Wildwood Animal Park

Today was a fun day because we headed up to Wildwood Animal Park in Minocqua.  Nolan has been obsessing about this all week and could hardly contain his excitement.  We took him once last summer before Livi was born, and he still remembers it.  The first area there is a petting zoo, filled with tons of greedy but adorable goats and many other animals to see and pet.  Nolan particularly liked the baby goats (and so did I!).  

If you bought the pellets, the goats swarmed you, even jumping up on you like a dog.  Eric got cornered by all these gluttonous creatures, but I don't think he minded too much. :)

As we left the petting zoo area, we saw lots of cool animals.  The otters were first, and then the BIG black bears.  As we continued along the path, we found some friendly deer that let us say hello.  

I love the wonder in Livi's face here!  She was so intrigued by this beautiful doe!

After visiting with the deer and feeding them some snacks, we continued up the path to see the zebras, wolves, wallaby, and many smaller animals.  We stopped in the Parakeet Budgie Encounter to have an up close encounter with the birdies.  The kids were both pretty curious about the little birds as they landed on our bird seed sticks to have a snack.  

Look how excited he is!

Next, we continued to the wild cat area, checking out the beautiful HUGE tigers, the mountain lions, and the leopards.  We ended up at the giraffe exhibit and were so excited for the opportunity to feed the giraffes some carrots.  It was really amazing to see the dexterity the giraffes have with their tongues.  They literally wrapped their tongues around each carrots, similarly to how they would wrap it around leaves at the tops of trees in the wild.  Their keeper told us that their tongues are black to help avoid sunburn.  

Our next stop included a visit to the camel.  I don't know what it is, but every time I meet a camel it seems to instantly bond with me and want to look into my eyes and kiss me.  This guy was no exception and pushed his ridiculous camel lips through the fence to try to get to me.  

Livi was such a good sport through all of this.  It was pretty warm and it was during her naptime, but she was so content to enjoy the animals and eventually drifted off to sleep in her stroller.  She's such an easy going baby!  

It was really fun to see Nolan enjoy the animals.  He loves to watch Animal Atlas, an educational animal DVD series that we get from our library.  It was fun to hear him spout facts about all the different animals.  I mean, what 3 year old knows what a capybara is?  Mine does!  

Bird Dog

This morning I looked out the window and noticed Miles was acting weird.  He kept sniffing and circling a spot and was panting really hard.  I noticed him paw at something and thought, oh man, he's injured an animal and I'm going to have to go take care of it...barf.  So I hurried out there and called Miles to come in the house.  When I went out to investigate I found a young Mourning Dove that must have been on one of its first adventures out of the nest.  Nolan had spotted the nest in our big Silver Maple tree a few weeks earlier.  It looked nervous, but didn't show any major signs of injury, so I left it alone and went inside to call Wild Instincts to make sure I did the right thing.  They told me to let it be and check on it in a few hours.  It was likely that Mama Bird would come and take care of it.  Sure enough, I saw the Mama Mourning Dove come within a few minutes to rescue her little baby.  

I'm so glad that Miles didn't hurt it (admittedly partly because I didn't want to deal with a dead or injured bird - gag me...), but have to laugh at the fact that our blue blood "bird dog" would rather make friends with birds than hunt them.  

Sleeping angel

Lately little Livi has been sleeping in and not waking until 8 or 9.  This morning, she was still sleeping at 9:30 and I had to get to an appointment so I went in to wake this sweet darling up.  She looked so peaceful and so little - I just couldn't help but snap a quick photo or two!

Buddies

Last Friday, Isaac came to play with us for the day while Katie was helping out with a school event.  Nolan LOVES Isaac and gets so excited when he has the opportunity to play with him.  Isaac doesn't always know what to do with Nolan's extreme enthusiasm and he had a couple of pretty funny one-liners throughout the day.  We were having our snack and Isaac looked right at me and said, "My Mom says I'm a stick in the mud."  Then a few minutes later, the boys were trying to figure out what they were going to play and Nolan said (very excitedly and jumping up and down): "Isaac, do you want to play with me?"  And Isaac looked at me with a serious adult face and said, "He gets a little carried away sometimes..."  But before long, they were playing really well together and I saw the blur of Nolan running and giggling maniacally with one of Livi's fanciest headbands on, while Isaac chased after him trying to kiss him.  

