For my animal lovers

The boys have always loved animals.  In fact, they even have a barn with lots of animals to play with at home.  Ellis was a huge fan of horses for the longest time and if you ask him what sound an elephant makes, you might want to brace yourself (and plug your ears).  So, although we've taken our share of trips to the Detroit Zoo this summer, we had to hit up the Toledo Zoo - closest home of (live) elephants that I know of!

Saturday, the four of us and Grandma Bush packed some things up and headed to the Toledo Zoo.  Once we got there, it was no surprise when the boys quickly spotted some stuffed animals.  They've never really been in to stuffed animals, but have picked them up more often after being at the Reaves and seeing the big selection they have.  So Grandma treated them each to an animal of their choice!

We saw the giraffes and horses, although I seem to favor the exhibits at the Detroit Zoo as far as getting good shots of them.

Can't forget the wolves too - or should I say "white dogs".

Next we headed to the other side of the zoo and our first stop was the flamingoes.

Our first site of an elephant was this statue, but hey, they don't pass up a good statue to climb on.

Next the penguins.  They were awesome too, especially watching them dive in and swim - but boy did they stink!

Then off to the monkeys.  I probably could have stood here for half the day.  They were so entertaining and one even got right in front of Ellis and Rosie and swung back in forth in front of them.  It was awesome.  

Then some other primates.

Then we found these cute little masks hanging that the kids could stand behind.  They loved it!

Then the ungodly hot reptile house...

..and finally the elephants (cue in Ellis' best elephant sound)

A stop at the hippos (and the hippo statues).  I was totally bummed, but right when we went to turn around to leave the exhibit, one hippo stuck his head out of the water and opened his mouth real big.  It was awesome, but I wasn't fast enough to get the picture.  Damn!

Last but not least, some BIG CATS!

And another family photo at a statue (that I saw said "DO NOT CLIMB ON", after we took the picture - oops)

Then it was time to head home.  Logan had been getting a bit cranky for probably the last 30 minutes, so we thought we'd head out before all hell broke loose.  All in all, we all had a great time.  Logan fell asleep within 5 minutes of leaving and Ellis fell asleep after a quick snack, sleeping the whole way home with their new animals never leaving their little grip.

I'm so glad we were able to check that fun off the bucket list this summer.  As for us, we are spending my last week off for summer with a mix of fun and relaxation.  Today, despite the rain, we've kept busy inside and have had an awesome day.

Our #5

Last week we had our anniversary and instead of the tropical vacation we intended to go on, we decided to head up north to the Mackinaw area.  Sure a tropical vacation would have been nice, but we also have some things around the house we want to work on, so we thought we'd save money going this route.  It was a beautiful weekend and we had a great time.  It definitely was a bit weird being away from the kids for so long and not having to worry about their schedules and moving slower to accommodate their needs, but it's always good to have "us" time too.  Plus, they had fun with Grandma and Grandpa Bush while we were gone, so it was good for everyone.

We left Thursday and headed up.  We got there around 3pm, set up camp, had a quick dinner and then headed down to the bridge area to get some sunset photos.  Of course Troy has the better pictures on his good camera, but here are some photos from my good ole phone:

We then went to find some ice cream.  OMG it was delicious (so good that we went back on Sunday too!!)

On Friday we headed up to the UP and went to Tahquamenon Falls.  We hiked a few trails and then scoped out the Lower and Upper Falls.

Part of the Lower Falls are way off in the background

More Lower Falls

Part of the Upper Falls, through the trees 

Clear view of the Upper Falls

Bridge view from UP

We then got a few bridge pictures from the UP side and then headed back.  Another quick dinner and then we headed to the pool.  The website of our campground claimed it was a heated pool, but I didn't think it was very warm!  I just decided to hang out in the sun, on the sidelines!

Back at the campsite, we built a fire so I could have those long awaited roasted starbursts and of course a few s'mores.  We met our new neighbors for the weekend and boy were they a hoot.  They could take up an entire blog entry in itself, but I spare you those stories for now.

Boy that starburst looks itty bitty in this picture, but it sure was yummy!

S'mores time!

On Saturday, we hung out at the pool again, had lunch, and then got ready to go to Mackinaw Island.  We thought we would go in the afternoon and stay for sunset to get a good shot with the bridge in the background, since our sunset shot on the Lower Peninsula side didn't work out because the placement of the sun and bridge weren't in line.  We got to the island and rented some bikes to check out some popular sites.  Among the usual sites (The Grand Hotel, Fort Mackinac, The Governor's House, etc), my favorite was Arch Rock.

