhere for it to go permanently. We bought more furniture for the girls room so it really can't fit in there and we like to have people come and stay, so it can't fit in the extra room all the time.

 Don't get me wrong... it is a great gift. It goes away when we have people stay. And it is up when we don't.

Thank you Jens and Amy for the wonderful house! As you can imagine it keeps this busy girl entertained.

Wenatchee, Washington

Hans was floating in Wenatchee, Washington for a couple of days. Arlee and I drove up to meet him and spend some time out and about while he was at work. This worked pretty well, but I have to say that I did like our Tri-Cities trip a little more. For one, I wasn't coming down with a cold. And two, there was more to do there.  However, we still had a pretty good time. Here are some of the moments on our trip.

Hans found out about a park right next to the Columbia River. It was a really nice park, but the day that we went was a little cold for mine or Arlee's liking.
There was a guy there holding a baby and he had his little boy playing on the toys. Arlee wouldn't go and play, because the guy was there. I don't really know what her deal has been the last six months, but she thinks that any guy that we don't know is a "BAD GUY". I guess this is okay at times, however, this time I really just wanted her to play and get really tired.
The guy noticed that she was hesitant around him so he tried getting his son to say hi to Arlee and maybe she would get over him being there. The little boy didn't want to and Arlee said to me, "Mom, he won't say hi to me!" as she was whining. "Why don't you say hi to him?" "I don't want to." "Well, why don't you just go and play or we are going to leave." "Okay" and off she went. Once she got over the shy factor she was just fine.

 WEEEEEeeeeee!

 Arlee with the Columbia River behind her.

 Columbia River.

I decided that we would go and find a place where Arlee wasn't bothering the fisherman by throwing rock in the river. We went down a little bit from them. Once I thought we found the perfect spot, I looked up and a guy was going to the bathroom. Fabulous! Well, I acted like I hadn't noticed him (50 feet away) and waited for him to finish before going to the perfect spot. Arlee had not noticed him doing his business so that was a plus for sure. She probably would have been asking me really loud. Why he wasn't using the bathroom?

 Arlee at the perfect rock throwing place. She loved picking up all the BIG rocks and making, "a really BIG splash!" I wish that I had the video camera with us to record it, but oh well. I guess use your imagination...

On our way home I decided to go and see what a town nearby was like called, Leavenworth.  It was only about 20 minutes out of the way, so not a really big deal. We didn't have to be anywhere anyway.  My sister in law, Amy loves this place and told me that I should go with Hans so we could see it. Well since it was raining I didn't get out of the car. I didn't want to get all wet and as you might be able to tell from the pictures there really isn't anywhere to park without walking for a long time in the rain. Not a fan of the rain as you might be able to tell. Good thing I live in the Palm Springs of Washington, right?

 The streets are very narrow...

 I have to say that this tiny town has some pretty cool buildings. I believe that I read on line that it was done after the Dutch people that settled there, but nonetheless, it was pretty cool to drive through. There were a lot of shops. They had chocolate shops, bratwurst shops, little cafes among other interesting places.

Here is a picture of the road on the way home. It was hard to capture the colors of the leaves while I was driving, but it was beautiful!

Until our next little adventure, which will not be until after Lydia gets here I am sure. I am getting to close to the NO TRAVELING time. I hope you are all doing well. Miss you.