It's officially summer!

What makes it summer? First trip to the zoo with my sisters of course!

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Week W

I spent the majority of this week watching my little cousin, W. Here's how it went:

Sunday
I got there Sunday evening, so we had dinner and then W went to bed. And I kind of forgot to take a picture until after that. But once he was in bed, I started watching the BBC/A&E adaption of Pride and Prejudice.


I must say, it was VASTLY superior to the newer film version with Keira Knightly and Adrian Brody. Colin Firth was an absolutely wonderful Darcy, and the entire thing was just so much more in tune with the novel. Naturally, I loved it :)

Monday
Aunt Anne had a hair cut, so W and I got some quality time to play "Sunny Day"


Sunny Day being W-speak for Sesame Street. I was Mr. Hooper. And Elmo. Dub was anyone he wanted to be at the time. lol

Tuesday
Tuesday was a bit of a free day, since Anne didn't have any plans and therefore didn't really need a sitter. We decided to spend the day at the Milwaukee Zoo, and ended up having a blast.


A wild W in his natural habitat- anywhere he can be having fun!


We also rode the zoo train, which was pretty awesome.


However, I think we had the most fun in the petting zoo. W attracted goats like nothing else. At first they kind of overwhelmed him, but then he (kind of) got the hang of feeding them and got more used to them.

Wednesday
Wednesday, W found my giraffe, and dragged him everywhere. He even got a diaper for a little while.


Here they are sharing a delicious afternoon snack of milk and cookies.

Thursday
W was a popular little guy on Thursday- he made and received several calls from Uncle Jim, Nicky, and Sophie.


I doubt any of them are aware of this, however, as he was using a disconnected phone.

Friday
Yesterday I babysat Evan and Tyler instead of William, then drove up to school to pick up Jon for the weekend, since campus is doing weird stuff this weekend.


Attempt number two of us trying to get a picture together. I think we're getting better at it!

Whatsit Wednesday

Ok, I stole the title from the Daily Squee, but it's very fitting. I think so, anyway. Now, onto the whatsit!


Here's what we know about the whatsit:
-It's a puppet
-It's from the Milwaukee Zoo
-It's supposed to be a giraffe.

Here's what we suspect about the whatsit:
-It's a bunny disguised as a giraffe, OR
-It's a giraffebunny

What do you think? Giraffe? Bunny in disguise? Giraffebunny hybrid? Or just really cute?

More W, More Zoo

Aunt Anne and W came to visit again today. We couldn't decide whether we wanted to go to the Children's Museum, the zoo, or the botanical gardens, so we asked W and the zoo was a clear winner. First, though, we stopped by DSW to look for some shoes.


The little man had fun trying on shoes that were much too big for him, climbing on the shelves, and running down the aisles.


At the zoo, we took a ride on the train. It was kind of a short ride, but I think that once they finish some of the construction they've got going on right now, it will be extended through more of the zoo.


This guy was the most exciting animal today. Most of the time, he's hiding somewhere back in the trees and you can barely see him, but today he was out prowling around the entire exhibit. We actually saw him a couple times as we checked out the animals around him. It was very cool.

Words, words, words.

You know how sometimes people get songs stuck in their heads? Well, I get words stuck in my head, too. Yesterday, it was the word "reticulated." I don't know why. I don't know how. It just popped in there. I knew I had heard it before, but not where or in relation to what. I don't know the definition of the word. Just the word, and a faint idea that it was somehow related to animals. So I googled it, and found this:


I figured I must have spent enough time at the zoo this summer that at some point or other, I read a sign in the reptile house or near the giraffes. So I googled to find out what kind of pythons and giraffes the zoo has. The first thing I found? No reticulated pythons. Just a green tree python. So that's out. But they do have reticulated giraffes!


It took Jon and I close to an hour to figure out where the word came from. That's probably kind of sad, but it did keep us occupied and our minds off the heat for awhile.

(ok, this picture is not from yesterday- it's from the weekend we went to the zoo with W, back in the Dub Day post. But the screenshot is from the conversation yesterday.)

Coffee and Construction

Ok, I admit, it's probably not very exciting to keep seeing the different mugs that the Firefly has. However, I love them, so I'm going to keep posting them.


Brenna and I are here again this afternoon to get out of the house for a bit and enjoy the ever-wonderful hot chocolate (despite it being a gajillion degrees out). Now, in slightly more interesting news, there is a huge crane next door today!


They're putting the roof on the new house. The crane, obviously, is helping them hoist the roof pieces up there. It's kind of cool to watch. If I didn't feel like such a creeper, I'd get a short video of it. Oh well.

Edit:
I just realized something really exciting! This is my 100th blog post! How exciting :)


Bonus picture of the Gentlepenguin. He approves.

Dub Day!

This afternoon, Mom, Bren, Soph, and I met Aunt Anne and W at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. Mom brought Little Sarah, the girl she mentors, too. We had a ton of fun :)


Aside from seeing all of the animals (orky-pine! peepock!), W and some of the girls rode the merry go round. W enjoyed it- all he said until we left the building was, "again? again?" It was quite adorable.


Little Sarah and I got a couple pictures together, but this one is my favorite. Right now, the zoo has a number of new art animal statues on display- giraffes, bears, turtles, flamingoes, and penguins, to name a few- and later they'll be auctioned off to raise money for the zoo.


After the zoo, we got lunch at the Great Dane. I rode there with W, Aunt Anne, and Sophie. W took the opportunity to play with his hat for most of the ride.


Little Sarah ditched Mom to hang out with Sophie part of the way through the zoo. They sat together at lunch for awhile, too.

Early Zoo Post

My sisters and I went to the zoo today, and ended up taking over 100 pictures while we were there. We got pretty excited. So here are some of the cool things we found:


An orangutan handprint. Apparently, they have really huge, stretched out hands.


One of my favorite pictures from today. I absolutely love the giraffes. They're my favorite animal to see at the zoo.


My favorite picture of me at the zoo, of course, also features one of the giraffes. And the back of my head. I wasn't overly photogenic today.

Bonus video, because some of the animals were being cute and I remembered I could record them.