groundspeed

Palm Beach Zoo

Yesterday was play around home day. Today I kicked it up a notch and my mom and I took the boys to the zoo.

Back when I was a kid it was the Dreher Park Zoo and I assume I went, but I have zero memories of this zoo. A few vague memories of Dreher Park and a few vague memories of the nearby planetarium but my brain calls up nothing on the zoo, so it was as new for me as for the boys. 

And now for 1,792 pictures of our day at the Palm Beach Zoo. (Give or take 1,770)

Toby was all about the carousel until it started moving. Then I had to take him off and just hold him. In my arms he happily watched the carousel animals around him, just didn't want on one.

Doing the Gator chomp by the alligator habitat.

 

My little chicks in a giant eagle nest.

Only at the Palm Beach Zoo will you come across a statue of some donor's beloved pet. Seriously. I wonder how they would feel about the fact that Blue walked up to this Samoyed and said, "Look, Mommy! A piggie!"

Waiting for the bird show...

Unfortunately this spider was not behind glass or in any sort of arachnid habitat. That guy looked bigger than my hand! Ewwwww.

Toby loved this turtle. He petted it. He talked to it. Super cute.

A little after noon we were at the tiger area. It was just the daddy tiger which we knew because I'd looked up the cubs schedule. On Fridays they don't come till 1pm. We moved on and made it back over to the tiger area at about 12:55.  Finally around 1:10 Mama and two cubs came out.  Fifteen minutes of waiting when we had been at the zoo since about 9:45 was an eternity especially for Toby. I was able to pacify him by singing Old MacDonald had a zoo... (And in his zoo he had a bear/grrr, tiger/growl peacock/caw etc. etc.) It was worth the wait because Mama and cubs came out playing strong and if you ask Kaden and Blue what their favorite thing at the zoo was, they will both tell you they liked watching the tiger cubs.

And then the boys were able to blow off some steam at the splash pad which we saved for last.

A very happy school-free Friday!

Little Gators

We watched most of the game at my friend Donna and Mike's. The boys swam and loved on their dogs (a little too much, poor dogs). 

Little Gators, big Gators, ALL the Gators were pleased with today's win over Georgia (in overtime!).

Go, Gators!

First game of the season. Here we go!

Blue is even saying "Go, Gators!" in this pic.  :-)

We were supposed to go to West Palm for a Gator pool party at the house of my long time friend and fellow Gator, Donna, but of all the crazy things they lost power in the early am and have no pool pump and can't cook!  The things we take for granted.  We were already in our suits and in the car when we got the sad news so we debated the beach or a public pool but neither of those options come with a TV for football viewing, so the boys are in the backyard playing in a sprinkler as I type! It's a good thing they're so easy going.  Now the big question is - what do we do with the three dozen buckeyes I made to take to the party?!

A Gator in Tar Heel Country!

A quick trip in the name of research... 
Wednesday - Miserable flight experience due to 3 hour delay.  Let's not talk about that anymore.
Thursday - Good morning where Toby and I slept till 8:30 kinda making up for our late night.  Made it to the assessment and Toby was as good as Toby is capable of being.  Went to the MRI place but in our window before the next patient there wasn't enough time to give it a good try.  So attempt #1 failed. Checked GPS for nearby food.  Ended up on Franklin Street but in that 3 minute drive, Toby had fallen back asleep. Got out my book and let him sleep. Didn't get to eat lunch till 3pm but hey, I had a good book, so all was well there.  Leisurely afternoon that involved one playground stop (above) and then off to MRI attempt #2. Got Toby asleep. When we attempted to transfer him he woke up and wasn't happy. Got Toby asleep again this time on the MRI table.  We waited about 20 minutes so he was really asleep then they slowly, slowly, slowly attempted to get him on his back. They got him as far as his side, but that Toby, he was not happy about the final shift.  So, after a  2.5 hours worth trying, we called it a night.
Friday - Traveling home.  Wish us luck! 

