Becky's Place: How I spent my 4 day weekend

Our four day weekend began with a trip to the zoo. Here the kids are waiting on Daddy to show the pass so we can get in.

Of course, you can't go to the zoo without feeding the giraffes. It's a rule.

Or as Emma says, "Giraffe-es"

Isaiah feeding the giraffe.

Isaiah likes cats right now. He really liked the meerkats and kept saying, "Cat! Cat!"

And we all liked the elephants! :)

Here the girls are petting a baby wallabies.

Now it's Isaiah's turn!

Cute! Look how tiny he is next to this statue! He likes bears too.

Emma did NOT like the bear statue. In fact when I pushed the stroller near it she began to cry and tried to scramble out of the stroller to get away.

Abby didn't mind the statue but she thought she was going to fall when we posed her for the picture.

Abby and Isaiah went into the beaver dam. (The beaver used to live in the tank that now holds the otter so now it's an "otter house" even though it's not really.)

Then we discovered a part of the zoo we never went to before. It was the kids play place. The girls liked running through the misters.

Isaiah looking at the mister. He liked it too. In some of the next pictures, you'll see that his pants are wet from crawling around on the wet turf.

Emma would take a picture with the frog. In fact, she HAD to take a picture with the frog. Too bad someone's stroller was in the way. Maybe next time we'll get a good picture.

Abby took a picture with these bears. I said, "Emma, do you want to take a picture with these cute little baby bear statues?" Her answer was to shake her head and quickly vacate the area.

Isaiah was liking them though. He even gave one a kiss.

Then we rode on the merry-go-round. Also a first for the girls at our zoo. They were so excited to do it but once the ride started....

These were the expressions for the rest of the ride.

(Emma didn't like it so much. Was petrified actually and other parents waiting on the outside with me kept saying, "Aww, poor thing." and laughing at her cute but scared face. She wouldn't talk to Brandon at all during the ride either even though he was holding on to her. I'm guessing she is going to be the one to stay on the ground and eat popcorn with Daddy while Abby and I ride big roller coasters someday. ;)

After we left the zoo, we happened to find this amazing (**free**yipee for free family fun!!!) walking trail. The sign said, "Easy grades" so we thought we'd try it out. Here Emma is demonstrating what she liked about the trail. We picked so many flowers and er, uh, leaves, grass, etc. (This is what she looked like when I looked down at her holding my hand so no, I'm not going to flip the picture! :) )

Here is the rest of the family.

And here are the "easy grades"...click for a larger view....uh, yeah... easy grades apparently means dusty, slippery rocks protruding out of the path, and steep uphill climbs. We made it most of the way though to the overlook and we're willing to try again now that we know the spot where we missed the overlook turn off. :)

Then we found this scenic drive that looks out over awesome views of the valley. (also free!) and we drove down it. It was so nice but I don't have any awesome pics, just this one for reference. We also were educated in the "public graces" when we passed a woman pooping on the side of the rood out in the open... ugh!

And at the end of that road, we found this (free) walking trail and waterfalls. :) Looks like fun but we were tired so we just waked down to the base of the falls and then up to the bridge over the falls and not beyond where there is more trails and views. (Who knew there was so much free fun in this area of the world?)

Isaiah and Brandon admiring the falls from above.

At one point in the car, I heard Isaiah just laughing and laughing. I took a peek back there and saw that Emma was pretending to eat his fingers and he liked the attention.

The next day, we found this cave to go explore. This is the entrance.

While we waited on our turn to see the cave, we looked at the gift shop. Go figure Emma would need no prompting and was not the least bit scared of THIS bear statue... I don't get it. Brandon says maybe it's because the others were bronze and cement but this was fuzzy? I don't know.

Abby wearing a miner's hat.

Emma wearing a miner's hat.

Us in the cave. The girls actually liked this a lot! They were super excited. The biggest disappointment, I think, was that the signs and stuff had these cute little bats on them and there were not bats. Abby kept asking about the "cute little mouses with wings" and we kept saying, "There aren't any bats in here. Sorry. They must be somewhere else."

Isaiah was the unhappy camper. The information said that the cave was 54 degrees year round and Brandon and I were sweating so he might have been hot, I don't know. But for sure he was thirsty and since no drinks were allowed i the cave, he had to wait and he kept asking for a drink and would occasionally get a little fussy for one but mostly he did okay.