We walked down to Hodag Park and the boys got to play on the playground there.  A few minutes after getting there, Isaac told me he had to go to the bathroom.  I gave him a bit of a questioning look, as he had assured me repeatedly before we left for the park that he didn't need to go and he responded with, "Well....umm....I drank a lot of spit."

When we got back home, I had the boys help me make some chocolate cookies.  They both were good helpers and rolled all the cookies into balls and smooshed them down.  They did a great job and the cookies were yummy! 

Later on, Katie brought back some yummy gyros from CT's Deli and we chowed down on those.  They were soooo good - probably the best gyro I've had in many, many years.  She showed me some tips of how to use Mom's DSLR camera for the cruise, and we got to chat and hang out.  Our whole family is grateful for the friends we've found in the Lindners, and look forward to making many more memories together!

Brigid visits!

This weekend Brigid came to visit!  We haven't seen her since February, so we were way overdue!  On Saturday the two of us went down to Wausau for the day to shop for my upcoming cruise.  We had great luck finding the things we were looking for and it was so fun to spend time with her and catch up.  It always feels like no time has passed and we can pick right up where we left off.  On Sunday we sang "His Eye is on the Sparrow" together at church.  I love the fact that we can make music together.  Because we know each other so well, we can anticipate every breath and every swell and our voices go together so seamlessly.  Everyone was so appreciative and complimentary!

After church we took the kids to Pioneer Park and the train museum.  Nolan got a kick out of seeing the big trains and the many other displays they offer, especially the school house.  He did many puzzles there, as well as stamps and other writing.  The guide also showed us how they used to make copies 100 years ago and let Nolan assist with making a copy of his name.  He's been doing so well with writing the letters of his name.  I was proud of his good manners and how attentive and sweet he was.  How fun!

I'm always glad for a visit from Brig and love the way we laugh and how she enjoys my kids.  Hard to believe we've been friends now for fourteen years - almost half of my life!  I'm lucky to have such a loyal, kind, and fun friend/sister and can't wait to see her again!

Jungle gym cuties

The other morning, it was so beautiful and sunny that all of us went out to the backyard for some early morning jungle gym climbing.  They were so cute and playing together so nicely, that I had to snap a few pictures!

Snuggle!

Apparently our jungle gym is fun for all ages...and species!

This picture cracks me up.  Livi is generally such a sweet and laid back girl, but she definitely has a fiery, determined side and here it is!  She was hell-bent on climbing up this slide and I couldn't believe how far she made it, especially with stocking feet!

Good boy, Miles.

Almost 10 months!

My little Livi Lu Bear is almost ten months old!  She's been growing by leaps and bounds and changing every second.  She is still sweet as ever, but is showing her tenacity and determination when needed.  She also tackles her brother and climbs right up on him, despite being so much smaller than he is.  She weighs in at around 18-19 pounds and is still at the top of the charts for height.  I'm shocked about how long she has stayed in the same size clothes.  Nolan was in a new size of clothes every month as a baby, wearing 24 month clothes by the time he was 9 months old.  Livi is much more petite and is still comfortably wearing her 12 month clothes.  In fact, I have a whole closet full of clothes that are much, much too large for her because I overestimated how fast she would grow.  

She is eating mostly table food now and is doing very well with her pincer grasp.  She does this adorable eye blink thing that I was able to capture in the video below.  She also claps about just about everything and will hold her arms up when you ask how big she is.  She is smiley and adaptable and so very loved.  

Livi also has a big voice and likes to let us hear it when she is feeling proud of herself.  If she's doing something naughty, I always know right away because she sounds the alarm of happy, excited squawks.  

We sure love our darling Olivia and are so glad she is a special part of our family!