Fort Wayne Zoo

Every six months, I have to get my wedding/engagement ring cleaned/inspected to upkeep the warranty on it.  We got it from Zales because we figured they are all over so wherever we end up living, there will be one close by.  However, the past 2 cities we've lived in haven't had a Zales! So I end up having to travel an hour+ away to find one.  Or we get fancy and time trips to pass by a Zales.  So far I've had my ring cleaned in Memphis, TN; Denver, CO; Lafayette, IN; Zanesville, OH; New Jersey; and now Ft. Wayne, IN!

I waited until the last possible day (has to be done in Nov/Dec & May/June - based on when the rings were purchased) in June to go get it taken care of.  It just so happened to work out that Fort Wayne is exactly half way between my house and my sister's house, has an awesome zoo, and the mall that the Zales is located at is 5 min from the zoo! So we set up a Zoo date!  Originally, I was going to go to Zales after the zoo, but knew if Bean didn't nap at all in the stroller, she'd zonk in the car and I didn't want to risk a meltdown to stop at the mall (the whole point of the trip to Ft. Wayne!).  So I went there first.

We got up, packed our lunch and hit the road by 8:45am.  That got us to the mall just after 10, right after it opened.  We zoomed in, I got my ring cleaned, and we were out of there in 10 min, getting us to the zoo at 10:20.  Amber and her girls were planning to get to the zoo earlier and we'd just join them when we got there.  However, they had just gotten there and hit up the bathrooms when we pulled into the parking lot.  So they waited for us.  It was a rainy morning and a little on the cool side, but the radar appeared clear once the system passed - and that's exactly what happened!  The rain stopped, the sun came out, and warmed us up! It was what I like to think of as perfect zoo weather.  The rainy morning detracts lots of people from going, so the crowds were down.

(Rain had just stopped when we got there! Bean didn't know what was going on and confused by all the attention at first, then she went with it.)

(Allie pushing while Gabbie & Emily held Bean's hands.  We finally had to set up a scheduled rotation of who was on Bean duty, who pushed the stroller, etc.)

The zoo is set up in 3 different loops Africa, Rain forest, then Australia/petting zoo.  We did the Africa first because we could hear the lions roaring.  A lot of the African animals (Zebras, ostriches, etc) were not out because they ground was too wet.  Our zoo trip just so happened to fall the week after all the monsoon rain and flooding had been going on.  After we did the first loop, we decided to go back to the cars and eat our lunch.  There is a picnic area outside the entrance (you get back in just by showing receipt), but the tables were all wet.  So Amber folded down the seats in her van and we ate a picnic lunch in the back! Haha

(You would think that all the older kids would be the ones looking at the camera.  It was like pulling teeth to get all of them to look at once.)

(As close as it is gonna get!)

(Picnic lunch in the back of the van!)

(Usually Bean wears a smock to keep food from off her clothes, but since she was eating on the floor of the van, I had to improvise.  Naked lunch and eating on the smock!)

The rest of the afternoon was spent seeing all the other animals.  As a special treat, I paid for a round of rides on the carousel.  It was Bean's first experience and I wasn't sure how it would go.  There's a little horse ride at our grocery store that she always asks to ride, but then freaks out once I put her on it.  She did the same thing with the carousel.  She freaked out if I tried to put her on an animal.  So my 3 nieces rode on animals, and then I held Bean and stood by an animal behind them.

(Playing in the shark outside the aquarium building.  Bean loved the shark, just not trying to coordinate a picture, haha.)

(Standing on the carousel. Wheeeee!)

After the carousel, we hit up the little petting zoo area.  Bean got really cranky and should have napped sooner, but was really fighting it.  She wanted me to hold her, and only me. Then it turned into her crying and kicking while I held her so I just put her back in the stroller.  She wasn't happy about it but then she zonked, so I was happy about it :).  We stopped and got a snack while she napped.  She only slept about 35 min and woke up in a panic.  It took her a little bit to really snap out of the panic, but that has happened before when she's really tired and naps hard for a short period like that.