Arch Rock

After Arch Rock, we rode back into the main part of town to look for a spot to camp out at for sunset.  We found a place and then took some lighthouse pictures and bridge pictures from there.  We also saw these cool rock cairns at the beach we were hanging out at.  According to our Mackinac biking flyer they are small mounds of stones and pebbles built to mark biking and hiking trails.  Traditionally, each person that passes by a cairn is supposed to add a stone, to help counteract the effects of wind and weather.  The habit is to only add to the top and to use a smaller stone or rock than the previous top stone.  We saw quite a few of them along this beach, but this was the tallest one!

Lighthouse view from the beach

A pretty typical site for an island with no cars.

Awesome dinner!!!

We had some time to kill, so we looked for dinner (the most scrumptious pizza!) and checked out the tourist shops to see if anything stuck out.  We got a Michigan print and I got a travel journal that I hope to use to document our trip and then headed back down to the beach.  Clearly, we were mistaken when we thought that the sun would set behind the bridge because from the direction we were at, the sun was going to set behind the Grand Hotel.  NOT at all what we were looking for.  So, instead of waiting around longer, we headed back to the mainland, but we were able to get some pictures from the boat ride back.

On Sunday, we didn't do too much at all.  We again went to the pool, and started tidying things up at our site.  We decided to go walk around downtown so we headed down there.  We bought some fudge, a couple shirts, a cool new dice game and some puzzles for the boys (they are addicted to puzzles lately!)  After dinner we went down to the lake to play our new game and then before heading back to our campsite, we had to get some more ice cream.  The blueberry waffle cone is to die for!

Yup, ice cream again!

Back at the campsite, we had a fire to use up the rest of our firewood and relax.  Our vacation was nearly over, but it was the perfect length - I was definitely missing my boys.

Monday, we were up early, took the tent down and headed home.  Boy were the boys excited to see us - and I think Grandma Bush was too!  =)  An awesome getaway, that's for sure, and hopefully one of these days I'll get the nicer pictures off of Troy's camera and post some of those.

Splash Universe - 1 week later

There was way too much going on this week for me to upload all these pictures earlier, but wow, did we have a blast last weekend.  We headed out to Dundee where Dan and Rosie treated all of us to a weekend at the indoor water park they have as our Christmas gift.

Once we got there we quickly changed into our bathing suits and checked it out for an hour or so before they closed.  Logan was a bit more hesitant (and not sure about the life preserver we put on him), so he clung on to me with all his might.  I literally couldn't take my tank top off to take him in to get used to it, because he wouldn't let go.  Within 5 minutes of watching daredevil Ellis playing, he quickly let go and was off.

The kiddie slide

A little fountain-type area that the kids loved 

Seriously I don't think I have one "clear" picture, but then again I was using my iPhone for a camera and they literally wouldn't stand still long enough for a good picture.  I guess it just shows how much they loved it!

There was also a lazy river that we could float in tubes in, but they liked just floating on their backs and letting the current move them on its own.

Saturday, we headed to Cabelas, which is right across the street, after a morning session in the water.  Of course the boys love their animals, so they thoroughly enjoyed this "trip to the zoo".

Hard to see, but those are turkeys they are looking at.

This was the funniest "exhibit".  After we started to walk away, other people were walking up to look at the elephant and Ellis stuck around to check him out longer.  He started babbling and then looking at these people and babbling more as if he was the tour guide and telling them all about the elephant.  Too funny!

And you can't forget to check out the fun "toys" too.

They were more interested in the vehicle next to them that had the steering wheel in it.  They were just waiting for the kids to get out of that way, to test it out.

Checking out the cot/tent combo.

And yes, they still think that playing in a dog crate is fun!  Weirdos!

Back at the waterpark for the night.  There were a TON of people there (well, it was a Saturday night after all), and there weren't enough life preservers for the little ones, so we stuck around at the kids area where the boys were pretty good playing without giving us heart attacks.  I was more worried about all the parents that weren't around their young kids (seriously who would leave their under 5 year old unattended at a water park?  You'd be surprised at how many there were!)

practicing swimming

Finally people started to leave so we headed one last time to the lazy river and grabbed a tube!

Most of the gang - (Rosie was taking the picture and Brian was enroute to the park).

Thanks again to Dan and Rosie for a great weekend.  We all came home exhausted and slept very well that night.