Austin Day off of Fun!

Today Alivia had the day off of school. We tried really hard to make her day off special.

After saying good bye to Daddy (he went on an airplane trip with Grandpa Bill for a night or 2), the fun day began with Addison's school pictures. She just ran in and had the picture taken and ran out. Today was not her actual preschool day, but we wanted her to be in her class picture! Now...we just have to wait for the pictures to come back.

After pictures, it was off to the zoo. The zoo was crazy! There were so many kids clubs there between Papillion, La Vista and OPS (and those are just the schools we knew were off), that we could hardly move! We went today with our friends Kim, Nyah and Keegan. It was fun to have company while looking at all the animals. We visited the Desert Dome, monkeys, gorillas, Madagascar and then stopped near the playground to eat lunch. Then we watched the seals for a while before making our way visiting the outdoor animals on the way to the butterflies. We ended our day at the jungle. It was fun...but much too crowded. I continue to take the stroller for the kids to ride in and for me to store our stuff in. If Addison or Asher would get tired, I am not about to carry them across the zoo. As it turned out, they rode in the stroller for much of the time. Maybe next year we can go without a stroller...maybe.

After the zoo, we said good bye to our friends, jumped in the car, and went off to visit Grandma on the farm. Grandma and Grandpa just got a new dog, Kota (short for Dakota, the birth name of this female yellow lab). Kota was extra excited to see us, and the kids liked being up close to a dog (since Mommy has no interest in having a dog of our own. No, I am not that brave). After the introduction, I left the kids with mom and went up to take a nap. I had not been to sleep since Wednesday night. In addition to being totally exhausted, I had a new cold. I was done. Two hours later I felt good enough to get up and finish our visit. My favorite part of our visit was when I was playing fetch with Kota. I threw her the ball and she ran, got it, and brought it back. Then, I threw it again. She ran and got the ball, the dropped it, peed on it, and ran off. What was that?! It was too funny.

We ate dinner with Grandma before making the trek back home.

Alivia could not decide what the best part of today was. She said the entire day off of school was fun. Mission accomplished!