(Cousins helping Bean play with the goats.)

(There is a little stand where you can get brushes to brush the goats.  Bean loved holding the brush and even brushed a couple goats. While I was watching her with the goats, I saw a goat poking its head out of the fence and getting something out of someone's stroller.  Then I realized, it was MY stroller!  The goat had my roll of crackers in its mouth trying to pull it out of my bag.  I got the crackers (which were all slobbery) and pushed the stroller further away from the fence, haha!)

(Things were going great in the petting zoo until the goats started pooping. Bean has been traumatized by a couple of pooping in the bath/shower incidents and doesn't like talking about poop or witnessing it - like in dogs, thanks Tyson! and goats.  So the goat would poop and Bean would start sobbing and saying, "no no no!" That's when I deemed naptime VERY important.)

(After fighting nap and being put in the stroller, she zonked out!)

(We stopped and enjoyed a nap while Bean slept.  Allie and Gabbie shared a freeze and wanted to drink it "Lady & the Tramp" style.  Not sure who was who!)

We finished up the zoo by walking by the sea lions again and then the gift shop, of course! Only downside of the day is that there wasn't a water play area anymore.  There used to be a fountain that kids could play in, but they took it out.  But the kids handled the change of their plans great!  (I think the carousel made up for it, or at least I'll pretend that).  At the shop, Bean got a pencil and her first ever sucker (which she loved).

(After Bean woke up we went and saw the sea lions again as we headed towards the gift shop.  She really liked watching them swim past her.)

(Time to say goodbye to the animals and make our way through the gift shop!)

(First sucker ever! She loved it.  I let her suck on it while the other girls finished shopping.  I used it as an incentive over the next couple days, but then the top came off the stick and I had to throw it away.  You would've thought the world ended! Sheesh!)

(These girls are hilarious.  They wanted a picture with the Zoo sign, but each wanted to sit on the same letter.  So we had to take the photo 3 times so they could all sit on the middle "o".  I joked about putting the stroller in different positions, but Bean didn't care.  She just enjoyed her sucker.)

 We had a great day!

Cousin Fun

Last week, we were finally able to have cousins come visit!  My sister and her three little girls came to spend a few days at chez Ackerman.  We had plans of going and visiting a local water park (which we've tried to do for the past 2 years); but yet again it didn't happen.  Even though it is the end of July, the weather was in the low 70s -- not water weather!

We did have a day of outside play, and even discussed pulling out the trusty slip'n'slide, but I didn't believe the girls would actually play with it.  I figured I'd set it up and they'd get cold in 10 min.  Instead, I set up Uncle Steve's sprinkler (it's his because he uses it to water the yard) and let the girls run around it.  They played for longer than I thought they would.  After getting good and wet, they finally believed us that our decision to not pay for a water park visit was a good idea!

While they were here we had an afternoon of lunch and shopping, played American girls, watched movies, took a trip to our favorite ice cream stop, painted crafts, and fought over shared playing with Bean!  Of course, I got zero pictures while they were here.  I'm not very good at remembering to take photos, then put that on top of being responsible for another human being and trying to have fun with 3 nieces made it impossible.

Every time the girls come, they dream of having a huge American Girl playing party.  (I can finally say their collection is bigger than mine!)  Usually, we drag all the stuff out, set everything up to play, and then move on to some other activity.  This time, since we could only play when Bean was sleeping (she wanted to play with us and the pieces were too small and dolls too delicate) we were intentional with our doll playing time.  It was one of the best doll play times we've had, complete with dance class and a formal dance party. With many lessons on how to properly share doll clothes. . .

We always try to do some sort of "special" event when the nieces come to visit.  This trip's special event didn't disappoint -- we took the girls to "Christmas in July" at our favorite ice cream place.  Uncle Steve was the one who really wanted to go!  Pete's Ice Cream had a fundraising event that involved Christmas decorations, Santa in a summer outfit, and a ridiculously good deal on ice cream on July 25.  All six of us got our own ice cream for $5!  Can't beat that deal!

