Taking Our "Zooful" to the Zoo

On Friday, after Logan's Therapy, Serina & Michael and Jamie with Nicole, Alex & Ethan, met at our house for an outing to the zoo. Mike and I have also been shopping for a van as we are once again in the market. So Mike rented a full-size van for 24 hours that we used to take most of us to Denver. Jamie, her kids, my three youngest, and I piled into the van. Melanie, Serina, Cameron and Michael rode in Serina's car.
Overall it was a wonderful day. I must say the weather was practically perfect in every way for an outdoor excursion; not too hot or too cold. Most of the children did get hungry and a couple of mine got irritable and whiny. Did I say irritable? Maybe irritating (with the whining) would be more appropriate. To be fair, it was a later start than we had hoped for, we didn't want to spend zoo prices on food for that many, and it was way past lunch time by the time we got out of there. I also delayed the lunch by taking the time to apply for a family zoo membership. I am glad that I did so, though, because once the day's entrance fees were applied towards the membership fee, I ended up only having to pay an additional $31.00 for a family plus 1 annual membership. Woo Hoo!
And we got pictures of some real animals too! ;)









Okay, really, there were animals of the "other than human" variety too!























It was mostly a sleepy day for the animals!

The Ickies out- Into the World again; A Museum Outing

For the past two weeks, we have been battling some kind of a virus or strep throat in the house. I am hoping it is finally on it's last leg and on the way out of our home. Melanie (my MIL) arrived in Denver last Sunday evening and we didn't even get out of the house until Thursday.
On Thursday we took the kids to the Loveland Museum downtown. It was a very nice outing. There are childrens' art pieces from the R2-J school district on exhibit through the end of March. There is an area that describes beat farming and when the beat and sugar factories were in operation. Another section has a facsimile to the first jail room in Loveland and different stores, etc. set up how "it must have been back when".
There is an area upstairs with a topical map of Larimer County. There is another area upstairs dedicated to all the Miss Lovelands and the Valentine re-mailing program. They even have the stamps and scrap paper out to stamp the cancel verses from each year (unless they are missing) since the program started.
All four boys, Melanie, and I really enjoyed the time spent here.