brace yourselves, folks. this is going to be long . . .
grandma came to visit us on feb. 22. we had some belated birthday cupcakes ready for her (hazel gets credit for that. she wanted to eat cupcakes surprise grandma):
they were
vanilla with chocolate buttercream. tasty.
wednesday morning, grant took the girls and grandma to a park (i stayed at home so i could attempt to finish my book club book for the meeting that night [it's
an excellent book. i highly recommend it]):
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| a monkey on the monkey bars |
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| a monkey with hair! |
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| hazel takes the reins |
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| self-portrait #3 |
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| a monkey plays in dirt |
saturday, we decided to dazzle grandma with the
alligator park:
first, was lunch:
then it was on to the main attraction:
unfortunately, due to the rainy, chilly weather and a noisy water pump, the 'gators were scarce. after our first sighting, the only animals we saw were birds:
hazel spent her time complaining about how she was "soooo
tired and just
couldn't walk
any more":
lucy spent her time breaking the law by picking every wild flower she saw:
in hopes of spotting another reptile, we struck out onto a new path:
and we did see this guy:
but i'm pretty sure it was the one from before.
by this time we were wet and cold so we headed indoors to pet a baby 'gator:
a king corn snake:
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| hazel wowed the ranger by knowing that a snake's tongue smells |
and a tarantula:
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| *shudder* yes, it was real. and alive. at least she didn't want to keep it as a pet. ewww. |
on monday we headed to the zoo. first to ride the train:
and then to visit the animals:
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| the meerkats. (grandma treated us to lollipops) |
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| grant's favorite bald eagle. (no, grant. you will never live that down. mwahahaha!) |
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| we were impressed with this ankole's ability to use it's horns to pull branches down to scratch it's back. |
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| a maned wolf |
eventually we made it around to the african forest (the only part of the zoo grandma hadn't seen):
drums:
chimps:
and a couple of ostriches with the giraffes:
who weren't getting along:
the lions were much more affectionate:
and finally, a flock of flamingoes:
that night grandma unveiled a delightful surprise:
snow! or fake snow, rather. start with powder:
add water and
presto chango!
diaper guts! i mean: snow!
the girls had a ball playing in it and it was amazingly containable, thus easy to clean up.
tuesday morning, grandma watched hazel and lucy while grant and i hit up the temple:
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| awww! |
and once we got home it was time to take grandma to the airport.
we were all sad to see her leave (even oliver, who only took 4 days to [kind of] warm up to her). thanks for coming to visit us, gail! we loved having you here and only wish that you could have stayed longer.