It was nice to have all the help (and entertainment) for Bean, even if there were even more lessons on sharing!  We had to set up a "help feeding" schedule so that each niece knew when it was their turn to help with Bean.  I especially loved having my sister here!  She is an obvious baby pro, and even got up and relieved me of Bean at 3am (Steve and I had already been tag teaming for almost an hour!).  One evening, she even made dinner while watching all 4 girls, so that Steve and I could go to the dentist.

(Emily-11; Bean - 9 months; Allie - 8; Gabbie - 5)

Bean loves her aunt & cousins and can't wait to see them all again soon!

We've Been Busy!

The past few weeks have flown by, and I'm not sure exactly where all the time has gone.  What I do know, is that it feels like we've been going non-stop with no immediate end in sight.  A big chunk of our past few weeks have been consumed with tons of yard work, but you'll have to wait for more info on that in another post ;-).

A couple of weeks ago, Steve had to go to Wisconsin for business for a few days.  Since he went with some other guys, it didn't make sense for us to tag along (shucks, haha).  So instead, Bean and I headed over to Indiana for a few days with my family!  While we were there, we packed in lots of time with  my friend April, family, and even got to have a play date with one of my childhood friend's kids!

(I love this picture for how freakishly long it makes cousin Emily's legs look!  She is pretty tall and lanky, but this picture makes it look crazy.  It also makes Bean look like she only has one leg.  Ha!)

(Getting some love- and learning to pose - with cousin Allie!)

(Cousin Gabbie can't get enough of Bean.  She's constantly wanting to hold her, even though Bean just wants to be playing with toys.  Pretty sure someday, Gabbie is going to wish Bean would leave her alone, but for now they are inseparable.)

(Mmmmm, Ahm learned the hard way to keep the container of food away from Bean's reach.  Doesn't bother me any since I didn't have to clean it up!  Did I mention how much I enjoyed having all the help and not being responsible for Bean?!)

(April and Bean playing with a crazy playset.  Bean loved the playset so much, that we stole it from Ahm's house!  April kept raising a platform up and Bean would immediately pull it back down.  So funny!)

(Playdate with my childhood friend's kids! I hadn't seen my friend in a couple of years.  But I did get to see his daughter last year at my baby shower.  What a little cutie she is!)

(And playing with my friend's son.  His son is just a couple months younger that Bean, but they were nearly the same size!)

(Throwback photo -- here are me and my friend in my crib a ridiculously long time ago.  I am a couple months older than him - which is the same age gap of Bean and his son!)

(We recreated that moment from our babyhood for our kids.  We had a couple of other good photos, specifically Bean crawling all over him, but this is one of my favorites.  It's like he knew she was about to crawl all over him and was hoping to keep her away. Haha.)

Bean and I returned home on the same day that Steve got back; however, we didn't return alone.  We had a hitchhiker join us.  Okay, not a real hitchhiker, but my mom came back with us!  My parents are scheduled to teach a few Sundays in our class at church.  So mom was able to come spend a few extra days with us, and then my dad joined on the weekend.  While she was here, I was able to get a lot done and even enjoy a nice lunch out with a friend sans baby!

Time always goes by way too fast when you're with family, but we tried to soak up and enjoy every minute of it.  I especially took advantage and was able to "take a break" from a lot of my mom responsibilities for almost an entire week! With all the extra help, I didn't have to worry about diaper changes or food feeding.  Bean especially liked all the attention- especially during play time!  I was afraid she was going to be too spoiled from all the extra attention and that it would take days to get her back into a routine.  However, it ended up working in my favor because she ended up sleeping through the night a couple nights after things "returned to normal".  But that was short lived.  If only we could get this sleep thing figured out!

Zoo Day

Bean and I got the chance to meet up with Amber & Gabbie for a trip to the zoo earlier this week.  Gabbie had a preschool field trip to the Ft Wayne Zoo, which is just over an hour away.  We couldn't miss the opportunity to spend the day with them!

