A week off

Jeff had all last week off (and yeah, I'm just getting around to talking about it now). We had lots of plans to do fun stuff all week and we actually got to do some them! As well as all the regular, not-so-fun stuff too.

We were going to go to the zoo on Sunday. Right after Lucas got up from his nap. Except he decided he needed a three hour nap! We didn't think we would have enough time at the zoo if we went that day, so we put it off until Monday. I did the grocery shopping on Sunday and got picnic supplies, so we also took a picnic lunch with us to the zoo. And just to validate our decision to put it off, the weather was much nicer - perfect even - on Monday.

So we headed to the zoo. And took lots of pictures the 5+ hours we were there.

Our first stop was the butterfly and bird house. Probably my favorite thing to see at the zoo is the butterflies. We even got to see some coming out of their cocoons and being released right into the air with all their butterfly friends.

These birds were pretty friendly and let the kids get really close to them.

Soon after that, we stopped at the reptile house and visited the turtle statue before we went in.

Kids, watch out for that snake!

Kinda posing by the big water fountain.

We saw a baby zebra.

And the giraffes are always cool.

On our way into the Arctic exhibit.

The prairie dogs are so cute!

We got to walk right through the kangaroo habitat.

On our way out, the kids wanted to stop at the playground. I don't know how they had any energy left! I was happy to hold down a bench and we even got one in the shade after a bit.

This kid stayed close by:

But this was pretty much the only view I got of the other two:

On our way back home, we stopped for pizza and that was one fun-filled, long day!

The next day was Tuesday, the third of July. After Alyssa's swimming lessions, I took her and Brendan to see Ratatouille while Jeff stayed home with Lucas. Then later, I took the two of them and all three of us got our hair cut so we could do it baby-free.

That night was when we saw the best fireworks in our neighborhood. There were several displays going on all around our house, in at least 5 or 6 different spots. And they were of the very impressive (and very illegal in Michigan) kind. But cool to watch! I love to take pictures of fireworks, but it's hard when you don't know exactly where or when they're going off, so I only got a couple that came out.

We also had the kids do some sparklers that night. I got some nice shots of those.

And finally, we got some of the cheap, legal fireworks that just stay on the ground that we lit in the backyard.

The next day, the fourth, we headed up north to see Jeff's family for the day. They were predicting bad weather, but it ended up being very nice.

We got this nice family picture of Jeff and our kids, his sisters Charisse and Valerie and his niece Amber.

Valerie braided Alyssa's hair and I thought it looked so cute! I wish she would let me put it up sometimes.

And that was most of the fun for the week. We had planned to take the kids bowling on Thursday or Friday, but open bowling wasn't until 4 pm, a time that didn't really work well with Lucas's schedule. We'll have to do that some other time.

And this week Jeff is back to work. He even had to spend a few days in Indiana. Brendan started his gymnastics class on Monday and Alyssa had her swimming lessons on Tuesday. Yesterday, Mom and Dad came and picked them up, so they're having lots of fun with Grandma and Poppa for a few days. And Lucas and I are just hanging out.