Not the most productive trip, but we tried, and it's been fun having just me and Toby time.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

St. Lucie West has a baseball park which hosts the Mets for their spring training.  Today Kevin took Kaden and Blue to their first baseball game!  They arrived early to watch warmups and didn't stay for the whole game (which was never the plan).  They ate a lot of peanuts and came home smelling like sunscreen and sweat.  Seems like a successful baseball outing to me.  Oh, and like our kids' Mets attire?  :-)

  

Happy Day!

Happy Birthday to Kevin a.k.a. Gator Man!

 
And happy one-week-of-life-on-the-outside to the twins!  

Last Friday night the twins got to meet their Stratton-side aunts and cousin Kirstine.  So here are those pics and the groundspeed blog debut of Chloe and Cole! 

 
Chloe and Aunt Faydra
 

Cole and Aunt Jaime


Chloe and Kirstine


   
Cole and his Daddy.  (BTW real men make twins.)


Cole and his mamma's pretty manicure.
      

Fa la la la laaaaa, la la la la!

We needed to make an exchange at a store in Jensen Beach.  Great!  Because I wanted to take a picture of the boys on the beach (still a good 15 minutes away from where we'd be) with their Santa hats for the blog's "photo of the day."  And you know my husband loves me and is absolutely used to me, when he accepts this without question.  And so our morning's plans came together.  BUT.  We have three kids. One is a baby. A very grumpy baby actually.  And so plans... plans are sorta these very gray, vague, amendable things.  And my expectations are never very high for these "photo shoots."  

We left at nap time so Toby would fall asleep on the way there.  Ha Ha Ha.  So we stopped for lunch and procrastinated going to the beach to get Toby to sleep.  Nope.  Didn't happen.  2pm and he still hasn't napped once.  Oh well.  We head for the beach.  He falls asleep.  I know there is no way I am going to ask the two big boys to stay clean walking along the beach with Dad while I hang out and read in the van and Toby sleeps.  An hour goes by and Kaden and Blue were soaked through but having a blast when I showed up:
 

And so we begin taking pictures and Toby is NOT HAPPY about being propped up against his wet and sandy brothers:

Hmmmm.  Notice Kaden's missing Santa hat?  Did we bring his hat?  Yes.  Did BOTH adults look through the van for the hat?  Yes.  Did Kaden ever explain that he'd hid his Santa hat by stuffing it down in a little, lidded console next to seat? Yes, actually he did, but only AFTER we'd all piled back in the van ready to come home.  

Looking at this picture I also feel the need to tell you that I'm sorry it's so crooked. I don't have any good photo software on this lap top and my PC is in storage.

BUT.  It was all worth it because the big kids had so much fun and because I got the funniest picture of my kiddos ever.  We decided to move because they were sitting at an awkward slope.  The new spot didn't make Toby any happier, but I was saying all sorts of silly things trying to distract him.  Finally I started saying,"Go, Gators" and Kaden and Blue chimed in which I guess caught Toby's attention because he stopped crying for at least a second and somehow in this one shot it looks like my kids are all singing Christmas carols.  So this, THIS, is my photo of the day:  
 

Joy to the World!
 
 

Flashback Friday

This may stil be my favorite picture of Kaden ever.  He was 18 months and had no words, Russian or English, so who knows what sound came with this burst of enthusiasm.  I like to pretend he's shouting, "Go, Gators!" And since tomorrow is the Florida vs. Florida State game, that's a good thing to be shouting right now.
  

Thankful For...

Gus.

Also known as Gussers, Puppy Duck, Gus Puppers and Nana as in the Nana from Peter Pan because like that dog, he takes great care of my kiddos.  Oh, and now that his chin is greying, Gus the Grey. 

Claim to fame - he barks when we say, "Go, Gators!"

We brought him home from the breeder's in February of 2003 and he's tolerated and eventually loved all the little ones who've joined our home since.  In this picture Gus was on the ground to be near me but then looked over and thought, "Another human! I must lick it!"  (All of Gus's thoughts end in exclamation marks.)

I honestly think if we got rid of all our boys' toys they'd be fine so long as we still had Gus, so in spite of all the shedding and occasional digging I am indeed very thankful for our Gus.