Bean and I got up, loaded up the car and headed north to the zoo.  Bean "talked" the whole way, even though she should have been sleeping.  Oh well.  She fell asleep for the last 15 min.  I tried to keep her asleep as I transferred her to her stroller, but she was too excited about what was going on.  It was quite cold and drizzling when we got to the zoo.  We feared a miserable cold day ahead of us, but halfway through the day, the sun came out and it warmed up!  Bean was quite warm and bundled in her stroller, but I was sure excited for the sun!

Even though it was a preschool field trip, we got to do whatever we wanted at the zoo.  We didn't have to stick with any group or do certain things.  We kept calling it "Gabbie Day", because she got to pick whatever we did.  The zoo is set up in "loops".  So we'd let her pick what animal she wanted to see, and we'd do the loop with it. 

We started with the sea lion show, then headed to the orangutans (rain forest loop).  After completing that loop, we were hungry and decided it was time for lunch.  However, we went ahead and let Gabbie "check" off her Pony ride.  She picked the biggest pony and held on as Amber walked her around the path.  But first, the pony was thirsty and stepped on Amber's foot to get to the water- ha!  Good thing it was just a pony and didn't put its full weight on her foot.  That wouldn't have made for a fun day!

After eating a cold lunch (it was windy and the sun was still hiding), we headed back to the animals.  Gabbie chose to go check out the bats and fish (Australia loop).  After completing the loop, we had just one more loop left - Africa.  Gabbie was begging to feed the giraffes, and could barely wait to get there.  When we got up to the feeding patio, it was closed.  Gabbie was crushed.  We sort of meandered around the giraffes (mainly because the male giraffe was getting frisky and Amber and I were like little kids watching what was going on).  Our curiosity worked out to Gabbie's advantage, because we noticed that people were on the patio feeding the giraffes!  Gabbie got to "check off" another item on her zoo list.  

The sun had come out and we decided it was time to take a little break and eat some ice cream.  We had to walk all the way across the zoo to find our snack.  After recharging our batteries, we went to the little petting zoo/farmyard.  Gabbie loved brushing the goats.  The barnyard area was the last area to walk through in the zoo.  It happened to be feeding time for Bean, so I fed her while Amber and Gabbie scoped out the gift shop (her last "check off").  We all finished up at the same time, and decided we just weren't ready to leave.  We decided to go check out the orangutans one last time before heading home.

So what about Bean??  Bean did great!  Amber held her a lot and would point out the animals to her.  She'd get excited, blow raspberries, smile big, and bounce up and down.  She took a nap after lunch in the stroller, but other than that, she was just watching everything going on.  I think her favorite part was playing on drums.  There was an area with drums in the Africa loop, that we let her play with, and she loved it! 

We had such a good time!  Bean was asleep before I even got out of the parking lot, I guess that means she had a lot of fun.  She slept almost the whole way home.  We just barely got home before Steve!  He noticed that her cheeks were pretty pink.  Not sure if it was from the wind or sun, but they stayed pretty pink through the next day.  I made sure to keep an ointment on it just in case ;-).

(Brrrr.  Bean had the best spot -- snuggled under blankets in her stroller.)

(Checking out the python.  Bean did a lot of bouncing watching the snake. eeeks!)

(Too excited to stay still!  Checking out the Komodo Dragon.  Gabbie loved the "dinosaur" so much, that she got its picture on a penny press.)

(Orangutan!  The male orangutan loves to put things on his head.  Today's "hat" was a grocery bag.  We even saw him move later, by swinging on the ropes to move to a different spot.  He held the bag in his hand as he did it, and once he sat back down, he swung it back up on his head.  So strange!)

(Bean sitting in an orangutan hand print.)

(Gabbie waiting for her pony ride.  This was before it veered off the trail, stepped on/over Amber, and got a drink of water - ha!)

(Playing the drum and having a good old time!)

