Second Set zoo pictures

A couple more for you to enjoy!

Sacramento Zoo with Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop

At this point we are so happy we bought a family membership to the zoo as we spent another great day enjoying the animals! The temperature was a little cooler so we had animals we had yet to see out and about - I was amazed the hyena was much bigger than I thought. The picture of Lauren and I is in the mister, though it's usually so warm it's just a cooler area of fog! The kids are still most excited about the "playground" when we first get there, then the animals and we finish with the carousel. This time Mom-Mom was generous and took them on the "train" too - though more pictures later once I get my camera and computer to get along again. For now, enjoy some of Mom-Mom's pictures of the zoo, next will be mine and some of the 4 year olds birthday party!

Keeping cool in 100+ degrees

What do you do when Daddy's away for the weekend and it's STILL 100+ degrees? Fill up the baby pool with cold hose water and freeze yourself! I must admit they only played for a half an hour, then the water got warm and Ripley was the only one who would go in. But, then they used their cups to water the corn, the strawberries, the herbs, the lemon trees, the squash, the tomatoes, the pumpkins, the watermelons, the egg plants, the beans... not sure what else dad has planted... but they watered it! I still say something is a little wacky, we had a pool in Chicago, we had a pool in Boston, but in HOT California.... we're requisitioning Ripley's pool to keep the kids cool!

Jelly Belly Factory & Zoo

We had Grandparents in town this weekend so we were busy! It's easy to take advantage of all that there is to offer in our new state when we have those extra hands here to help. We decided as we ALL love Jelly Bellys to head to the factory and take a tour. Unfortunatly the day we arrived the plant was not in operation due to maintenance, so we saw everything but not in motion. The best part was they gave us free samples! The kids did all right, Lauren really enjoyed it, the boys well - they enjoyed part of it! Unfortunatly they did not allow us to take phots inside the factory so here's Lauren outside!





After the Jelly Belly factory we headed to our favorite location the Zoo for lunch! We saw several of the animals in our race to see something before everyone turned into pumpkins as it was a long morning.










But we did enjoy our lunch, posing in the signs, the carousel and the project of the day, making masks! Ian - is REALLY into monkeys right now and does a very good imitation! Actually everytime we've gone he's done his monkey call at the chimp enclosure and one of them has come over to him... if we only knew what the two of them were saying!










Lauren made a Hippo mask for Grandma Hippo!









We had also wanted to go panning for gold this weekend, but with all the swim lessons, projects in the backyard, naptimes etc, the long weekend was over before we knew it... we'll just add it to the list of places for the next guest arrivals!