(Look at those cute chicks hatching out of the eggs!)

(Bean petting a goat! We gave up on the sock fight by this point.  She got to just put her bare feet on the goat and thought that was funny.)

(Momma & Bean -- look I really was there!  Ahhhh, sunshine!)

(Gabbie said it was the best day ever.  She got to do everything she wanted, and didn't have to fight for turns.  By afternoon, the zoo was pretty cleared out.  These goats were loving all the attention.)

(And back at the orangutans - complete with gift shop Owl purchase.  While look at the orangutans, one of the females came up close and "sat next to Gabbie".)

(Look at those rosy cheeks!  Bean loved the zoo and can't wait to go again!)

Ft Wayne Zoo

A few days before leaving for our cruise vacation, I met up with my sister and her three daughters for a day at the Ft. Wayne Zoo.  Surprisingly, Ft. Wayne is almost the same distance for her and I to travel.  So it makes for a perfect day spot!

I arrived at the zoo like five minutes ahead of them.  Even though the parking lot (which there are like 5 at the zoo) was filling up, she was able to snag the spot right next to my car - very convenient!  We then made our way to the entrance and started our zoo adventure.

The Ft. Wayne Zoo is set up in 3 loops.  We choose to do a smaller one first since we knew lunch would be right around the corner.  We first caught the seal show and then headed for the Australia area.  We got to see the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, Bat building, and lots of Kangaroos.  We even got to see a momma kangaroo with a "baby" still in her pouch!  The baby was so big the mom could barely walk, so she just laid around with baby in her pouch.

(Gabbie posing as a baby Joey.  We tried to convince all 3 girls to crawl in the pouch.  Emily and Allie attempted, but then there was a freakout that they'd get stuck and decided to do individual pictures instead.)

We left the zoo and found a picnic table outside to eat our lunch.  The car was nearby, so I stayed with the girls while Amber went and got the food from the car.  After lunch, we cleaned up our picnic and headed back into the zoo (free re-admission with receipt) to see more animals.  Next we headed through the Indonesian Rain Forest loop.  We went through the rainforest research station, jungle dome aviary, and walked along an elevated wood walkway where we saw toucans and gibbons (there was a baby which is a very rare occurrence!).

(The girls enjoyed taking pictures at each animal statue we found around the zoo.  It is a rare occurrence that all three girls cooperated for 1 picture, and they did it several times!)

(Taking a break under the waterfall in the jungle dome aviary. I can't get over how big Emily is!)

After the Indonesian loop, we hit the last loop -- the African Journey.  The girls were pretty psyched about feeding the giraffes, it's what we heard about all day.  The African loop was in the sun and it was very hot by the afternoon.  We were beginning to think we'd never find the giraffes, but we finally found them along with the zebras and ostriches.

(The giraffe licked Allie's finger as she grabbed for the lettuce!)

(Look who's hatching out of dinosaur eggs!)

Once the girls' dreams of feeding the giraffes was achieved, we went in search of a water fountain play area for the girls to cool off at.  The zoo had a little tiny fountain that was packed with kids.  The girls didn't care about the size of the play area, and enjoyed running around splashing each other (and the other kids, too!).  By this time, it was about time for the zoo to close up and us to head home.  After some water fountain fun, we got a quick snack at a nearby station and then headed to the gift shop.  No zoo trip is complete with a gift shop stop!  After a semi-painless shopping trip, the girls left with suckers, little animals, and peacock feathers (Did I mention the amount of roaming peacocks in the zoo?!  We joked that the peacocks had escaped their cages, but apparently they had none!).  We said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.

(Thanks to their brilliant aunt's suggestion -- the girls were prepared for the fountain by having their suits under their clothes all day.  Then Amber brought a change of clothes for after the water play.)

What a fun day at the zoo!

A Visit with Gabbie

A week ago today, I picked up a cute little hitchhiker.  Don't worry, it wasn't a random person, it was just Gabbie!  She has called several times in the past month or so asking to come visit, but it hadn't worked out.  Last week when she called, I didn't have a good reason to delay any longer.  I met her and her mom at our usual midpoint stop - a Subway/gas station in a tiny town in Indiana.  After hanging out and eating lunch (which was way too long for Gabbie because she was afraid we'd change our minds and she'd go back home with her mom) we headed back to my house.

While she was here we played dolls, played tag outside, blew bubbles, visited the neighbor (and their cat!), went to a park and played on the playground, played board games, watched movies, and even went garage saling with friends.

(Gabbie explained to me that these were new pajamas.  They looked a little small and after asking her mother, discovered they are her favorite and she had a melt down over putting them away for good.  On the first night, we attempted to sleep on an air mattress in my bedroom (Steve sleeping on our bed).  However, after only being a sleep an hour or so, our mattress was deflating and I called it quits.  We packed up all her toys and headed to the guest bed.  I was afraid that she would be too awake from the move to fall back asleep, but she didn't have any issue! Needless to say, the next night we just slept in the guest bed - ha!)

(Playing dolls - Instead of pulling all the doll stuff downstairs, we played all the way up in the attic.  With the windows open, it made for a great playing space!  Notice how Gabbie's doll has a headband, and Gabbie is wearing 2 headbands!  This girl loves headbands!  Whenever she visits, she raids my stash and wears a different one every day.)

(There's a park that is nearby our house, and I took her there before but we went to the wrong area and only found a slide.  This time, I did a little more research and knew exactly where to go.  We found this massive playground with 9 slides, all sorts of climbing areas, and swings.  This girl played and ran around for almost 2 hours! We went mid morning and there were only a few kids that trickled in and out.  We left around lunch time, and the place was getting packed.  She had a blast!)

(There were 2 slides that she really liked, this tall one, and then a tube/curly slide.  All of the slides were connected via walkways, stairs, etc. She would run all around the whole structure before picking which slide was next.  It was sort of a U shape, so I just sort of walked around the U to follow her.)

(Playing on the swingset!  This child loves the baby swings and sadly fits into them better than the regular seat- haha!

(Later in the afternoon, while waiting to go see the neighbor's cat, we played outside in the yard.  First we blew some bubbles, then played some tag.  We then were looking for a shovel in the garage when Gabbie found Steve's skateboard.  This daredevil couldn't get on it fast enough.  I let her play with it - on one condition - she had to hold my hand while standing on it!  This child needs a helmet just in normal life let alone on a slim board with wheels.  She road up and down the driveway several times and couldn't wait to tell Steve about it later!)

(While outside, we also happened to see not 1, but 2 owls!  They're hard to see, but both are mid picture.  1 is right by the trunk, the other is on the branch to its left.  We watched them fly across to another tree and hang out.  We even found them again later when Steve was home.  We've decided Gabbie is good luck charm with the owls because she was with us when we spotted one for the first time!)

Gabbie headed home on Saturday afternoon.  But that morning, we got up and headed to a big neighborhood garage sale with friends.  Gabbie was super good while we drug her all over.  We found some random High school Musical stuff for her and sisters and she even got to pick out a special stuffed bear.  But the BEST find of the day, was a dinosaur themed nursery set!  Even though we don't know what we're having yet, it was too good of a deal to pass up!  We got 4 stuffed animals, hanging mobile, picture frame, bumper pad, crib sheet, crib skirt, pillow, and a hanging quilt for $40!  The set was in great condition, the animals didn't look touched, and the picture frame was still in its package. After doing research later, we figured out that set brand new would cost $225+!  We figured even if it's a girl, we could girly the set up, or pack it away for the next baby.

(A couple of the animals, pillow, and decorative quilt)

Only downside, when we got home, I discovered the stuff was full of animal hair.  I washed everything, and spent over an hour with a lint roller de-hairing it.  If Bean is a boy, I'll probably do that whole process all over again just to make sure it's all gone; otherwise, it'll go into storage and taking care of later.